Jane and I were in South Pasadena a couple of days ago to get our taxes done for this year and afterward we went to a nice neighborhood we like that has little shops, interesting restaurants, and lots of big, mature trees. First we went to the Great Harvest Bread Company, a bakery that we love, to get some of their really tasty oatmeal mixes and some of their fine baked goods. They grind their own flours there daily.
Afterward we tried a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant called the Firefly Bistro that had always been closed when we were there before. It was a very nice, almost hidden place with really, really great food. The restaurant is mostly outdoors with a big permanent tent covering the dining room and trees and shrubs inside and also visible outside through the tent windows. The entryway has little cafe tables covered by an arbor supporting thickly-growing vines. It felt a little like a European cafe.
One of the co-owners came over to speak to us when we finished eating and then, since they have live music there some days and because it was an outdoorsy place with a nice energy, I left my business card on the way out, thinking I might want to play there, though I have almost never played in restaurants. On the way out, I told the co-owner that I had left my card for him. Just as we got out the door, he caught up with us and asked me "Hey - did you ever work with the Orange County Performing Arts Center?" I told him "yes, I did", and then both our minds started clicking.
He was Carl Weintraub, who founded a multi-ethnic storytelling theater troupe called "We Tell Stories". He had been engaged way back in the early 1990's to assist me in developing my program in my early days of providing school programs through the "From the Center" Program of the O.C. Performing Arts Center. I was consequently on contract at the center for eight years after that. In his appraisal of my program for the staff who ran the program then, he had this to say:
"I think this show is a gift. It speaks of quietude, freedom, ancestry, extinction in a truly spiritual way without ever preaching or lecturing."
I can quote his words now because I asked his permission then to quote his words on the cover of my school programs brochure. So, it was a somewhat amazing encounter after so many years - and when we got in the truck to go home, Jane remarked on that fact. My reply, of course, was "Well, you know how that happened, don't you?" to which her inevitable answer was "Yes dear, it's because you are a legend - in your own mind". And she was right.
You can check out the "We Tell Stories" website at http://www.wetellstories.org/.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Indigenous Epistemology
As a young man in my college years I became interested in the question of what man can know and how does he know it. The philosophical term applied to this question is 'epistemology'.
Okay - why would I go on about some six-syllable word that nobody cares about? For me personally, the word 'epistemology' represents a mindset, a worldview, and that there is an aboriginal, indigenous worldview with it's epistemological ways of knowing the world that are the basis of the American Indian way of being in the world. It is my hope that all who read these words will truly "know" on the most basic level what the indigenous way of knowing the world is. To my understanding, we will not move to the next level of being without this knowledge.
There is an indigenous or aboriginal epistemology that is characterized by some basic themes. Four of these themes are:
walking in balance or being in right relationship with yourself and your community, and being in harmony with everything in the circle of ife;
the knowledge of the presence of other dimensions of being such as the realms of the ancestors or the spirits, dimensions that mirror the life on earth such as in the expression "as above, so below";
the knowledge that all things are interconnected and alive and that all have consciousness - it is a lived experience that is felt when one walks in beauty, feels the aliveness of the earth, and is aware of the consciousness of the non-human world;
the concept of a Spirit or the spirits that can and do interact in the realm of the two-leggeds in ways that are supportive, but can also be mischievous or even malevolent.
These are indigenous ways of knowing in the world of the People. Walking in balance with all my relations, experiencing the multidimensional and mirrored as above/so below nature of reality, knowing the earth is alive and conscious, and allowing for contact with spirits/Spirit are epistemological features that are at the heart of indigenous and aboriginal ways of knowing.
Okay - why would I go on about some six-syllable word that nobody cares about? For me personally, the word 'epistemology' represents a mindset, a worldview, and that there is an aboriginal, indigenous worldview with it's epistemological ways of knowing the world that are the basis of the American Indian way of being in the world. It is my hope that all who read these words will truly "know" on the most basic level what the indigenous way of knowing the world is. To my understanding, we will not move to the next level of being without this knowledge.
There is an indigenous or aboriginal epistemology that is characterized by some basic themes. Four of these themes are:
walking in balance or being in right relationship with yourself and your community, and being in harmony with everything in the circle of ife;
the knowledge of the presence of other dimensions of being such as the realms of the ancestors or the spirits, dimensions that mirror the life on earth such as in the expression "as above, so below";
the knowledge that all things are interconnected and alive and that all have consciousness - it is a lived experience that is felt when one walks in beauty, feels the aliveness of the earth, and is aware of the consciousness of the non-human world;
the concept of a Spirit or the spirits that can and do interact in the realm of the two-leggeds in ways that are supportive, but can also be mischievous or even malevolent.
These are indigenous ways of knowing in the world of the People. Walking in balance with all my relations, experiencing the multidimensional and mirrored as above/so below nature of reality, knowing the earth is alive and conscious, and allowing for contact with spirits/Spirit are epistemological features that are at the heart of indigenous and aboriginal ways of knowing.
'Mindfulness' or Giving Our Attention to the World
The span of attention and the quality of it that the two-leggeds are able to give to the world, or the lack of it, I should say, has almost become an epidemic problem with our obsession with click-click-click, text-speech, sound-bites, instant gratification, instant everything - and the overwhelming amount of sensory data that we are bombarded with daily. Hello, hello? Is anyone listening? Hey! I'm over here! What? You'll give me ten seconds, you say?
I've been told that, in the way that we live today, because of everything that is going on around us, we are forced to process more sensory information through our minds in a single day of our lives than folks a hundred years ago processed in an entire year, because their lives were so much slower. That's a sort of staggering thought, if it is true. Everything is accelerated, everything is beginning to happen much more quickly, time almost seems to be condensed today. We need to learn to keep up. We need to get better at it.
To my way of thinking, our short attention spans, our inability to handle distractions, our desire for instant results, can seriously interfere with our quality of attention. Consequently, we get to the point where we are not fully present in the moment - what? The phone's ringing? Okay! I'll put a new bulb in the lamp-post, as soon as I get done with this - yes, I would like to eat dinner - yes, I fed the dogs - oh, what's-her-name called! Uh, where were we now? Oh yeah - how can we be "mindful", absolutely present in the moment - how can we give the world the attention it needs and deserves if - alright! Alright - I'm coming!
If we are not fully present in this moment - and this one - and this one - how can we respond to those things that happen to us that need our arttention, in a way that takes the most responsibility in creating our future? After all, where we are, right here and right now, is how we created it - that's right! We created it this way - it's the sum total of every decision and reaction that we have made in our lives in reponse to those things, outside of our control, that happen to us - the sum total of those decisions that has brought us to this point, right here and right now. We control our reactions, how we respond. That's how we create. Our ability to respond most appropriately is based on keeping up, completely, mindfully, with all the information that streams through our senses. That is how we demonstrate our response ability, our responsibility. Yes - that's how we create our lives. Will we do it well - ever?
Being mindful, being fully present, being completely in the moment, 'paying' attention - we really NEED to get good at that! The world needs us all to do it right. And right now, right here!
"Here and now, boys! Here and now!" - that's what Aldous Huxley said.
"Pay attention!" - that's what my teachers said.
"And try not to pee on the mushrooms!" - that's what I said.
But then, that's another story.......
I've been told that, in the way that we live today, because of everything that is going on around us, we are forced to process more sensory information through our minds in a single day of our lives than folks a hundred years ago processed in an entire year, because their lives were so much slower. That's a sort of staggering thought, if it is true. Everything is accelerated, everything is beginning to happen much more quickly, time almost seems to be condensed today. We need to learn to keep up. We need to get better at it.
To my way of thinking, our short attention spans, our inability to handle distractions, our desire for instant results, can seriously interfere with our quality of attention. Consequently, we get to the point where we are not fully present in the moment - what? The phone's ringing? Okay! I'll put a new bulb in the lamp-post, as soon as I get done with this - yes, I would like to eat dinner - yes, I fed the dogs - oh, what's-her-name called! Uh, where were we now? Oh yeah - how can we be "mindful", absolutely present in the moment - how can we give the world the attention it needs and deserves if - alright! Alright - I'm coming!
If we are not fully present in this moment - and this one - and this one - how can we respond to those things that happen to us that need our arttention, in a way that takes the most responsibility in creating our future? After all, where we are, right here and right now, is how we created it - that's right! We created it this way - it's the sum total of every decision and reaction that we have made in our lives in reponse to those things, outside of our control, that happen to us - the sum total of those decisions that has brought us to this point, right here and right now. We control our reactions, how we respond. That's how we create. Our ability to respond most appropriately is based on keeping up, completely, mindfully, with all the information that streams through our senses. That is how we demonstrate our response ability, our responsibility. Yes - that's how we create our lives. Will we do it well - ever?
Being mindful, being fully present, being completely in the moment, 'paying' attention - we really NEED to get good at that! The world needs us all to do it right. And right now, right here!
"Here and now, boys! Here and now!" - that's what Aldous Huxley said.
"Pay attention!" - that's what my teachers said.
"And try not to pee on the mushrooms!" - that's what I said.
But then, that's another story.......
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