Almost 600 sites carry that message, most of them twink. But one that isn't had something interesting to say.
http://www.jcrows.com/HopiElders.htmlSat, 22 Mar 2003 15:07:21 +0100
From:
IntuitivesAtmen@t-online.de (Karl Scherer)
Reply-To:
garuda@serve.com
To:
garuda@serve.com
Dear Friends,
as the Hopi tradition is probably the oldest existing oral tradition on Turtle Island claiming the same incredible amount of historical lineage as
does BON, and having visited and studied with Hopi Elders in the seventies as well as talked at length with Lopon Tenzin Namdak on significant
similiarities both in teaching as well as ritual in the Native American and BON traditions, I feel inclined to comment on this "message" :
It is as highly unlikely that this mesage - nice as it sounds - originates from the Hopis, as it was unlikely that H.H. the Dalai Lama was the source for the 3rd re-emergence of the new age
"nepali-good-luck-tantra" on the internet.
As a matter of fact this "message" seems to originate from an Cherokee elder named Will Rockingbear otherwise not noted as a spiritual Leader amongst Native Americans and seems inconsistent with authentic statements made by HOPI Lineageholders themselves except for the first 6 possibly 9 lines of the "message". Otherwise it seems at best a well meant but strongly edited and synthesized amalgam with line number 10 >10) DO NOT LOOK OUTSIDE YOURSELF FOR THE LEADER. < already contradicting Hopibeliefs in the value and the sagacity of the
leadership of their Spiritual Elders.
Additionally Hopis are not inclined to authorize Native Americans of other tribes as their spokesmen simply because almost all of them have resorted to war in the past, whereas Hopis are bound by their vows to never resort to violence. According to Hopibeliefs to truely be a HOPI you have to undergo at least a 12 year course of intense initiations,retreats and ritual practices and then prove your unnderstanding in action for at
least a few more decades before being capable of repesenting the teachings.........
The "message" appears to be a part of the partially well meant yet in effect destructive , but ongoing re-design and appropriation that many
ancient and authentic traditions suffer from attempts made by the dominant culture to "fit for our modern world" .
In fact it downplays and contradicts in part the powerful spirtual message the Hopi tradition has to offer to the world. In this and in many other respects it shows the same tragic pattern in the
fate of Tibetans and Native Americans, being marginalized in their own countries and facing ongoing genocide - both physical and spiritual - by
the hands of their invaders.
So as most people on this newsletter are both U.S.citizens and followers of BON - being another tradition facing extinction in its homeland - I
apologize to take your time to draw your attention to such issues as the one at hand.
Small as it may seem it shows that even in such small issues core spiritual beliefs are excerpted, taken out of context and reframed to fit the liking
of the "Zeitgeist". In effect it is as imperialistic in spirit as when the people who invaded it, named the continent America and did not even pause to ask the people they stole it from what the name of their homeland had been for millenia.....
In any case this "message" was also featured on a website of the so-called "Rainbow Tribe" and an anti-globalisation group called the
http://www.tribalmessenger.org/ which otherwise certainly makes a laudable effort to present the real message of the Hopis as told to them on
various rainbow gatherings.
The Hopis do in fact have a powerful message for the world as which guardians they perceive themselves - but it is much more dire and speaks of
major ethical self-restraints and personal and global sacrifice ( quite in the sense of the paramitas being accepted as the universal code of ethics worldwide) that need to be made to avoid catastrophe.