All My Relations

This is a contemplation for the "Original Face" group.
A short URL for the page is http://is.gd/SGD4fw.

The theme for today is "All My Relations"

A man I know died last week
or "passed away" as they say.
I like that way of putting it
because it tells the story
as something that he DID
not something that happened TO him.

Talking that way
shows respect
for his personhood

He was a healer
a "medicine man"
of a native American tradition.

I want to "name"
the aspect of his teaching
his "medicine"
that I most reflect upon
which is a way of being in the world
as if it were alive
as if it were a web of relations
a world of entities, not "objects"
A world of persons
all with soul from a common source
worthy of being listened to
with respect and compassion
worthy of being spoken to
worthy of being made promises to
and accorded all that I accord to "I".

In the Western tradition
Martin Buber called this way of knowing
an "I/Thou" way of relating.

In the native tradition
this was carried by the saying
"All My Relations"
Oft repeated in ritual and ceremony
as when leaving the sacred space of the sweat lodge
opening the door
taking its medicine into the wider world:
a phrase of awareness
and remembering.

"Talk to your house"
he said one day
"Houses have feelings, too.
Ask your house what it wants."

At first, that sounded strange to my western sensibility.
But that was the moment when the idea of "all my relations"
"came home"
and started living at my house.

What is the "house" that I live in?
Can I see the soul, the person-hood, in all things?
Can I listen with respect, and compassion?
What becomes of "I" when I listen in this way?
What do "I" experience then?
What effect does it have, on "Me"?

The world is full of "objects"
I sense many mute things within "myself" as well
Can I give them voices?
Things change, become Persons
in this way of knowing.
How does this happen?

How can I listen to the voices of others
and the voices that are there in the inner world of what I call "myself"?
One of the things that happen is that we seek their voices
let them "speak"
and at first, lend them our own "being"
give them voice, speak for them, show them we are now in relationship.

Philosophers and contemplators have may insights about how this works.
And I'm going to go out on a limb and say
that you do also
and that we are born with this way of knowing
even if as adults we may need work at it
it's a remembering, not a "development".

Where does this resonate in your life?
How can we respond to others with respect and compassion
and to the "others" that are within?