Vital Elders

Peace Day

A Prayer for Humanity and Mother Earth

From Lightningbolt by Hyemeyohsts Storm:

Estcheemah walked to the East of his Circle and placed a tiny stone at her feet, “I address the Spirit of all Humanity,” she prayed. “I ask the Spirit of all humans born if they wish to see their wondrous Sun dim in their polluted skies. Do you desire that your sky be filled with putrid and deadly chemicals?”

Estcheemah then walked to the South of the Circle and placed a tiny stone there. “Spirit of Humanity,” she prayed, “do you despise your lives so much that you would destroy every beautiful stream and kill every lake? Do you desire that your oceans be polluted and devoid of all life?”

"Together we can end the Holocaust against the environment."

"Together we can end the Holocaust against the environment."

--Haida Gwaii, Traditional Circle of Elders 

“We are all familiar with the Holocaust against the people. When this happens we feel bad and we vow never to let it happen again. We need to seriously examine what human beings are doing to the Earth and the environment. Many species are extinct and many more will become extinct during the next 10 years. We are methodically eliminating life that will never return again. Today, we should take time to pray real hard so we wake up before it is too late.”

From Elder's Meditation of the Day, White Bison

www.whitebison.org

Who is Responsible?

“In the present circumstances, no one can afford to assume that someone else will solve their problems. Every individual has a responsibility to help guide our global family in the right direction. Good wishes are not sufficient; we must become actively engaged.”

“Responsibility does not only lie with the leaders of our countries or with those who have been appointed or elected to do a particular job. It lies with each of us individually. Peace, for example, starts within each one of us. When we have inner peace, we can be at peace with those around us.” — The Dalai Lama

Shambhala Warrior

Here is another prophesy that speaks to the times we are in and what is needed to restore peace. Chujow-Rinpoche to Joanna Macy, speaking about a prophecy that arose in Tibetan tradition over 12 centuries ago:

"There comes a time when all life on Earth is in danger. At this time great powers have arisen, barbarian powers. Although these powers have wasted their wealth in preparing to annihilate each other, they have much in common: weapons of unfathomable devastation and technologies that lay waste to the world. It is just at this point, when the future of all beings seems to be hanging by the frailest of threads, that the Kingdom of Shambhala emerges." "You cannot go there," he said, "because it's not a geopolitical entity. It exists in the hearts and minds of the Shambhala Warriors." That is the word he used, 'warriors.'

When a Brain Scientist Suffers a Stroke

This is an amazing video - you really need to watch it!

As a Harvard-trained neuroanatomist, Jill Bolte Taylor has always known more about brains than most people. But when a brain hemorrhage triggered her own stroke, she suddenly had a front-row seat on the deterioration of the brain.

Dr. Taylor recounts the details of her stroke and the amazing insights she gained from it in a riveting 18-minute video of her speech at the Technology, Entertainment, Design Conference in Monterey, Calif.

Watch the video here

Another path to inner peace

Here is a wonderful series of lectures that gives the wisdom of inner peace from a Jewish perspective:

Billionaire speaks of value of Meditation

I have practiced Trancendental Meditation on and off for a number of years and always feel better for it. It sets me up for the day. This raises the question of why I don't do it every morning and then in the evening as well! I'm working on it.

Meditation of all types seems to be making its way into the mainstream much faster over the last few years, aided by a number of prominent people speaking out about its value.

David Lynch, the film director is one - see David Lynch Foundation

Here's another - a video of a very successful guy, Ray Dalio, speaking of how valuable TM has been in his life:

http://www.mum.edu/videos/ray_dalio.html

Meditation can increase compassion

Can we train ourselves to be compassionate? A new study suggests the answer is yes. Cultivating compassion and kindness through meditation affects brain regions that can make a person more empathetic to other peoples' mental states, say researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Published March 25 in the Public Library of Science One, the study was the first to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to indicate that positive emotions such as loving-kindness and compassion can be learned in the same way as playing a musical instrument or being proficient in a sport. The scans revealed that brain circuits used to detect emotions and feelings were dramatically changed in subjects who had extensive experience practicing compassion meditation.

http://www.news.wisc.edu/14944

Native American Prophesy