❤️ 🎶 Rambling On with Brother Lefty Smith, S.O.B.* 🎶

Native American Prayer

Oh, Great Spirit
Whose voice I hear in the winds,
And whose breath gives life to all the world,
hear me, I am small and weak,
I need your strength and wisdom.
Let me walk in beauty and make my eyes ever behold
the red and purple sunset.
Make my hands respect the things you have
made and my ears sharp to hear your voice.
Make me wise so that I may understand the things
you have taught my people.
Let me learn the lessons you have
hidden in every leaf and rock.

I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother,
but to fight my greatest enemy - myself.
Make me always ready to come to you
with clean hands and straight eyes.
So when life fades, as the fading sunset,
my Spirit may come to you without shame.

-- Lakota Sioux Chief Yellow Lark in 1887

published in Native American Prayers - by the Episcopal Church.

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My Humble Take on the Real Deal

I believe that the movement for peace, economic democracy and social justice is a Spiritual Quest. No mean feat, what is called for is a True Revolution of the Heart and Mind--and it starts with each of us.

This revolution has to be Peaceful. The Hippies (and Jesus and Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. King, et al) had it right. It really is all about Peace and Love. Besides being a total drag, violence just doesn't work. It keeps our wheels spinning in fear, anger and pain. Who needs that?

Besides some hard work, I think the Revolution also calls for dancing, plenty of laughter, and some sitting around just doing nothing. (Some folks call it meditation.)

As Stephen Gaskin, proclaimed years ago:

"We're out to raise Hell--in the Bodhisattvic* sense."

Doesn't that sound like some serious fun?

(*The Bodhisattva Vow is a set of commitments made in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition. It basically says I vow to get my act together and figure it out well enough to really help out--and I ain't gonna stop until everybody is covered.

I've found that doesn't necessarily have to happen in that order. It's best to try to help out even before you have it all together! Like right now.)

-----Brother Lefty Smith, Founding S.O.B*

"I think the hippies had it right. It IS all about Peace and Love. I came to realize, though, this is easier said than done. Living a life of kindness, clarity, and compassion takes effort, discipline and patience.

I also came to realize that, contrary to what we had been led to believe in a capitalist society, "rugged individualism" is a dangerous distortion of reality. It denies that fact that we are, each of us, connected to everyone and everything else. So, Peace and Love are relational, a collective experience. None of us can really get it together independently.

So, as Mahatma Gandhi and Dr King showed the world, finding others to work with, rolling up your sleeves, and engaging in non-violent political action is a freakin' no-brainer.

What else is there to do? "
--Brother Lefty