(Note: This is from the journal I keep, when I sit out near my Pond. And because there are no lyrics to Carlos Santana's song "Soul Sacrifice," I substited one of my favorite quotes from Gandhi.)
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“I count no sacrifice too great for seeing God face to face. The whole of my activity, whether it be called social, political, humanitarian, or ethical, is directed to that end. And as I know that God is found more often in the lowliest of his creatures than in the high and mighty, I am struggling to reach the status of these. I cannot do so without their service. Hence my passion for the service of the oppressed classes. And as I cannot render this service without entering politics, I find myself in them.”
Mohandas K. Gandhi
Cousin Jim picked me up early Saturday morning, and we went to visit Eric's family. On the ride, I said that Eric had been the first adult man that I had met who demonstrated the absolute strength of gentleness. Jim quoted Uncle Leon, from Harvey Arden's book, “The Wisdom Keepers,” when we met with our extended family. Although he was 80, “Doc” still carried an over-flowing caseload, and we discussed efforts to provide support to them.
They were planning to go out after work. That's my image of them: married fifty years, and still taking time for romantic dates. Eric fell, and the impact killed him. But Rema said that he had the most peaceful smile on his face. Lennon sang that “life is what happens while you're busy making other plans.” Death is, too.
When we got back here, Jim wanted to re-build the sweat lodge. The girls had removed the branches and ice that had fallen on it, collapsing the top half. They had stripped it down, too. I called the “boys” to see if they could come over to help, but couldn't reach them. Clotilde (our “foreign exchange student”) volunteered to help.
While Jim was beginning the work on the frame, Clo brought out a large supply of fire wood for me. I let her select the rocks. She picked a good variety of black flint, quartz, and red and white sand stones. I tended the fire while Jim and her finished the lodge, and carried out water for ceremony. After they had completed their task, they joined me, and we drank ice tea and looked at The Pond. One of the larger fish swam near us, and Clo said, “Oh! My! God! He's so huge! He must be the 'director' of the pond!”
Her family in France is Catholic, yet like most teenagers, she questions everything. Why this shape lodge? Why these stones? What is this circle's meaning?
We explained that it is an ancient ceremony, one that was practiced in many parts of the world. In Europe, after Christianity stripped it of its religious/spiritual aspects, it became the sauna. It's getting some media attention recently, because a “self-help guru” named James Ray was prostituting the Lakota version of it, and killed three people; his man-slaughter trial is now being carried on Tru TV's “In Session.”
Human rituals and ceremonies are a curious thing. In most hunter-gatherer cultures, there was a ritual thanking of the prey that one killed for food. In some of the pastoral and agricultural cultures, there were rituals involving human sacrifice. In the religions rooted in the story of Abraham, a ram was substituted for the human in ritual sacrifice. In the northeast, there were cultural phases which, during burial ceremonies, new and high-quality artifacts were symbolically broken to be placed in the grave.
It's a measure of the sickness of our current culture that fifty people were willing to “sacrifice” $10,000 each, to participate in James Ray's ceremony. The disease that contaminated Ray's mind is fueling much of western society today. It's the opposite of what the great social/political/religious leaders do. Three examples can be found in the stories of Jesus, Gandhi, and King. They each sought out the level of what are considered the “lowest” in society. They were committed unto death. Jesus was sacrificed by way of government's policy of capital punishment; Gandhi to religious hatred; and King to the triplets of racism, economic exploitation, and war.
The larger society pretends to honor them, but avoids any serious examination of the values they considered essential. Instead, there are commercial holidays and “SALES!” It is the social novocaine required to dull the pain caused by a political-economic structure that sacrifices human beings to the gods of Wall Street. Politicians talk about “shared sacrifice,” which sounds vaguely noble until one recognizes that they are charlatans in much the same mold as James Ray. And far too many citizens are willing to follow them, and sacrifice far more than ten thousand dollars.
That lodge is the womb. The rocks are the Truth. The circle is humanity. We need a re-birth in terms of recognizing the value of human beings, where society places people above the digits in the obscenely wealthy's account books. Gandhi often said that “God is Truth,” and we need to place Gandhi's truth before the lies of our morally corrupt “leaders.” That is what the circle means, and requires.
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