The Law of the Land

Prelude:

The Law of the Land

The Law of the Land

The lay of the Land and

the play of the hand operate

under the same principle:

you play what is dealt you;

it shapes your life by what is given

and what is taken away.

The voice of the Land is in the Crow

and the wind in the tree,

in the creek and the tumbled stone

which is shaped by the shifting currents,

the torrent and the dwindling trickle.

What is removed, worn down,

worn away, leaves what is left,

what is necessary, that which

nothing need be added to nor

taken from.

The Land grinds fine, boulder

to pebble, then to grain of sand, then

to dust blown by the wind.

The Land gives, it takes away;

you may fight or yield, plow

or allow the field to lie fallow,

cut your own path or follow

the watercourse way; it is all the same.

First the Land will tame you,

then it will claim what belongs to it.

The fool believes he owns the Land;

the Wise man knows he is owned, and

all that he has is loaned.

I. The Requiem of Innocence:

The Code of the Lakota

Quietly consider

What is right and what is wrong.

Receiving all opinions equally,

Without haste, wisely,

Observe the law

— Buddha, Dhammapada

Those sorcerers called this ability to perceive energy as it flowed in the universe seeing, Don Juan explained to me. They described seeing as a state of heightened awareness in which the human body is capable of perceiving energy as a flow, a current, a windlike vibration. To see energy as it flows in the universe is the product of a momentary halt of the system of interpretation proper to human beings

— Don Juan Matus to Carlos Castaneda, Magical Passes

Seeing happens only when one is capable of shutting off the internal dialogue

— Carlos Castaneda, Tales of Power

Words Are Not Actions

The Lakota followed the Great Law:

Pay Attention.

Go Slow.

Be Still.

A man stood by his word, or

he could not live among the people.

This was how the Whites were different;

among them, words were cheap.

The Lakota knew better.

Before a warrior went into battle

he did not speak. In the Sweat Lodge

he drummed and sang and prayed,

then spent 3 days in solitude

preparing his Heart for his death.

When he was ready to ride, his woman

handed him axe and bow.

Their gaze met and held.

No word was spoken.

Some came back dead or badly wounded.

There was a big fire; all gathered

to hear the tales of battle.

The warriors laughed and laughed,

made jokes about each other.

They knew the wounds would heal,

knew the dead would be fed to the birds.

The Lakota had a saying:

Words fall down on the ground

like shit from the dogs;

deeds lift a man up

like the Spirit leaving the body.

How the Lakota Tamed Their Wayward Sons

Each spring at gelding time,

the Lakota men

gathered all of the bad boys,

those whose sap was at the boil

and overflowing without control

and they took them among the horses,

sorting out those who did not respond

to proper training,

to be gelded.

They held the horse and yelled at it,

You will not do as you are told!

and then strong men held them down

while the task of two bad boys