The Beauty Way View thru the eyes of Robin Lynn Rainbowfeather
Going Green on the Beauty Way Path
"Oh, Mother Earth, beautiful and bountiful mother, we are so grateful to you for our lives. Thank you for the good way you nourish and sustain us, for the life giving waters that fall upon us, for the winds that bring us new seasons and the changes of life that support us. We honor all the creepy-crawlies who create such good soil and take care of all the physical waste of the world, for the winged ones who inspire us, the finned ones who teach us how to dive deep within ourselves, the four-legged ones who give of themselves so we can have full bellies and those four-leggeds who have agreed to be close companions to us two-leggeds so we learn better how to love unconditionally. We honor the plant beings - oh what great diversity - for sweet smells, energizing colors, medicines to heal ourselves and such wondrous tastes to feed our bodies. We honor the tall standing ones - those tree beings and all the stone people who help us build our lodges and creations. Our hearts are full of gratitude, Mother, for your wisdom and for this beautiful life that is available to us all, filled with grace and ease. Ah Ho."
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Living in Peace on the Beauty Way Path
This is the Year of Living in Peace and to do that we need to look at the ways we are violent with ourselves. When my teacher, Will Rockingbear (Cherokee) first told me I was violent, I have to admit I was bewildered - I wasn't a violent person. I didn't go around hitting people or shouting obsenities to their face, I didn't hurt animals or suddenly lash out in anger without provocation. But I did say things to myself like, "you are so stupid," or "can't you do anything right" or "what's wrong with me?" or . . . the list could go on and on. And yes, I did curse people in the privacy of my own car, or in my mind. I did make scathing remarks under my breath to make myself feel better in my perceived helpless, hopeless situations. I did hurt myself and others with my thoughts, words and actions of feeling like a victim or silently standing by while someone else was seen as a victim. I did sometimes feel lesser than, unworthy, not enough, stupid, arrogant, intolerant, fearful, shameful and guilty. I never thought all these things made for violence but now I see it's the small violent words and acts against myself that erode my inner peace, my equanimity, my connection to myself.. I made an agreement with myself that whenever I make a disparaging remark about myself or someone else, I restate that thought to be one without judgment, without prejudice, without malice. Whenever I separate myself from others, lose my connection to myself, temporarily forget who I truly am, aren't true to myself or "fall asleep" in my life, I notice that I did that, and then recommit myself to not doing that again. In this way, I forgive myself and move on.
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Why "bad" things happen from the Beauty Way's perspective
Why do "bad" things happen to "good" people (or vice versa)?
Ah dualities! They look so solid and real but what an illusion they are. In the native worldview, all of life is encompassed in a circle. Seen 3 dimensionally it looks like a never ending spiral. This Circle of Life holds all feelings, thoughts, events, dualities, past, present, future, everything that we can conceive of and everything that we can not. Here's an exercise so you can experience what this teaching is all about. Hold
your arms out like an airplane, with your arms horizontal to the ground. Assign one duality to the end of one arm with the other duality to the other. Let's pick good and bad to start with. Now keep holding your arms as you feel the linear continuum from one end of Good all the way to the other end of Bad. Of course, we are in between the ends, somewhere on that continuum of good and bad, sliding along this scale we have set up. How long can you hold your arms out, balancing between these absolutes? Not long in the whole scheme of things - there is too much tension. So we tip towards "good" or the other way to "bad" and accept that label as real, whether it is assigned to a given moment or event in our lives or to our whole identity. Now I want you to bring your arms into a circle with your hands touching in front of you. What happens to the dualities now? They are side by side, touching in fact, not opposites at all. They are more similar than we at first thought. Now lower your hands into your lap still keeping your arms encircling the space there. How long can you hold this posture? For a long time - it's natural, relaxed and inviting. In this way we see how we can move from the Western linear worldview which is very limiting and tiring to the Indigenous circular worldview that holds All That Is.Click for more....
Ah dualities! They look so solid and real but what an illusion they are. In the native worldview, all of life is encompassed in a circle. Seen 3 dimensionally it looks like a never ending spiral. This Circle of Life holds all feelings, thoughts, events, dualities, past, present, future, everything that we can conceive of and everything that we can not. Here's an exercise so you can experience what this teaching is all about. Hold
your arms out like an airplane, with your arms horizontal to the ground. Assign one duality to the end of one arm with the other duality to the other. Let's pick good and bad to start with. Now keep holding your arms as you feel the linear continuum from one end of Good all the way to the other end of Bad. Of course, we are in between the ends, somewhere on that continuum of good and bad, sliding along this scale we have set up. How long can you hold your arms out, balancing between these absolutes? Not long in the whole scheme of things - there is too much tension. So we tip towards "good" or the other way to "bad" and accept that label as real, whether it is assigned to a given moment or event in our lives or to our whole identity. Now I want you to bring your arms into a circle with your hands touching in front of you. What happens to the dualities now? They are side by side, touching in fact, not opposites at all. They are more similar than we at first thought. Now lower your hands into your lap still keeping your arms encircling the space there. How long can you hold this posture? For a long time - it's natural, relaxed and inviting. In this way we see how we can move from the Western linear worldview which is very limiting and tiring to the Indigenous circular worldview that holds All That Is.Click for more....
Generosity on the Beauty Way
So many of the Native teachings, stories and traditions involve generosity - true generosity of the heart and spirit, not only in the form of being generous with our physical possessions, but also with our time, friendship, love, creations, words, feelings, knowledge and wisdom. Often a thing of beauty is created just to leave on a tree, by a river or set upon a stone, freely offering hours of work and effort to give back some part of ourselves to Creator, one way of saying thank you. When you think about it, we only have a few things that are truly of our own making - our breath, our voice through words or song, our ability to hold each other in our arms, our tears. So give freely of these things that are totally yours to give. When we give a stone being, a feather or a plant person, it's a wonderful gift but we have to realize that we haven't put any of our energy into that gift, we are just passing along what Mother Earth and Creator have made. When we take those raw materials and lovingly craft them into something of beauty whether for utility or pleasure, we are adding our energy to that gift. Traditionally, when we give tobacco to an elder or teacher, we take some of that tobacco and make a pouch out of cloth, tying it up and adding our prayers. We may decorate it with a feather or a crystal that we have found or that is important to us. We didn't create the tobacco or the cloth, the feather or the crystal but by adding our time and energy to them, we are creating a relationship with these organic energies and our connection to all of life is then honored and acknowledged.Click for more....
The Shelter on a Beauty Way Path
I remember when I made the request of my teacher, Will Rockingbear, for the Vision Quest Ceremony – to spend 4 days and 4 nights on a mountain with no food or water in order to cry for a vision, to receive clarity of purpose, to deepen my connection with the divine and to open myself further to who I truly am ...Click for more....
The Tenets of the Beauty Way Path
What is the relationship between Divinity and humanity?
I often hear that we are divine beings, a soul or spirit here on Planet Earth to have a human experience but that doesn't ring true for me. Click for more....
I often hear that we are divine beings, a soul or spirit here on Planet Earth to have a human experience but that doesn't ring true for me. Click for more....
Welcome - getting to know me, Robin Lynn Rainbowfeather, and my view along The Beauty Way Path
What most attracts you to your chosen path?
...a sturdy foundation on which to build a spiritual path, as by its very nature, shines with the truths of interconnectedness, interdependency, being accountable for our thoughts, words and actions, and our equality with every manifestation of Life Force.
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...a sturdy foundation on which to build a spiritual path, as by its very nature, shines with the truths of interconnectedness, interdependency, being accountable for our thoughts, words and actions, and our equality with every manifestation of Life Force.
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