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| Dialogues with William |
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| Lifted by Wings of Doves and Hawks:Jesus and Mohammed |
| Q. I am a long time participant in the Earthtribe. I am a Republican. I voted for George Bush. I know that you and I don't agree politically, but you have always been very fair and open to my position. Yet, in your previous dialogues you have said you don't agree with the administration's approach. Does my vigorous support of Washington's policies mean I don't have a solid place in Earthtribe discussions? |
| I welcome your disagreement. I would guess that many Earthtribers agree more with you. I welcome the energy that arises from the tension of our disagreement. I want to speak to the different positions symbolized by the hawk and the dove. In the 1960's we, as a nation, got stuck in those two opposites, and it took us twenty years to transcend those positions. I was clearly a dove in those days, yet as you can see from my raccoon story, I sometimes am a hawk. Put another way, both forms of energy dwell in me, and I sometimes call on one and at other times, the other.There is important truth in both positions. In the position of the aware ego we can listen to both and bring them forth when each is needed. I appreciate your courage in speaking to me in this way. In the past both hawks and doves have killed dialogue with a mutual self-righteousness. To the extent that we have shut each other out we encourage carnage by indulging in our need to be right. Given the condition of our beloved, blue planet, we no longer can afford the luxury of believing any one position has all the truth. |
| Q. Now that you have opened the door I will proceed with
my questions. What is it that you mean by hawks and doves in the context of this discussion? |
| Hawk represents an energy that seeks to address our world situation with piercing, aggressive energy. In the Earthtribe that would be a more Northern energy, a penetrating, masculine energy. Dove would be a more receptive, co-operative, creative energy. I plan in this dialogue to explore Jesus as a representative of the dove energy and Mohammed as a representative of the hawk energy. In a few weeks chapters from my new book, NATURAL MYSTICS: A Tribal Journey Into Our True Identity will be available to explore or order on this website. Chapter III particularly goes into these two men in more detail. For now I will approach both men briefly. |
| Q. Do you see these two teachers as Natural Mystics? |
| I do, and yet they have very different approaches. Let's begin with Jesus. I have looked carefully into the Jesus Seminar, a world class collection of scholars who seek to discover who Jesus actually was and what he taught. Marcus Borg, a leader among these Jesus scholars, says that the most accurate description of Jesus portrays him as a Spirit person. That fits my definition of a shaman if you add that he primarily received his Spirit inspiration from his Nature induced visions. He began with his relationship with the environment as a Sacred Source. Even in this Sept. 11 disaster we need, like Jesus, to start with our care of the ecology as a way to heal ourselves. The night before he died, Jesus retreated to a natural area for healing and meditation, so that must be our clue. In times of crisis we are directed by Jesus to allow Nature to direct us. |
| Q. Now, you see this is where I part company with you. You seem so idealistic to me. I wish we could do such things, but we have to protect ourselves. You just aren't very practical. Do you see what I mean? |
| I can see how you would think that I am impractical or
idealistic. Someone kills 5,000 of our people, and here I am talking about the environment
and Jesus' connection to it. Stay with me for a moment. If we move to a root cause of
the Sept. 11 event, one of these root causes would be the energy dependence the USA has
on OPEC. Many of the terrorists resent our presence in that part of the world, and we are
there primarily to protect our interests. We use 25% of the world's oil, and we now have
only about 3% of the resources within our boundaries. Our overuse of oil and other natural
products directly contributed to Sept. 11. As strange as it might sound, I think Jesus might recommend that we try the non-violent means of reducing our use of energy as a means to protect ourselves from the terrorists. If we all drove vehicles that got 40 miles per gallon, we could be free of OPEC within a decade at the very most. If we could do this meditatively, then clues as to how to approach the terrorist problem might emerge more clearly. |
| Q. Well, at last you say something I can get my teeth into. I love Nature, but I also advocate that we drill in the Alaska wildlife reserve for the same reasons you mention: that we must reduce our dependence on foreign oil. |
| I disagree with your plan to drill.
Oil we would get from drilling there would be used quickly whereas oil that we save
through conservation would give us freedom indefinitely. Plus, we would have the inner
strength of knowing that we address the issue by restraining our own excesses rather than
destroying the environment. Judith and I drive trucks because of our work in wilderness
areas, but, after Sept.11, we have decided to change to fuel efficiency when we next
purchase transportation. Drilling in sensitive places and bombing have this in common:
they both destroy the environment. Jesus sought renewal in the ecology as a sacred Source. Listen to Nature as a Source, he taught, don't attack it. If we followed his lead in simplifying our lives and reducing our use of energy, it would allow us to examine the log in our own eyes without trying to judge the speck in our brothers and sisters. Jesus advocated a new birth into the Spirit domain. It is in the Divine domain that our true identity lies, he taught. Only as we discover our true identity as naturally blessed children of the Sacred do we find solace from fear. Only then do we quit looking for solutions outside. We find the kingdom within by transcending the compulsions of our consumptions. He also taught that the compassionate response is feeding the needy, both physically, emotionally, and spiritually. |
| Q. Here we go again with your bread instead of bombs point. Don't you think you have made that point enough? |
| You asked for practical suggestions, so here goes.I want to
acknowledge that Washington has graciously made that part of their policy. I also want to
acknowledge that the USA is the most generous world power in history, as I see it. Even
before Sept. 11 the USA had supplied or paid for 80% of the World Food Program to
Afghanistan. That translated to 292,000 tons of wheat.(Is it not time for Saudi Arabia to
share its wealth with poor Islam nations?) This is a Jesus-like strategy. Relief experts tell us that 280,000 tons of food will be available to feed starving Afghans by the end of this month, November. If we followed this Jesus-like strategy further(that of the Southern point on our medicine wheel), we might concentrate on keeping the land routes for truck convoys open at all costs so that the food can be distributed to the needy. In this case providing humanitarian aid promotes Washington's goal of toppling the Taliban and building a counter-terror coalition. Let's be creative and expand this kind of work. |
| Q. I have heard that both Mohammed and Jesus allowed for justifiable war, so I maintain that they disagree with you. How do you see it? |
| Let's stay with Jesus as a Natural Mystic for a moment. Mohammed I will get to later. To be succinct: Jesus taught compassion and peace. His approach did not allow for war as part of his new Sacred Space. |
| Q. How do you explain that most Christian denominations support our war efforts? |
| Historical Christianity has always allowed for "just wars."
War, according to this perspective, is allowable only in self-defense, when children are not
hurt, when civilians are protected, and so on. Robert Funk, the founder of the Jesus
seminar and perhaps our leading scholar on the essential Jesus, points out that the two
major branches of Christianity as we know them today are outgrowths of Peter and Paul, not
Jesus. The religion of Peter(and his followers) is Catholicism. The religion of Paul
(as rediscovered by Martin Luther) is Protestantism. So, according to Funk, Christianity
is not really based on the teaching of Jesus but rather on his two students. His point is
somewhat oversimplified, but it gets at the heart of the matter. So, Peter's religion and Paul's religion both teach that war is an ethical option under certain conditions. Jesus (and Buddha, as we shall see in a future dialogue) puts himself in tension with that viewpoint by living out a simple mantra: meet violence with compassion. The way of compassion, as he sees it, is the only way to break the violent cycle. Catholicism and Protestantism take a more Islamic approach that teaches this: practice compassion as long as it works. But under duress, you can and must fight. I admire much about both of these religions, but it is important, for me at least, not to confuse them with the essential teaching of Jesus, the Natural mystic. |
| Q. This is an interesting point. You are stating that Christianity as practiced in the USA has more in common with Mohammed than Jesus. Am I hearing you correctly? |
| Yes, you are. I am not talking about what people believe.
I am talking about what is practiced. Let me explain. Mohammed is, in the eight point wheel
of the Earthtribe, a teacher of the Northern point, a representative of masculine Divinity.
His teachings are bold, clear, precise, disciplined, organized, and structured. Like
Jesus he went to the desert to become the Natural mystic. There he received a powerful
vision that came through the desert cave. In recent times I have received important
breakthroughs to the visionary world through the cave of the White Shaman, so I consider
Mohammed a cave brother. The Koran abounds in lyrical descriptions of the natural world."He knows what is in the land and in the sea; no leaf falls but He knows it…"(6:12,59) On his famous Night Journey to Heaven you can see some of his shamanic roots. He was spirited on a wondrous white steed with wings to Jerusalem and upward from there through the seven heavens to the presence of God who gave him instructions for Muslims. As I read this account, I can feel the prophet's powerful Northern(as in the medicine wheel) energy. On that journey he got teaching about the use of force. He does not counsel turning the other cheek, and certainly not pacifism. He teaches forgiveness and the return of good for evil when the circumstances warrant. Yet, far from requiring the Muslim to practice compassion for the ruthless, he allows for punishment of wanton wrongdoers. Here he is in direct contrast to Jesus and Buddha. Mohammed became an outstanding general in the conduct of warfare. As a general he stressed that agreements were to be honored, that the wounded were not to be mutilated, nor the dead disfigured. Women, children, and the old were to be spared. A very important aspect of his teaching was that trees, crops, and other people's sacred objects were to be spared. In short, Mohammed's definition of holy war is virtually identical with that of a just war in Christianity. As a mighty representative of hawk or Northern energy Mohammed was successful as a warrior. We think of Mecca as his holy place, and it is. What is not generally known in the West is that Mohammed led an underdog army to a spectacular victory over a Meccan army many times larger, and in the campaign he was wounded. He had been thrown out of Mecca as something of a religious eccentric, but he returned as a conqueror. After he conquered it, it became an Islamic city. |
| Q. This is new information to me. |
| When you think of Mohammed, think of Crazy Horse, the great Lakotah. He was both a warrior and a spiritual teacher, a shaman. Mohammed embodied a touch of the Southern point of the medicine wheel, the dove, but he was dominated by the hawk. When you think of Jesus, think more of the Dali Lama or Martin Luther King, Jr. They call mostly on the dove, especially the Dali Lama. Mainline Christianity is much closer to Mohammed than it is to Jesus. American political strategy is also closer to Mohammed than Jesus. But, alas, bin Laden is a long distance from the just war of Islam and USA policy is also a distance from the just war of Christianity. Neither Islam or Christianity allow for the killing of civilians, women, or children. Neither do they allow for the destroying of natural habitats. So, to the extent that the Taliban and al Queda do what they do, they depart from Mohammed and Islam. To the extent that the USA destroys the natural order, women, and children we depart from Christianity. |
| Q. I have not heard any of this from Islamic and Christian leaders. |
| I too have noticed a deafening silence from ethical leaders in these two religions. We desperately need guidelines from the Southern point and the Northern point of the Sacred Wheel. We need both the hawk and the dove. |
| Q.You seem to call more on the dove than the hawk. |
| That I do. I have seen in my visions that we need a return
to the Divine feminine in the South for a period of time. This is necessary to balance out
the excesses of the North. Then, after a period of time we will balance out these two
points and sit with harmony on the Earth. So, you are on target to call to my attention
that many of my statements seem overbalanced in favor of Jesus and Buddha. Yet, I also
value Mohammed and Crazy Horse. Mohammed rode the white horse to the upper worlds. I am guided by winged medicine also, but I ride the wings of the horse, the dove, and the hawk. We need all of the wings to lift us out of this mire, but, for me, I begin with the wings of the dove in the current crisis. |
| Q. You began by stating that in your aware ego you want to be able to call on both of these sources of energy, Hawk and Dove, during this time. Do you have any practice that assists you with this? |
| On Sept. 12th I began praying several times a day in the posture
that Mohammed suggested: head on the ground and arms outstretched to the East. To balance
that posture, I translated what scholars say is an essential prayer of Jesus generally
known as the Lord's prayer. I call it the Jesus prayer. I have translated it in
Spirit of Jesus, the Nature mystic. So, in the posture of Mohammed, I pray the Jesus
prayer:
Sacred Mystery, Grandmother, Grandfather, |
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