If you want to go far, go together.
~ African proverb
Several weeks ago I saw a coyote pup in the field adjacent to Pilgrim Congregational UCC Church, directly across from our park. I mentioned it in a previous post titled: Coyote Pup and Purposeful Purse Project. I had stopped and we watched one another for quite some time, but it made the pup nervous, so, “He pulled away first but I continued to watch as he gingerly picked his way to the church parking lot and out of my view.”
Edward Salim Michael (1921-2006) was an extraordinarily talented composer and had tremendous potential as an artist, but most importantly, he was a mystic, almost a natural mystic. For those who have never heard of him, it is worth noting that his work was about how you can achieve a direct inner experience of your higher nature and the after-death state (from which you originate and to which you will return).
If you are interested in what is referred to as “the law of attention,” or you know you long to have an experience of “hearing the holy sound,” you might want to check out The Price of a Remarkable Destiny: The Life and Spiritual Journey of Edward Salim Michael.
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This book–at once simple and powerful–stands as a monument to the lifelong spiritual struggles of Edward Salim Michael, struggles that he heroically surmounted on his path to enlightenment. Due to the circumstances of his birth, Michael had no education, no mother tongue, and no book learning when he was drafted at the age of 19 into the British Royal Air Force during World War II. After learning to read and write he became an accomplished classical composer in France. In 1949, after seeing a statue of a Buddha for the first time, he experienced a powerful awakening of his innate Buddha Nature, which inspired him to begin a sustained and extremely disciplined meditation practice.
On Saturday morning, I rode my bike to the remembrance garden at the hospice building in preparation for meeting with my friend Kim, to officiate the Celebration of Life of her 32 year old son. I saw a dead coyote pup on the edge of Maiden Lane. I cannot say with certainty that it was the pup I had seen previously. I was instantly reminded of having seen both the peaceful fawn corpse, then the traumatized doe corpse. I looked up “coyote” totem meaning again:
The coyote is here to remind you that even if you don’t feel it, you actually have the capacity to handle any situation you find yourself in.
It seems right now every human being on the planet is experiencing many moments of choice.
This morning, looking back over my notes from a healing workshop with Barbara Brodsky, and Aaron, on Wednesday, May 24, 2017, I read about ancestral baggage.
Aaron: When I think of ancestral baggage, I think of literally the karma one has taken on from one’s physical ancestors, both family and of a wider group – cultural group, religious group, even human karma. The personal karma is different.
For example, as I meet, counseling and working with people, there is a generation today, many of whom experienced the Holocaust from one side, one perspective or another. Many who experienced it, not personally but had parents and grandparents who experienced it, are carrying some of that “personal baggage” from it and in healing it through finding forgiveness for the places of fear and hatred in their own hearts, healing that in themselves. They don’t have to be thinking of the situation of the Holocaust, but they are helping to free the anger and fear and hatred of their ancestors.
Those from the other perspective, who were among those who were doing such great harm, may experience the same thing. There’s often enormous shame and guilt in the incarnate self, without any real understanding of where it came from. Its not personal karma, but they came in to the incarnation with the intention to help to heal, to free some of the ancestors who are very much trapped in the terrible things they did and the self-remorse and self-hatred over those things.
Tavis: Can one heal, then, these longstanding ancestral issues by addressing one’s own guilt, shame….
Aaron: Absolutely. And this is the best place to release it. When you release it for yourself, you release it for everyone. So, this is very powerful.
What to do if you see a coyote?
If you see a coyote during the daytime, you should exhibit caution, as that coyote may have become habituated to humans (and may be more likely to attack). If you are approached by a coyote, you should yell, wave your arms, and/or throw something at the coyote (do not run away).
May all beings resist the urge to run away when we witness ancestral karma, and may we each make the most of many moments of choice.
