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Author Topic: Meeting Dakota  (Read 10541 times)

Tony Crisp

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Meeting Dakota
« on: October 03, 2011, 10:25:06 AM »
I think I would like to mention how Dakota and I met. And I think the best way is to quote pieces from my book House  of the Ancestors. So here goes!

At the time my conscious thoughts about Dakota were that she was a likeable and unusual middle-aged woman.  She shared my interest in the inner life, but as far as I could understand, was coming to this from a very different direction than myself.  She had motivations and responses I did not understand at the time.  I felt I was failing to find what I call a “living connection” with her.  Some of my attempts and approaches seemed to fall flat.  At the same time I was giving her opportunity to drop the tentative contact we had.

So one day I dived into that ocean of mind to see if I could find her. And so I moved among the great creatures of this world, occasionally finding myself lost in and possessed by one of these leviathans, until liberation was found again by becoming naked awareness once more.

Then suddenly I felt the presence of Dakota with me in the ocean.  But I could not see her, and called out, “Dakota, can you hear me?  Are you aware of being here with me?”  There was no response, and I wondered if I was creating the feeling in some way.

But just as suddenly as her presence was felt everything changed.  In that realm where thoughts and emotions take on form, and form itself is fluid, Dakota and I faced each other as magnificent wolves.  And I, in the manner of wolves, put my head low to the ground and tail high in the posture of invited play.  Then we danced around each other in mock battle rushing headlong, bumping, rolling, pushing shoulder to shoulder, or breathlessly nose to nose.  I grabbing a stick in my mouth and throwing it in the air to distract her, or feigning indifference.  She, at each new twist of the dance, came back at me, ever resourceful, ever full of vigour and intensity.  And in the dance we discovered each other, tested strengths, explored responses, and found a living connection.

Then, when the dance was finished, we changed forms and expressed other qualities to each other in the shape of the Native American Indians.  As such I stood before my lodge as the elder of my tribe, greeting her and saluting her qualities.  For she wore the feathers showing her achievements as a wife maintaining her own family lodge; as a woman in her culture who had carved a position for herself in the world of work; as someone who reached beyond her own nearest kin and gave of herself.  So I saluted her and invited her into my lodge, and she accepted.

It was with those experiences freshly imprinted on me that I emerged from the ocean eager to tell Dakota of what had arisen.  I carefully wrote the events in my journal, then copied them to send as an email.  But just as I was about to send, an email arrived from Dakota.  Its title read, “Dances with Wolves.”  And the message was a quote from Nietzsche.  It said, “Those who watched them dancing thought they were mad because they couldn't hear the music.”

I still weep when I read those words.  As much as I have roamed the immense ocean of mind I am still a man of my culture and penetrated by its blindness.  To dance as wolves beyond closed eyes was one thing, but to know it was shared in some way released a blossoming wonder that is still growing.  We can believe things as a defence against our own insecurities and littleness.  But to experience something that was real within, and have it confirmed as an external fact is an extraordinary thing to confront.  

Tony
« Last Edit: February 28, 2012, 11:15:58 AM by Tony Crisp »

Leswan

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Re: Meeting Dakota
« Reply #1 on: October 05, 2011, 10:11:14 AM »
How beautiful.

Dakota

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Re: Meeting Dakota
« Reply #2 on: October 05, 2011, 02:42:10 PM »
Yes, it was beautiful....still is....

Simply amazing.....

stevec

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Re: Meeting Dakota
« Reply #3 on: October 05, 2011, 04:04:04 PM »
I am speechless for a while...