This writing was first placed on the internet by me in 1996. I feel this writing is more relevant now. So I am placing it here for further contemplation. This is a spiritual writing and is meant to be read a minimum of four times. This is only a partial teaching of the wisdom of Respect.
Respect Life!
Respect is taking into account what affect any thought, word and deed will have on life before you move to take action or open your mouth to express your thoughts. Respect is taking into consideration whether your decisions to act would be beneficial or detrimental, to all forms of life. Respecting all life shows you love and care, for life. Love is respecting All Spirits in the Universe, and understanding you are related to All Life in Oneness.
Respect is consensus. Consensus is not a political process or a game wherein you get to hold up your hand, until you have been coerced to agree with others, through a form of philosophical persuasion, or by simply being out-waited, or having your arm get tired, forcing you into compromising your convictions, by being forced to agree to things you know in your heart are wrong. Consensus is showing you respect life and that you will take into account, the effects your decisions and actions will have on every form of life. Accept only good thoughts, words, and deeds, which will bring forth and generate a life of beauty and love.
Respect is accepting the order of life, knowing there will always be Greater Spirits than yourself to guide and protect you, throughout all of your lifetimes. It is the Creator who is the Source of all knowledge and the Source of all life and the Center of the Universe. You are merely a Spirit who emanates from the thoughts of the Creator God. Knowing from whom you are descended, holding this in your mind and heart makes you humble, not the bowing and scraping or the wearing of rags that most believe defines humility. Humility is a form of respect and a sign of great intelligence, for everyone can see that the Universe does not revolve around them. To be humble, is to accept humility.
To be Human you must accept humanity. You are one of a kind, this is your kind and you are one of them. Humanity is the acceptance your spirit emanates from the Sol/Soul of the Creator. The Creator is a being of Light and you are a being of light. The Creator lives forever, you live forever. The Creator is perfect, and you made in his image, is perfect, for no other kind of spirit emanates from a perfect being except a perfect spirit. Saying "I am only human" is an excuse to do wrong and a denial that you are descended from the soul of the Creator God.
Respecting yourself is accepting who you are. You are related to all the Spirits in the Universe, whether they be as numerous and small as blades of grass or as singular in oneness as the Sky. You are related to all of these. They are "All your/my Relations." What you do to one, you do to yourself and all of Mankind. Like a seed you were given the potential and the power to generate life, through God. For from one seed, a tree will grow, which will grow into a forest and if allowed to grow uninterrupted would blanket the Earth in trees, providing small worlds for life, likened unto the Universe. A Mouse knows the Order of the Universe because his World is likened unto the Universe. Mice are equal in importance in their world as Mankind is, in their World. At this time they are more than equal to Man in this respect, for they live in harmony with all Creation, unlike Mankind who goes against Creation, destroying all life for the use of making material possessions and for the maintenance of their own personal empires. The seed, tree and forestation of Earth, provide life for living Beings and all of these Beings are beneficial to Mankind.
You are a Spirit that emanates from the Creator and you are born through Earth, your first and true Mother. You are a Spirit flowing through a Body. You are some One, not some Body. If you want to meet Somebody, go to the morgue and you will meet some Body there. With the breath of life, you become some One, one spirit that flows through a body, here on Earth to learn how to love and grow greater, in the greater ‘Body of Oneness’. Your spirit is born only once, for like your Father, the Great Spirit, you live forever, flowing through many bodies throughout your many lifetimes. Spirits regenerate every seven years, never becoming older, making them forever young. There are no old spirits, only spirits that pre-date other spirits. The closer your spirit was born to the beginning of Creation, pre-dating all other spirits that came into existence at a later time, would make you the Elder of a Tribe upon your return. The Creator is the only one that makes you who you are, an Elder or Pre-dating Spirit.
All Elder Spirits returning to this world are reborn in the physical bodies of babies and when they are recognized, are to be respected and treated as the Elder Spirits that they are. These ‘small ones’ are very powerful beings, as they are pre-dating spirits. They have to enter this world in the same way as other spirits, flowing through a new body. This doesn't change the fact that they pre-date others. Do not let their appearance or size fool you.
Through example, an Elder and Great Spirit, the Skunk, reminds you to see beyond the obvious. For every time you encounter the Skunk, in his smallness, he quietly demands your respect and if you think you are more powerful, try to bully or harm him. When he sprays you, you will walk around alone for quite awhile, contemplating his lesson, marked by his ‘teaching of respect’. Having demonstrated your lack of respect to all others, by marking you for all to smell, this great spirit shows that he was even given the power to banish you from your own people. The Skunk will force you to take the time away from your kind, to rethink your actions and correct your way, before your actions are copied by others, multiplying becoming a greater wrong.
Having been an effective teacher, you will give the small one and his relatives a wide berth on your next encounter. The skunk’s reputation as a great teacher rides before him on the wind, saving many in the family of Man, from this up close lesson on respect. The skunk wears the colours of his conviction, black and white, much like robes of office for all to see. Black is the colour one wears when requesting respect, when one asks to be taken seriously and white is the colour of spirituality, showing the pureness of purpose. This great spirit, the skunk, faithfully teaches all others a lesson of respect, fulfilling their purpose given to them by the Creator God.
Elder Spirits are the Leaders and the Spiritual Mothers and Fathers of their Tribe and are far wiser than any Younger Spirits, for they have gained knowledge from living many more lifetimes. Younger Spirits in older bodies are not the Elders of the Tribes of Mankind. You are not the Body. Bodies are merely the vessels through which your spirits flow. Elders are called Grand Mothers and Grand Fathers. The word grand means great, not old or grey. It is the title given to a Pre-dating Spirit who has generated many offspring, through whom their spirit flows. This is what an Elder Spirit is. They are not elected but elevated by the Creator.
This does not take away from the need to respect our physical Elders, as they too are deserving of our respect, for their experience in this lifetime. Having fulfilled their obligation of supplying you and your spiritual relations with bodies to flow through, it is your duty to respectfully listen to all they are to teach you. Therefore they are to be listened to with respect, treated with kindness and honoured as your spiritual guides on Earth. Your Mother represents the Earth and your Father represents the Sun, as your physical family is based on the Order of the Universe. Whatever you do to the Lesser Order in the Universe, you do to the Greater Order of the Universe. You are to honour and respect your physical Mothers and Fathers. Do this willingly and out of love for one and other. This will make your Earthly family strong in oneness.
You were born once as a Spirit at the beginning of time, and before you were ever born as a human being, you were many other beings first. You were supplied with a different bodily form in each lifetime. In this way the Creator taught you how to live in harmony with one and other and all life. Whatever beings you were, you still are. If, you were an Ant in a past lifetime, your spirit still flows through an Ant in this lifetime. You are descended from many spirits. They form your spirit system. Some peoples still have records of the major spirits they are descended from, for they were recorded on their family shields, crests, flags, heraldry, totems, etc. You must always remember that you live forever, for in remembering this, you are motivated to cherish all life, for you return continually to share in life with all others. What you teach your Children becomes the World you return to!
Should you disrespect the life of a lesser being and harm them physically, know that you may be harming yourself or someone dear to you. You are a spirit that lives forever, for you exist continually throughout all time, on every level of the Universe that you have ever existed on. Whatever existed, still exists because if it didn’t you would not be here now. Destroy one level of the Universe closer to the beginning of time and you will destroy all levels of life that were generated from that level in time. You are related to every living thing. Do not kill Lesser Beings indiscriminately. We are all related through the Oneness of the Universe. Care for all of Our Relations!
Listen respectfully to your teachers in life, speak respectfully of life, act respectfully toward all living things. Know that you have the power to cause the future of every living thing, and it would be wise to make your decisions based on the respect for all life. Respect all Life, for You are Life. Those who do not respect life do not deserve to share in life. You are the Children of God and the Reasons for Creation. Life Should Respect Life. Listen with respect, speak with respect, act with respect, for respect creates harmony and causes closeness amongst you. When you respect one and other, you produce harmony, which shows caring, becoming love, growing greater to Oneness. In Oneness, we will sing the Song of the Universe, “One Heart, One Mind, One Soul" and share in Peace and Heaven on Earth.
WRITTEN BY Del Ashkewe and Paula Johnstone-Whitehawk Permission is given to copy these writings provided they are left unchanged and in their entirety. Copyright November 20, 1996
Creator Father,
Look at our aloneness
We know that in all Creation
Only the human family Has strayed from the Oneness of the Sacred Way
We know that we are the ones who must come together
To walk in the Sacred Way once more.
Creator Father, Sacred One,
Teach us love, pride, honour and respect,
That we may heal the Earth and heal each other.
Chi Meegwetch, Thank You
An Ojibwa Prayer
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