A Contemporary Pathway For Ecological Vision
In many Plains Indian and Aboriginal traditions, learning the pathway of vision embodies a process that unfolds through a variety of dimensions. As mentioned earlier, in traditional Native American perspectives, learning begins and ends with spirit. This learning path begins with appropriate orientation, acknowledging relationships, setting intentions, seeking, creating, understanding, sharing, and then celebrating one's vision with reference to a place of centering. Imagine an aboriginal sandpainting composed of seven variously colored concentric rings connected to each other and to a seventh concentric ring through a pathway. The eight ring is the centering place and the place of beginning and completion, that place that Indian People talk about." Each of the rings has its own center and contains the colored rings of the others. The pathway between each concentric ring is white bordered by black. The field in which the sandpainting is set is half red and half blue. This imaginary sandpainting symbolizes a structure, a process, and a field for learning about the creative stages and the inherent nature of visioning. (See Diagram)
The Centering Place is where the soul and intention of the vision are formed. This is the place where the "soul of the dream is honored. " The intention is energized and guided by one's innermost conscious and unconscious though and feelings. In whatever we learn, and by whatever means we learn, we are always true to our inherent nature and personality. This is why, in all that we endeavor to learn, we always learn something about ourselves.
Asking is prayer, and is the First ring of the path. Every journey involving one's whole being begins with asking for illumination. Asking names the quest and sets forth its essential goal. This goal focuses intention for seeking something one's inner being truly desires. True learning results from deep motivation, the desire to obtain something for which one cares deeply, down to the bones, with one's whole heart and soul. Such desire sets into motion the process of making ready and preparing the ground. Physical, mental, and psychological preparations are basic tasks of this concentric ring. Exploring the relationships and accomplishing the tasks of this ring may take hours, days, months, or even years. What one learns in this first ring is all relative to the vision one is seeking. What matters is how much the individual desires their goal. Motivation is central to human learning and is the foundation for all systems of education. Knowing how to ask and prepare for knowledge is a special kind of orientation. Learning necessary skills, discipline, focus, and how to walk a path are all a part of learning about one's own character, one's face.
Asking is the initiation of a creative flow of thought. It is the place of first insights, intuitions, encounters, and experiences. The activities of Asking are like tilling the soil, planting the seed, and then saying to the spirits of the world, "I have planted my most precious seed, help it grow, give it life." They are tasks that are simple yet complex, hard yet liquid, inward in feeling yet outward in expression --all rolled into one. They are all tasks that are essential for gaining a sense of direction, for orienting to one's center. It is asking for life and being awakened to the life of our own soul.
Seeking is the second ring of the path. Seeking is the actual process of questing. It is looking for what we mysteriously yearn for, that part of ourselves that we need, and it is missing. We may not know what that something is; it may be a gift, a special song, an animal, a plant, a person, a place, a feeling, a wisdom, a dream. These are all expressions of vision, that innately human calling to search for higher levels of meaning. To find that special thing, we have to explore the boundaries of our world and beyond. We have to expand our consciousness and paradoxically go outside ourselves to find that special something inside ourselves. We all become Scar Face when we take the hero's/heroine's journey and seek what we most desire. In this concentric ring we test ourselves against the limits of our courage and endurance, deal with a myriad of conflicting demands, and overcome obstacles. In our seeking we begin with what we know, but we come to realize that it isn't very much. Then we begin to wander, to go here, to go there; we learn how to let go, open up and deal with uncertainty. We experiment; we learn again how to listen, how to observe, how to be humble, and how to find and ask for help. Seeking is always about searching for the authentic, the basics, the meanings of life. In the process of seeking we learn to search not only for ourselves, but for all people. We learn the lessons of care, self-sacrifice, and humility.
Making is the next connected ring. Making involves the act of creating something new as a result of one's visioning. The Making is a work, or series of works, of deep significance that symbolically include what one has learned about the self, the world. Through the visioning process we contact the universal center of creativity, and we create our lives anew.
Making is the connected ring where we learn that we can create who we want to be and create the life that we truly wish to live. With our gift of creativity empowered by our vision, what we create has the power to affect the lives and thoughts of others. The song, dance, artifact, model, or anything we create from our vision changes not only our lives, but those of others as well. This is the ripple effect that characterizes the action of connected rings of relationship.
Making is also a stage where -- through the act of creating something -- we fine tune and elaborate on what we have learned. This leads to further discovery and understanding.
Having is the next connected ring. We learn what our vision and our creation mean, and what our inherent responsibilities are in relationship to them. This dimension of understanding essentially begins from the First ring, but it comes into clearer focus after we have made something from our vision. We learn to accept and honor a part of ourselves we have learned about in our visioning. We identify more closely with our own soul. We come to a higher level of self-acceptance and maturity in understanding the difference between being created by circumstances and creating our own circumstances. In the process of Making from our vision, we come to be mature and conscious participants in creating our world. We develop the courage to accept the responsibility of becoming co-creators with the world.
Throughout the process of visioning, we learn to recognize and manifest our unique potential. We find how to apply our personal power and, in every sense, empower ourselves through what we make from our vision. The Having stage honors being with our vision and our creations. It is a time of reflection, a time of decision, and a time of incubating strategies for implementing our own reality.
Sharing is the connected ring through which our vision becomes a part of the life and spirit of the community. We share the life we have sought and found with others. Sharing may involve a diversity of forms and dimensions. Sharing, in this stage, is essentially teaching others what we have learned, just as Scar Face shared the knowledge of the Sun Dance with his people. We are all teachers; it is a primary characteristic of being human. We do it all the time, whether we are conscious of it or not. The forms that teaching took in earlier times may have included songs, dances, stories, rituals, or sacred art. Today they include this and much more. Teaching and sharing are part of the process of becoming more whole and spiritually mature.
Celebrating is a natural outcome of spiritual sharing, and it too can take a diversity of forms. It is an individual and communal process that celebrates the mystery of life and the journey that each of us takes. Celebration is a way of spreading the light around.
Being is the seventh ring of the visioning process. Being joyous, thankful, reflective of the gifts of life and vision are important states of mind. They open us to the illumination of the Centering place, the place where our soul and spirit reside, "that place that the Indians talk about."
This chapter has outlined a perspective of Indigenous education inherent in Native American spirituality. Native American traditionalists would contend that all learning is related to the spirit. Native American progressives would agree that this may be so, but it is also essential that Indian people be trained to compete and exist in a modern world. Many people are uncomfortable with spirituality in any aspect of modem education because of the instances of misunderstanding and misapplication of spirituality in modern society. As with everything in human affairs, it becomes a matter of perspective and consciousness.
My intent has been to present a point of view based on my own visioning and tempered by my experience as an American Indian, image maker, and professional educator. There are many paths to the Center. There are infinite ways to talk about and image that Center, "that place the Indians talk about." We walk infinite paths and talk in infinite ways about getting to the Center every day of our lives. This has been going on in every generation of every culture of mankind since the first words were spoken and the first images were constructed. It is a very, very, long human quest!
from Look to the Mountain (1st ed.), p.69-73.
Two other excerpts:
Art as a Way of Wholeness, Creativity, and Orientation
Indigenous Education and Its Role in Individual Transformation