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COYOTE ARCHIVE
Dick Prosapio aka, Coyote is a member of the TMC Advisory Council, ceremonialist, psycho-
therapist (ret.), author, leader of men's experiential workshops, & Co-founder of The Foundation for Common Sense. He lives with his wife and daughter in Stanley, NM
For more info about Dick Prosapio, visit his web-site:
Spirit/ Earth Path
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... but is it spiritual?
by
Dick Prosapio © 2003
A friend asked me if my conservation of water was a, "spiritual thing."
"No." was my immediate answer. Then having thought about it for five or six ticks, "Well actually, I consider paying attention to be a 'spiritual thing', central to a life lived with consciousness. So, I guess paying attention to how much water we use, besides having a practical basis, is a consciousness raising activity and thus part of a spiritual life."
I wasn't nearly this articulate in the moment but I like to think that, given the leisurely pace of thought that sitting at a computer gives me post event, that is what I would have said. What I really said was, "Paying attention is spiritual so I guess that's also a result of having to haul water."
He mentioned the fact that since most people have water readily available in any amount at any time, they wouldn't give the use of it a second thought. And he's right of course. My granddaughter visited us once and used 1000 gallons of it in four days. Imagine my shock as I looked into an almost empty holding tank after I had just trucked in those thousand gallons a few days earlier. That much water usually lasted us six to seven days!
I know I never paid much attention to water use when I didn't have to haul it so it certainly didn't fall into the category of a "spiritual" focus. I've always been a conservationist at heart, turning off lights, picking up trash, seeking the most conservative gas-using car I could find.
Not always, but most of the time anyway.
I find that most of the "rules and regs" of a ceremony require a heightened awareness brought about by paying attention to what is going on. To be sure, some rituals can put us to sleep. Performed over and over again as a "requirement" they become just another kind of hypnosis, and I suppose that sort of thing has its place, but most activity deemed "sacred" has, to me, a strong element of focused attention, awakeness, as a requirement.
Take a wedding ceremony for example, whenever we do one for a couple we, my wife and I, ask that they create something to say to each other about how they Think about their relationship, how they Feel about it, and how they Experience each other in real time. This requires that each person stop and consider the other; and that's not something that will take place very often long after the bells have rung. When we stop paying attention we lose what has the potential of deep involvement with one another..it's that involvement that is the truly sacred part of any relationship.
Taking someone "for granted" gets a lot of, mostly undeserved, bad press. A comfortable relationship, one that is mostly predictable and therefore safe, isn't therefore deadening. It becomes like a favorite chair, a place that is familiar and reassuring. Paradoxically, it is important not to go to sleep in our relationships just because we are comfortable..I'm including in this all relationships meaning how we are with everything around us. Our attention to "all of life" is the only way we can live in a truly sacred way with ourselves, each other and with our world. A life of paying attention, of being awake to every moment, ah; there's a life in which days do not hurry by in a forgettable blur. There's a life that is remarkable.
No, I really don't remember what I had for lunch yesterday, but I do remember the sparkle in my daughter's eyes when I paid attention to her "daily report" about school. That's the sacred part.
Dick Prosapio ©2003, All Rights Reserved
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