PRACTICE

Practicing the Presence through Mind and Meditation



November 24, 2013
White Tiger sitting in the snow.

Your strength is in your calmness, in the clarity of your mind. Strength comes from putting the negative aside without reacting. Win in calmness, in consciousness, in balance. Win without fighting.

~ Yogi Amrit Desai   

HUNTING PRAYERS

Jules Cox Photography
Nov. 24, 2012

h p of a Indian woman

The 'Say No to Bully' T-shirt is a good and simple symbol to incorporate into young minds, but is the weakest way to deal with the predatory energy in your face as a child. It is as weak as Nancy Reagan's 'Say No To Drugs' jingle.  It, like this sales campaign, is a marketing tool. It is cute, but if a child understood the story of the 3 Little Pigs, for example their understanding of bullying, and the internalizing of the 3rd pig would change their relationship with the Predator energy from a victim to a Protector.

The 'Three Little Pigs' is the story my Mother used repeatedly throughout my childhood until I mastered the craft at 14. This story is a Warrior's story. I use it when I am asked to work with bullies, and gang bangers. I merged this story, and other stories from other tribes, and my own life into my children who grew up to become Protectors.

The stories within people masterfully told and enforced changes the energy bodies of victims, of the prey. It isn't ad and sales campaigns. It is the introspective lives of children's parents that needs to honestly assess their lives because our children mirror not only their parents, but the culture they are born into. Children see every contradiction living in a country bullying other countries, and its own citizenry.

These are my words. - Gregory E. Woods 6.4.13

death in snow

"The profundity of this scene is incapable of being, or becoming words. Snow will one day soon become the stuff of memories, and in savage form terrorize us in blizzards as the world warms up. Our insistence on solving the Earth, our Mother's problems with us based upon the need to make profits is not only stupid it is suicidal. If ever Mankind is to survive we must kill the white man. By that I am referring to the deep spiritual responsibility of each individual, and each community, each family, country, and culture to plunge within and unearth the paradigms set by the conquering white Euro-American spirit and mindset; see it, and remove it. It has offset the balances and leads us down the paths alongside soiled waters to make decisions about the Sacred with corporations in mind, and leading us to make decisions as if profit margins are of tantamount importance." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 2.19.13

a scene

it's SNOWING

Downhill. We'd all gone downhill to Renee's house after the snow stopped falling to play video games, watch movies in the other room, or swim in her heated pool out back. But white people have a different relationship and understanding of the elements. They, unlike Black folks, love to play outdoors. Weather don't matter, and it didn't matter to Renee when she saw me through the window trudging through snow.

I heard a muffled scream of delight through her window. She looked like she was struggling with something I couldn't see, but was soon to see. She'd undressed and ran outside in her undies, black boots, skis, and a straw hat. I couldn't fathom it at first. Didn't take long to enjoy it. She laughed at my dismay and locked our arms and walked me around her property like it was a warm sunny day in August.  Then, like it was a cold day in February  went skiing down the street, and up the next hill to the top. Flying down that hill and up to where I stood watching her scream with delight at the cold wind in her face, I thought about adventure, and adventures to have!

- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

WINTER OUTDOORS

by Mrs-Jen Hallett

"The cold and the remoteness of ice upon water, and snow upon the land makes for an image within one's soul that is fearful, or contemplative, and appreciates being cold and alive, and warm in the dead part of winter. Winter's cold puts into perspective the feeling creative energies weave into survival, and the tasks of staying alive. 

There is nothing like cold winters to question your belief in merely existing. The cold dares you to see Beauty in Harshness, and dares Judgement to enter into the mind. What the cold cannot and does not tell you is to look within. It implies it by its indifference to your plight, if you are stranded, or vulnerable if you are bare foot, or sandal-clad with no fire, one or two blankets, and a heavy coat. 

I remember all of these things Winter taught me as a young man." - Gregory E. Woods, DawnWolf KeeperofStories  1.2.13

ARAB WOMAN in the snow??

"Winter would be much better for a single man if he could re-think his relationship with snow and its direct connection to the relationships important to his life!" ~ Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories (8/02/12)