https://docs.google.com/document/d/1chJEgL1OcNsYE--U1YG7eXACH6Bp_DYhj1B9aPRNRYM/edit?usp=sharing
I was raised to honor, love, and respect all the Sacred Messengers and Spiritual Faiths of our Creator, including those manifested across the Americas, including The Peacemaker, Quetzalcoatl, the White Buffalo Calf Woman, Manco Capoc, Sweet Medicine, Handsome Lake, Vira Cocha, and many others.
I equally honor and respect other Manifestations of our Creator, Abraham, Krishna, Moses, Zoroaster, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammed, the Gate, the Ancient of Days, and many others around Mother Earth, to name a few, and thier Prophets. As well as many others, whose names have been lost, in time.
From my heartfelt investigation of truth, for myself, and my experience of the past 76 winters, including those who left their Sacred Teaching in written words, as well as those who have orally left their Sacred Teachings in Sacred Songs and Ceremonies, like our White Buffalo Calf Woman and other Divine Messengers who appeared across the Americas, I have found all of their Spiritual Teachings to be One and that we are One Human Family.
From my perspective, their Sacred Teachings only differ in their social teachings that fit the time in humanity's history in which they were manifested by our Beloved Creator.
From my Perspective, Our Beloved Creator would never leave our Human Family without Spiritual Love and Guidance, at any time, at any place, to every member of our Human Family, on Mother Earth.
I have been attacked, many times, over the past 54 years, for this perspective or because I was too light or too dark. I have learned from the Mahabarata, the Torah, the Bible, the Koran, the Smoke House, the Sweat Lodge, and the Sun Dance, as well as, from all members of our Human Family, no matter what their skin color may be.
As well, my wife is a devoted Buddhist and you could not find another human being any more loving, compassionate, kind, spiritually strong, and caring than her. Living with me and having to deal with my many shortcomings, for more than 30 years, she must be on her way to sainthood. (LOL).
As an old man, who will be making my journey to the Other Side Camp and will leave my earth suit behind very soon, in comparison to my last 76 winters, I don't care, anymore, if I am attacked or not. As my beloved father always used to say,” I was born wild, and I will die wild!”
At the same time, I do not believe in Churchianity that viciously, cruelly, unjustly, and vilely committed the ugliest forms of genocide and enslavement, through the Papal Bulls and the resulting Doctrine of Discovery, everywhere on Mother Earth.
This perspective includes any other “religion” that has or is doing the same thing today, in perversion and violation of the Sacred Teachings given by our Beloved Creator.
For instance, World War 1, was between “Christian Nations” over their colonial possessions. This “Christian War” killed and wounded more than 40 million members of our Human Family. This war led to WW 2, which killed and injured more than 75 million members of our Human Family, and then Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afganistan, and on and on, until today.
My beloved relatives, hasn't there been enough killing?
For, if we do not wake up to the spiritual reality of the Prior Unity and Oneness of our Human Family, and all Life and that the Hurt of One is the Hurt of All, there is much more to come.
I believe in the Christianity practiced by my great-grandfather, Tipi Sapa, Black Lodge, Philip Deloria, who was also viciously attacked throughout his life for his beliefs. But, in the end, after 40 years, more than 2500 members of the Oceti Sacowin came together, in team and wagons and Model T Fords, to honor him before he died.
Before my Great-Grandfather died, he was given 33 men’s death songs, of the many that used to be sung on Chain Buttes between Wakpala and Little Eagle, on the Standing Rock. My father followed the path of his grandfather, Tipi Sapa until he died.
Even though my beloved Ate, rarely missed a 7 AM Church Service, at the St.Paul’s Episcopal Church, in Walla Walla, a spiritual practice he began, as a young boy, at the St. Elizabeth’s Church at Wakpala, or wherever he happened to be on a Sunday, it was my father who gave me my first Sacred Pipe in 1973, made by my Unchi Anna Heals With Medicine, from Wakpala.
As well, my father carved the hardwood skewers that attached me to the Sacred Tree when I Sundanced at Little Eagle in the early 1980s and helped me to establish the first sweat-lodge at Washington State Penitentiary in 1979. To him, there is One Creator of All Good Things, not either/or!
When I first read this beautiful reflection on sacrifice and Jesus, I was reluctant and somewhat fearful to share, as I knew, as usual, that there would be some relatives that would take some shots at me, as was done to my relatives, who traveled the Red Road before me.
After some reflection, I realized after so many bullets in the front and arrows in the back, while they still hurt some, at this point in my life, they, more or less, just whiz through. (This does not mean I have become Holy, LOL!)
So for those interested, this is a beautiful reflection, about Jesus and Sacrifice, that from my perspective has deep and uplifting meanings. At the same time, If you are not interested, or if this offends you in any manner, with love and respect, please read no further.
It is my prayer, as a founding member of the United Religions Initiative (URI), that no matter what we may believe, or call our Faith in the Creator, that we may all unite in the Sacred Spiritual Teachings that are at the foundation of all the Sacred Teachings that have uplifted our Human Family, throughout history, everywhere on Mother Earth. And, in our spiritual unity, as a Human Family, that Peace Will Prevail on Earth, as it is in Heaven, for children, our grandchildren, and all our future generations.
Again, from my perspective, a loving Creator, Mother or Father, would never share the Sacred Teachings of Life, with only one People, at one time in history. The same goes for any loving mother or father.
With Warm and Loving Greetings,
Lala, Dekshi, and Brother Phil
Šuŋgmánuŋ He Me Yedo! Chanupa Sapa He Me Yedo!
URI Preamble and Purpose
Preamble
We, people of diverse religions, spiritual expressions, and Indigenous traditions throughout the world, hereby establish the United Religions Initiative to promote enduring, daily interfaith cooperation, to end religiously motivated violence, and to create cultures of peace, justice, and healing for the Earth and all living beings.
We respect the uniqueness of each tradition and differences of practice or belief.
We value voices that respect others and believe that sharing our values and wisdom can lead us to act for the good of all.
We believe that our religious, spiritual lives, rather than dividing us, guide us to build community and respect for one another.
Therefore, as interdependent people rooted in our traditions, we now unite for the benefit of our Earth community.
We unite to build cultures of peace and justice.
We unite to heal and protect the Earth.
We unite to build safe places for conflict resolution, healing, and reconciliation.
We unite to support freedom of religion and spiritual expression, and the rights of all individuals and peoples as set forth in international law.
We unite in responsible cooperative action to bring the wisdom and values of our religions, spiritual expressions, and indigenous traditions to bear on the economic, environmental, political, and social challenges facing our Earth community.
We unite to provide a global opportunity for participation by all people, especially by those whose voices are not often heard.
We unite to celebrate the joy of blessings and the light of wisdom in both movement and stillness.
We unite to use our combined resources only for nonviolent, compassionate action, to awaken to our deepest truths, and to manifest love and justice among all life in our Earth community.