Etiquette |
| By this term I am refer not to the rules of etiqutte a culture or time
may place upon its members. I am refering rather to the natural,
though often undeveloped, capacity of all beings to stand in balance with
themselves, with the other, with the environment and with the community
of all beings.
I first began to use this word in this fashion after hearing an elder man give a lecture one evening. The fellow, I believe then near eighty years old, had been born and raised in a tribe of horsemen that dwelled in that part of the world where the first patriarcal kurgans had swept from those many millenia ago. His tribe of horsemen had never been tamed by the Czar nor, at least until that fellow was in his twenties and left the are to move into Turkey, by the Soviets. They were a separate people who by oral tradition traced their way of knowing, a way of direct knowledge, (which was not Christian or Hindu or Muslim or Buddist or any other world faith) back into the ice ages. Here before me I realized was the purest form of the ancient patriarcal ways that I had evr met or perhaps would again ever meet. He opened his lecture by saying, ÏI am only sharing the experience of my life with you. If you say I am wrong in what I say tonight, I will agree with you. It is as simple as that. You are right.Ó He went on to explain that, not only was he not fully familiar with our language, but that he was trying to seek within those words which could express what our language was not accustomed to express. Then he talked of the three levels of initiation in the path of direct knowledge of the tribe of horsemen. For the first level of traing he used the word ÎetiquetteÌ. ÏBy this I meanÌÓ he said that evening, Ïhow one stands before oneself; or stands before an elder or a younger one; how one stands before a man or a woman; how one addresses a horse; how one points a gun ...Ó When he said the last, the laudience stirred uncomfortably. The fellow responded, Ïyou do not like that I say Îhow hold a gun?Ì Well, you do not point it at one you love; nor do you point it at your own heart; nor do you take it hand in madness or when not in balance. You do, however, point it at those who would destroy the ones you love.Ó He continued that evening to discuss the second level of training. The second level of initiation was administration. By administration he meant conducting oneself so that the people who one was administering would be opened to the best opporunity to learn their own etiquette. You did not say do this or be that way. You opened the way for people to come to this inner knowledge and way for themselves. The best administratorÌs actions would remain unseen and unknown. It would be a tragedy for all if the administrator needed to speak directly to the matter of behavior and to tell a person to behave in a certain way, lets say with a certain moral function. This would rob the person learning of the opportunity to truly taste deep within their heart the living etiqutte that mandated that behavior in that circumstance. (The same behaviour may be incorrect when given another circumstance) The final level of initiation, which he did not elucidate upon that evening, he called ÎThe Christ BodyÌ. ÏBut do not misunderstand of what I speak,Ó he said. ÏI use the term ÎChrist BodyÓ only because I am speaking to you who live in this culture in America. If I were elsewhere, I would use a different term that those people would better understand of what it is I speak.Ó |