Never Tire of New Sources of Wisdom

 Excerpted from:   Deep Medicine: Harnessing the Source of Your Healing Power

“The teacher can open the door, but the student must enter himself.”  - Chinese proverb

 Not long ago I had the opportunity of attending a retreat as part of the transformative work done by the Institute of Noetic Sciences in Petaluma, California ( www.noetic.org ). One of the exercises involved taking time in silence on the beautiful rolling hills that are part of the Institute’s campus. We were sent out onto the land with a ceremony led by Michael Harner of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies ( www.shamanism.org ) using some of the oldest tools of indigenous cultures, the drum and the rattle.

We were given several questions to consider and advised to be alert and attentive to the signs that the land might present to us to help us with the questions we were contemplating.

I set off with lofty expectations. What powerful allies might make themselves visible to me? What wisdom would be revealed by the call of raven or the spirits of native peoples who previously had walked this land?

As I began my meditative walk, I was drawn to a fallen, partially uprooted tree. While some branches were dead or dying, others were green and robust. This observation moved me to notice that we are subject to forces that can significantly disrupt our roots and direction. Some parts of us die along the way even as others continue to grow. We have different uses at different times.

I carried on farther until I came to a fence line which redirected my path. The fence reminded me to respect limits and boundaries. As I climbed higher on the hillside, I could hear the noise from the nearby freeway. Slightly higher on the hill, I looked down and into the distance where the dense line of cars on the highway was visible. Seeing that river of machinery flowing slowly toward San Francisco, I imagined the stress the slow traffic was causing.  I could almost hear the crackle of engaged cell phones and feel the sense of urgency of the people caught in the gnarled, phlegmatic, bumper-to-bumper crawl. Avoid the collective trance. Don’t be confined by what seems to be so important – was the message I received.

My silent wandering continued.  As I walked, I waited for a vision more profound than the freeway, a symbol more remarkable than the fence or the fallen tree, a teacher more dignified than a lizard sunning on a dull, flat rock. Although that lizard appeared to be quite content with his circumstances, I was seeking the grandeur of the soaring eagle or the power of the elusive mountain lion.

Expectations were ablaze as I moved up the hill toward the summit. As I crested the top, a 360 degree panorama greeted me. However, at closer range, I was shocked to behold a large, abandoned tractor tire! Others had been here before me. However, it appeared that they had not managed their cast offs very ecologically. This was certainly not what I was expecting to find on this moving meditation in nature. This was not the kind of artifact I had hoped to uncover.  Disappointed at my discovery and a bit weary after my uphill hike, I sat down on the large black remnant of another’s earlier visit to my hilltop destination.

As I surveyed the surroundings from my resting place, I noticed a series of raised letters on the sidewall of my perch. “Goodyear” they read. A good year – could this be prophetic? My curiosity aroused, I wondered what else the circular oracle might reveal. I swept its dusty surface with my hands and was rewarded as more advice appeared. While a good year was prominently predicted in large letters, the smaller print revealed some cautions to avoid problems: “Failure may be due to misapplication, improper inflation (over- or under-inflation), overloading, excessive speed, and improper mounting.”

What germane and powerful guidance I had discovered from a most obscure source. How different this source was than my romantic expectations. Isn’t it interesting when, where and from what and whom we can find wisdom, if we are open to seeing and hearing it?

The distant drumbeat beckoned me to return to where we had begun our short odyssey. Awakened from my musings, I bid farewell to my wisdom wheel and began my downhill walk to rejoin the group. I descended the hill surprised, moved and inspired by all that I had learned.  I cherish the healing wisdom I found on that hill and will never forget that every place, person and encounter hold similar potential to be my teachers and guide me on my way.

Take a moment and recall some of the people and situations which have been your most powerful and meaningful teachers. I bet they weren’t all in a formal classroom or the halls of ivy. Our potential to learn and change has no such limits.