Indigenous Religious Traditions

New Class…BOO

r_macdonald — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 00:13:14 +0000

So I know I’m really late on posting my final reflection, but home turned out to be way busier than I was expecting it to be! Wow I miss you all so much. Emily and I are in the same class this block (Magic, Science, and Religion…only at CC right?), and today we both commented on how weird it is being outside of IRT. The classroom felt cold and empty, and the students gave off such a different vibe than we had in our class last block. Why can’t all classes be as amazing, warm, and as close as ours was?? I feel uncomfortable and almost lost in this new class without all of you surrounding me. I keep wondering if all IRT classes became as close as we did, or if we’re just extra special (which, duh, we obviously are).

I learned so much about myself and about all of you through this class. It’s so weird to think that without IRT, I most likely wouldn’t have become friends with all of you beautiful people. But luckily, something brought us all together, and now I have so many new friends that I absolutely love! Thank you all for being so extremely supportive from day 1 and for being open and willing to try and learn new things. Without the collective openness of our class, it wouldn’t have been the same. Thank you for making me laugh and smile multiple times a day and for being there when I needed you. Can we please please have a reunion asap because I already miss you all SO much!! I hate not being in the same classroom with you all ahh.

Anyways…I could really go on forever about how grateful I am to all of you.

I hope you all had wonderful and happy breaks! . WOPILA to each and every one of you (this joke will never end will it?).

Post-Thanksgiving Post

Caitlyn — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 21:59:01 +0000

I hope you all had a wonderfully full thanksgiving whether you were at home or found home elsewhere in the world. So many beautiful words of gratitude and closure have been offered over the past few days but I’d like to give just one more shout out to you guys and this class. It takes me a long time to really get into it with people – to get to know them and let them know me. I wish I had more time with you all in my lives every day because I really did get the best vibes from each and every one of you. So much unconditional support and love and hugs and good things, it’s unbelievable. As for the class, I still don’t know exactly where this experience has taken me. It took me out of my element, deepened my understanding, and expanded my perspective. During ceremony I took part in a spiritual element that was completely foreign. I felt rapture, mind-boggled by the unexplainable, and suffered through intensely personal moments that pushed me to the other side of…something in myself. One thing I know for sure is that these feelings won’t be leaving me any time soon and you all will be in my heart for a long, long time.

Peace & Love.

I want to thank each and every one of you

s_seiniger — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 06:52:08 +0000

I know all the posts are now sappy closing posts, and since I’m no great writer I won’t bother trying to make this post stand out. I just want to express how deeply I appreciate everything that each person brought to this class, and the experience it helped create. I often fear that I come off as ungrateful. Short gratitude prayers in ceremony, cynical criticisms of the class, yelling at Reed and Harrison and a tendency to let my appreciation go unsaid. But the time has come for me to come clean – I loved this class and everyone in it. Every ceremony I could see during I started by looking at each person present and finding one thing I was grateful for about them. You all made that easy, and I discovered new things I appreciated every day. It was beautiful the ways in which we opened up to each other, it is all to uncommon at CC to make relationships like these so quickly.

It is wonderful being home with my family and feeling like I have been preparing for Thanksgiving for the last month. I will be thinking off all of you and of every day of our class tomorrow, until I pass out from gorging myself or happiness. Have a wonderful break and I’ll see you all soon!

Sam

d_scott — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 02:15:10 +0000

The End Has Finally Come. 2012!

I said goodbye to the class last night after a Wopila ceremony with Selinda, a feast at Bruce’s house, and a party at my house. I have never in my four years experienced a class like this. As I stood behind the bar watching everyone belting “Bohemian Rapsody” I realized that these were some of the most special people I have met at the CC College. The vast amount of support that I gave and received during this class is something beyond special. I have shared things with this class that not even my best friends know. Never before have I been able to discuss my spirituality in such an accepting community.

The last night of sweat at Pine Ridge really put me into a slump. I realized a lot about myself that night and I got very depressed and felt empty inside because I wasn’t pleased with what I learned. Normally my method of dealing with these slumps is to lock myself up in my room for days while my substance intake increases, not the healthiest way of dealing with issues. But for the first time I talked about my feelings, I let a lot of things go and got a lot off my chest. People were constantly coming up to me and making sure I was doing okay and asked if I wanted to talk. I have never been able to get out of these slumps easily, but by the end of the night I was the happiest I had ever been at Pine Ridge and I still had everyone around me laughing, massaging, and joking around.

I just want to say one last thanks to everyone who has partaken in this adventure. It was an honor to get to know some of you and I will never forget the times we had. I require a class reunion at some point this year. Thank you all, Wopila.

D signing out.

z_santos — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 19:06:25 +0000

“Though I may travel far I will meet only what I carry with me,

for every man is a mirror.

We see only ourselves reflected in those around us.

Their attitudes and actions are reflections of our own.

The whole world and its conditions has its counterpart within us all.

Turn the gaze inward…

correct yourself and your world will change”.

-Kristin Zambucka

I thank every individual in this class for giving me this amazing opportunity to really turn my gaze inward. This class has given a new meaning to what I consider an inward gaze. It is no longer isolated to meditation sessions but, to some extent, has becomes part of my daily routine, observing and learning at all times.

I thank you Bruce for understanding the importance of this inward gaze and granting us the chance to take some time to look within.

Reflecting on this block I have nothing but praise.

It has truly shown my why I am here, learning at CC. This hands on style of learning, allowed us to engage closely with the material and develop intimate relationships with classmates, and for this I am very grateful. Throughout the class I felt encouraged to follow my interests and I was able to pursue projects that I felt very passionate about. The class provided a strong framework in which we were given creative freedom that helped my learning process in various ways. For me, our final project beautifully summed up my experience in this class. Despite, initially having different visions for how this project would turn out, the music and poems naturally weaved it into a collaborative piece that gave the four of us the chance to share our experiences. What ended up being shared was a blend of our own original poetry, lyrics, as well as the poetry and quotes of Native American poets and scholars.

In the poems and songs we shared there seemed to be a pervasive understanding of the interrelatedness of humans and the rest of the natural world. After performing our ritual, presentation, I strongly felt this sense of connectedness with the rest of the class and the amazing individuals that guided our way up at Pine Ridge. Thank you all!

I was asked to post my song that we performed during the ritual, so here it is:

Blue Flame

Mitakuye Oyasin

One more post…

l_schneider — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 17:48:20 +0000

I didn’t think I was going to write a third post. But I have to share my deep gratitude. I woke up this morning, feeling a sense of loneliness, leaving my newfound family. Along with the loneliness, though, I am excited to see where you all go and what you accomplish. Thanks to each and every one of you for picking me up when I felt down, supporting me, and holding me when I needed to be held.

I had a spiritual coincidence just now. I opened my backpack to go through old papers.. really old papers. I haven’t gone through my cluttered disgusting backpack since the beginning of the year. I was too afraid to stick my hand in the bottom to see what I would pull out. But today, I was drawn to. I found a lined page folded in three. Shit, I swear I gave my gratitude letter to Celinda. How had it made it in my backpack? I could tell it was newly placed in there because it was still perfectly folded.

I opened it: “Dear Lauren”

Someone wrote me a gratitude letter. Anonymously. And I know this won’t take you by surprise, but it made me cry. Tears of happiness. And gratitude. And love. And warmth. Thank you so much to whoever wrote that beautiful letter. I will cherish it forever.

What a Great Journey…

h_rosenfeld — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 03:18:25 +0000

Completing and performing the final project was a perfect ending to a perfect class. The rigorous religious discussion, trip of a life time to Pine Ridge, Bruce, and the people of the class all combined to form an experience I won’t ever forget. The final project, especially the process of putting it together, will definitely be one of my many great memories from the class. Zoe, Mark, and I met up at Reed’s house where a ton of supplies were waiting for us to help our group complete our project (shout out and a thanks to Reed and his roommates). For me, there was a drum to play music, of course a book to share stories in, and WiFi for about everything else I would need. We listened and played music (Zoe playing tons of great jams in the background as Reed would follow soon after joined by Mark then my drum), talked, and enjoyed hanging out, all the while working on our book. We passed the book around to each other, each adding in personal poetry, Lakota and other poetry, antidotes, and general “words of wisdom.” I really enjoyed reading the poetry, especially poetry pertaining to Lakota spirituality because I could relate to it in so many ways after many of our experiences at Pine Ridge. One Lakota poem translated by Yellow Lark talks about a desire to find the secrets “Great Spirit” has left for us humans in nature. This connection and balance that humans share with nature became very clear to me after our experience with the Lakota. Praying and participating in a Pipe ceremony on top of Bear Butte, one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, has became a religious experience that still resonates with me today. The connection I felt with my classmates around the circle, the spirit of nature, and with God engulfed me on top of Bear Butte. There’s a special spirit in that hill, just as there are many spirits throughout nature that can be felt all around us. Having the opportunity to reflect on my personal spirituality while putting together what is essentially a book of wisdom (minus my poems) with three friends from class has became another experience along this journey I wont ever forget. Aho

Building the sweat lodge continued…

r_prior — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 08:18:23 +0000

Along with Ellen and Courtney’s posts I wanted to talk about my feeling on building the sweat lodge in silence. I wanted to touch on the end result of the sweat lodge when we had to build it in silence. When people are able to talk and discuss when building, sometimes a group member tries to take control or have it be their way. In our case we would follow each other’s leads when we did something beneficial to building the structure. Our end result was a very natural looking and feeling sweat lodge. All three of us that built it were very proud even though the base was a little oval. I am sure with communication we could have made it more circular, but that is not what matters. What makes sweat lodges feel more sacred and be more sacred is building them right and following the tradition of how they are built. For us to mimic this in silence meant so much more to me then making it a perfect circle.

A Season Of Giving Thanks

a_minuth — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 07:49:13 +0000

It seems to me that every year when thanksgiving rolls around I can’t help but notice minute details in life that fill me with an overwhelming sense of thankfulness. Reflecting on the past few weeks of class there are more than a few occasions that have grabbed my attention as events I should be thankful for.

To start, I’m thankful for the opportunity to be in this class, learning about indigenous traditions and reflecting upon my own indigenous culture. I’ve always taken living in Hawaii and having the opportunity to be immersed in Hawaiian culture for granted. I simply considered my traditions a way of life, nothing special. Through class discussions I have learned that the majority of us have not grown up in a culture that combines the western way of life with that of a native tradition. For me, this combination is what brought me the closest to God. I used hula as a way to pray in the Christian tradition. With this connection to God, I found myself encountering many miracles and have been blessed with so much more than I could ever ask for. Witnessing first hand the standard of living on the Lakota reservation made me feel extremely grateful for the lifestyle I was brought up in. Not only this, seeing how open the Lakota people were to sharing with us the aspects of their life most precious to them was so heartwarming. Their hospitality and sharing of their culture led to some amazing final projects for the course. Although I missed the first two as a result of being ill, the ones I saw really hit home. For one, the aspect of combining many different people’s stories to create something bigger was inspiring. It was touching to see how friends and family took the time to share their stories with my classmates; of which, I’m extremely grateful for. Not only did they share personal accounts of spirituality in their own life, they opened a door for us to realize that we all have had some sort of spiritual encounter or coincidence. I am thankful for the hard work my classmates put into their final projects to share all that they have learned over this course. Most of all I am grateful for the time of reflection I’ve had through reading and listening to discussions. This group of people that make up our class is truly incredible and I am so lucky to be a part of it.

As we all depart for thanksgiving I think it’s important to keep in mind all that we have learned over the course of this block and find a way to share our experience with our family. Whether it be discussing how well our class has bonded in such a short period of time or trying to explain our experiences in Pine Ridge. Ultimately we all should be thanking our parents and family for allowing us to attend Colorado College and experience all these amazing opportunities. None of us would be where we are today without the love and support of our family and friends. Let’s not let them forget that.

The Special Dead Horse

e_naranjosturzenegge — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 07:29:28 +0000

I hate to be that kid, you know, the one who kicks the dead horse, but in this class I’ve found that I really can’t help it.

Look at us. Look at our experience, at our project, at what has become of our class – doesn’t it reflect the very thing we have been debating since the first day? We have been trying to define what sacred is, what makes something sacred. Maybe in our case if we changed the word from sacred to special it would be easier to see what I am trying to get at.

Did we make this class special out of nothing or was it special to begin with and we just rode in its wake? I’m sure you could argue both sides, but when it comes down to it, the experience we had was propelled by the people in the class, unique as its structure was.

We could have gone into Sweat Lodge thinking that it was just a sauna with music, or snickered under our breaths at the mysteries of Yuwipi, covering our fear with a undeniable logic that would have separated us from our experience. Instead we jumped in to every ceremony and interaction with the Lakota as if being there was the most normal, most natural thing in the world.

Today we talked about how all of our decisions and all the small, seemingly insignificant things that happen in our lives, can have rippling waves that reach farther into our lives and the lives of others than we ever thought imaginable.

I’d like to think that every person who is in this class was meant to be in this class for one reason or another. We have all influenced each other just as was necessary, as was needed – who knows how your words will influence and shape the future lives of some of your classmates?

Now, this is where the dead horse really gets a beating. Are you ready? Hold your breath, because it’s coming. Just know that I mean it from my heart.

…Mitakuye Oyasin

(to all my relations/all things are related)