Exclusive Interview with Robert Greygrass aka Dr. Mittelwerk (2006 TLE)

[truffula]

Robert Greygrass, Native American actor, storyteller, playwright, activist, we know him as Dr. Thomas Werner Mittelwerk - and our own snakey was able to get an exclusive short interview with him (in two parts).
You can find out more about Robert at his website - http://www.greygrass.org/

PART ONE
Q - Did you ever watch the show Lost before you were hired?
A - I watched the show a few times...I was intrigued but not enough to get hooked. Now that I have the story and inside info I am hooked. One of my sons and his lady love the show.

Q - What type of background info were you given on the character and the Hanso Foundation?
A - pretty much what you and I already know, the writers and I had some talks as rehearsal but pretty much what we know.

Q - Were you ever asked to cut your hair? I think it gave 'The Doc' depth in that he wasn?t a one dimensional evil caricature, he had ideals and was trying to save the world in his own albeit twisted way. Not to mention it gave him one more nickname of 'Pony Tail'.
A - My hair is loved by the writers, they consider the Dr. a rogue/maverick, so it adds a nice dimension. It is my hair. I am Lakota and have lived a pretty traditional lifestyle over the last 25 years.. my sons say it is the guiness record for longest mullet...and I need a pitchfork and camaro.........

Q - As an artist who tries to better the world, what were your feelings towards Mittlewerk's methods to seemingly do the same? Is he your evil twin?
A - not an evil twin...but easily understood by me...not necessarily liked and agreed with, but he is, in his twisted own way acting in compassion.

Q - Did you know that your nemesis, Rachel Blake, would turn out to be Alvar Hanso's daughter from the beginning?
A - Rachel Blake......no comment.


(Part Two coming soon)

[blondiejam]

just need to say that is amazingly cool that snakey scored an interview with Robert Greygrass, aka Mittlewerk!!!!!


:worshippy to snakey!!!!

[RoseArienh]

Wow, Snakey!!! Great questions! :worshippy

[LPU]

Good one snakey!

[foxxie]

Go Snakey! You got your man! ;)

[snakey]

Foz, you bad girl. I hope he has the time to finish it, the interview that is, not the virus spreading thingee.

[foxxie]

Foz, you bad girl. I hope he has the time to finish it, the interview not spreading the virus.


LOL!

Wha? Bad? me? Nevah? :innocent:

I hope he has time too!

[Maestra]

snakey, nice job with the interview questions! :clap: :clap:

Robert, if you're checking in, thanks for taking the time to speak with the fans! :) The Lost Experience kept me involved with the LOST story all summer. I especially loved the revealing Sri Lanka video. I hope it's a compliment to you to say that Dr. Mittelwerk frightened (frightens?) me. Your last warning to us all on TheHansoFoundation website gave me chills. Nice work! :clap: :clap: :clap:

[~G~]

Snakey!! WOW!! YOU RAWK! Nice one!!

[Richardstone]

I love how he has "No Comment" on Rachel Blake, was in he character then snakey?

:D

[DharmaChick]

If you stop by to read this, Robert:

Thank you so much for your work as our beloved villain in TLE and thanks for taking the time for this interview!!
I'm sure that I speak for us all when I say that I can't wait to read more.
You were an excellent Dr. Mittlewerk, and I hope that you will be involved in any future installments of TLE.

Thanks again for the interview, and I hope that we get to hear (read) more from you soon!

-DC

[Skirtz]

wow - all I can say is Mittlewerk the Native American is so much less creepy than Mittlewerk the Mad DHARMA scientist! Great interview - looking forward to part two!
:Cheers:

[snakey]

Robert is very happy to have fan feedback here is what he has recently wrote, if you are in the LA area you can see him tonite too, if you do, set the vcr!
HEy back to it.
So....I have gotten some feed back a few others have found my website and sent me notes, remarking that I brought a believable depth to the Doc. and there is one guy here in LA who is going to attend my live performance of Walking on Turtle Island my first orginal one man play, at Cal State University, in Pasedena. show time at 7. Perfomrance is in King hall? in the black box theater there will be announcements and posters on the campus.
Or contact Rocio Vargas atteoxihuitlstar@yahoo.com
I have not been recognized..but I was sitting in a restaraunt in Ashland Oregon and two men were sitting at a table nearby, one was going on and on about how he is addicted to the show...I smiled.....
I have no idea if this is the end of the Doc. I only know we wrapped with the final voice over.
On my horizon..always storytelling and perfoming my one man shows. In May I was a featured storyteller at the Bay Area Storytelling Festival held at Kennedy Grove regional park.This is the premier festival on the west coast, I was honored and priveledged to share the stage with the likes of Ben Haggerty, Sarah Salter, Andy Offut Irwin, Kiniko Yamamoto, Alton Chung, and others. I have been invited to Britain for April 2007 festival by Ben Haggerty.
I continue to audition and seek work in Hollywood, writing, acting and helping to serve creation where I can.
I am including some of my newsletters from last spring, enjoy and forward around.

February 22, 2006
Hello my relatives as the sun moves toward us the light brings healing, the spring rains and the cleansing winds are beautiful, the sun came up and everything is perfect.

Living peace; Peace with earth, peace with ourselves, peace in our time, who is in charge any way?
Things could get better and should, any day now, any day now.
John Trudell

Living peace is the act of being in a gracious and thoughtful response to people and things. The peace movement sings and demonstrates, the people cry for peace, there is so much need for help. People are hungry, not only in the belly but in the mind and in the heart. Overweight bodies can barely keep their spirit inside. The spirit cries out for more and the body tries to feed it. But cheese burgers, soda pop, drugs and alcohol, cannot fill the emptiness of the heart and mind. There is a sickness of the mind that is keeping humans in danger.

My uncle taught me long ago to study on courage, fortitude, generosity and wisdom. To these I have added, humor, compassion, love. These are true and beautiful tenets to live by that will inspire us to peace. Many of our relatives are seeking peace and working toward peace on a political level, I think we need to always make distinctions between living peace and working for peace. Often times the work can lead us into the distraction of fighting back. Creating war with those who create war, is not the way to peace, It is sometimes easy to “go after the bad guys” we can justify it, but is it really just? Often our mind plays tricks on us, leading us to think we are helping the victims when in fact we are avenging the victims, by seeking punishment on the “perpetrators”.

There is a mentality that some live by; John Trudell said it in a poem;

“thinking of always war, thinking of always war”.

And when we look at the language and the ideas that permeate the mainstream society it is easy to see why thinking of always war is real; war on drugs, war on poverty, war on homelessness, war on terrorism, battle of the sexes, a mans home is his castle, a castle is for defense and staking claim to property.

We have also been taught an internal war, that I believe is a result of these generations of “thinking of always war”. Peace is living and loving in kindness and respect. Not victimization but, true balance of thought and physical self that creates room for clarity of thought and action.

Life is a journey from duality to unity, this is the real challenge we are experiencing, take a close, careful, and compassionate look at your self, and are your motivations coming out of fear and punishment?

This internal war we have been taught keeps us at odds. It seems that this insane way of genocidal war is only a few thousand years old. It seems the political world process, and decadent social morass we are in right now is just another example of that desperate spiritual hunger, and when we surrender (another war term) to that kind of thinking we can only win or lose, be right or be wrong.

Rhumi said; “Beyond right thinking and wrong thinking there is a field, I will meet you there.”

A spiritual way of being, actual practice of the four directions model of wholeness, the truths Jesus taught, fasting, and honest concern for others, leads us to the unity or, wholeness of self, living peace is being kind to ones’ self by being kind to others, daily practice of being in courage, fortitude, generosity, wisdom, humor, compassion, and love, stated simply they are affirmations in this process that is prayer.

The affirming of our higher self and the affirming of our place in life is the simple act of asking a blessing, or saying grace, an invocation, giving food to a homeless person, not acting out road rage, being patient with family, these are simple ways of stepping closer to unity, within ourselves and within the world. Simple affirmations of peace rebuild us into peace.

“Today I expect and welcome powerful, beautiful, abundant, loving things to happen for me and my family.”

March 7th, 2006

Hello my relatives, including those so distant in thoughts, culture, and attitudes, I am inspired to hone my sense of humor.

Spring equinox ah…smile, the sun comes toward us; the days get longer, equal day, equal night always seeking the balance.

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion,
If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

Dalai Lama

I hear my relatives cry out, “Hear me hear my thoughts, see me, recognize who I am, I am right, my god is the way, and my way is the way. “

All the great teachers have said the way is inside you. The wars and urgency toward war, seems to fill the airways, the thought ways, the money ways, the every ways. We are surrounded by and coerced into polarity, we are made to think that because one is alive one is less than, or not worthy of… Duality split mind, divide and conquer, separation of church and state, all this mental chatter in this trying time leads to a need to be right, and the “others” are wrong. And for some strange reason this right and wrong has become connected to “god” and spirituality. These are sad things to consider. I have heard many people say, in sadness and anger, that we cannot pray in school, or talk about “god” in school. This is an insecure, small and myopic observation.

There are people, everyday, in prayer in school. I see many athletes whisper a prayer before a game, students before a test, teachers when their patience is tested…I hear people say thank god, by the grace of god, god willing, and yes, godammit, whenever they need to.

There is so much more to god than a political icon of school or church or prayer. Everyday there are people talking publicly about god, offering prayers and meditation in a state of reverence toward something sacred. There are churches, synagogues, mosques, sweat lodges, temples, sacred circles, and countless other ways people can and do pray. What happens for us pitiful humans is this; some of us try to own god, and contain the idea of god into a system or an intellectual property, when this happens we lose sight of god. Put another way, my god is better than your god, mine is the one true way to god, this book or that book is the only way to “get to heaven.”

There is only one god, and heaven is a discussion to be had in future emails. My experience of god is the process of the universe, life, the vibration that is the song of the universe, and god is the essence of creation, the indefinable, intangible, perfect spark of life. When we stop to consider, really consider, what god is, there is no limit, even the word “god” falls far short of giving us direction, and in Lakota we say “wakan tanka sacred greatness”.

My perception is; god is not a god of war and/or existential being somehow separate from earth and all the life on her. God is earth, and the heavens, and all of life, plants, animals, weather, humans which includes the limitless, fertile, unending process of thinking, feeling, being, creating, living and dying, there is no judgment from this process toward us. God is the thriving of life, all of life is inspired to grow, and does.

Compassion is the basis of all morality.

Arthur Schopenhauer

We cannot have ownership of god; and, judgment of other people’s perception of god is not living in our higher self. And, the legalities of prayer, in or out of school, are a political distraction. We are living with the limited social parameters and judgments humans have put on god, and each other. Simply because people are not using the jargon and the terminology you use, does not mean they are not speaking about god, the journey toward wholeness, unity, fulfillment, enlightenment, has many paths, and there are many languages spoken here on earth.

When we allow for the diversity of our own likes and dislikes, and observe the incredible diversity of life all around us, isn’t it a simple step to appreciate that other people, and other cultures, hold a different view of “god” and that they too are praying and teaching in beautiful ways about “god”?

Ho mitakuye oyacin.
Visit www.greygrass.org

MY RELIGION CONSISTS OF THE HUMBLE ADMIRATION FOR THE ILLIMITABLE SPIRIT WHO REVEALS HIMSELF IN THE SLIGHT DETAILS WE ARE ABLE TO PERCIVE WITH OUR FRAIL AND FEEBLE MIND.

PeaceBigLove
Robert Greygrass
www.greygrass.org

[truffula]

:worshippy
That is so awesome, snakey!!! :D

What a great guy Robert is :)

[snakey]

what a difference a year makes, eh? Here's Robert Greygrass's (aka Doctor Mittelwerk, pronounce it like Javi does,lol) latest newletter, it's nice to hear he's busy-

Hello my relatives
The springtime moves gracefully into summer. There is a Lakota creation story of how the brothers who placed the four directions had conflicts and one way this is represented is through the changing of the seasons. The weather can be unpredictable and appear as if there are conflict winds, storms, droughts and cold.
Summer time…sundance season; hoka hey!

"The human voice is the organ of the soul."

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

This past week I was in Southern Oregon again and had great visits with my children and grandchildren, family and friends. The purpose that pulled me home again was to rename and rededicate a hilltop.
I have some friends that own some property on the east side of the Rogue Valley in the foothills of the cascades, on their property there is a peak that was called Squaw peak. A couple of years ago when I visited them they told me that name as they were giving me a tour of their home, I told them it is not a good word for Native people. Yes it comes from the eastern woodlands language and it is a real word, part of a phrase, but it has come to be a very degrading word toward women. They (the owners of the land) understood this when I told them and we decided to rename the peak. I suggested they name it Tao wy wee which means Morning Star, and is pronounced like it appears, after Aggie Pilgrim and her great grandmother; they are Takelma people. Aggie is a very busy and active elder in the region and literally through out the world, it seemed very appropriate to me, and many people agreed. That is the long story short.
We gathered at the home just below the peak on a beautiful sunny day, about 50 or so people showed up; and after much good visiting, joke telling and reuniting with old friends and some new, we went to the top in four wheel drives and a bus to the peak. Whistling Elk singers were on hand to bring blessing way through songs at the big drum. The words spoken that day by many people were inspiring and telling of the Indian people and how through many generations of living in and under the American/Christian/industrial way of life indigenous people have maintained our thinking and way of perceiving this mother earth and all of life on her.

Hey! Lean to hear my feeble voice.
At the center of the sacred hoop…
Hehaka sapa Black Elk

In Lakota we say hoye yayelo, I am sending a voice. This is so when we sing, when we pray and we talk. We are not to just fill the air with blather, we are also to guard our words so that we are loving and careful and respectful. When the name sq___ peak or sq____ anything is spoken it hurts; it is sending a voice, a voice that is charged with generations of negativity. Throughout the afternoon many speakers were called on to share some of their thoughts and experiences. We sat in the sun and the wind for the whole afternoon talking, listening and considering the beautiful gifts of being alive on this mother earth. We remembered elders who are now passed, and we talked about great teachings from our own vision quests and other ceremonial experiences. Such talks cause me to remember all of the universe is a song, a vibration and Dan led us in beautiful songs; songs of happiness and joy to connect with all the green breathers (plants), four leggeds (animals), clouds, creepy crawlies (insects), wing flappers, and unseen ones who live and visit that old peak. We spent that day to send a voice of beauty and inspiration to make a vibration of love and compassion for all women that they might not have to endure the ugliness and insult of such ignorance and disrespect that is in the S word.
At the end of the proceedings on the hill we all turned to face the peak and Aggie led us in shouting the name Tao wy wee five times, as five is the lucky number for her people. Someone mentioned we should do it 3 times, then some else said 7, I said if it is Lakota it is 4…then Aggie spoke, 5 it is. So we turned and sent a voice making good medicine for all of life, and making history for all the two leggeds to remember.

Everything you can imagine is real;
Pablo Picasso

It may seem a simple thing to send a voice; there are comedians, philosophers, leaders, poets, musicians, so many of us sending a voice that has content of spiritual nature and is a call for respect, for humor, for love for justice, for peace, for health, for happiness, sending a voice that is louder, and more sure and more clear and more eloquent than the voices of doom, fear, lack and despair.
I pray we are sending voices of love and strength to serve the creation and clear the way for the 7 generations behind us and in front of us.

Today I am grateful for and welcome the health happiness and perfect prosperity I and my family receive from the mother earth and the great mystery.
Thank you for listening to my rants, the circle of wellness grows inside us each day.
Hecetuwelo that is the way it is…



You have found your way to a wealth of knowledge; it takes a special dedicated person to seek your higher self.

[snakey]

I got this on the 14th, just reading it now, seems he is getting lots of work. He asks for our thoughts on a book he wrote, so if anyone has time to read this and can get back to him ,I know he'd appreciate it. I wonder if anyone in the UK went to see him from knowing him as the Doc?
Hello My Relatives,
February 14th 2008
Circle of Wellness Newsletter

Hello my relatives;
It has been a long long time since I have written a circle of wellness. I trust this finds you all in good health and happiness. I am still living in LA and continue to tour and perform live. My storytelling show was produced by St. Clair productions in Ashland Oregon on February 9th. We had a great turnout, and a lot of laughs.
My tour of England was very nearly perfect. The producer scheduled 34 shows in 31 towns in 39 days. We crisscrossed all over that island. I performed for sold out houses, and we broke records in many of the venues. The English people showed me great hospitality humor and I ate too much stodg food. I am going back to England in May this year for more storytelling.
There are always stories to tell. We have our stories each one of us. Oral tradition is alive. Think of all the time you have talked with great enthusiasms of something you saw or did or a place you traveled to. Think of the people in your family you talk about and talk to. We all have a story. Tell a good story. Keep the stories going. The traditional stories and the teaching stories guide us. Learn all you can about them.
I have been working on my first book. The book is nearly complete and I am seeking a publisher. It is titled “Extreme Spiritual Make over” or “You Gotta ask the Right Questions”. The book is fun and very serious. I hope to have it published and flying off the shelves by summer.
I sent a section of my book out in a Circle of Wellness© newsletter in October just before I went to England and heard nothing back……not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. For this edition of Circle of Wellness© newsletter I have include the forward from “Extreme Spiritual Makeover.”
It is a little long so take your time.
I would like to hear back from everyone as to your purchasing power. After you have read this newsletter there are some questions that would really help me in marketing. I am always networking and currently seeking publishers. I would like to have a conversation with you if you are published a publisher or if your favorite crazy uncle is a publisher I would like to speak with him too.
      

“Extreme Spiritual Make over” or
“You Gotta ask the Right Questions”.

Fourweird;
An alternative title I have for this book is:
A tangential and humorous discourse during the true spiritual growth of the American empire by one multi-ethnic mans’ experience and enlightenments through Native American teachings about living on mother earth; that have led to recovery, peace, humor and unlearning multigenerational dysfunctions, living as “other”, and not being reincarnated as a great NDN chief from a previous lifetime. Book One.

As I think about it, that little voice inside says hmmm, this is supposed to funny, enlightening, very serious business, and yet, life is full of not so funny things. But an extreme spiritual make over is sorta funny. Even though we modern pitiful humans are in a not so funny place in time; it might be that things are getting too complicated at this time on mother earth. Or maybe life, creation, arts, politics, and spiritual knowledge is just too hard for me to really understand, consequently I need to write a book about it to make sense to myself, maybe.
So through this book, I intend to inspire and provoke some not so new ideas and to further the collective human consciousness. That is a big order and I may be in over my head, but I will give it a go. Looking at some of the “leadership” in the world today I am nearly as qualified as the next and maybe more so than some.
Native American thought and ideas are largely left out of the mainstream and in general left out of the western cannon of great philosophy and literature; with only a cursory comment or reference here and there, and or the usual noble savage attitudes of how the poor Indians got screwed and can’t really be blamed as they are so innocent, and maybe in their savage innocence they contributed to their getting screwed. Anthropological and Hollywood thoughts that make you go hmmm.
I have been living the lakol wicohan (Lakota way of being) for most of my adult life; this has been of great inspiration and teaching to me. I am also a student of any and all great thinkers. Native American philosophical ways are reasonable and encourage an inclusive way of learning, synthesizing and then integrating any and all good truth into our lives.
It is my hope that as we (the human family) grows collectively in consciousness and education, all cultures and schools of thought will come to realize the power and inherent wisdom of the many great Native American philosophers and philosophies. And with that realization begin to draw on this ancient wisdom and imbue it into the collective world philosophy without getting lost in cosmic overload; “Cosmic overload” meaning that Indians are soooo spiritual as to be floating around in the universe bouncing from star to star to mountain top while flute music plays in the background, an eagle screeches from somewhere romantically distant, with buffalo and horses running across the open plains of our collective conscious. Native American people have to pay the bills, repair their cars, get along with grouchy neighbors, learn and grow in our own traditions and in general live in this time with everyone else on mother earth.

Indian traditions are grounded, practical, with a sense of humor spiritual ways of living.

The Lakol wicohan (Lakota way of being) is important to note here as this is how I live my life. I am mixed heritage-multiethnic-all-American-mutt, with just enough NDN blood to make me excited and proud. As a kid the only time there was mention of NDN blood in our house hold was when someone was being angry, losing their temper or drinking or going a little crazy (read violent, sad or dangerous here).
There are many beautiful ways of being NDN that most of my family had forgotten or never really knew about. As an adult I went on the personal journey of what does it mean to be NDN and have learned much and man! What a beautiful, scary, dangerous, funny, sometimes outta control ride.
If it don’t kill ya it’ll make ya tough, or; enlightened…maybe.
My own time “on the hill” (vision quest) and “in the arbor” (sundancing) has led me to people, places, and understandings that my early Christian-all-American-lower-middle-class-resentments could never fulfill. My journey was set in good motion many years ago by many elders and peers of knowledge and good character, and maybe some of questionable character. I was struggling to become clean and sober and the red road made that (my recovery) possible.
The chanku luta (red road) is what we refer to as living in ones own spiritual and cultural ways. This is a term of endearment for learning to walk with a moccasin in each world; meaning the NDN world and the Whiteman’s world; although today my hanpa’s, (moccasins) are multi-tasking like mad. It is called the Red Road not because of the Native American people’s use of English, well sort of. On a side note; Indians are called red men because of the red ochre paint the people on the east coast painted their body with when the Europeans first arrived, but that is not the reason either. It is Lakota mythology if you will; A Lakota elder explained that it is an expression of purity, and sacrifice.
In lakol wicohan mythology; red is the color to represent purity, not white. White is the mythology of the European peoples. Red represents blood, we know and have always known that blood purifies and carries all nutrition into the body and poisons (exhaust) out of the body, it also moves the life force around inside us. And when blood spills out it turns black. Black does not necessarily represent death or evil but the black road is not healthy. And in these modern times many Lakota teachers have been traveling, writing, talking and teaching too many people about what it means to live on the red road and many people have adopted that expression.
So this book is my interpretation of what I have been taught and have learned over the years. It is also full of ideas and maybe some terms that might be distant to you the reader, be patient with me, yourself and the journey. This book is not to help you become more NDN or even to understand the Native world, although there is some of that (understanding the Indian world) in the process of talking about my life through this book.
This book is designed to help inspire and teach people who are young on their spiritual journey. I have done my best to be iyeska, a bridge between the many worlds that live on Turtle Island today. As a man living on the red road I am clean and sober, I carry sacred things in the best way I can. Meaning the drums, songs, pipes, feathers, and medicine plants, and other such things in the instructions I was given.
I don’t profess to be so great in my own right (well maybe a little), but I will say that in Native culture we all contribute in some way to the collective ideas and the collective philosophy. And what I have written here is simply what I have learned in my life. I guess you could say it is plagiarism at its best. They say a true artist steals others work and makes it their own. I hope I have done that well here, giving honor and respect to all the teachers of my life.
That said; my style of writing here is much like the traditional style of speaking. When you listen to elders from the old ways of thinking they speak simple, circular with one idea leading to the next in a cascading stream of consciousness flow, and they speak loooooooong.
We are so blessed to have many traditional Native leaders and speakers…speaking; and when we listen, really listen we learn how to speak and how to follow ideas. Contemporary leaders that still reach into the DNA to speak in that eloquent oral traditional way that has always been the indigenous way of teaching, politicking, and other wise reporting the news. People like Janet McCloud, John Trudell, Matthew King, Wallace Black Elk, Thomas Banyaca and forgive me if I don’t list all the great leaders/statesmen and women of our time. And the countless others who are known or “celebrated” publicly, who, when asked a question or to speak on an idea, they will begin with that. Then let the idea unfold in their consciousness and follow those ideas in such a way they (the ideas) are connected all the way through, leading from one idea to the next and often making big leaps in the connection. You may find yourself listening for possibly hours and wonder how did we get here? And then at the end of the talk there will always be comments that tie it all together. I have heard this called circular, big talk or long talk. It is a traditional way of doing things.
I have remained alert in my life to collect condense and expand all the knowledge and wisdom I can. I draw from the red road and all the people who walk it with me. I draw from intense martial arts training and teachings. I draw from recovery community thoughts and didactics. I study plants and plant medicine, homeopathies, Chinese medicine, and other folk remedies; be they remedies of the body, the mind, the spirit, or the soul. I draw from academia and from all spiritual-religious-metaphysical-esoteric-scientific places, people and things that I have been privileged to experience.
The old saying of we walk with a moccasin in each world is true and it is no longer the two worlds of the red man and the white man, the worlds are many and varied and there is no need to burden myself by exclusion of one “way” or another. And, people have always traveled, whether here on Turtle Island or around the earth; always learning and experiencing from many differing peoples, including; cultural dances, foods, songs and speaking several languages. And now today because the world has condensed by way of the internet, travel and information we have even greater access to these traditional ways of thinking, sharing and growing knowledge.
Human life on our planet is in trouble and we need to be alert to the “medicine” and traditions that can help pull our fat out of the fire. We have seen so much subversion, lies and manipulation for about one thousand years by some big banker families, world leaders, and sociopath geniuses rising to power; that I have to ask, in real simple terms…. Are you “fed” up?
There is a saying in AA alcoholic anonymous, when you are sick and tired of being sick and tired you will change. And I think maybe the human species could take a good long, and very critical look at the sick and tired states brought on by kingdoms, institutional religions, military might as right, and all the cloak and dagger, slight of hand political shenanigans that have led us to the brink.
We need to retrieve our indigenous consciousness, we are all indigenous to mother earth and we are hurtling through space on her…together. We can reach into our DNA and shake it up to learn from the past, from the right now and from somewhere and something, the great mystery, of unlimited consciousness that is always there. There are lessons from all walks and all ways. And often when you find yourself in someone else’s land, or ceremonial practice it is courtesy to act in a respectful way toward their way. This can be challenging when the cultures and the philosophies collide.
It takes courage, creativity and confident, quiet surety to stand up for the way one walks and lives; and not be too rude in the process (read privileged and self centric here).
Don’t get me wrong when it comes to the ceremonies and the Lakota way of being, I am on that road and I don’t mix and match elements of this church and that new age thing. And I don’t compromise my knowledge of how I am to be with the sacred ways and the etiquette and propriety of the Lakol wicohan Red Road. I am saying we can learn and expand and allow each other to be who we are “walk the way we walk” and not lose our self in the process. Some might call this tolerance, I call it allowance. We can allow each other to be. It is rooted in spiritual confidence that is neither right nor wrong and yet I am confident, sure and know my spiritual nature and way of life. A simple look at our relatives on mother earth shows us this; that tree allows that frog, and the clouds allow that horse, and so on. The other relatives on mother earth don’t need to push their way on someone else. Only for food and not for genocide or might is right.
We have all received an allowance at some point in our lives. We had to do our chores, and get through each day and each week in a good way. I know my kids did as well. And at the end of the week the allowance would appear like magic. So we all have to do our chores (read spiritual-religious-boy/girl scout tenets here) and get through each day, and week in a good way, and the allowance (living on mother earth together) will appear like magic. This is a stretch but I thought there might be a joke in there.
This book is not a linear path of start to finish, so it doesn’t have chapters per se’. It is written in such a way that you can open to any section and read to gain some insight and inspiration for the day, or the week or your life. At the end of each section I have added some questions. Questions I have asked and questions I have heard others ask. You can read them and consider them maybe begin your own writings about them.
We are living in what is called the 7th generation. Some say it is measured by the generations from the era of genocide in America, some say it is a 7th in a cycle of 7 making it longer in time measurement. However you call it we are living in a time of great potential and huge expansion. People in our 50’s and 60’s are considered the 7th generation. We have a responsibility to understand ourselves, and the times we live in. Many of us were part of the 1960’s spiritual blast from the Great Mystery, and now we are the elders from that time. We all felt something and the social upheaval; politics, art, and chaos of that time were a response to the spiritual-religious-quantum-physics-great mystery-life-force release from the center of the universe. It was a wave of consciousness pulsing through the mother earth and particularly here on Turtle Island. We responded at the time through many groups, organizations and “movements” to recreate a better society. Including but not limited to; the AIM movement, the women’s’ movement, the black panthers, the environmental movement to name just a few. And some of the crazy, I mean crazy grasping at drugs, wild sex, and other such eccentricities, to find some kind of better way of living. We all heard the call. We watched it on TV for crisake. Many responded, some inhaled, some never exhaled and …many went back to sleep.
Now as elders from that era it is our sacred duty to respond to the current troubles with compassion, courage, fortitude, generosity, wisdom, humor, humility and persistence. These current troubles are huge and out of control. The families and businesses that control society and money (read the big investors, corporations, religious institutions and politicians all fighting for financial and military control) have lost touch with their own indigenousness. They have forgotten how to be on mother earth, and how to treat all of life with respect.
It is time for us to speak up and reach out and step up. I encourage (I am asking) people to write plays, poetry, books, make music, tell stories that are inspired to truth and uplifting the human potential.

Listen to the advice of Native American peoples, and other indigenous people from around the world, especially the grandmothers. There is a combined consciousness of ancient wisdom, science, current experience, and patience that is inherent in all earth based way of thinking.

Grow a garden, help the salmon, protect the buffalo, share food and shelter with people around the world, build green consciousness, protect the forests, be kind to each other, create and recreate health and help from all that your life has taught you, because we are all related.

Whew!!!thanks for reading the whole thing. now the hard part.
I value all of your opinoins and I look forward to hearing from you.
comments?
Please submit your comments to:

Robert@greygrass.org

D''White dog Productions LLC
PO Box 952
Ashland Oregon 97520
1409 N. Alexandria Ave.
Hollywood Ca 90027

[Iggy the Lizard]

I like it.


E-mails away!

[truffula]

Just got an email from Robert giving me a link to the trailer for his new tv miniseries/show called "Walking on Turtle Island" about native american indians. I'm sure snakey will like this....shirtless Mittelwerk. ;)

6VoGTPSzzdM

[Dew]

Intriguing!

[snakey]

Thanks Truff, I'm at work and cant view but when I get home... yeah baby!