Raymond Ruka

Connection – Disconnection

When you go outside and nothing is disturbed by your entry, the phrase I have been taught to use is, tetahi ki tetahi, which means: One with Another. I judge the degree of my connection by how disturbed or undisturbed wildlife reacts to my entry.

Some of the elderly women and men of our peaceful community, long since gone, were renowned for their being accepted by these natural, communal circles. Those Elders never ever walked into “those” circles to prove a point to us, their grandchildren/students, watching mesmerized. They were simply seeking the company of a living Nature to contemplate with.

My grannies would say, that upon entering those Natural Circles – “Instantly, in a heartbeat, the “effect” you carry will have been diligently scrutinized by the commonwealth of innocence that permeates a specific zone that is being constantly monitored by every living animal present at the highest level of instinctual consciousness, or, one could even call it, innocence. “

Not the youthful human, exuberant sort – The more ancient one, the one that we all instinctively rebel against because this is where we all start our war against authority. No matter who we are, this whispering voice inside us, our Conscience, is our first teacher! 

This teacher, to our sad regret, is each of our best forever-kept secrets and over a lifetime She has proven repeatedly, She never gets anything wrong or right! She is simply a mediator who walks the middle path. And allows you yourself to make the decision!

Should anything or anyone enter this Natural Circle carrying a lack of conscious awareness of this, tetahi ki tetahi neutrality, or even carrying an intentional purpose to orchestrate a negative, harmful “action” – Boom! Amid the fluttering and scampering, that particular zone will be vacated – No if’s or Buts!

However, on the other hand, if a straggler within that commonwealth should hesitate at a feeding station, on a branch, or even remain on the ground in that particular zone, it automatically becomes a breaker of the law, not a victim. This is a teaching for all, in their most Natural of States, you don’t get a growling from an upset parent or scolding telling you not to loiter. Nor will you get a slap on the wrist or get sent to prison by a judge for breaking this or any of the laws/lore. 

Instead – positively, no ifs, no buts, you die – instantly!

And yet, everything or everyone that abides by this ancient law does not have fear. They are dependent on their instinctual capacity to know what is “right for them, in each and every situation. In their world they will follow through without a moment’s hesitation with the utmost immediacy for their very life is dependent on their actions and reactions. 

Just imagine – living in a society that has such a fearlessly honed, razor-sharp, decision-making process. All the time, every time! That’s what living naturally looks like in action.

Humans don’t have the wherewithal or the level of revelation to live at such a capacity of brutal REACTIVE honesty anymore. In fact, Humans have the intellectual capacity to improve on it, which they have. Sadly, they train their elite soldiers to react under pressure to what instinctively we ALL have latent within all of us, but have, in our own evolutionary process, lost and left behind as, “good riddance to that savage stuff, because we’re more civilized, and not only that, but I’m also a greenie now!

These actions, reactions, and interactions are not based on fear, rather they live in a space of time of what our indigenous families would, in one way or another, define as originality or more “succinctly,” a state of “realized being” that is beyond the civilized human component within us to comprehend, yet lies latently potent inside each and every one of our untamed psyches. That aspect within us that gives us that capacity to access our most intimate yearnings, even our most lethal and deadly.

Sadly, our emotions are left to fend for themselves, and we leave destruction in our wake, for our main go-to tool, is forever, reliable pretense and we screw it up again and again.

We yearn for a quiet time out. For someone or something to switch off the inner and outer noise for a moment’s respite. In certain moments of despair to be able to simply close our eyes and be engulfed by the quiet

That is why we humans enjoy it when we are given an opportunity to, at some time in our day or life, be given the right set of circumstances or stimuli to seek a “time out” in the space of quiet. But alas – too often we hesitate, overcome by perceived guilt of not being strong enough, and push on through – disregarding our feelings. That’s our “human” hawk attacking the straggler within!

In our “original” 1st language before it was extended to incorporate words of English we didn’t have dis this or dis that, so in this instance, there was only a connection because we too understood the absolute necessity of not breaking the natural lore and to absolutely follow the natural instinctive “voice” within, that warns us of an imminent danger unfolding.

As a teacher, I talk in metaphor so that students get the message, “Leave the mountain and like the straggler, be very careful of the hawk because, in metaphoric terms, the hawk and his/her ilk are first and foremost, conservators of energy and therefore they watch exclusively for the stragglers, not those obeying the LORE of the ancients. All stragglers have one thing in common – they either disobey or they hesitate.

A moment of disobedience or hesitation on the part of one in the natural world is for someone else a golden opportunity. 

Just ask Hawk why…!