mystic-expressions

In our search for meaning and guidance for living our lives in more balanced ways, many of us turn to the wisdom of Native Americans. This beautiful Cherokee philosophy tells us about the purpose of life, our place in the sacred circle, and more.

Read this beautiful life philosophy here:

Native Americans believe that every life is a gift to be treated with gratitude and respect. What has been referred to as the Harmony Ethic guides much of Native American living. For the Cherokee this encompasses the conscious avoidance of interpersonal conflict in an attempt to maintain reciprocally harmonious relations with all members of the tribe.

The Harmony Ethic is a system based upon caring for fellow human beings through the expression of deep respect. This is the way to achieve harmonious survival. It also involves the presence of individual choice. To the Cherokee, a person has just as much choice in creating harmony as in creating disharmony.

Within Native American traditions, it is widely believed that every person has a purpose to fulfill during his or her lifetime. Every person, like every animal, tree, plant, and mineral, possesses some unique quality or talent to be discovered through a variety of experiences in this world. Harmony is the key to meaningful life experiences in which all learning contributes to overall life purpose. This purpose is manifested by a striving for the wisdom and generosity exemplified by the Native American elder who has accumulated a lifetime’s worth of experience in the world. Native American elders have learned the inner secrets to a harmonious existence and are the keepers of this wisdom.

Traditional wisdom tells us that it is our purpose to face the world with courage in our hearts. This courage signifies a deep respect for the gift that we have been given through the ability to live, as well as a respect for all life. Courage transcends any circumstance, and ultimately comes from a harmony within oneself and between oneself and one’s universe–an inner strength derived from the unity of body, mind, nature, and spirit. There is an old saying: All that moves is sacred–only by understanding this can you realize the rhythm of Mother Earth, and thereby know how to place your feet.

1. Creativity is not the making of something through a quality of the mind. It is a spontaneous movement of Spirit energy within the Soul, like the revolving of the Earth round the Sun which creates light and day.

2. Determination is the power that gives momentum to desire.

3. Everything that can be understood is already within us.

4. Follow your heart, for what you feel is nearer the truth than what you think.

5. Happiness is unattainable alone for it can only be shared.

6. Innocence is not that which is separate from moral wrong, for innocence is not divisive. An innocent child lives for the moment. The past is forgotten and the future does not exist. Only the moment has important. That is innocence.

7. Look to a Way, that is not a route to a destination bur rather the journey itself, for you cannot become what it is you aspire to unless you can be it where you are now.

8. To love Nature is to love your Real Self, for Nature itself is an expression of the essence of what you are.

9. Spirit is obscured when the Ego is allowed to get in the way.

10. You alone have the power to make something of yourself simply by choosing to do so.