The Indian of the Whole

Dear Friends,

This week I read an article in the New Yorker entitled The Last Member of an Uncontacted Tribe, about a native Amazonian man,the last remaining of his tribe,who lived alone in the wilderness for 26 years. The author wondered, what went through this man's mind as he lived his life in isolation, having survived the trauma of his tribe being exterminated, remaining the sole survivor? How did he cope with being a solitary social creature in the wilderness?

Psychologists hypothesized that perhaps, as studies have shown of people who've undergone extreme isolation, The Indian of the Hole, as he was referred to because of a unique yet consistent artifact of his life, was probably deeply religious. That through his religion, he didn't perceive himself as alone. Or maybe his imagination generated other people in his environment, as Tom Hanks' character created a trusted companion, Wilson, in the movie Cast Away (love the double entendre).

We comfort ourselves here—either way, this tribal person probably made up that he was not alone. But that ignores a possibility—that we are, in truth, never alone. And that fact doesn't have to do with religion or other machinations of mind. It is simply the truth: we are all aspects of consciousness and in that we are all held in consciousness, and we are always with each other in that consciousness.

This is not a new concept and is one anthropologist have come to understand through their long-term studies of indigenous peoples.It's not a hallucination. It's not a religious belief. Through movement and mindfulness/meditation practice,perhaps you, like me, have come to experience this truth first hand. Do I always feel this way? No. I have bouts of feeling desperately alone. Lonely.

But, when I tune in to some universal truths, that feeling dissolves like a mirage. There is a body-mind I call Myself. I rest upon and am supported by the earth, 24/7. This body-mind is nourished by the earth, by nature.I am breathing. Through my breathing I connect to heaven.Heaven is all around. It covers me. It cloaks and envelopes me. It enters, permeates and energizes me.

Everything in heaven and earth is conscious. Everything is a manifestation of Consciousness. I am. It is. There is no separation between I and It; only One; only This.

This reminds me of one of my all time favorite quotes, from Amma, the hugging saint, "The sun shines down, and its image is reflected in a thousand different pots filled with water.The reflections are many, but they are each reflecting the same sun.Similarly, when we come to know who we truly are, we will see ourselves in all people."

I'd make one change to that quote:I'd delete the last word. Also, in the title of this blog, I changed this man's name from

Indian of the Hole

to

Indian of the Whole.