1,200 Year Old Tibetan Prophecy Shared With Hopi People

MAY THE CREATOR LIGHT YOUR WAY THIS HOLIDAY SEASON AND THROUGHOUT THE YEAR.
– Your Friends at NAPT

War Chief Requests Prayers For Preservation of Hopi Traditional Ways
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent

CHINO VALLEY, Ariz. – About 1,200 years ago a great Tibetan master called Guru Rinpoche made a prophecy. He wrote an inscription and hid it in the rocks. It was found just recently. The prophecy said, “Later, when the iron bird flies, then the red-robed ones will go to the red rocks and meet with the tradition there and unite again.”

Surrounded by prayer flags which send out blessings for all beings every time the wind blows, this prophecy was shared  with Hopi Snake Priest and War Chief Radford Quamahongnewa at Garchen Buddhist Institute following a meeting with His Eminence Garchen Rinpoche, founder and spiritual director.

Some say Hopi and Tibet are connected, and that if you stick a pin through a globe where Hopi is located, on the other side you will find Tibet. Because of their connection, Quamahongnewa traveled to the monastery on behalf of the Village of Shungopovi Kikmongwi Lee Wayne Lomayestewa to request prayers and support for the Hopi people from Rinpoche and His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Quamahongnewa, spokesman for the Kikmongwi, said the Hopi traditional way of life is threatened by a revised constitution which separates church and state. The Hopi people will vote on the constitution Jan. 27 in an election set up by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Rinpoche, a Drikung Kagyu lama, at the age of 22 was imprisoned for 20 years during the political turmoil of China’s Cultural Revolution. Since his release from prison in 1979, he has made great effort to rebuild the Drikung Kagyu monasteries, reestablish the Buddhist teachings, and build two boarding schools for local children in eastern Tibet. He is known for his vast realization, as well as for his great kindness.

During the hour-long meeting, Quamahongnewa presented Rinpoche with a prayer feather. “This is a new breath for him to continue leading the good, well life,” Quamahongnewa said. Through his translator, Ina Bieler of Austria, Rinpoche said that in the Tibetan tradition, the prayer feather is considered very precious.

Quamahongnewa then delivered his message from Kikmongwi Lomayestewa. “We have come here because of a situation that the Hopi is having currently. It is similar to what the Tibetans have gone through – turmoil, greed, disrespect, not respecting the elders and their religious people on Hopi.

“We have a covenant. I’m pretty sure Rinpoche has a similar covenant that we have made with our Great Spirit. That’s what we are living by. We have a religion, we have a belief, and we have a balance in our lives as close to nature as possible. That is now diminishing as well. We are losing our grounds. Along with that, our religious activities are diminishing, too,” he said, due to greed and those hungry for power.

Quamahongnewa explained that the Hopi have two systems of governance, the tribal government which is duplicative of the U.S. government, and then the Hopi’s own traditional government and the traditional way of life. “The tribal government is dominant. We have a constitution that was developed back in 1934. There was a lot of work put into it and it was almost following our traditional way of government, but now that is going to be changed.”

If the new constitution is approved, he said, “Our highest priests would have no authority whatsoever among its people, among its village, among its land. It’s going to desecrate the whole religious function of the Hopi because everything is tied to our government. The Hopi way of life is intertwined with common living. We don’t have such a thing as separate religion and government. It’s all put together and it’s been like that since time immemorial.”

On behalf of the Kikmongwi he asked Rinpoche for his support through prayers and a message to the Hopi people, or even the world. “We don’t want this change to happen because it’s going to destroy our way of life,” Quamahongnewa said.

Rinpoche said there are many relations between Hopi and Tibetan traditions, but in this world there are mainly two traditions: the mundane worldly systems and the religious systems. “We are witnessing some changes in many of the religious systems and also the worldly systems as the science develops and so on. But from our perspective, what we consider most important is not the external development but the internal development of the mind.”

Like Hopi, he said, in Tibet they have experienced a similar fate. “The Tibetan religion has been expelled from Tibet so we had to experience a lot of change. … Everything has been taken from us. Our monasteries have been destroyed. But, still, our tradition, our belief system has not disappeared.

“You cannot hold on to outer circumstances. This is what we have learned in Tibet,” Rinpoche said. “We had to let go of our place. We could not hold on to it. Even though we tried to keep our freedom, we could not keep the external freedom of the country. But we did not lose the inner freedom of the mind.”

What it boils down to is trust in the dependent relation of karma cause and effect. “If the cause in the mind and the heart is love, then everything will become peaceful in this world,” Rinpoche said, explaining that the mind is connected to five elements. When the mind gives rise to negative emotions, then this disturbs the external elements. If the mind gives rise to love, then this will bring about peace and balance of the external elements.

“We must make some effort to go hand in hand with external traditions, but then we cannot really hold on because everything takes its natural course. Due to the afflictive emotions, the negative emotions of many beings, the external elements have been disturbed and we have witnessed many disasters in this world,” he said.

“There’s nothing that we can voluntarily do about that but cultivate the opposite of that to influence the elements in a positive way, or to cultivate love. … Wherever there is aversion, wherever there is anger, it will disturb the environment, the elements and everyone around, and there will be great ruin from that.”

At Rinpoche’s request, Bieler read a passage from a 20-page booklet, “The Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas.”

“Everything we believe in is in there, especially this one verse,” he said. “It says, ‘If outer foes are destroyed while not subduing the enemy of one’s own hatred, enemies will only increase. Therefore, subduing one’s own mind with the army of love and compassion is the bodhisattvas’ practice.’

“Therefore, we say it is not so much important what we experience externally, but what we cultivate internally that will determine the external in the future, in the long run. Therefore, all that we hold on to is a mind of love and compassion.”

Rinpoche said there are many people in this world who hold corrupt views and engage in negative activity. While they can take some temporary advantage, even take away one’s physical freedom, what they cannot eliminate, even if they try, is love.

“As long as we have love in our heart, even if we experience some temporary difficulty, ultimately we cannot be destroyed,” he told Quamahongnewa. “I will make many prayers for you. I believe a lot in prayers. I think prayers are very powerful. When you make prayers, it is powerful because it is made with love, and all happiness comes from love. This is where the power comes from.”

Rinpoche gave Quamahongnewa “blessing pills” made from a very precious substance thousands of years old, which can be burned in a smoke offering. He also used the blessing pills and juniper to make a smoke offering for Hopi.

“We make this offering every day. We think that if we make this offering to others in this way, then all of our aspirations and work will be accomplished,” he said.

TO SUBMIT an ARTICLE, OPINION PIECE, COMMENTS to the Native Unity Digest, e-mail [email protected].

NATIVE UNITY – A place for Native American Peoples to solidify their tribes to make a positive impact on the cultural, social, economic and political fabric of American society and a place for non-Natives to better understand the ways of the American Indian.

Native Unity Digest stories are now appearing on the BeforeIt’sNews.com site under the Native American News category. Check them out!!!!

News Blog – American Indian Report – AIR BLOG
falmouth-air.blogspot.com

THE BUFFALO POST – Missoulian Montana’s Native News Blog about Native People And The World We Live In.
buffalopost.net/

NATIVE AMERICA, DISCOVERED AND CONQUERED
lawlib.lclark.edu/blog/native_america/

NATIVE VOICES BOOKS: TRADITIONAL & CONTEMPORARY NATIVE BOOKS
nativevoicesbooks.com/

PATHOLOGY.ORG – Up-to-date informmational database on general health and disease information, medical schools and medical resources.
www.Pathology.org

FOR ANNIE’S NATIVE CELEBRITY NEWS – go to www.nativecelebs.com

SUPPORTING NATIVE AMERICAN/FIRST PEOPLE – ARTISTS, FILM MAKERS, ENTERTAINERS, ETC.
www.krystynmedia.blogspot.com.

Read more at Native Unity Digest