Most native people have no word for spirituality. The reason is not that they have none. They most certainly do. The reason is that spirituality is so omnipresent and involved in everything that it is a given. One does not need to separate it out – – from anything – – because it exists everywhere, all the time . It is in the rocks, the earth, the wind, all beings and everything. It is the breath of life breathed in by the all that is and omnipresent. It is not figured out, taught or believed in. It is the is that is.

It is only humans that have convinced themselves that they are the highest order of creation and therefore the most “spiritual.” And, they can only think such things when they are not in touch with their spirituality and the spirituality of the all.

I remember reading not too long ago that scientists had “proven” that animals had feelings and could “think.” Thousands of dollars of US grant money had gone into a study scientifically to prove this “fact.” Of course, anyone who has had the privilege to live with (and “own”) and care for an animal already “knows” this. And, if one is really open, she/he knows that she/he has a great deal to learn about relationships, love, loyalty, problem-solving and many other important lessons from animals.

Native people the world over know that anything and everything is imbued with the spirit of the oneness.

We began to need religion as we intellectually, emotionally and spiritually separated from the deep understanding that we are part of the oneness and everything is spiritual. Humans, of course, are the worst offenders.

If we look back in history, we see that all the great “prophets” (that we recognize!) are men and the major people that have sought to operationalize their teachings have also been men. This fact, by necessity, means that the major religions of the world have been “filtered” through the male brain and the male thinking processes. At some ultimate level, this process is not necessarily “bad” or “good” it just “is.”

Our job, as human beings is to recognize the truth of what has evolved in order to help us understand the mess we are in as a species and as a planet. Within that understanding, are solutions that can help us evolve in more spiritual, healing and effective ways. This positive evolution can only happen if we are willing to step outside our warn-out assumptions and beliefs and, collectively give up some of our treasured illusions. We need to see ourselves and what we have created with new eyes as our founding “fathers” of this nation attempted to do and operationally failed rather miserably. Yet, the dreams with which they started were great!

• How typical it is of human beings to have a spark of the spiritual and then out of fear, lack of imagination, self-centeredness and the illusion of control try to reduce that spark to something less than it is.

• Hopefully we can learn along the way.

• The spirituality of the wholeness surrounds us all the time. We are the ones who reduce it to nothingness.

It seems that our hope in this area may reside in oppressed people whose brains have not become overdeveloped in testosterone and aggression.

There are many people on this planet whose wealth lies not in the material. These are people who, for some reason, have maintained an awareness that all is spiritual and all is connected. In them lies our hope.

• Religion is a construct developed mostly by the male of the species with little substantial input from the females and nature (the wholeness).