Cornerstones of wisdom: the four-fold way: Angeles Arrien at TEDxFiDiWomen

[Music] good afternoon it's my honor and privilege to be here and and I'm the old dog so one of the things is so important for us all to remember one of the reasons that I wanted to come here and to be here is to celebrate the mystery of life's journey and the unexpected unfoldment of a life and I've had the Holi privilege literally of being able being raised by culturally and coming from an immigrant family from the mountains the Pyrenees Mountains in Spain and my father getting his American citizenship when I was 14 years old and so I came into my early 20s literally in a country that had six movements have happening simultaneously when I was a twenty-one which was in 1963 and the civil rights movement the humanistic movement the environmental movement the Interfaith movement the humanistic psychology movement and the feminist movement were all happening in grand convergence and confluence with one another and it was also a wonderful time now that some fifty years later that those there's such an influence in the world those movements no longer being singular but bridging and converging together and five years ago I was struck by having a whole life journey of literally working internationally for almost 50 years and being privileged to really work with indigenous wisdoms worldwide and conserving and preserving literally the ancient wisdom that's often land-based and that we're in a world right now that's somewhat divided in that half of the world we have human beings working and living on to $2 a day and we have the other half of the world which we call the postmodern world and we're poised at a wonderful time in history where the inter generations can come together and that we can spread more equity equity and equality into the world and so five years ago I became very stunned by a horrific a statistic that the United States holes and that statistic was that the United States has the highest suicide rate between its youth and its elders than any other culture in the world and so I thought well why would that be just from a cross cultural point of view and being a cultural anthropologist and really looking at all of the cultures of the world and focusing on what do we you universally have in common as human beings and we happen to be not only the youngest country in the world but also the most ageist country in the world and that we divide and learn in age groups rather than and segregate out and so we do not in many ways call on the incredible creativity and vision and life force of our youth for problem-solving and we do not call on the experience and wisdom of our elders and just in the last 10 years we've been beginning to build those intergenerational bridges because every other culture of the world is is in a a more intergenerational sharing together and so I began taking a look at at cross culturally what are the things that we share whether were youth which from a global perspective youth is from the ages of 1 to 35 from a global perspective and that midlife from a global perspective is from 35 to 50 and then we have the decade of the 50s which often is the decade that's called the integrative decade of integrating the best of youth and the best of midlife and preparing for quote the wisdom years which begin in the decade of our 60s in the 60s we happen to be that's the youth of our wisdom years our 70s are the midlife of our wisdom ears but eighty to a hundred is where we really come into our wisdom years or in our elder hood and so it's also that regardless of what generation were in that every decade of our life there are are there's a gift of that decade there's also the challenge of that decade of our life and there's also an important stranger in that decade as well and the four great mysteries that every culture of the world ritualize --is it is not a culture in the world that does not ritualize burr earth there's not a culture in the world that does not ritualize initiative processes there's not a culture in the world that does not ritualize marriage or committed love there's not a culture in the world that doesn't ritualize deaths and death and births hold the ends of a the aluminous pause that's called our life's journey where every person has a call and goes into the next phase which is the search and after the search goes into a struggle and after the struggle goes through the breakthrough and then after the breakthrough is the return and we keep recycling through the call the search the struggle the break through and and the return and while we're doing this we have from the time that we were born we have standing on our left a great companion that from our cradle to our coffin is on our left and another companion on our right whether we're male or female that's standing on our right and is a companion from birth to death as well and on our left is our companion called death and death asks us a question every single day are you using the great gift of life well are you using the great gift of life well and our companion on our right is asking us another question at every age are you doing what you've come here to do are you doing what you've come here to do and that companion is called destiny destiny is with us and destiny does not mean fate at its destination it's a companion on our journey as we heed the call and move through the search and the struggle and the breakthrough and the earn and continue that cycle through the four great mysteries of births and initiation and marriage and committed love and death and the human species is here for two purposes one to learn about love and to express love and the other is to create and to serve and to contribute and I love that and working with indigenous peoples of the world worldwide especially the Native Americans of this continent and of South America they have a wonderful phrase that says we're all original medicine and I pondered that for a long time thinking about what really was original medicine and what's original medicine is when we think about even with identical twins that every human being on this planet and I think this is such an awesome fact that every human being on this planet we're whether they're identical twins or triplets has a unique imprint a fingerprint every human being if you would put our voices on a sonogram at this time and in this moment every voice here would have its own original pattern and sonic even with identical twins or triplets worldwide and also opthamologist or I doctors have long been interested that even with identical twins that the coloration and the pigmentation of every eye is completely unique and what does that say about the human species is that each one of us have our own original imprint to make each one of us have something very much to give voice to and especially our life dream and our vision to bring that calling that service that original medicine to earth and that's why many of the indigenous languages of the world don't have a means for comparison they do not compare because it would be a waste of time to compare if you actually know that your original medicine right we have our own imprint we have our own voice sonic we have our own coloration of our eye our own way of looking at things and seeing things and it's a time whether we're male or female that it's important and imperative that we bring our voice into the world and if you were to go to a medicine man or a holy man or a shaman among indigenous peoples worldwide they'll ask you one of four questions and when you go and you're complaining about being disheartened or dispirited or depressed they would ask you one of four questions when in your life did you stop singing when in your life did you stop dancing or moving in your body when in your life did you stop being enchanted by stories and particularly your own life story and when in your life did you stop being comforted by the sweet territory of silence because their belief is that wherever we stop singing and wherever we stopped dancing or moving in our body are enchanted by story and particularly our own life story and comforted by the sweet territory of silence is where we began to experience soul loss or loss of spirit and so it would be important to ask yourself the question when did I stop singing or bringing my voice forward because that's where I began to be self-conscious or doubt myself or ends some ways not really believe in my own imprint or my own sonic or my own vision in some way when did I stop moving in my body because all the cultures of the world have music they have danced they have storytelling they believe that storytelling is the oldest teaching healing art that we have and all cultures in the world realize that in the sweet territory of silence we discover and remember and recall the deepest mystery of who we are the deepest mystery in contemplation and reflection and we recognize that in many ways life is a mystery to be lived rather than a problem to be solved and cross-culturally there are four ways all over the world that we have there's not a culture in the world for example that doesn't have the way of the warrior and warrior is an old-fashioned term for leadership being visible leading contributing making your imprint into the world because all cultures of the world have leaders and laws of governance there's not a culture in the world that does not and that's called the way of the warrior or the way of leadership and in order to be a leader the first principle is that we have to show up and to show up with right use of power and skillful means and courage and the three powers that we have cross-culturally and it said that at any human being in any culture if they walk with these three powers they cannot be ignored and the first power is the power of presence Walt Whitman said we convinced by our presence the second power many of us have charisma and presence but then we lose it on the second power when we open our mouth and you know someone's charming across the room and then they open their mouth and it just doesn't match at all so a power of communication many of our politicians have great presence and charisma and their communication matches but we lose they lose it sometimes on the third power when we scratch our heads and wonder where their stand is we're not sure about their stance and we could say that mother Teresa had all three powers who certainly she had presence her communication and you knew where she stood in the world and Eleanor Roosevelt and in putting together the direct International Declaration of Human Rights you knew where she stood and her power of communication and and her presence her presence was so strong in her communication or in her stance was so strong that every biography around L of Eleanor Roosevelt describes two things about her how utterly charming she was and how exquisitely beautiful and compassionate she was and they always use the word beautiful and she never saw herself as beautiful but her spirit was so large that it transcended the body structures and she is left with the mark of the three greatest adjectives that are ever applied to her or about charm beauty and compassion and brilliant and brilliant but the brilliant is tagged on is tagged on we can say Martin Luther King had all those three powers we can say Gandhi had all three powers and the second way that we have cross culturally is that is is the way of the healer there's not a culture in the world that doesn't have a medical modality or a folk model or the combination of the two and the third and the most healing force in the world is love and the four chambered heart and traditional people's actually have a label to those chambers this full heart the strong heart the open heart and the clear heart and the opposite of those four chambers is the opposite of the full heart is half heartedness and the opposite of the strong heart is weak heartedness and conflict avoidance and the opposite of the open heart is closed heartedness which shows us where our forgiveness work is and the opposite of the clear heart is the doubting or confused heart and so it's important if we want to experience intimacy which really means in to me see that we have the conditions of the full strong open and clear heart and the last two ways we have to show up in order to know what with our three powers in order to connect with heart what has heart and meaning and the most healing force in the world is love and all the properties of love and the third way is the way of the visionary which is the ability to say what so when it's so to tell the truths with compassion or without blame or judgment and to bring our creativity into the world and to say what we mean and do what we say children always track saying what we mean in doing what we say and when we don't when they say but you broke your promise you broke your promise and they track that worldwide worldwide and all our creativity and our gifts and talents our life dream is the way of the visionary all the creative arts the Performing Arts are the way of the visionary in the last way is the way of the teacher or the wisdom way and there's not a culture in the world that doesn't have an educational system or a way of transmitting values and choose and also what has meaning and so I leave you with the four principles that if we show up and we pay attention to what has heart meaning and we tell the truth without blame or judgment or with compassion by saying what we mean doing what we say and saying what so that we're able then to follow the last way the wisdom waves which is to plan well and prepare well but to be open to outcome and not attach to come and so I want to just to say that the one way that we can keep our hearts open is through one practice that's shared globally which is the heart is always open if we can give gratitude it's impossible to give gratitude from a closed heart and so just the practice of gratitude every day and so I want to thank all the speakers and everyone who has come today very very much and that we honor our ancestors because they've gone before us the great grandfather the grandfather the father the mother the teacher the lover the mate the great grandmother and the great grand the the great grandmother the grandmother the mother the teacher the lover the mate and they stand behind us and they stand behind us every day saying oh maybe this one will be the one that will bring forward the good true and beautiful for all the past generations to come oh maybe this one will break the harmful family patterns and the harmful cultural patterns oh maybe this one will be the one and we are the one we are the one so thank you thank you [Applause] [Music]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 63,270

Rating: 4.937778 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxFidiWomen, Angeles Arrien, ted, ted talks, ted x, tedx, ted talk, tedx talk, The Four-Fold Way, tedx talks

Id: 2kDRRBK95no

Length: 22min 13sec (1333 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 17 2013