A MEETING WITH HOPI ELDERS

Ram Dass: I was part of a contingent of hippies from San Francisco in the 60s that went to Houghton Villa to arrange for a Hopi hippie be-in in the Grand Canyon, okay? We were going to adopt the Hopi as our natural grandparents there. Very peaceful, beautiful group of beings. And in the deliberations, I was a spokesman for the hippies, and I found myself around a kitchen table in which the elders were sitting, and I was sitting on one side and there weren’t enough chairs, so the elders were in a chair, and I was sort of on the floor, squatting on the floor on the other side of the table. And the youngest of the always was in his 60s. And the other elders—he stood and across from me—and the other elders sat, and I could see under the table as well as all over, and they had their hands on their knees, and they had beautiful turquoise on it, but their hands were like tree roots. They were connected to the earth. And they sat there as just presences.

And I was trying to persuade them to join with us in this statement. And the youngest of the elders was the spokesman, and he was explaining me to me how difficult it was to deal with the white men. And he said one of our young Braves was in an automobile accident involving a truck of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. And the truck was over the line. And he said the next day the police found a liquor bottle in the gully, and they said that our Brave had been drinking and that it was his fault. And he said, we asked our brave. And he said he had not been drinking. And this elder looked me in the eye, and he said, and he speaks truth.

And a chill ran through me. It was like a primordial memory, of when human beings spoke truth to each other. It was like a memory deep inside. I’m from a family of lawyers. And law is based on the assumption that nobody ever tells the truth. And we must protect ourselves from it. And I experienced a very, very profound longing, for what in India is called the Sut Yuga. In India they have vast time periods, and we are, as many of you know, in what’s called the Kaliyuga, the Dark Age. When the fullest truth has no feet of truth left on the ground. There’s just a lot of lies and deceit.

And in the Sut Yuga truth reigns. And that’s why Gandhi’s experiments in truth, was such a beautiful title for his life, an experiment in truth. And I feel, when I think about the Planetary Initiative for the world I choose, I understand one thing that I’d like to pass on to you.

The first thing you have to do if you’re going to choose a world, is acknowledge that you have already chosen this one. If you’re going to take responsibility for something else, first cop to the fact that you are part of what has created this one. If you will accept the responsibility for this one, if you accept the responsibility for this one, all the rest of it will follow. The minute you allow, I am responsible—and who of you is responsible? Well, from my point of view, you as a soul chose this incarnation because it’s a great time to work on yourself. And you designed it perfectly and it’s going beautifully. And here we are as souls, just appreciating our dance.