Table of Contents
This talk from Navajo Traditional Teachings is a lesson about conduct, not a ranking of peoples. The speaker says each person picks a direction and then keeps growing that way, toward what is good or toward harm. Listeners are warned about people who lie, cheat, mislead, steal, or take a life. The lesson is set in an earlier blue world, where holy people quarreled and one burned that world rather than allow growth without control. A clockwise spiral, seen in hair, fingertips, and ceremonial baskets, is the reminder to keep growing. The aim is a people of peace. You sort good from bad by asking the holy people in prayer and by watching, because a crowd will walk off a cliff. Harm is not limited to men or to women, and it spreads until cruelty feels ordinary. What destroys arrives slowly, like water heated until it boils. Stay on the Beauty Way by prayer. You cannot force another person to become decent. You can govern your own conduct and teach the young to stay out of harm’s way.
Key points
- The teaching says you grow in the direction you choose, either toward what is good or toward harm.
- A quarrel among holy people in an earlier blue world is told as the start of aggression and control.
- A clockwise spiral, in hair, fingerprints, the hogan, and baskets, is the reminder to keep growing.
- Prayer to the holy people, plus watching and the senses, is how you tell a lie from the truth.
- Harm can come from a man or a woman, and it spreads until cruelty is treated as normal.
- You cannot reform someone who refuses. You can only choose your own conduct and teach the young.
Short quotes
to be aware of the bad people or the people that will lie to us and misdirect
Navajo Traditional Teachings, Navajo teaching on harmful people
The lesson says to stay alert to people who lie and who steer you the wrong way. Watch at 4:31
do it's just to follow along you have to determine for yourself what is good and
Navajo Traditional Teachings, Navajo teaching on harmful people
Following the crowd is rejected. Each person has to judge what is good. Watch at 7:09
eventually boiling and is something that destroys and so it is with the evil
Navajo Traditional Teachings, Navajo teaching on harmful people
Evil is compared with something that heats until it boils and then destroys. Watch at 10:29
disappear there are some people that are bad enough and evil enough to take those
Navajo Traditional Teachings, Navajo teaching on harmful people
Some people, the teaching says, are willing to take away the ones you love. Watch at 12:36
Video by Navajo Traditional Teachings. Watch on YouTube.