Thursday, June 05, 2008 The medicine way The rains have come back to Panama. We have to meet the challenge of keeping the medicine ranch and firewood dry. Now is also a different experience when gathering remedio (medicine), besides just getting soaked you have to avoid flash floods. On the other hand all that is green becomes more abundant. It is raining as I write this and the sound of water falling this way as it fills the air makes me a bit sleepy. It feels good to drink some coffee while writing. Yesterday we had a meeting with a medical doctor who is dying of cancer. He was brought to our attention by one of Irma's patients who has been cured, by her, of a cancerous growth on his skin. The doctor was in his home surrounded by his loving family. It appears that he has tried various alternative therapies to treat his illness including homeopathy, acupuncture, even Santeria. As we left he gave an emotional hug to my wife. He and his family have agreed to traditional Embera medicine. Irma says that his major problem is his lack of faith. However, his wife is a gem, she is a strong believer and I feel that this will greatly help his recovery. Today there is no sunshine and so we have refrigerated his urine in the hope of being able to diagnose it tomorrow. Remedio has already been sent to the doctor to start his treatment. As we spoke yesterday his wife wrote down the diet he must adhere to while he is being treated. At this time most of the patients that my wife is attending to have some form of cancer or diabetes. She has a few who suffer from arthritis, and I am now thinking of a man who came here with what the local medical doctors call an incurable lesion on his leg near his foot. They were wanting to amputate. I recall when he first came to our home that he was very aggressive and complaining about all the money he had spent to cure his ailment to no avail. My wife scolded him by saying that she was not asking for his money and that with his attitude nobody would be able to cure him. When he settled down a bit my wife and mother in law took a look at the large wound on his leg. It was open to the bone and oozing pus. My mother in law just gently touched the area around the wound and the man left. Next day he comes over light hearted with a big smile on his face. He was happy to have noticed that just thru the touch of mother's hand he had felt and seen some improvement. He has now been coming over once a week and his condition is almost completely cured. He is a happy fellow and his faith is renewed. It also comes to my mind that it would have been interesting to have taken photographs before, during, and after his treatments to serve as testimony for those interested in such things. This has not been possible as I do not own a camera. Most of the photos and video you see on the site are thanks to my niece Anayansi.You see, other than the clothes that I wear, I have no material possessions. No car, no bank account, no credit card. Whatever money or other thing that comes into my possession is gladly shared with my family. For me, the lack of material possessions has been of great service in developing my heart. Of course, this is not to say that at some point I would deny to manage money if it was linked to working towards the common good. Getting back to my niece; she will soon be living with us for awhile to better attend to her treatments. In this way I can look forward to share with you all more of our healing journey in photos and video. In the mean time my hope is that you do read all the blogs up on site and share them with others. In ending lets look at what for me was the beginning of my own spiritual development: At a time when my years were three there is the memory of falling backwards into a garden pool, a small pond in the forests of Massachusetts. At one point my back was to the earth of the pond as I looked upwards seeing sunlight passing thru the water making the abundant plants more green. That moment of sun, water, and plant life became etched into who I am. It gave me an eternal spring fever and a love of being outdoors. It connected me forever with a feeling for the land. Another time when I was nine found me at a Christian gathering of youngsters around a priest. He spoke to us of Jesus and asked for those of us who had not had a conversation with Him to raise our hands. The priest invited us, who had raised our hands, to speak with him about Christ. He let us know that if we were to open our hearts to invite Him in we would be able to have a conversation. We were also given bibles to read. Well, this excited me very much, and with all my nine year old might I took to prayer, especially at bedtime in the hope of speaking with Jesus Christ. My memory does not quite remember how long it took for my disappointment to take hold, but what I must say, is that with my child mind it came to me, that I must be Jesus as the only conversations being had were with myself. This was the beginning of my learning to listening to the heart. Jesus after all lives in our hearts and not our minds. As a result of developing my heart I am often faced with a knowing without thinking. This is what happened some years ago when an Embera woman, whose name is Tilila, asked for my help to prove to the world that Embera medicine could cure what modern science could not, like AIDS and cancer. I knew with out thinking that my mission revolved around what she was saying. There are many stories in my life that have led me to where I am today, and through out all that can be told is the door in my heart that has been opened to our Creator. My wife, when she speaks to a patient, will often say that when they are cured not to thank her, but to thank God. Now this leads me once again into the realm of traditional medicine. Yes we are born and we leave this world by way of our Maker. We need prayer in all the times of our lives. When we become ill it is not only prayer that we need, we need traditional medicine. We need to bathe with plants, to follow proper diet, to practice colon cleansing, to drink remedio, and to understand in practice the sacredness of these things. The medicine way that my wife was born into is of a people who were taught by Jesus how to cure. Twenty some years ago found me traveling up river in a dugout canoe up into the mountains on the rez in the Darien. I was with Embera people on an expedition, that I had financed, looking for good places along the river for dredging gold. It was hard traveling often having to jump out of the hot sun into cold water to drag the canoe onwards. We were very weighted down with fuel, food supplies, and a large water pump. My companions were all having a good time as I was worrying about the money running out. In my worry I spoke with our Creator and challenged Him as to why this was being done to me. Why was I suffering? It felt as if His hands were around me, and I, like a tube of toothpaste, was being squeezed tom have me shooting out at both ends into a great despair. Well, I got to knowing with out thinking that the hand of our Creator in my life was a blessing, and that my suffering was for my own good. This led to my happiness shared in the company of my new found friends. I know to be thankful, to be humble, to pray, to share, to live in the service of others. Now this does not mean I have not felt or had less noble thoughts. Of course I have wanted at times in my life to be wealthy, sexy, male, and you know, I am. This only with my wife as she makes me all of these things, and I thank God for that. Yes, this is the writing of a happy man, yet that is not all of who I am, or the means to an end. You see, in feeling the land as in knowing without thinking is rage, sadness, and despair. I am a happy man who also shares in the suffering felt all around. We all live for our own good while the hand of our Creator beckons us all back home. The perception of our suffering is a call towards Unity. The medicine way, simply put, leads us to where we need to go. Prayer, like breathing, is essential, and as we pray we also ask Creator to strengthen our spiritual communication. Healthy, creative, energetic people can best put their efforts into the service of others. Those in need of spiritual and physical healing are included in our prayers and treated by our actions to make traditional medicine available to them. The medicine way respects, and with permission granted, humbly accepts the sacred life found in nature our Mother. Life brings life and we need to be open to accept, with humility, this sacrifice to bring us back to health and harmony in this world. Now is a time for moving out of our forth world into the possibility of ascending into a fifth and higher realm. This is only able to happen through our common goal of Unity with its concurrent spiritual awakening. How can we continue to depend on modern western medicine when it is so obvious the ill health that is so dramatically spreading around our world? From drug and alcohol addictions, to diabetes, AIDS, and resistant bacterial infections to the growing problem of worldwide depression. How can a global community combat poverty and global warming with the same tools that are part of the problem' If you are in your heart a First Nation person you know this to be true. A prayer is now underway towards Panama running from points North and South. From the South flies the Condor as the eagle soars down from the North. We need at least your prayers for the runner's safe journey here. Again, prayers are essential, but not enough; we need your active participation. Traditional medicine is an action of faith from an ancient learning of our ancestors to its realization today, in the hands of so few in the face of so many in need. The very plants that we use in healing are themselves threatened. The numbers of the truly faithful dwindle in the night's electric glare of our modern mess of commercialization. Yet, hope is never lost in the heart that knows God. We need pray that our Creator enters into our hearts, into all of our people in our global family. You know my thoughts when first presented to Embera medicine were simply just to let people know of this, and expect an outpouring of help along the way. Its like when I was nine in my child mind expecting to hear Jesus speaking right away. For me, it has been necessary to put a lot of work into opening the door of my heart. Now I am asking the same of others; to put the work into opening their hearts. This is after all what our Creator has meant for us to do. It seems that many of us see quite clearly what they want without understanding the importance of letting go of the desire for material possessions. We don't bring these things into the other world. What we do bring is our actions, our personal history; we bring who we really are wherever we go. Who are you my friend and what are you doing so that we can all develop spiritually? My prayers and those of my family are with you always. We would love your help as also we would love to help you in the way of traditional medicine. So I ask my friends to pray for our enemies, that our Creator enters into their hearts, and if there is a way of healing that our hearts are open to serve all people. This is where my mind breaks and the need for faith be demonstrated, for as you know dear reader we need at least a sliver of space in the door of ones heart to let the medicine in. Until we meet again, Raymond Hermenet If you are interested to learn more about traditional medicine and to read more blogs go to:
www.myspace.com/raymondhermenet 
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