Loved reading this, Maia - I've quite recently got interested genealogy and it's given me a lot to chew over as I learn to situate myself in history. There's a spiritual dimension to learning the names of my ancestors, figuring out as much as I can about their lives, coming to honour them through that, and leaning into the sense of awe that comes when you realise you owe your existence to countless decisions, small and large, by an infinite number of people most of whom are now forgotten. I think English people, particularly on the left, can find it complicated to honour our heritage because so much of it involved the brutalisation and subjugation of other peoples (not least in Wales, Scotland and Ireland, so the word 'British' is complex and problematic too). At the same time, so many of our folk traditions have been marginalised to the point of being considered a bit niche, weird and even cringeworthy, so I have never really taken much pride or interest in my heritage and always found the idea of being English incredibly boring. It's only now I start to uncover some of the history that I realise the lives of ordinary people are anything but. I feel a certain relief and pride in learning that my ancestors were mostly very poor working people and thus part of the subjugated class rather than the subjugators, and feel I now have a personal stake in learning about an alternative history of Englishness that is more than just empire, a stiff upper lip and tea on the lawn.
This is fascinating, Kate -- thank you for sharing this!
I love that you've been making an effort to learn more about your own ancestors and that it's become a kind of spiritual practice. Your inquiry into their lives and the time of history they lived in sounds so rich to me.
As you're doing this, do you find that you're reviving some of those 'niche, weird, and even cringeworthy' folk traditions?
A beautiful epiphany to call into action our lineage of spiritual and biological ancestry - to reconcile with the inheritance of trauma and wisdom from both as we grow in and through our lives and continue after our death. Thank you Maia for all these necessary reminders. 💜
It took me a while to get down to reading this, but it kept calling to me and this morning the space arrived to assimilate your words. I have known for some time that I would find your voice here to mirror my own feelings about ancestors and the past. Thank you.
I am convinced that ancestry speaks to every body. That word is stated as separate for a reason. Yes, ancestry is more than important to understand, but some types of ancestry are toxic. All races can look to their ancestry, but some ancestries are ones that should not be continued. The idea of racial superiority can crop up and grow in every ancestry and recorded, as well as remembered, history suffers from multiple examples of this flaw. Here is where mindfulness becomes imperative for the human race. I suspect that is why “The Golden Rule” crops up all over the world in multiple expressions of “Faith” or other types of guidance principles.
This is so beautiful Maia, thank you. I practice in the plum village tradition and the focus on ancestory has been a revelation. I also love the idea we can heal ourselves not only for ourselves but also for all those who came before who perhaps didn’t get that chance. It’s so beautiful. The West has so much to learn from eastern traditions on this.
Thank you for reading, Laura, and thank you for your practice.
On reflection, I'm not sure this is so much of an "Eastern" and "Western" difference, but my guess is that Indigenous people, those who continue to live in deep connection with the land and waters of their region, have a much stronger sense of connection to ancestry than do those of us who have gotten disconnected from that source. We definitely have a lot to learn, that's for sure!
Thanks Maia. That's a really good point, I hadn't really thought about indigenous peoples - largely because I live in Europe, and this concept is very little used over here (there are of course indigenous peoples in Europe, such as the Sami in Sweden, but it's very different to the Americas - the term is sometimes captured by the far right where I live in France, very sadly...). Hence the somewhat crude use of East/West!
Fully agree though. I was brought up in the UK and my secular Christian upbringing had no focus on lineage or ancestry or anything, and I definitely had no real sense of being connected to the land, beyond the mythologised 'green and pleasant land' we were taught to be 'proud' of at school. England is one of the most nature-deprived countries in the world: we've lost 32% of wildlife since 1970, 1 in 6 species are at risk of disappearing, the country is 70% farmland, I think there's something like 2.5% of our ancient woodland left.
I'm only just starting to wake up to all this, thanks to PV. I have just spent some time with my Grandad (he is 94), and we tried to draw a family tree. Incredible to hear the stories of these people born in the early 1900s! There's a lot of farming in my lineage. Keen to water these seeds further...
How wonderful you can still spend time with your Grandad and hear his stories! As someone who lost my mom at 93 years of age (to COVID), I would definitely encourage you to have as much time as possible with him and ask all the questions you can. Our elders are such a treasure house of stories and wisdom.
And wow, I had no idea that England had gone through such a shift in these past decades with its connection to the natural world. That's really tragic. It's interesting to hear your perspective on this as someone from the UK. You might be interested in reading Kate Brook's comment on this same thread, some parallels to yours.
Oh how wonderful! I would have loved to have been there when Thay was still alive. I spent a week there in summer, and did a snow retreat with them in Andorra in March. I agree, the sangha is incredible 🪷
Maia, You have a beautiful voice, perfect for guided meditation. I don't have a strong connection with the idea of ancestors. Thanks for opening the concept up for me in a beautiful way!
It's a place of such rich exploration! As I wrote, I didn't have much resonance with the idea of ancestors either. But as I've gone more deeply into it, there is so much to discover and learn from.
I love this Maia. I'm endlessly fascinated by the ways in which trauma is passed on and the ripples it creates through the generations. I see this both in my work as a trauma therapist and also in my own family line, with parents born in the immediate aftermath of WWII from two family lines very much affected by the fighting. Since moving to New Zealand, I've learned a lot about connecting with my ancestry through the teachings of Te Ao Māori and wish I'd grown up with a greater appreciation of this. I look forward to taking some time later to listen to your guided meditation.
What a gorgeous seeing and honoring of ancestors. This whole piece feels so aligned with the Family Constellation work that I practice - drawing from the support and resource of those that came before us…
Thank you for your comment, Kathy. Interesting that this contemplation is so resonant with Family Constellation work (which I know just a bit about). Glad you find it helpful!
That was such a lovely meditation, Maia, thanks for sharing it! I loved feeling that thread from the past to the future through the present. Beautiful.
Loved reading this, Maia - I've quite recently got interested genealogy and it's given me a lot to chew over as I learn to situate myself in history. There's a spiritual dimension to learning the names of my ancestors, figuring out as much as I can about their lives, coming to honour them through that, and leaning into the sense of awe that comes when you realise you owe your existence to countless decisions, small and large, by an infinite number of people most of whom are now forgotten. I think English people, particularly on the left, can find it complicated to honour our heritage because so much of it involved the brutalisation and subjugation of other peoples (not least in Wales, Scotland and Ireland, so the word 'British' is complex and problematic too). At the same time, so many of our folk traditions have been marginalised to the point of being considered a bit niche, weird and even cringeworthy, so I have never really taken much pride or interest in my heritage and always found the idea of being English incredibly boring. It's only now I start to uncover some of the history that I realise the lives of ordinary people are anything but. I feel a certain relief and pride in learning that my ancestors were mostly very poor working people and thus part of the subjugated class rather than the subjugators, and feel I now have a personal stake in learning about an alternative history of Englishness that is more than just empire, a stiff upper lip and tea on the lawn.
This is fascinating, Kate -- thank you for sharing this!
I love that you've been making an effort to learn more about your own ancestors and that it's become a kind of spiritual practice. Your inquiry into their lives and the time of history they lived in sounds so rich to me.
As you're doing this, do you find that you're reviving some of those 'niche, weird, and even cringeworthy' folk traditions?
this is very beautiful, and worth digesting deeply. thank you, maia.
thanks for reading it with your heart and mind, Abe!
A beautiful epiphany to call into action our lineage of spiritual and biological ancestry - to reconcile with the inheritance of trauma and wisdom from both as we grow in and through our lives and continue after our death. Thank you Maia for all these necessary reminders. 💜
thank you, dear Swarnali!
It took me a while to get down to reading this, but it kept calling to me and this morning the space arrived to assimilate your words. I have known for some time that I would find your voice here to mirror my own feelings about ancestors and the past. Thank you.
I am convinced that ancestry speaks to every body. That word is stated as separate for a reason. Yes, ancestry is more than important to understand, but some types of ancestry are toxic. All races can look to their ancestry, but some ancestries are ones that should not be continued. The idea of racial superiority can crop up and grow in every ancestry and recorded, as well as remembered, history suffers from multiple examples of this flaw. Here is where mindfulness becomes imperative for the human race. I suspect that is why “The Golden Rule” crops up all over the world in multiple expressions of “Faith” or other types of guidance principles.
I resonate so strongly with this, Maia - thank you.
I thought you might, Hilary! Thank you for reading.
This is so beautiful Maia, thank you. I practice in the plum village tradition and the focus on ancestory has been a revelation. I also love the idea we can heal ourselves not only for ourselves but also for all those who came before who perhaps didn’t get that chance. It’s so beautiful. The West has so much to learn from eastern traditions on this.
A gift indeed! So beautiful. And how you get to spread that energy in the world. Glorious. Thank you for sharing :)
Thank you for reading, Laura, and thank you for your practice.
On reflection, I'm not sure this is so much of an "Eastern" and "Western" difference, but my guess is that Indigenous people, those who continue to live in deep connection with the land and waters of their region, have a much stronger sense of connection to ancestry than do those of us who have gotten disconnected from that source. We definitely have a lot to learn, that's for sure!
Thanks Maia. That's a really good point, I hadn't really thought about indigenous peoples - largely because I live in Europe, and this concept is very little used over here (there are of course indigenous peoples in Europe, such as the Sami in Sweden, but it's very different to the Americas - the term is sometimes captured by the far right where I live in France, very sadly...). Hence the somewhat crude use of East/West!
Fully agree though. I was brought up in the UK and my secular Christian upbringing had no focus on lineage or ancestry or anything, and I definitely had no real sense of being connected to the land, beyond the mythologised 'green and pleasant land' we were taught to be 'proud' of at school. England is one of the most nature-deprived countries in the world: we've lost 32% of wildlife since 1970, 1 in 6 species are at risk of disappearing, the country is 70% farmland, I think there's something like 2.5% of our ancient woodland left.
I'm only just starting to wake up to all this, thanks to PV. I have just spent some time with my Grandad (he is 94), and we tried to draw a family tree. Incredible to hear the stories of these people born in the early 1900s! There's a lot of farming in my lineage. Keen to water these seeds further...
How wonderful you can still spend time with your Grandad and hear his stories! As someone who lost my mom at 93 years of age (to COVID), I would definitely encourage you to have as much time as possible with him and ask all the questions you can. Our elders are such a treasure house of stories and wisdom.
And wow, I had no idea that England had gone through such a shift in these past decades with its connection to the natural world. That's really tragic. It's interesting to hear your perspective on this as someone from the UK. You might be interested in reading Kate Brook's comment on this same thread, some parallels to yours.
Thank you for the encouragement - I’ve really enjoyed our chats! And very sorry to hear about your mom. Best wishes
Nice to meet you here, Laura! Many years ago, 1996, I spent a month in Plum Village. It’s a wonderful place and the sangha is a treasure.
Oh how wonderful! I would have loved to have been there when Thay was still alive. I spent a week there in summer, and did a snow retreat with them in Andorra in March. I agree, the sangha is incredible 🪷
Maia, You have a beautiful voice, perfect for guided meditation. I don't have a strong connection with the idea of ancestors. Thanks for opening the concept up for me in a beautiful way!
It's a place of such rich exploration! As I wrote, I didn't have much resonance with the idea of ancestors either. But as I've gone more deeply into it, there is so much to discover and learn from.
I love this Maia. I'm endlessly fascinated by the ways in which trauma is passed on and the ripples it creates through the generations. I see this both in my work as a trauma therapist and also in my own family line, with parents born in the immediate aftermath of WWII from two family lines very much affected by the fighting. Since moving to New Zealand, I've learned a lot about connecting with my ancestry through the teachings of Te Ao Māori and wish I'd grown up with a greater appreciation of this. I look forward to taking some time later to listen to your guided meditation.
What a gorgeous seeing and honoring of ancestors. This whole piece feels so aligned with the Family Constellation work that I practice - drawing from the support and resource of those that came before us…
Thank you for your comment, Kathy. Interesting that this contemplation is so resonant with Family Constellation work (which I know just a bit about). Glad you find it helpful!
That was such a lovely meditation, Maia, thanks for sharing it! I loved feeling that thread from the past to the future through the present. Beautiful.
Thanks for taking time to watch it and leave a comment, Janine. It really is a continuous thread, isn't it? I especially feel it this time of year.