Now, why do you think he said that?

Well, did you know that the Native American tribe the Cheyenne (and other’s) within the tribe had a society called the Contrary Society. And if you remember the film with Dustman Hoffman ‘Little Big Man’ there is a scene of a Cheyenne Contrary who rode his horse backwards and rode on a different path than the rest of the tribe. The actual scene clearly can’t be taken seriously as it was directed to be a funny scene.

However, there is wisdom and teachings here related to the Confucius quote.

When you are focusing on a problem, you are working the Left brain (Beta brain wave vibration) by sifting and categorising by logical analysis, expressed physically outwardly through right hand side of the body, Yang energy. In this state, no one can really solve a problem and therefore contrary to the way to solve problems.

In Native American teachings, Contrary, Coyote, Heyokah or Trickster wisdom shows that this is not the way to look at things. An alternative view is needed. The magical Coyote (Contrary) is the Tricksters ally. He turns up to ask you to ask yourself what you are doing and why? What change in attitude do you need? The answer could be the exact opposite, the contrary, of the answers you would find for the self i.e. Not the logical answer. Think of the ‘Fool’ in Shakespeare’s play, ‘King Lear’. Whenever the King is being foolish the Fool either walks off scene or stands still and watches his King act the fool instead!

For the left hand brain thinkers amongst you who still quite don’t get it, think of Albert Einstein, not that great in math’s (left brain logic), asked questions in images and solved problems in an ‘Alpha’ state (Right hand brain), away from his Left hand brain ‘Beta’ state.

So what alternative solution are you being asked today?

As you can tell, Contrary, Coyote, Heyokah or Trickster wisdom are one of my favourite characters.

’til we meet again,

Walk in Peace;
Walk in Beauty.

Johnathan