Elizabeth Jenkins - THE FOURTH LEVEL

Table of Contents

THE FOURTH LEVEL:

NATURE WISDOM TEACHINGS

OF THE INKA

Acknowledgements

Foremost gratitude goes to my guiding star, my gorgeous Paqarina and magnificent Itu Apu . You guys rock! To my beloved TEQSE APUS thank you for your unbelievable generosity toward me, and patience with me. This book has taken me a really long time to write. After that the most important human beings in my life are my yanantin , the most rugged manly man I know, Barney C. Frazier, a veritable tower of power to which I cling for stability when awash in the tidal flows of life. Barney you are one of my foremost teachers of the Fourth Level, exuding fourth levelness every single day. For their five hundred years of resistance, my beautiful compadres and comadres of the illustrious Qero Nation, I give humble thanks and my most profound gratitude. May the prophetic words of Don Manuel Qespi about the return of the great masters come to pass pronto! To Juan Victor Nuez del Prado Bejar, the veritable Joseph Campbell of the Andes, as I have mentioned before, you saved my life. I am forever grateful and will always be your biggest fan. To Fredy Conde Huallpa, I praise your grandfather for training you in the path, and you for preserving and embodying in the present generation, the magnificence of your ancestors. For Karie Jacobson, thanks for smoothing the wrinkles in this manuscript, you are a stellar editor. Abeni thanks for helping with everything including the title. Naya your graphic design skills are mouthwatering.

I am wishing on the shiniest star in the sky for my beloved students, my friends and colleagues on the path, those that I have already had the honor and pleasure to know and those that I am yet to meet, may you all experience the most Sumaq Kawsay. For the delicious Italian ustas, thanks to your solid, intrepid hearts of enormous courage and generosity, we have spent 16 precious years together on this amazing path! Paola Ferraro and ClownDio, you are the best hosts ever! Concetta, I will never forget the sami of your Qarpay to Don Humberto Sonqo nor his expession upon receiving itand then shoving Doa Bernardina in front to receive from you next. WOW! Tiziana and Stefano of Proseccolandia you became true Despacho Masters. Impressive. Gary of Netherlands you became Ayni Master. Inspiring. To all the students who are now teachers YOU GUYS GIVE ME GOOSE BUMPS. Your dedication to the Fourth Level just plain makes life worth living. To the HERO in every one of you.especially you Ivan Nuez del Prado. If ever I am in an emergency I hope its with you. Marielle and Donatothe experience that preceded your triplets is burned into my heart and branded on my memorysuch a possibility still makes my breath catch. Anna Banana what can I say, you are splendiforous.and my Paqo brothers Roberto Sarti, Hans-Martinyou are great-hearted men. To my dearest world wide paqos, when I think of you all my heart melts and overflows its boundaries like a chocolate usta Fountain with lots of kids sticking their fingers in it! Speaking of whom.to my beloved boys: my strong handsome heartful Gabriel and my mischievous wild nymphlike savage Sammy, you guys are some of my favorite people in the world. Thanks for letting me be your Mom and helping me write this book. My heart is open wide.

Introduction

Now in this rather perilous moment in human history there IS a way out. I write this book offering hope of another tomorrow that can be achieved through the collective effort and collaboration of human beings with our supreme friend, guide, helper, teacher, chief cook and bottle washerour ultimate Mother from whom all gifts springGreat Nature. THE FOURTH LEVEL is a guide to a new way of being with Nature that arises from an ancient tradition and delivers itself to us here and now in the perfect moment of our greatest need. This is a wise and flexible tradition that holds no dogmas or rigid rulesonly a series of invitations to experience. This kind of personal experience can save our lives. I know because it saved mine!

It has come to my attention that it is impossible to separate us humans from the geography in which we have organically grown. Each human cultures wisdom, eyes, hair, and skin tone, is informed by the nature of the Nature of the geographic area in which we have developed over time. Not only the flora and fauna, but the living geography, the veritable spirit or consciousness of mountains, valleys, hillsides, streams, rivers, fjords, beaches, waterfalls, dunes, peninsulas, and caves near which we live affect us. It is the color of the air, quality of light, texture of winds, and flavor of cosmic vistas to which or geography grants us access that has helped to shape our particular biological manifestation. Our rather recent scientific discovery that race is non-existent or rather that there is only one race that is Human, highlights this magnificent fact. Our rainbow colors are nothing more (and nothing less) than the amazing adaptation of our bodies to the natural environment in which we find ourselves evolving over time. This could mean that Nature has played a more unique role in our past evolution than we may have originally conceived. I put forth here in this book that Nature will have a much greater impact on the future of human evolution than we could ever have guessed.

The mystical wisdom tradition of the Andes has maintained its ceremonies and practices, philosophies and worldview and its priesthood due to the fact that its altars cannot be torn down. They are the very mountains, rivers, oceans, caves, streams and valleys in which we live. The Earth on which we walk is herself the altar. The principles of this tradition are formed upon the fundamental laws of physics. Nature herself is the teacher, the transmitter of energy and information. Infinitely generous, she proffers the open secret of her living energy upon all wise enough to grasp it. It has taken me years to understand this, and years to craft an explanation that could do justice to the beauty and awe this elegant, sophisticated native knowledge system inspires.

Over the past twenty-five years I have worked in this tradition primarily as a translator. Not a translator of language (although I have done that as well) but a Chaka-Runa a bridge person, a translator between world views as divergent as planets. Since 1988 I have had the blessing, honor and privilege to closely associate with a culture of indigenous peoples living in the high Andes of Peru, now nearly extinct, who have retained a basic point of view much needed now by humankind. I will call this indigenous wisdom tradition Inka for simplicity. It includes the vast and glorious millennial wisdom of the ancient people of the Andes up to their culmination during the Inka Empire of the 16th century, and forward to their modern-day descendants, the Qero Indians of Peru. These are a people who understand Nature, and the way in which we humans are related to it, in a manner that is staggering. It is my hope that the application of this knowledge will result in our deeper global collaboration with Nature through which we can provide ourselves, our children and grandchildren with what we all need most---a future.

Preface

This book is a tool for a correction of perspective. Think of it as a much needed pair of glasses for the current human myopia of our Western culture. If we adjust our viewpoint, all can be gained and nothing lost. Through 20 years of rubbing bubbles with my beautiful humble friends, the Qero Indians of Peru, enough Qero has rubbed off on me to begin to rectify my perspective. I now understand the clear PRIMACY of Nature. Throughout the cosmos (i.e., planets, galaxies, stars, moons, space) Nature is in far heftier abundance than human beings. She expresses significant intelligence for all to see. This holds true down here on this lovely sphere we call Mother Earth as well. Humans are not and have never been primary.