《David Chethlahe Paladin》

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喚回自己的靈魂

這是《慧眼視心靈》中的一個真實故事——大衛．契特拉．帕拉丁(David Chetlathe Paladin)
的生命故事。

　　大衛是納瓦侯(Navajo)印第安人。1920年代到1930年代之間，他在某個印第安
保留區裡長大。11歲時，他已經是個酒鬼。15歲左右，他離開了保留區，在外漂泊好
幾個月，最後在一艘商船上找到工作。當時他只有15歲，卻告訴別人他已經16歲了。

　　他在船上的時候，結識了一位年輕的德國人和另一位年輕的美國原住民。三人一起
航行到太平洋各地的停靠港。大衛的嗜好是寫生，他所畫的主題之一，是日本人在南海
各個島上建造的掩蔽壕。當時是1941年。

　　大衛畫的掩蔽壕最後落在美國軍隊手裡。當他被徵召入伍時，他以為他要在軍隊裡
繼續從事藝術的工作，但沒想到他反而成為反納粹秘密組織的一份子。美國陸軍同時招
募了納瓦侯和其他美國原住民，做為間諜聯絡網。這些地下人員被遣送到敵人戰線後
方，並將訊息傳遞到位於歐洲的軍事總部。因為透過廣播傳送的東西都會被攔截，因此
他們便使用美國原住民語言，以確保他人無法解讀截取到的訊息。(註：事實上這方法
扭轉了美國二次大戰的頹勢。)

　　大衛還在後方的時候，有次被一群納粹軍人逮捕。納粹黨想盡辦法凌虐他，所使用
的方法之一是將他的雙腳釘在地上，然後強迫他站好幾天。大難不死後，大衛被送往集
中營，因為他屬於「次等民族」。就在他被推擠上火車的時候，他感覺到有支來福槍頂
著他的背，命令他走快一點。他回過頭去面對那個納粹軍人，沒想到這個軍人居然是他
在商船上結識的那位德國人。

　　這位德國朋友安排大衛到一個戰俘營裡，而大衛也在那裡一直待到第二次世界大戰
結束。等戰俘被解放之後，美國軍人找到了意識不清、奄奄一息的大衛。於是他被運送
回國。接下來兩年半，他躺在密西根南部一間軍醫院裡，昏迷不醒。等終於清醒過來
時，他卻因為在戰俘營裡關太久，身體虛弱到連走路都沒辦法。他得套上沉重的腿撐
架，柱著柺杖，才能走一小段路。

　　大衛決心要回保留區向族人做最後的道別，然後住進退伍軍人醫院，在那裡了卻殘
生。當他回到保留區時，家人和朋友知道了他的遭遇，個個驚嚇不已。大家聚在一起，
開會討論該如何幫助大衛。等會議結束後，部落長者走近大衛，用力扯下他的腿撐架，
將一條繩索綁在他的腰上，之後再將他丟進水裡。「大衛，喚回你的靈魂，」他們下
令：「你的魂魄已經不在體內了。如果你不能把靈魂叫回來，我們就讓你走。沒有人能
活著而沒有靈魂。你的靈魂就是你的力量。」

　　「喚回靈魂」，大衛說，是他所擔負過最困難的任務。「這比我雙腳被釘在地上還
難承受。我看到那些納粹軍人的臉。我熬過在戰俘營的那幾個月。我知道我必須釋放自
己的憤怒與怨恨。我幾乎快溺死了，但我祈禱讓憤怒離開我的身體。這就是我的禱告內
容，而我的禱告也得到了上帝的回應。」

　　大衛雙腳完全復原，後來成為巫師、基督教牧師，也是一位治療者。他並重拾自己
繪畫的興趣，贏得天才藝術家的美名。

　　大衛．契特拉．帕拉丁在勇敢面對力量最黑暗的一面而活下來之後，他超脫了那種
黑暗的境界，並以餘生治療人，鼓勵人「喚回自己的力量」，擺脫那些讓生命力從體內
流失的經歷。

——許多反應外在挑戰的方式，取決於自己如何對自己反應。——

http://blog.roodo.com/chodmaya/archives/8718457.html

This is a story about David Chethlahe Paladin. I never knew him personally
but his story touches and inspires me deeply. By telling it, I hope that you
will remember it too. When the time is right, perhaps you will tell it to
someone else.

David was born in 1926, on a Navajo reservation in Arizona, a southwestern
state in the U.S. Because the authorities wouldn't accept his clan name,
Bitter Water, they gave him the name of the nearest landmark, the Paladin
Mesa. His mother was a Navajo and his father a Caucasian Roman Catholic
priest. At birth, he mother left him in the care of his extended family at the
reservation and went off to become a nursing nun. Thus he was raised by
tribal people who still talked to spirits and walked in their dreams.

In his early teens, he stole away on a merchant ship and was carried off to
Australia. On the ship he met another young boy, a German named Ted
with whom he became friends. At the outbreak of World War II, he was
recruited by the OSS, Office of Strategic Services, a forerunner of the CIA.
The Navajo language was a difficult one and the Americans used it to pass
secret information behind enemy lines. The Germans did not know it was a
language, they never cracked the code.

He was 15 years old when he was captured and sent to the Furstenburg
Internment Center. He was tried and sentenced to death as a spy. On the
platform to board a train destined for the death chambers, David felt a rifle
butt behind his back to hurry him along. He turned to see Ted, the young
boy he met on the merchant ship, now a German officer. Ted managed to
get him rerouted to Dachau, and so David escaped death.

At Dachau, for helping a fellow prisoner, his feet were nailed to the floor for
three days. The wound developed into gangrene. He was later to recount
that as he drifted in and out of consciousness, a German soldier would
come in to put maggots on his open sores and forced raw chicken entrails
down his throat.

The Allies found him in a train car loaded with dead bodies in Dachau. He
weighed 62 pounds. They shipped off to a Veteran's Hospital in the States
where he stayed in a coma for 2 years. When he finally recovered
consciousness, he had lost the use of his legs. He wallowed in his hate.
Resigned to spend the rest of his life at the Veteran's Hospital, he decided to
go back to the reservation one last time to say good-bye.

The elders at the reservation heard his story and held council. They told
him, “you have given away your spirit to hate and without your spirit, you
cannot heal.” They then tied a rope around his waist, took the braces off his
legs, and threw him into the Little Colorado River at high flood. The
moments he spent thrashing in the water for his life, he was to say later,
were the hardest in his life – harder than being nailed to the floor. For it was
there, fighting for breath, that all the hurtful images of his life came back to
him. He had to release each one by forgiving it. The last image was that of
the German soldier who put maggots on his flesh. This too he had to
forgive. He decided to see this act as one that actually saved his leg from
further disease, and the entails helped keep him alive. He retrieved his spirit.

He became a shaman, a healer, a teacher and an artist. He eventually
regained use of both legs and was able to walk without crutches. He died in
1984 at 58 years old.

His story inspires not for the hardship of his childhood, and not even for the
tortures he endured. It inspires for its rebirth, for a life rebuilt after the
damage.

http://www.kathleens5.com.cn/ms-My-Superman.asp

☆★﹏﹏Painting the Dream﹏﹏﹏★☆
The Shamanic Life and Art of David Chethlahe Paladin
http://davidpaladin.olicentral.com/Artist/paintingdream.htm