$44
Tuesday, October 6, 2026 at 6:00 PM PDT
Can't make it? The session will be recorded and available after the live event.
A Diné Teaching on Mind, Love, and the Sacred Path
Elder Jerry Nelson carries teachings passed down from his grandmother and grandfather, ways of walking through life that the Diné call walking in beauty.
In this teaching, Jerry speaks to the sacredness of the mind, describing the brain as one of the most sacred things a person carries, and traces a simple but profound chain: thought becomes word, word becomes action, and action becomes the life you walk. He weaves this teaching through the story of meeting his wife, Mazie, showing how beautiful thought, beautiful words, and beautiful intention can shape a lifetime of partnership built on respect and care.
He speaks openly about responsibility, discipline, and the cost of losing one's way, including the dangers of turning to substances to numb pain, not as judgment, but as a grandfather's caution born from love. He shares his own origin, born of circumstances he didn't choose, raised by his grandmother, and the forgiveness that allowed him to walk forward whole rather than carrying resentment as an excuse.
At its heart, this teaching is an invitation: to take responsibility for your own mind, words, and walk in life, mentally, verbally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, while extending the same compassion to yourself that was hoped for you before you were even born.
The teacher
Diné (Navajo) · United States
Jerry Nelson is from the Diné Nation (Navajo), from Whitecone, Arizona. He has been a Native American Church Roadman for the past thirty-eight years with his wife, four children, and twelve grandkids. He is a medicine man and a counselor, helping people in his own traditional ways of prayer. He runs traditional tepee and sweat lodge ceremonies as well as spiritual doctoring work.
View elder profileWhere they teach from
