“There is a lesson in every grain of sand, but if we don’t learn, we may have to reincarnate.”
Mahâbhârata
Quotes on Shamanism and Spirituality
Indian wisdom and reincarnation.
Hello everyone,
I hope this message finds you in joy and that life brings you the awareness of each miracle taking place in every now, starting from each new breaths.
It’s been a while since I have not written but i follow up on energy healing and i maintain my daily practice on the shamanic path. Sometimes, time happens to miss a bit between the calls of the material world and the many hours required to maintain the practice but I would like to take advantage of this article to express my gratitude to people that apply for healing and come to us to receive our energy care. Thanks to all of you for your confidence and faith.
Very often, on the spiritual path, when we are in the midst of the material world and its constraints and not “enclosed” in a monastery, some imbalances can come and interfere with our daily practice. No matter how strong we walk our path and even if we aim to practice regularly and in a sincere way, such imbalances may not even come from some strong calls from the material world but just come slowly into our daily practice. In many cases, it may start gradually with small concessions until the point when it sometimes expands and make someone fall out of his path.
As a matter of fact the integration of the material into the spiritual can be challenging and what is true for the shamanic practice stays totally appliable to any other spiritual path. Nevertheless, in such moments, we should never give up and we should keep good hope and faith as to find a good balance is always possible. Ultimately, it is always a matter of getting organized and taking things right. Also we need to understand that as we keep practicing the path will become larger and the risk to fall down out of it will reduice, so let’s keep up and find ways to avoid some easy trap.
In our modern and western civilizations, we are used to store our different “activities” in separate “boxes” or “categories” but this way to picture things is of no help when it comes the time to apply it to the spiritual path. In a sincere spiritual journey, being it, again, the shamanic path or any other one, everything is sacred and each step has to be grown in full awareness and in total alignment with cosmic and divine laws.
So what shall we do when the mind slips into the interstices of our spiritual practice and tries to catch back the illusory power it seemed to have already lost? No matter how advanced we are on our path, no matter how many days or hours we have meditated daily, we may have to face that at one step or to deal with it.
When this happens, we should never forget that the spiritual journey is precisely a never endling stalking. Should we do it gently, we must indeed keep hunting down the mind process and the ego as most of the time, they will keep pushing to entertain the belief that we are only this material body in a material world. And it’s pretty impressive how many efforts and strategies our mind and our ego are capable to put up to maintain or to regain control on the situation. They ll always do it using their imperfect “weapons” or “assets” that are also their main illusion: dualism, the five senses and their limitations and in the end the “heavyness” and laws of the material world where our ego and mind are somehow always trapped in. The good news is we don’t have to fall into such trap as we are not only this mind and this ego.
In such moments when mind starts to empower again (or at least tries to), we will often find ourselves lying into self-pitty or trying to find excuses to justify our lack of regular practice. This behaviour is to be considered as a blessing since these small trends are easy to detect and are always the unmistakable mark of ego and mind trying to step back on the path to enroot again into the only world they really know, the material one. So please, let’s take this as a good sign that something needs to be worked out and as a very good opportunity to work it out.
Another very common pattern that often interfer with the integration of the material into the spiritual is the usual scheme: “effort / gratification” or the “carrot and stick” pattern. We are so fast to fall into it that most of the time we don’t even realise it. Therefore, to walk our spiritual path peacefully and expand our practice to all aspects of our life, to make the donkey disappear should always be one of our first priority. Let’s see how such pattern may make us fall into common traps that can hamper our spiritual practice.
In some cases, the “carrot and stick” pattern leads us to consider that our practice is just a “material activity” as any other one for which we need to create a “space” or a “time” in the material world. In the “best case” we will try to make it happen outside of these “spaces” or “times” of effort / gratification, in the worth case, into the “spaces”, “area”, “times” dedicated to “efforts”, “constraints”, etc ! This second case is of course the most dangerous to maintain a regular practice or meditation as the material world and our current political and economical systems require from us a lot of energy. Therefore, we may find ourselves not able to find the motivation and courage to practice regularly if we consider our spiritual practice as an “effort” which is not. As sometimes we like to be gentle with ourselves, by the time we start to find gratification space-time to compensate. all our efforts, the day is already gone.
A good symptoma of someone lying into such pattern is the reaction i have heard many times when asking someone why he was not able to find ten minutes during his day to meditate and that consists for him in listing all the difficult things he has to face during his day. It’s like saying “with all the efforts i am already making, i have no times left for an additional one”. Of course in such cases, the list is never mentionning all the times one dedicates to indulge himself during the day and believe me we all do that, so surely there are some and it’s good too. The fact we look for daily compensations to indulge ourselves is totally anchored into our daily behaviours and is somehow legitimate, though the ego does it and maintain it. We just have to be honest with it and again this is a very good symptoma that maintaining the “sticks and carrot” pattern, we may have the tendancy to consider our spiritual practice as an additional effort to be made which is not. On top of it, such such angle is wrong in another way as to expect any “reward” or “gratification” from such “effort” would probably reduice it to what is is not. Again the spiritual path cannot be a way to get material “awards” and there is no awards to be expected in the material world for it. And if you think about it, you will find it’s pretty difficult for your ego to do something that is not in any boxes. It’s exactly what Zen buddhism calls “non doing”.
In the first case we mentionned “our practice is just a “material activity” as any other one for which we need to create a “space” or a “time” in the material world out of the “effort/gratification” space-times”, the attitude seems to be more correct but that’s not saying we have escaped the “carrot and stick” pattern. Indeed, we can end up falling into the same trap if there would be on one end the efforts, the stress, the work, the hard time and on the other end, the reward, the well deserved rest, the relaxing time, etc. When all this is done, the time remaining for the spiritual practice might be reduice to zero time left so this way to approach things looks probably smarter at first but in the end the result may end up being the same. We need to escape the pattenr and the whole material thing needs to be integrated, embedded into the spiritual,
With regular practice we may open a third way and start considering our spiritual practice is totally integrated into the “relaxing” time or the time for “gratification”. That will probably makes your practice easier at first but again it’s not super smart to put in balance your spiritual path with other material activities that may bring you as well gratification. So let’s move ahead and break the scheme that consists in embedding the spiritual practice as a part of our material activity as in reality it is and it should be the exact contrary. We are spiritual beings into a spiritual universe. We come and incarnate into matter to live a spiritual experience. Our spiritual practice should the heart and the root of our awareness, and from this point, it shall expand into all aspects of our life. We have to break totally the “effort/gratification” scheme and stop feeding the donkey.
A good way to avoid these pitfalls is to make our spiritual practice a daily “discipline”, or a daily “use”, nore a gratification, or an effort. The Zen Master Taisen Deshimaru often said “our zazen (sitted meditacion) should be performed unconsciously, naturally, automatically.” You know we eat, we drink and we find times for all our natural needs, we don’t even think about not doing it. A discipline is something that we do daily and we don’t even think of not doing it. For this reason, it’s extremly important to practice daily, however short it may be, and from this “point, space and time”, we let the spirituality radiate throughout our life until it includes the whole material dimension and any moment or aspect of our life. It has to be daily and it has to be a “disicipline”.
Another very important “tricks” is to find joy in your practice. There must be something joyful in all this though this does not mean a lack of depth. It could appear to be a sort of paradox but i promess you it can be solved easly by practicing daily and by opening your heart to faith and joy when you meditate.
One thing is certain, the path of spiritual elevation and awareness can not be paved with self-pitty and excuses coming from the world of matter, nore from this linear and illusory time we so often seem to miss; all these things that our mind is so fond of. There is always time to practice when one placed it at the very top of his life and only perseverance and consistency can allow us to take the full measure of its importance.
In moments of great awakening in the middle of a shamanic trance or a deep meditation, sitting at the center of our body and mind, open heart, deep and quiet breathing, no doubt can remain upon the importance of it: this light that radiates at the center of our being, this mirror in which the whole universe is reflected, this awareness of the Dharma himself, far beyond this ego and this body of flesh, beyond time and matter, leaves no room for doubts. And in those moments of grace and humility, beyond the five senses, standing in the middle of the mysteries of the non linear universe, we experience eternity, we feel the deepness and joy of the conscious cosmic energy and therefore no doubt can remain. We came here and incarnate to learn and to raise the infinite and eternal divine Consciousness.
This is a big responsability, this is also the most beautiful and profound experience, a space-time where no more questions or difficulties remain, only the infinite peace in the awareness of the eternal cosmic energy, and our mind and ego can try to resist with their dualist illusions and all the strength of their weaknesses, a warrior of light will never surrender to that.
Have a great day in light, peace, and joy.
Fred
Yourenergymedicine.com
Energy and shamanic healing, distant healing.