10/26/2020
‘Master your Time’ !
"A Journey into the World of the Shaman" + practices: “Fire Ceremony” and “Holy Fire”, Dr. Alberto Villoldo (PhD Neuroscientist and Medical anthropologist) (from Day 3)
“What happened in the West with western Science is that we used the mind to study the Cosmos, the outer world, whereas the Shamans utilised the mind to study the mind, to study the inner world, the inner workings of creation, to find out who we are, and where we came from, and where we are headed to, by turning within. Much like meditation practitioners do, even today.
In the Shamanic tradition, as you explore the nature of the mind, you discover that the mind has some unique relationship to Time. In our western society, we recognise only one kind of time, which is a time that flies like an arrow. And this is the time that we know, where the past has already occurred, and the future has not yet revealed itself to us. And it moves like an arrow. You cannot change the past, and the past spills over into the present and claims the future. This is the basis of Science, it is cause and effect. Causality. The basis of ‘karma’, you could say. But the Shamans recognised that there was another kind of time. That not only the time flied like an arrow, but it also turned like a wheel. And as it turned like a wheel, you could actually influence the way that past lived within you. You could nudge destiny. You could actually track forward along the destiny line […] to select a future destiny, a desired future state. And then the future could reach back like a giant hand, and pulled you towards that direction. And this in fact is what the task of the Shamans has always been. To ‘future track’. To select who and what we want to evolve into. To throw a grappling hook way into the future and discover who we are becoming as a humanity, 10,000 years from today, and bring that back into the present. Allow that future… possible future… to inform us, and not have the past continue to spill over and claim the present. […]
Today I feel that we need to do that, for the entire Earth. We cannot continue the way that we have been going in the past, we cannot have the values from the past of greed, of exploitation, of the few living of the expense of the many, of social inequality, we cannot have those values continue guiding humanity. We have to throw that grappling hook. Way into the future. Find out who we are becoming. And let that possible future - not the probable one, because the probable one is going to be more of the same but worse - but the possible one, not matter how improbable, so that we can select that future and allow it to bring us forward to it. So we can become a new human and a new humanity, and awaken the human in an awakened humanity.
So, this is at the core of many of the Shamanic practices in the Americas. How do we break free from cause and effect? From linear time?[…] Well, we do this by breaking free from the grip of Causal Time. This is at the core of the Wisdom Teachings of the Shamans. It’s known as ‘Master your Time’. When you step outside of the linear time, and you step into Infinity. And there, you can dream the world into being. You can dream a NEW world into being, you can participate in co-creation.[…] Because the understanding of the Shamanic society is that we are dreaming the world into being, all the time, anyway.”
“Shamans differentiate between Information and Wisdom… Information is - knowing that water is H2O. And wisdom is - being able to make the rain.” […]
“In the West, we know that we can co-create reality. And we use visualisation, we use intentionality, to create a better outcome for ourselves, and our families… But for the Shaman it doesn’t work that way… You need to begin by dreaming the ENTIRE world into being. And then all of nature, the oceans, and the air, and the sky…, and then the nature around you…, and then your valley, and then your village, and then your neighbourhood, your family, and eventually you. Whereas in the West, we believe that I have to look out after me first, and I’m going to dream a better car, and a nicer looking spouse, and a better job… and then it doesn’t work! Because, co-creating with Spirit has to do with beginning with the totality.[…] For the Shaman, before you can understand the workings of a blade of grass, you have to understand the workings of the Universe. It’s the other direction. Before we can dream better health, better future into being for each one of us personally, we have to dream it for the entire world, for all living creatures, for all beings… for the trees, and for the deer, and for the elk, and the insects, and the whales… including us.[…] Dream a new world into being, now at this time that the old dream has exhausted itself.” […]
“During these times of great transformation that we are living… We are not merely living in a pandemic event, we are living in the 5th great extinction event since the dawn of life on this planet. There’ve been 5 extinction events. The previous one was when a gigantic meteorite struck the Earth and killed all of the dinosaurs and 99% of all life forms. We are in the 5th extinction event and this one is man-made. And species are being lost […] at an unprecedented rate… So we are not only in a pandemic event or in a climate event, but in an extinction event.
And it’s during these times that evolution shifts from being ruled by the Laws of Newtonian Physics and it begins to be ruled by the Laws of Quantum Physics, where we can take part in quantum evolution, and take in a quantum leap into whom we are becoming, as a possible human.
And this is what we do today as modern shamans. Because a shaman is the one who mediates between the visible and the invisible world, the world of form and the world of formlessness, helps things to be born from the invisible world, helps children to be born from the world of spirit, helps the old to die and to return back to the world of spirit.
Today our task is to become co-creators. To accept that invitation from the Great Spirit to create beauty in the world. To dream a new world into being. And to release all of that which has died, that is no longer life supporting, and life giving.”
“Remember that the Shamanic traditions are pre-religious… You can be Christian, or Muslim, or Jewish, or Buddhist, and still have these nature practices with the elements…. with the elements of nature… You can return to your natural state, you can make your way back to that ‘Garden of Eden’… that we were never really kicked out of… We can make our way back to the Garden. […]
We CAN make our way back to the garden. We can recover our natural innocence… that original state where we still ‘spoke with God’. We speak with God, with the river, with the trees, and with all of Nature.”
Now, the only problem for the Shaman is that the Shaman doesn’t have a notion of God like westerners do. Because, in the West, there is a very clear… - in the Abrahamic tradition, in Judaism, Christianity, in Islam - there is a very clear definition of God. But in the Shamanic traditions, the emphasis is not on the Creator, the emphasis is on Creating and Creation. So, you become a steward of Creation and you participate in Creating. Because the theistic religions, that are very God centred, are very much focused on sacrifice, on prayer, and the directionality is between the individual and God. For the Shamans, it is towards Nature, and towards Creating and co-Creating, and knowing that you can never be separate from the Great Spirit, you are infused with it, it’s all around, it’s everything, it’s not separated from the Creation like in the Western traditions.
And the Shamanic traditions are experiential, they are founded on your experience. And this is focused on the 3 core Questions that the Shaman asks herself/himself: The first one is ‘Who am I?’ Am I a Shaman, am I an anthropologist, am I an author, who am I ? And this has become practice in the Eastern traditions, a practice of a query of finding out who you are. And then, when you’ve asked the question long enough, who am I, who am I, then you begin to ask, well, who is it that’s asking the question? Until you come back to discover the vastness of who you are. And the second one is ‘Where do I come from?’, and the third is ‘Where am I going?’ And where we are headed to, us the people. And these are the 3 core Questions that religion in the West has tried to answer in a very simplistic way, and science then came with a better set of answers. Science said: ‘Hey, you came from a primordial soup, you are a bunch of molecules and atoms and cells, and… whom am I becoming, where am I going… you’re not going anywhere!’ And now we are, in the West, discovering that practice of self-inquiry that could truly bring us the rich multifaceted answers to these 3 essential Questions in life: ‘Who am I?’, ‘Where do I come from?’, and ‘Where am I going?’ “
[…]
“…And now the Eagle takes you back to your mountain top, where you started from. Then you thank her, ‘Thank you, Mother, thank you for showing me your ways’… And she reminds you that you took and spread your wings, and always fly wing-to-wing with the Great Spirit. And she bits you farewell, and you know that she used to have the sacred fire that now burns at your heart, and the heart of the sun to your heart… And then you can share this with everyone you meet, with every creature that needs comfort, that needs healing, that needs peace… Then you make your way back to your home, to your room, and to your body…”
“Bring both of your hands to the Heart Centre, sensing and feeling that Holy Fire that burns within it. That’s the fire of the sun that feeds you, supports you… and that it always replenishes itself, it’s inexhaustible - that you may share it freely…”
[…]
“Share the fire, share your light freely… that we may all find a new light as a humanity, that would allow us to dream into being a world where our children’s children can be born into…”
https://learn.lionsroar.com/courses/dalai-lama-summit/lectures/24319785
