Quote
“Shamanism” has thus come to connote an alternative form of therapy; the emphasis, among these new practitioners of popular shamanism, is on personal insight and curing. These are noble aims, to be sure, yet they are secondary to, and derivative from, the primary role of the indigenous shaman, a role that cannot be fulfilled without long and sustained exposure to wild nature, to its patterns and vicissitudes. Mimicking the indigenous shaman’s curative methods without his intimate knowledge of the wider natural community cannot, if I am correct, do anything more than trade certain symptoms for others, or shift the locus of dis-ease from place to place within the human community. For the source of stress lies in the relation between the human community and the natural landscape.
Abram, David. The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World
I discovered this book as I’ve been diving into soulmaking a bit more and wow, what a gem (i.e. more quotes forthcoming!). The basic idea is that we in the West have lost touch with a direct form of knowing that involves deep observation and embeddedness in the natural world. Implicitly there’s a critique of how shamanic practices are adopted — without that contact with nature, the practices cannot be truly effective.
Links
Speaking of soul-making, found this audio / transcript of a Rob Burbea talk on said topic. Worth listening/reading in full - it puts things so clearly. He really outlines a lot of what is incomplete about the Theravadan path as it relates to the current Western context, and proposes more “constructive” ways of seeing (i.e. soul-making) as a solution. Ultimately what he proposes is tantric in nature, I believe. Also the way he describes the goals of practice around adopting different ways of seeing the world is such a clear explication of how the Path works (i.e. what “Views” are).
Hot off the presses, another wonderful Dharma teacher, Vince Horn, posted this really nice framework for seeing different kinds of emptiness (covering the all the greatest hits - space, time, objects, the path itself, etc.).
On the weirdness of our current moment from the past, a clip of Terrance McKenna from a long time describing the future in which we now live. (h/t Michael Taft)
On Emotional Karma / Dependent Arising
If one observes carefully, one can observe the causal chain of emotions as they spread from person to person — the anger of one person causing anger in oneself, for example. I was reminded of that fact in the responses I heard from some of you readers on that letter to the student I posted earlier this week. It’s funny - that was the most emotionally charged thing I think I’ve linked to, and sure enough it got a reaction. That on its own I think shows that its author probably has some work to do in his own practice. And I myself will be more thoughtful about when to inject dharma controversies, even if it boosts engagement.