Restoring our spiritual senses

The bulk of my friends are in their twenties.  This gives me an opportunity to see how Zen or for that matter, Buddhism, will work in the future.  What I have learned is that it is best to lean towards shamanism, in the sense of helping a person restore their spiritual senses.  It is then much easier to introduce the more recondite side of Buddhism to them which is about realizing one’s true nature, or the same, intuiting pure Mind.

All of us have a spiritual side, but most people have been so despiritualized from childhood that they are no longer aware of what they are missing.  By being despiritualized, such people have become devitalized, consumer automatons.  Neither Zen nor Buddhism can be learned in such a deplorable state.  It is only though some form of shamanism that this problem might be remedied.  This includes the use of spiritual artifacts, including malas, special kinds of incense, mantras, astrology, etc.  It also includes a kind of ritualized sitting and prostrations much like is done in Vajrayana.  

Until one comes into the presence of the luminous Mind (also the Light of Mahayana), or has strong faith that awakening to this radiant Mind is doable, curative and restorative path is necessary.  It is then a matter of coupling one’s despiritualized mind, corrupted by materialism, to spiritual artifacts, symbols, even to mantras, etc.  It is almost impossible to drop the influences of Western materialism, leaping into the heart of Buddhism or Zen Buddhism, fully understanding what is going on.

So powerful is the poison of materialism that nothing else will do except some form of shamanism—maybe even a modern day form.  I would even include martial arts as a shaman-like strategy, for example, Aikido which has its roots in Shinto (Omotokyo). 

Comments

[thezennist]

Kaius:

Not even close. LOL

[Kaius]

And this is the dad of who?
http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=45831&cat=boxer

[Bao Tran]

The Zennist merely mentioned about the world of the spirit and then all hell broke loose in here:)

Puthujana don't like the world of the spirits, may they be benevolent or malevolent, they are unseen and beyond the sense of a dull human. Shaman can detect these spirits, those that are happy, he channels good energy from them. Those that are of the un-happy kinds, he closes down the channel and guard his village from evil demons!

In a modern society, lot of evil messages got through. Through TV and other media, they tell people to consume more, greed is good and all is for me, screw the neighbor......I got mine now, heck with you ;)...........one needs to get away from this 'world' (the daily rat race)..... and get in touch with one's spiritual side.

The first step is to accept that you are spirit, not the physical body. This is simple stuff folks, I still can't understand you Westerners. You read a lot but you have attained nothing. Not until you unlock that inner channel to the spirit world!

Cheers

[Electric Black]

Here is quote from Michael Harner's Core Shamanism website:

"After having personally practiced shamanism, shamanic healing, and shamanic journeying for more than half a century, I can say that there is nothing I have encountered in reports of the spiritual experiences of saints, prophets, psychedelic drug experimenters, near death survivors, avatars and other mystics that is not commonly experienced when following classic journey methods using a drum."
—Michael Harner

http://www.shamanism.org/workshops/index.php

Here is a quote from Wikipedia:

"'Core Shamanism,' which formed the foundations for most contemporary neoshamanism, is a system of practices synthesized, invented and promoted by Michael Harner in the 1980s, based on his readings of non-Native, anthropological texts about Indigenous peoples in the Americas, primarily the Plains Indians.[1] Harner, a non-Native, asserted that the ways of several North American tribes share 'core' elements with those of the Siberian Shamans.[2][3][1] This misappellation led to many non-Natives assuming Harner's inventions were traditional Indigenous ceremonies.[2] However, the peoples of these tribes assert that Harner's creation is not in any way an accurate reproduction of their ceremonies, beliefs or practices,[2][3] nor do they call their spiritual leaders 'shamans'.[2][12]

"Core shamanism does not hold a fixed belief system, but instead focuses on the practice of 'shamanic journeying' and may also rely on the novels of Carlos Castaneda. Specific practices include the use of rapid drumming in an attempt to attain 'the shamanic state of consciousness,' ritual dance, and attempted communication with animal tutelary spirits, called 'power animals' by Harner."[13]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoshamanism

Whew, I was worried about Harner until Wikipedia mentioned he reads Castaneda. Seriously? Michael Harner and his neo-shaman troop are a bunch of posers who think new-age, Creative Visualization exercises are just as good as dying and going to heaven. Seriously, I am NOT going back to that candy-raver bullshit where everybody waves glow-sticks and pretends they're fucking Neo from the Matrix. Chugging gross-tasting smart drinks at the bar, hallucinating some psychotic bullshit about Buddha and the American Indians, and lying around in 'cuddle-puddles' because we're too high to dance. "Things were better back in the day", yeah RIGHT. This garbage is TOTALLY insulting to anyone who has had anything resembling an authentic spiritual experience. Harner needs to get fucked for his phony act. He's an even bigger shithead than Leary was. Neo-shamanism is bullshit for morons, and EVERYBODY can see that. Hey, can you candy-ravers like, dodge bullets and shit? Only when you're not high? Whatever. Just...take this crap back to the 90's, okay?

[thezennist]

Don Radick:

I am glad to see an open can of worms. Let me be blunt. People are really fucked up (despiritualized). They are almost like zombies. They have almost no spiritual cognition. Their grasp of Buddhism when they write about it, is like reading the works of a madman. I have never seen so much incoherent garbage. Without some intermediate path like shamanism in its curative form, Buddhism cannot be understood. The mere fact that there are Buddhists calling themselves secular Buddhists (a kind of oxymoron) shows me that Buddhism can be seriously misunderstood; and to such a point it's counterfeit Buddhism. It actually harms people!