Making some tea / For those buying online

 Allthough the best way to go with this sacred medicine is to prepare it and drink it where it grows, with an experienced person, not all of us will have the oportunity to have this session. I´ve been working with this medicine for more than 15 years, but it was not until five years ago that my mentor allowed me to give it to other people. I walked a lot in the Andes in search for different poitns of view about how to prepare this sacred beberage, and nowhere I´ve seen that somebody eats it. This is true, however, for peyote, but these are differents plants with differents spirits in it. The way to go with the San Pedro (called Wachuma, Achuma or simply Medicine in the Andes) is to make a sort of tea.
 Let me insist one more time in ideal conditions: we are in the mountains with a guide, we look for the plant or maybe it´s better to say the plant looks for us and offers herself. We speak to her, we declare that our intentions are sane, in direction to light and healing, we offer something in exchange, like a bund of tabac or white sage leaves, and we cut it. The following step demands a lot of work, taking out prickles, cutting the arm into little pieces and puting them to dry in the sun.
 But, lets take it for granted that we are not going to go to the desert looking for this plant, but we receive it in a discret pakage from an online shop. Trading with sacred plants have several aspects, some of them lamentable, but it also provides a few of us with some material to work with.
 Waht to do? We do our best. So, we receive the plant, may be we can put it some where and thanks her, and apollogize for her death or mutilation, promising that we will go trough this with the apropriate respect. 
 If you cook it fresh, it will work for having some minor vision, but if you dry it you will get better results. So, after carefully taking the prickles, cut it into fine slices and put it at low temperature in the oven, drying them. Then, being aware of the amount of slices, make to equal parts of them, and put one part in a pot, adding water in relation one part plant/three parts water. Let it boil gently for about two hours. Then straine it but make sure you reserve this water. Do this three times, always keeping the water in different containers, and boiling the same slices. Now, take the boiled slices away, and put the new ones in the pot, but instead of adding water, you start with the latest boiled greenish tea, that for now must look clearer than the others. Let it boiled and steam, and go adding these green waters, until everything is in the pot. Then strain and reserve the sacred medicine. Let it cool down. As a result, you will have the most disgusting, bitter tea you ever drinked in your life.
 The proper way to prepare one self for the ritual is to make a diet one week to three days before drinking, leaving alcohol outside your organism for minimum three days. If you wish, you can avoid sexual intercourse for the last three days. The day of the ritual, try not to eat at all, if you´re very hungry and not used to fast, you can eat some fruit (not acid ones) or a very light soup.
 So, you´re sitting there, being aware that you are going to do something ancient, sacred. Prepare your outside conditions and everyday life, so they can leave you in peace for at least twelve hours. Preferably, drink it at dusk, so you can have all night for you. The most important part, however, comes before you drink it. Tobacco is one of the sacred plants in the world and San Pedro likes to be honour with his presence. Tobacco has nothing to do with cigarettes, but you can buy organic tabaco  and roll one. This is the time for prayers, where you speak to the plant in a sincere, modest way, about your fears in life, about your wishes and your problems, etc, just let it come out of your heart. While you´re doing this, keep blowing the smoke on top of the glass, to power the spirit of the plant. Now you are ready to drink, take one deep breath and drink as much as you can, trying not to smell. If you need to stop because it´s too filthy, stop and give it another try, all or nothing.
 Ufff, I think about it and it makes me ... puaj. But, that is how it goes. Lie down for half and hour and let the medicine travels through you´re body, you will feel it investigating your guts very clearly. After a while, you may feel nauseous; it´s totally normal, it´s a most important part of the experience. A lot of emotional stuff that we don´t need is in us, let it come out. You will realice while going through this what I mean, it´s not like vomiting while sick, it´s just the plant cleansing your body, your emotions, your thoughts. This can happens and it usually does, but it´s not a law, It doesn´t have to happens. For instance, I did vomit a lot of stuff after seven days fasting, and didn´t vomit anything after eating shit one day before or the same day.

 Well, the experience must be a little strong and it´s important you stay at home, or in the place in nature that you choose, both have it´s advantages. While at home you can feel secure and listen to good music, few experiences are so blissful as watching the stars and nature under the effect of this sacred medicine, in the company of a fire, in loneliness.  If you go with respect, the plant will give you her love, advice and, above all, protection, so you don´t need to be afraid, just carefull as you gain some experience in interacting with her spirit.


 

Angebote

 * Heilungsitzungen mit Trommel, Rassel und Gesänge
 * Lösung von Tramatische Erlebnisse, Phobien.
 * Schamanische Reise
 * Extraktion Fremde Energie die in unsere Körper und unsere Aura gespeichert ist.
 * Loslassen von die Persönliche Geschichte. Ein neues Sein schaffen.
 * Seelenrückholung.
 * Einweihungen mit Kraftpflanzen.
 * Ausbildung

Krankheit

Eine Krankheit erfüllt zwei Zwecke. Ersten ist sie ein Zeichnen, dass wir nicht mehr auf unserem Weg sind, und zweitens ist sie ein Wegweiser zurück zum Weg ...
 ... eine Krankheit ein Lehrer ist, welcher uns unterstützt, und nicht ein Gegner, den es zu bekämpfen gilt. Wir begegnen also eine Kranheit mit Respekt und nicht mit Abscheu.

 ( Jakob Oertli, Schamanisches Heilbuch, Heyne)

Der Essenz der Schamanismus

 Kurz zusammengefasst kennzeichnen lediglich zwei Elemente den Schamanen:
 1. Er ist ein Mensch, der Konsequent seinen Weg geht.
 2. Als unterstützung hierzu ändert er mitunter seine Wahrnemung, um in eine anderen Wirklichkeit Hilfe zu erhlaten.

 * Zum eigenen Weg: Schamanene stecken in vielen Spannungsfeldern oder Ungleichgewichten. Diese werden hauptsächlich durch Erfahrungen aus der eigenen Vergangenheit und insbesondere aus der Kindheit geprägt. Der Schamane spricht hier von Wunden oder Blockaden, die er aufzulösen hat. Sein Weg führt aus diesen Spannungsfeldern und zusehends zu Harmonie, zu Gleichgewicht, Liebe, Freiheit oder wie dieser Zustand auch immer gennant wird. Dieser Weg wird durch das Herz gefunden, das heißt, wir folgen dann unserem Pfad, wenn wir jede Entscheidung mit dem Herzen treffen ...

 * Zur anderung der Wahrnemung: als Unterstütztung kann ein Schamane vorübergehend seine Wahrnemung ändern und die materielle Welt des Alltags verlassen, um in einer Spirituellen Wahrnemung Hinweise über konkrete Anliegen seines Weg zu erhalten. Diese Reise - Vision oder Schamanische Reise gennant - ist meist voller Symbole und Erlebnisse, die in Zusammenhang mit dem anliegen stehen. Die Schamanische Reise wird mithilfe eines spirituellen Helfers unternommen, einer Gestalt aus der spirituellen Welt, welche dem Schamane freundlich gesinnt ist und ihn auf der schamanischen Reise leitet.

 Diese beiden Elemente sind der Essenz der Schamanismus. Alles anderes, was sichtbar mit Schamanismus in Verbindung gebracht wird, wie Rituale, Schwitzhütten, Rasseln oder Tänze, sin lediglich zusätzliche Hilfsmittel, welche entweder den eigenen Weg oder die Änderung der Wahrnemung unterstützen.

 (Jakob Oertli, Schamanisches Heilbuch, Heyne)

Heil - Galsan Tschinag

 Wir haben halt nicht die Kirche über uns, sondern den Himmel, und ein jeder betet zum Himmel, zu den Bergen. dem Altai ... Ej baj Aldajm
 Heil - das ist wahrscheinlich der natürliche Zustand des Lebewesens. Auch wenn das nür Gräser sind - Gräser, die so wachsen, wie normale Gräser auf der Wiese zu wachsen haben. Die Menschen sind ja auch Gräser einer bestimmten Wiese. Ihnen den normalzustand zurückgeben, das ist Heilen nach unserem Verständnis. Die sache braucht den ganzen Menschen. Den Menschen ganz, heil kriegen und somit selbstsicher. Wenn Gräser wachsen, glaube ich, denken sie nicht daran zu wachsen. Sie wachsen einfach. In dem Augenblick, in dem sie anfange würden zu denken, würde das wachsen ihnen schwerfallen. So ist ja auch unser Leben. Also, entweder lebe ich, oder ich denke daran, wie ich lebe. In dem Augenblick, in dem ich anfange zu denken, ob mein Leben gut oder schlecht sei, das ist dann schon ein belastetes Leben. Einfach das Gras wachsen lassen, den Menschen leben lassen, ihm dazu die Freiheit lassen. Ich kann dazu nur so viel sagen. Nicht mal wissen, dass ich lebe. Einfach da sein.

 ( Galsan Tschinag, Der Singende Fels, Unionsverlag)

Curación

La curación no puede encontrarse sino en el interior de uno mismo y la medicina es una de las llaves para abrir las puertas de acceso a esa consciencia más profunda. La enfermedad aparece como una barrera necesaria sin la cual la persona permanece siempre en el mismo nivel de ser; a través de su comprensión, el individuo puede superar esta barrera, generar el cambio necesario y trascender del estado de enfermedad a un estado de salud, entendiéndose por ésto un estado de totalidad y armonía.
 Curar es la re-unión del Yo con el Todo. La falsa identificación es la peor ignorancia. La identificación con el Ego y su fragmentada realidad es lo que produce todo lo que llamamos "males". El conocimiento directo y personal del Espíritu es lo que produce el bien-estar. Los "males" o "daños" se alojan finalmente en el cuerpo (tras haberse originado en los campos más sutiles del pensamiento o la emoción) generando la enfermedad y la discordia.
 Si permitiéramos a nuestro cuerpo sencillamente ser, éste sería capaz de curar casi cualquier cosa. Pero la enfermedad viene siempre acompañada de identificación emocional y cadenas de pensamientos negativos que influyen considerablemente en el proceso de curación. De allí que resulte tan útil el estudio y la armonización de los centros físico, emocional e intelectual para que colaboren sanando los diversos aspectos de la herida.
 Curar no es la desaparición de un síntoma. Es comprender el "daño", dejarlo ir a través del perdón y el amor incondicional y finalmente "sellar" la herida y ofrendar el tiempo necesario para su cicatrización.
 Todos los chamanes y sanadores de todas las épocas lo han repetido hasta el hartazgo: no es uno el que cura sino el Poder que pasa a través de uno. Si uno puede acceder al Silencio, al Aquí y Ahora donde mora el poder del Espíritu, puede permitir el paso de energías más elevadas para que actúen en este mundo terrenal. La manifestación de leyes de otro mundo en el nuestro se denomina a veces Milagro.

¿Qué es la Wachuma?

La Wachuma es una medicina ancestral que se prepara con algunas partes del cactus Trichocereus Pachanoi o algún otro de la familia Trichocereus. La antigüedad de su uso se pierde en la noche de los tiempos, habiéndose encontrado vestigios de su utilización 4000 años atrás en la zona de Los Andes.
 Los españoles bautizaron esta planta con el nombre de San Pedro, pues creían que podía abrir las puertas del cielo. Su utilización en los tiempos de "la conquista" fue prohibida y en muchos casos se tergiversó su espíritu con el fin de que la gente no obtuviera una experiencia directa y personal de la Divinidad, de modo tal que el "poder" o la "palabra de Dios" quedara en manos de los sacerdotes invasores. Se cree en forma errónea que todo el conocimiento ligado a estas plantas y a la "escuela andina" o "Qhapaq Kuna" fue desterrado para dar lugar al cristianismo y al sistema de creencias occidental. Sin embargo, esto no es cierto. El conocimiento se retiró al Silencio y aguardó allí con una sonrisa tolerante hasta que vinieran tiempos más propicios. Esos tiempos han llegado y en la actualidad se vuelve a re-descubrir el poder sanador de la Wachuma junto a otras plantas maestras. 
  Esta medicina actúa equilibrando los centros físico, emocional y psicológico (intelectual) del individuo, generando así una expansión de la consciencia, el acceso a los centros superiores y una sanación personal en todos los niveles. La energía sexual/creativa, que es el combustible con el cual se alimentan todos los centros del hombre, busca constantemente su camino desde la base de la columna vertebral hacia los centros superiores, pero su trayecto es a menudo impedido por bloqueos de diversa índole. Las desviaciones de esta energía y las barreras que la detienen en distintos lugares generan ciertos tipos de dolencias y estancamientos en el flujo energético que devienen en Enfermedad.
 En el plano físico la Wachuma ayuda poderosamente a desintoxicar el organismo. Las toxinas resultantes de la típica dieta moderna/occidental, basada en harinas refinados, azúcares y alimentos chatarra que generan una gran acidez y la consecuente desarmonía entre ácido y alcalino, son expulsadas del cuerpo a través de la orina o el vómito. Se consigue así un enorme alivio y muchos malestares sencillamente desaparecen.
 En el plano emocional, se genera un contacto con antiguos y olvidados sentimientos de libertad, paz, amor y perdón y el lastre de los remordimientos, el odio, la envidia o el rencor, pueden ser dejados atrás tal como la serpiente se deshace de su vieja piel. Viejas heridas pueden ser cerradas y trascendidas. Sucesos traumáticos que han encadenado partes de nuestro ser en el pasado se contemplan desde ángulos más compasivos y el camino se despeja.
 En el plano intelectual se activan zonas del cerebro rara vez usadas en la vida corriente. Se resuelven viejos conflictos al ser contemplados a la luz de la propia consciencia y se desarrolla un pensar más libre y creativo en oposición a las cadenas de asociaciones mecánicas que normalmente gobiernan la vida de mucha gente. Puede hacerse contacto con un tipo de pensamiento superior el cual lejos de moverse en forma lineal y descontrolada, gira en analogías cada vez más profundas que a su vez van ampliando el radio de nuestra consciencia y nuestra comprensión. 
 Finalmente, se armonizan estos tres aspectos y el individuo puede sumergirse en experiencias extáticas o visiones místicas que dotan de un nuevo significado a la vida de la persona.

El Silencio de Palabra

El Silencio de Palabra no significa permanecer todo el tiempo callado, sino más bien otorgarle al don del habla un nuevo significado. Aprender a callar y aprender a escuchar nos provee la oportunidad de intervenir en forma correcta nuestra mecanicidad en general. Para realizar este ejercicio se requiere no solo de una gran fuerza de voluntad sino también de una observación constante y metódica de uno mismo, lo que conlleva un trabajo consciente con la atención dirigida.
 Durante casi todo el tiempo estamos identificados con algunas de las falsas capas que recubren nuestra esencia e intentamos expresarlas sobre todo a través de la charla mecánica. La importancia que nos damos a nosotros mismos y el deseo de mantener la propia imagen con el fin de agradar a todos nos quita una enorme cantidad de energía.
 Estar callado no significa permanecer en un rincón de la oscuridad con la boca cerrada, significa que ya no envenenamos el medio ambiente y nuestras relaciones con las pomposas o victimizadas frases de nuestro ego y así tal vez, aprendemos a entrar y permanecer en el Silencio. Estar en el Silencio implica necesariamente entrar en comunión con la maravillosa e inacabable fuente de poder del Aquí y Ahora. Y es ahí donde nos damos cuenta que no hay nada que adquirir. Nos damos cuenta que toda la sabiduría, la paz, la quietud, el amor y la libertad que buscamos o esperamos nos venga de afuera, está realmente adentro nuestro y es solo que no la dejamos salir, pues la enorme cantidad de pieles que hemos construido en torno de nuestro ser nos impide ver esta realidad.
 Al alcanzar este estado, una gran humildad nos impregna pues vemos que no somos nada. Y curiosamente es allí donde realmente somos. Solamente ser, permitirse ser lo que uno en verdad es, es decir, parte del Espíritu, nos capacita a recibir (de nuestro interior) una magnífica cantidad de conocimiento, de consciencia, de luz.
 Nunca es otro el que cura. El poder que pasa a través de ese otro cuando éste entró en el Silencio, es lo que realmente permite la curación.

 " El dolor es inevitable, el sufrimiento una elección ", Buda

 Aquí y Ahora, El Presente y La Presencia

 Sin la observación y el estudio de uno mismo no puede existir la posibilidad de evolución o desarrollo personal. Es una ilusión inútil creer en la evolución mecánica. Todo requiere esfuerzo, pero no un esfuerzo cualquiera. Se debe comprender en qué dirección y en qué momento realizar el esfuerzo y ésto no es posible a no ser que uno se observe a sí mismo y establezca cuál es su posición respecto del universo y del hombre tal como es actualmente y tal como podría llegar a ser. Esto incluye la comprensión de los prinicipales obstáculos que le impiden a uno llegar a manifestar con total plenitud sus cualidades más elevadas.
 A través de ciertos ejercicios específicos junto a la observación de sí, comienza a manifestarse la Consciencia Testigo y uno se da cuenta, si se observó con sinceridad, que casí nunca está presente en el Presente. Estar en el Presente no implica solamente vivir el Hoy, como algunos dicen, sino habitar con cierta presencia cada segundo del Aquí y el Ahora. Esto requiere un control de la Atención. Sin Atención nada es posible. Sin embargo tenemos muy poca, y la poca que tenemos la malgastamos identificàndonos ya sea con los pensamientos,              sentimientos o con cualquier otra cosa.
 Volver una y otra vez al Aquí y al Ahora demanda sencillamente darse cuenta que nos dormimos y nos fuimos a la luna en imaginaciones, recuerdos, fantasías, pavadas. Nuestro cuerpo es quien sufre las consecuencias del embravecido océano de la mente. Debemos arrojar el ancla de la meditación y la presencia para poder así acercarnos a los muelles del presente y desembarcar en la tierra prometida.
 La abrumadora felicidad de la tierra del presente disuelve toda discordia, sin embargo, no se llega allí de casualidad sino a través de esfuerzos conscientes en una dirección determinada. El Presente y la Presencia de uno en él, quitan las sábanas de todos los fantasmas. Se abre entonces otro mundo, basado en emociones puras y sin miedo alguno, ya que éste deja de existir al contemplar la rebosante bienaventuranza que impregna y cohesiona cada intersticio de este insondable universo. 
  A veces nuestra mente nos hace creer que estamos realizando un gran sacrificio. Sin embargo, paradójicamente, todo lo que uno debe sacrificar para acercarse al umbral que divide la vida mecánica de la vida consciente, es irreal. Sólo es lastre que hemos adquirido a través de nuestra historia personal, piedras que consideramos reales debido a la identificación y cuyo peso convierte nuestro andar en un calvario.

To Know Yourself is to Forget Yourself, by Pema Chödron

"We might think that knowing ourselves is a very ego-centered thing, but by beginning to look clearly and honestly at ourselves, we begin to dissolve the walls  that separate us from others."

The journey of awakening happens just at the place where we  can't get comfortable. Opening to discomfort is the basis of transmuting our so-called "negative" feelings. We somehow want to get rid of our uncomfortable feelings either by justifying them or by squelching them, but it turns out that this is like throwing the baby out with the bath water. According to the teachings of vajrayana, or  tantric, Buddhism, our wisdom and our confusion are so interwoven that it doesn't work to  just throw things out.
 By trying to get rid of "negativity," by trying to eradicate it, by  putting it into a column labelled "bad," we are throwing away our wisdom as  well, because everything in us is creative energy-particularly our strong emotions. They  are filled with life-force.
 There is nothing wrong with negativity per se; the problem is that we never see it,  we never honor it, we never look into its heart. We don't taste our negativity, smell it,  get to know it. Instead, we are always trying to get rid of it by punching someone in the  face, by slandering someone, by punishing ourselves, or by repressing our feelings. In  between repression and acting out, however, there is something wise and profound and  timeless.
 If we just try to get rid of negative feelings, we don't realize that those  feelings are our wisdom. The transmutation comes from the willingness to hold our seat with the feeling, to let the words go, to let the justification go. We don't have to have  resolution. We can live with a dissonant note; we don't have to play the next key to end  the tune.
 Curiously enough, this journey of transmutation is one of tremendous joy. We usually seek joy in the wrong places, by trying to avoid feeling whole parts of the human  condition. We seek happiness by believing that whole parts of what it is to be human are  unacceptable. We feel that something has to change in ourselves. However, unconditional  joy comes about through some kind of intelligence in which we allow ourselves to see  clearly what we do with great honesty, combined with a tremendous kindness and gentleness.  This combination of honesty, or clear-seeing, and kindness is the essence of  maitri-unconditional friendship with ourselves.
 This is a process of continually stepping into unknown territory. You become willing to step into the unknown territory of your own being. Then you realize that this  particular adventure is not only taking you into your own being, it's also taking you out  into the whole universe. You can only go into the unknown when you have made friends with  yourself. You can only step into those areas "out there" by beginning to explore  and have curiosity about this unknown "in here," in yourself.
 Dogen Zen-ji said, "To know yourself is to forget yourself." We might  think that knowing ourselves is a very ego-centered thing, but by beginning to look so clearly and so honestly at ourselves-at our emotions, at our thoughts, at who we really  are-we begin to dissolve the walls that separate us from others. Somehow all of these  walls, these ways of feeling separate from everything else and everyone else, are made up  of opinions. They are made up of dogma; they are made of prejudice. These walls come from  our fear of knowing parts of ourselves.
 There is a Tibetan teaching that is often translated as, "Self-cherishing is  the root of all suffering." It can be hard for a Western person to hear the term  "self-cherishing" without misunderstanding what is being said. I would guess  that 85% of us Westerners would interpret it as telling us that we shouldn't care for ourselves-that there is something anti-wakeful about respecting ourselves. But that isn't  what it really means. What it is talking about is fixating. "Self-cherishing"  refers to how we try to protect ourselves by fixating; how we put up walls so that we  won't have to feel discomfort or lack of resolution. That notion of self-cherishing refers  to the erroneous belief that there could be only comfort and no discomfort, or the belief  that there could be only happiness and no sadness, or the belief that there could be just  good and no bad.
 But what the Buddhist teachings point out is that we could take a much bigger perspective, one that is beyond good and evil. Classifications of good and bad come from  lack of maitri. We say that something is good if it makes us feel secure and it's bad if  it makes us feel insecure. That way we get into hating people who make us feel insecure  and hating all kinds of religions or nationalities that make us feel insecure. And we like  those who give us ground under our feet.
 When we are so involved with trying to protect ourselves, we are unable to see the  pain in another person's face. "Self-cherishing" is ego fixating and grasping: it ties our hearts, our shoulders, our head, our stomach, into knots. We can't open.  Everything is in a knot. When we begin to open we can see others and we can be there for  them. But to the degree that we haven't worked with our own fear, we are going to shut  down when others trigger our fear.
 So to know yourself is to forget yourself. This is to say that when we make friends  with ourselves we no longer have to be so self-involved. It's a curious twist: making  friends with ourselves is a way of not being so self-involved anymore. Then Dogen Zen-ji  goes on to say, "To forget yourself is to become enlightened by all things."  When we are not so self-involved, we begin to realize that the world is speaking to us all  of the time. Every plant, every tree, every animal, every person, every car, every  airplane is speaking to us, teaching us, awakening us. It's a wonderful world, but we  often miss it. It's as if we see the previews of coming attractions and never get to the  main feature.
 When we feel resentful or judgmental, it hurts us and it hurts others. But if we look into it we might see that behind the resentment there is fear and behind the fear  there is a tremendous softness. There is a very big heart and a huge mind-a very awake,  basic state of being. To experience this we begin to make a journey, the journey of  unconditional friendliness toward the self that we already are.

Egoless Means More

Precisely because the ego, the soul and the Self can all be  present simultaneously, we can better understand the real meaning of egolessness, a notion  that has caused an inordinate amount of confusion. But egolessness does not mean the  absence of a functional self (that's a psychotic, not a sage); it means that one is no  longer exclusively identified with that self.
One of the many reasons we have trouble with the notion of egoless is that people  want their egoless sages to fulfill all their fantasies of saintly or spiritual, which  usually means dead from the neck down, without fleshy wants or desires, gently smiling all  the time. All of the things that people typically have trouble with money, food, sex,  relationships, desire they want their saints to be without. Egoless sages who are above  all that is what people want. Talking heads is what they want. Religion, they believe, will simply get rid of all baser instincts, drives and relationships, and hence they look  to religion, not for advice on how to live life with enthusiasm, but on how to avoid it,  repress it, deny it, escape it.
In other words, the typical person wants the spiritual sage to be less than a person, somehow devoid of all the messy, juicy, complex, pulsating, desiring, urging  forces that drive most human beings. We expect our sages to be an absence of all that  drives us! All the things that frighten us, confuse us, torment us, confound us: we want  our sages to be untouched by them altogether. And that absence, that vacancy, that less  than personal, is what we often mean by egoless.
But egoless does not mean less than personal, it means more than personal. Not  personal minus, but personal plus all the normal personal qualities, plus some  transpersonal ones. Think of the great yogis, saints and sages from Moses to Christ to  Padmasambhava. They were not feeble-mannered milquetoasts, but fierce movers and shakers  from bullwhips in the Temple to subduing entire countries. They rattled the world on its  own terms, not in some pie-in-the-sky piety; many of them instigated massive social  revolutions that have continued for thousands of years.
And they did so not because they avoided the physical, emotional and mental  dimensions of humanness and the ego that is their vehicle, but because they engaged them  with a drive and intensity that shook the world to its very foundations. No doubt, they  were also plugged into the soul (deeper psychic) and spirit (formless Self) the ultimate  source of their power but they expressed that power, and gave it concrete results, precisely because they dramatically engaged the lower dimensions through which that power  could speak in terms that could be heard by all.
These great movers and shakers were not small egos; they were, in the very best  sense of the term, big egos, precisely because the ego (the functional vehicle of the  gross realm) can and does exist alongside the soul (the vehicle of the subtle) and the  Self (vehicle of the causal). To the extent these great teachers moved the gross realm,  they did so with their egos, because the ego is the functional vehicle of that realm. They  were not, however, identified merely with their egos (that's a narcissist), they simply  found their egos plugged into a radiant Kosmic source. The great yogis, saints and sages  accomplished so much precisely because they were not timid little toadies but great big  egos, plugged into the dynamic Ground and Goal of the Kosmos itself, plugged into their  own higher Self, alive to the pure atman (the pure I-I) that is one with Brahman; they  opened their mouths and the world trembled, fell to its knees, and confronted its radiant  God.
Saint Teresa was a great contemplative? Yes, and Saint Teresa is the only woman  ever to have reformed an entire Catholic monastic tradition (think about it). Gautama  Buddha shook India to its foundations. Rumi, Plotinus, Bodhidharma, Lady Tsogyal, Lao Tzu,  Plato, the Bal Shem Tov these men and women started revolutions in the gross realm that  lasted hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years, something neither Marx nor Lenin nor Locke  nor Jefferson can yet claim. And they did not do so because they were dead from the neck  down. No, they were monumentally, gloriously, divinely big egos, plugged into a deeper  psychic, which was plugged straight into God.
There is certainly a type of truth to the notion of transcending ego : it doesnÕt  mean destroy the ego, it means plug it into something bigger. (As Nagarjuna put it, in the  relative world, atman is real; in the absolute, neither atman nor anatman is real. Thus,  in neither case is anatta a correct description of reality.) The small ego does not  evaporate; it remains as the functional center of activity in the conventional realm. As I  said, to lose that ego is to become a psychotic, not a sage.
Transcending the ego thus actually means to transcend but include the ego in a  deeper and higher embrace, first in the soul or deeper psychic, then with the Witness or  primordial Self, then with each previous stage taken up, enfolded, included and embraced  in the radiance of One Taste. And that means we do not get rid of the small ego, but  rather, we inhabit it fully, live it with verve, use it as the necessary vehicle through  which higher truths are communicated. Soul and Spirit include body, emotions and mind;  they do not erase them.
Put bluntly, the ego is not an obstruction to Spirit, but a radiant manifestation  of Spirit. All Forms are not other than Emptiness, including the form of the ego. It is  not necessary to get rid of the ego, but simply to live it with a certain exuberance. When  identification spills out of the ego and into the Kosmos at large, the ego discovers that  the individual atman is in fact all of a piece with Brahman. The big Self is indeed no  small ego, and thus, to the extent you are stuck in your small ego, a death and transcendence is required. Narcissists are simply people whose egos are not yet big enough  to embrace the entire Kosmos, and so they try to be central to the Kosmos instead.
But we do not want our sages to have big egos; we do not even want them to display  a manifest dimension at all. Anytime a sage displays humanness in regard to money, food,  sex, relationships we are shocked, shocked, because we are planning to escape life  altogether, not live it, and the sage who lives life offends us. We want out, we want to  ascend, we want to escape, and the sage who engages life with gusto, lives it to the hilt,  grabs each wave of life and surfs it to the end this deeply, profoundly disturbs us,  frightens us, because it means that we, too, might have to engage life, with gusto, on all  levels, and not merely escape it in a cloud of luminous ether. We do not want our sages to  have bodies, egos, drives, vitality, sex, money, relationships, or life, because those are  what habitually torture us, and we want out. We do not want to surf the waves of life, we  want the waves to go away. We want vaporware spirituality.
The integral sage, the nondual sage, is here to show us otherwise. Known generally  as tantric, these sages insist on transcending life by living it. They insist on finding  release by engagement, finding nirvana in the midst of samsara, finding total liberation  by complete immersion. They enter with awareness the nine rings of hell, for nowhere else  are the nine heavens found. Nothing is alien to them, for there is nothing that is not One  Taste.
Indeed, the whole point is to be fully at home in the body and its desires, the  mind and its ideas, the spirit and its light. To embrace them fully, evenly,  simultaneously, since all are equally gestures of the One and Only Taste. To inhabit lust  and watch it play; to enter ideas and follow their brilliance; to be swallowed by Spirit  and awaken to a glory that time forgot to name. Body and mind and spirit, all contained,  equally contained, in the ever-present awareness that grounds the entire display.
In the stillness of the night, the Goddess whispers. In the brightness of the day,  dear God roars. Life pulses, mind imagines, emotions wave, thoughts wander. What are all  these but the endless movements of One Taste, forever at play with its own gestures,  whispering quietly to all who would listen: is this not you yourself? When the thunder  roars, do you not hear your Self? When the lightning cracks, do you not see your Self?  When clouds float quietly across the sky, is this not your very own limitless Being,  waving back at you?

Material in this column appears in One Taste: The  Journals of Ken Wilber, from Shambhala Publications Inc., Boston. Copyright Ken  Wilber, 1998.

Was ist ein Schamane?

 Schamanen sind Ärtzte, Priester, Sozialarbeiter und Mystiker in einem. Sie wurden als Geisteskranke bezeichnet, waren durch die Geschichte hindurch immer wieder Verfolgungen ausgesetezt, wurden in den 60er Jahren als "Phantasieprodukt" anthropologischer Vorstellungen abgetan und sind heute so in Mode, das sie sowohl intensive akademische Debaten auslösen, als auch zur Namengebung von Popgruppen dienen. Das Wort Schamane stammt aus der spreche der Ewenken, einer kleinen tungusischsprechenden Gruppe von Jägern und Rentierhirten in Sibirien. Es wurde ursprünglich nur zur Bezeichnung eines religiösen Spezialisten dieser Region benutzt. Zu Beginn des 20. Jhd. wurde der Begriff in Nordamerika schon für einen großen Teil der Medizinmänner und Medizinfrauen verwendet und wird heute von New-Age-Anhängern für alle jene Personen gebraucht, die in irgendeiner Form Lontakt zu Geistern haben.
 Von der Seele des sibirischen Schamanen heißt es, das sie den Körper verlassen und zu anderen Teilen des Kosmos reisen kann, besonders zu einer Oberwelt in Himmel und zu einer Unterwelt unter der Erde. Diese Fähigkeit findet sich traditionellerweise nür in bestimmten Teilen der Welt und erlaubt uns, in diesen Fällen von eindeutig schamanistichen Gesellschaften und Kulturen zu sprechen. Eine allgemeinere Definition würde auch jene Personen umfassen, die zwar in der Lage sind, ihre Trance zu beherrschen, selbst wenn dies, wie in Korea, keine Seelenreise einschließt. In diesen Sinn unterscheiden sich Schamanen von anderen Medien, die von Geistern besessen sind oder von ihnen beherrscht werden. Jedoch selbst wenn der Schamane unter kontrollierten Bedingungen in Trance fällt, bleibt bei seiner "Herrschaft" über die Geister ein hohes Risiko bestehen. Die Beruf des Schamanen muß als psychisch auserordentlich gefährlich betrachtet werden, mit einem konstanten Risiko zu Krankheit oder Tot.

 ... Kein Schamane kann ohne eine ihn umgebende Gesellschaft existieren, und Schamanismus ist keine einheitliche Religion, sondern eine kulturübergreifende Form religiöser  Wahrnehmung und Praxis.

 ... Es existiert keine Doktrin, keine Schamanische Weltkirche, kein heiliges Buch, auch keine Priester, der sagt, was richtig oder was falsch ist.

 (Piers Vitebsky, Schamanismus, Reisen der Seele, Magische Kräfte, Ekstase und Heilung, Knaur Verlag)

El Chamanismo

 El chamanismo no es una religión; es un conjunto de técnicas específicas que tienden a promover la experiencia directa de lo divino. Sin descartar la creencia o la fe, hace sin embargo hincapié en alcanzar personalmente el contacto con estados superiores de consciencia, lo que resulta en una curación en los niveles físicos, emocional y psicológico. 
 En los últimos siglos se ha tratado la figura del chamán despectivamente; tal vez ésto se deba a que el terapeuta/chamán tiene como objetivo despertar al paciente a su verdadero estado de libertad, conseguir su individuación y alcanzar el ser puro, a través de la experiencia directa del amor divino y no a través de dogmas o utilizando personas con autoridad para interceder ante lo superior.
 La luz se encuentra dentro de cada uno de nosotros, y la función del chamán es solamente ayudar al paciente a abrir esa puerta para que lo superior pueda entrar en su vida. 
 Tanto el chamán como el paciente se involucran en un viaje de curación, donde a través de la disciplina, una clara intención y una confianza que se va acrecentado con la consecución de resultados, se logra un bienestar general de todas las partes que conforman este misterio que llamamos Ser Humano.