I don't know why, but I absolutely cannot remember seeing this kind of beauty in Michigan before. I have been up to the NW a few times when I was younger....but wow! I am totally in love with these small little towns and the natural hidden treasure troves they contain.
A few days ago I felt like my time in Pentwater was coming to close. So, getting the itch to move on, I headed north. First stop was Ludington. I don't know why, but I always felt like Ludington was supposed to be nicer than Pentwater. Maybe it was just the place I came into, but it felt somewhat downtrodden and depressing. I do really like their library though. I spent one night there and, after resting along the Ludington state park shore, got out fairly quickly.
The hard thing about traveling, as I am sure many of you know, is trying to weed through the many places to stop. ALL of it seems so exciting and liberating to discover and explore. I tried many times to stop in certain places that would catch my eye. however, listening to my gut, I simply could not stop and rest in these places.
So on and on I drove! Through Manistee, up to Onekama, and resting for awhile in Arcadia. I stopped there because the name reminded me of the craft brewing company (I have no idea where the actual company is located.) There was a tiny little beach that I walked up and down for awhile. This beach had the perfect medicine for my emotional turbulence from the last day or two of Pentwater. It was calm, gentle, inviting. I walked up and down the beach for a little while until I decided to write. So I sat on a bench swing and was instantly taken back to my younger years.
When I was a littl'un, my grandma Garland used to take me out into the back of her yard where we would pick tomatoes and cucumbers (I am sure my brother and all of my cousins know of this.) Then, once we were done, we would sit on her wooden bench swing and just be there. We would talk, dream, eat, and even sit silently. It is one of my most cherished memories of her.
Once done, I had the inkling to keep moving on. I suppose one just has to listen to this urge. I am sure glad I did. Next I came to Elberta.
If you look at google maps I can guide you towards seeing exactly where I stayed (I know my dad will be interested in this.) Unfortunately, this map doesn't allow you to see the actual contours of the land. you can see that beyond the city lies a...peninsula? I am not sure what to call it. Basically, the land ends and there is no bridge to cross to get to the other side. When you look at the map you see two streets, furnace and bye, with a big building right near it. The driveway to that building actually goes until the sandy little part (satellite version.) I parked my car in that secluded sandy spot and hitched my gear up an extremely steep sand dune. Walking through the brush until I found a spot that worked.
I was literally camping on the edge of a cliff that faced Lake MI. It was very beautiful. This secluded spot gave me an opportunity to do some shamanic work out in the land. I sang and drummed for a long time overlooking the setting sun. Eventually, I met with a few spirits of that land. This time the work was more potent since I was able to invest more time in working with them.
Since I was secluded enough, I decided to ask the spirits to stay on the land throughout the time I was there. That night I was greeted by a deer and, in the morning, greeted by my first ever natural sighting of an owl. As soon as I looked up out of my tent it perched itself on the tree not 25 feet ahead and stayed until I began to rustle about.
Since I didn't have anywhere to be, I made my way on up to Empire, where I currently rest. When I arrived I stopped at a small chocolate shop. This shop, called Grocer's daughter, is actually opening up a store in Grand Rapids pretty soon. So I have been dividing my time between hitting up the beach on Esch road, and coming into town to use the library. This town seems to have a lot more kids my age...though I am still a little bit travel-shy when it comes to just walking up to people and talking to them.
I'll have some more updates pretty soon on the work, so stay tuned!
Friday, May 31, 2013
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Mask Shamanism and usage #3: Religion as an immortality project
So, since this weekend has been memorial weekend, I have had a lot of free time on my hands. I recently found a collection of places that I would like to contact and hopefully go to with my ceremony. But since most people are on holiday, I will be beginning that tomorrow. I have been busy though!
I am about to head out of Pentwater and move on towards Ludington, and then hopefully I'll be taking off to North Manitou Island for 5 days or so. This is a leave no trace/camp where you want island of bare minimums. So a lot of seclusion. I'll most likely be away from all forms of electronics. I will however, be able to work a lot with my meditation practice and my shamanic practice outside of the ceremonies, individual counseling, and blogging that I do.
North Manitou is the bigger of the two islands, with more wilderness and less man-made structures. Although I have heard that a few of the old homes that existed before the land became a park still exist. There is only one spot on the entire island that allows for making a fire. I don't think they have bathrooms either. I guess I will find that out when I get there. :o
South Manitou is more populated and has more construction on it. I believe there are three designated campgrounds. It is also much smaller. It's too bad that my camera is still non-functional. : (
Also, I have received some feedback about the font color being hard to read against the background. I will see if there is any way to make it better.
Here we come to our third usage of religion.
3. Religion as an immortality project. This is using the technical term we earlier introduced, but the actual term itself need not be invoked. The idea is simply that religion is fundamentally a wishful, defensive, compensatory belief, created in order to assuage insecurity/anxiety. This meaning is often applied to theology, but it is also used for rational and secular endeavors, as when Becker says that Marxism is Soviet religion, meaning not just mana-search but death denial. This can occur, as we have seen, on any level, and simply reflects that level's inherent taboo avoidance. In this particular function, science does for the rational ego exactly what myth does for the childish ego and magic does for the infantile ego-helps to veil the apprehension of ultimate and inescapable mortality by providing a belief system to "hang on to." This seems especially true of "scienticians," that is, scientists whose rd-2 religion (mana religion) happens to be science itself. I have found that, when push comes to shove, they will guard their exclusively rational world view with a quivering passion every bit as charged with hoped-for immortality as that of a shrieking fundamentalist preacher. The point is simply that each level (short of the ultimate) tends to erect some sort of immortality project as part of its necessary defense structures, and this usage of religion simply keys on this particular funtion (although, typically, most of those who use this definition deny that there is any other.)
This is another one of those yes and no answers, depending on context. Let us explore the no answer first.
Mask Shamanism is not a wishful, defensive, compensatory belief, created in order to assuage insecurity/anxiety. First of all, all authentic religious disciplines have behind them a method of inquiry with reproducible evidence that can be verified by separate communities. This is, by another term, the scientific method. The scientific method has, by many people today, come to mean only empirical (or physical) evidence. Notice that, in our country, spiritual practice boomed with the discovery of empirical evidence supporting the fact that something is happening within these religious disciplines such as Buddhism, yoga, etc. Using the scientific method in the way that it was meant to be, shamanism actually has a minimum of 40,000 years of verified observations cross-culturally, from people who have never even met or heard of each other. The scientific revolution, despite all of the good things it has brought (such as the step away from pre-rational religion, more physical security, global connections, etc.), comes nowhere even close to having a body of that much evidence. The revolution taking place between science and religion is really the beginning of a more sophisticated inquiry of spiritual disciplines (our scientific materialist culture will have a hard time putting science in the appropriate context...much like fundamentalist religion did, and still does, with the scientific revolution.) This means more controlled studies, a more highly developed language, more precision with the mapping of the disciplines (as well as their findings), wading through cultural traps inherent in different cultural religions, etc. This last one is not used to help end culture. Rather, it allows for more freedom of expression with individual cultures and allows for the understanding that there are truths that rest above culture. This creates interdisciplinary dialogue which, with help from movements like the integral/AQAL, allow for all disciplines to be involved in the great quest for truth. Each discipline just has certain boundaries that, once crossed, becomes pathological.
Mask Shamanism is an immortality project. Rather, it can be a permanent one. More often than not it will act as a temporary immortality project. All disciplines working with identity and evolution, or development, are gearing you towards a certain structure. This has to happen if you are ever going to assimilate and adjust to a new identity (self-sense.) You begin to move on to the next level of development, integrate that sense of self as a stable identity, and then begin to dis-identify as you move to more subtle self-identities. If shamanism can only take you up to a certain level of development, than it can certainly be considered an eventual immortality project, given that there are higher stages of consciousness. But, if shamanism can take you to non-dual realization, then it is not an eventual immortality project (context in an endnote.) However, if you wish to remain within the certain stage that you are currently in, then you can fixate with it and use it to try and re-inforce your sense of self (or immortality project.) This can take root as "I believe in a soul and that my soul is going to heaven when I die," "This is my last birth into a human form," "it'll be ok, I'll re-incarnate again." Statements like these are often used to try and assuage the underlying fear or apprehension that you are eventually going to die and that, if you don't REALLY understand who you are or what reality is, you simply have no clue what lies ahead.
*endnote* - A little bit of context with the entire spectrum of human development may be important for you to fully understand what is being said. In our current cross-cultural analysis, people have found that the highest spiritual attainment possible rests with non-dual realization. Non-dual teachings, and teachers, have been found in both eastern and western traditions. Discussions with reality (especially non-dual) have within them an inherent problem. You inevitably wind up with contradiction. Quite seriously, nearly anything you say is a contradiction. That means that it can be true, false, both true and false, neither, partial, etc. This is because language is insufficient when it comes to trans-personal knowledge. however, this does not mean that there is no way to find ways to talk about it. It is just that language is a structure that helps to point out something very deep and profound. In other words, language is a map, not the actual territory. I am helping to create map of shamanism that is much more precise than the ones that currently, or have been, around. Discussions with Shamanism and non-duality will come later. Probably years down the road.
I believe that is all that is needed for this use #3 discussion. I have been tweaking our #2 blog here and there, making minor adjustments as I go along. So I will probably do the same here.
Ciao!
Justin
I am about to head out of Pentwater and move on towards Ludington, and then hopefully I'll be taking off to North Manitou Island for 5 days or so. This is a leave no trace/camp where you want island of bare minimums. So a lot of seclusion. I'll most likely be away from all forms of electronics. I will however, be able to work a lot with my meditation practice and my shamanic practice outside of the ceremonies, individual counseling, and blogging that I do.
North Manitou is the bigger of the two islands, with more wilderness and less man-made structures. Although I have heard that a few of the old homes that existed before the land became a park still exist. There is only one spot on the entire island that allows for making a fire. I don't think they have bathrooms either. I guess I will find that out when I get there. :o
South Manitou is more populated and has more construction on it. I believe there are three designated campgrounds. It is also much smaller. It's too bad that my camera is still non-functional. : (
Also, I have received some feedback about the font color being hard to read against the background. I will see if there is any way to make it better.
Here we come to our third usage of religion.
3. Religion as an immortality project. This is using the technical term we earlier introduced, but the actual term itself need not be invoked. The idea is simply that religion is fundamentally a wishful, defensive, compensatory belief, created in order to assuage insecurity/anxiety. This meaning is often applied to theology, but it is also used for rational and secular endeavors, as when Becker says that Marxism is Soviet religion, meaning not just mana-search but death denial. This can occur, as we have seen, on any level, and simply reflects that level's inherent taboo avoidance. In this particular function, science does for the rational ego exactly what myth does for the childish ego and magic does for the infantile ego-helps to veil the apprehension of ultimate and inescapable mortality by providing a belief system to "hang on to." This seems especially true of "scienticians," that is, scientists whose rd-2 religion (mana religion) happens to be science itself. I have found that, when push comes to shove, they will guard their exclusively rational world view with a quivering passion every bit as charged with hoped-for immortality as that of a shrieking fundamentalist preacher. The point is simply that each level (short of the ultimate) tends to erect some sort of immortality project as part of its necessary defense structures, and this usage of religion simply keys on this particular funtion (although, typically, most of those who use this definition deny that there is any other.)
This is another one of those yes and no answers, depending on context. Let us explore the no answer first.
Mask Shamanism is not a wishful, defensive, compensatory belief, created in order to assuage insecurity/anxiety. First of all, all authentic religious disciplines have behind them a method of inquiry with reproducible evidence that can be verified by separate communities. This is, by another term, the scientific method. The scientific method has, by many people today, come to mean only empirical (or physical) evidence. Notice that, in our country, spiritual practice boomed with the discovery of empirical evidence supporting the fact that something is happening within these religious disciplines such as Buddhism, yoga, etc. Using the scientific method in the way that it was meant to be, shamanism actually has a minimum of 40,000 years of verified observations cross-culturally, from people who have never even met or heard of each other. The scientific revolution, despite all of the good things it has brought (such as the step away from pre-rational religion, more physical security, global connections, etc.), comes nowhere even close to having a body of that much evidence. The revolution taking place between science and religion is really the beginning of a more sophisticated inquiry of spiritual disciplines (our scientific materialist culture will have a hard time putting science in the appropriate context...much like fundamentalist religion did, and still does, with the scientific revolution.) This means more controlled studies, a more highly developed language, more precision with the mapping of the disciplines (as well as their findings), wading through cultural traps inherent in different cultural religions, etc. This last one is not used to help end culture. Rather, it allows for more freedom of expression with individual cultures and allows for the understanding that there are truths that rest above culture. This creates interdisciplinary dialogue which, with help from movements like the integral/AQAL, allow for all disciplines to be involved in the great quest for truth. Each discipline just has certain boundaries that, once crossed, becomes pathological.
Mask Shamanism is an immortality project. Rather, it can be a permanent one. More often than not it will act as a temporary immortality project. All disciplines working with identity and evolution, or development, are gearing you towards a certain structure. This has to happen if you are ever going to assimilate and adjust to a new identity (self-sense.) You begin to move on to the next level of development, integrate that sense of self as a stable identity, and then begin to dis-identify as you move to more subtle self-identities. If shamanism can only take you up to a certain level of development, than it can certainly be considered an eventual immortality project, given that there are higher stages of consciousness. But, if shamanism can take you to non-dual realization, then it is not an eventual immortality project (context in an endnote.) However, if you wish to remain within the certain stage that you are currently in, then you can fixate with it and use it to try and re-inforce your sense of self (or immortality project.) This can take root as "I believe in a soul and that my soul is going to heaven when I die," "This is my last birth into a human form," "it'll be ok, I'll re-incarnate again." Statements like these are often used to try and assuage the underlying fear or apprehension that you are eventually going to die and that, if you don't REALLY understand who you are or what reality is, you simply have no clue what lies ahead.
*endnote* - A little bit of context with the entire spectrum of human development may be important for you to fully understand what is being said. In our current cross-cultural analysis, people have found that the highest spiritual attainment possible rests with non-dual realization. Non-dual teachings, and teachers, have been found in both eastern and western traditions. Discussions with reality (especially non-dual) have within them an inherent problem. You inevitably wind up with contradiction. Quite seriously, nearly anything you say is a contradiction. That means that it can be true, false, both true and false, neither, partial, etc. This is because language is insufficient when it comes to trans-personal knowledge. however, this does not mean that there is no way to find ways to talk about it. It is just that language is a structure that helps to point out something very deep and profound. In other words, language is a map, not the actual territory. I am helping to create map of shamanism that is much more precise than the ones that currently, or have been, around. Discussions with Shamanism and non-duality will come later. Probably years down the road.
I believe that is all that is needed for this use #3 discussion. I have been tweaking our #2 blog here and there, making minor adjustments as I go along. So I will probably do the same here.
Ciao!
Justin
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Mask Shamanism and usage #2: Religion as extremely meaningful or integrative engagement
Howdy!
We are moving on to our next common usage of the term religion and how it relates to Mask Shamanism. I think that before I head into this actual discussion I will talk a little bit more about the framework that Wilber posits in his AQAL theory. Diving deep into his work is quite the headspin, so I will keep it to the basics (which can still be overwhelming.) If your head hurts, I am sorry! This is an extremely good way to build the bridge towards understanding shamanism, masks, non-ordinary reality, spirits and how it all ties in with religion, spirituality, and transformative practice. I will even begin to point out where I believe he has erred when it comes to shamanism (at some point.)
Let's begin with human development. Nearly every culture in the world agrees with one thing: We all progress through successive stages of development. In order to begin a healthy development of a later stage, you need to first acquire the basic fundamentals of the stage that you are on. Different cultures have different models. Our modern culture begins with the stages around pregnancy and gears it's members on up to a highly developed, rational/logical autonomous self. This is a fully individuated self that functions within the given culture. To give basic examples, this could be the stereotypical university professor, psychologist, philosopher, mathematician, etc. Ideally, identity does not rest with just the bodily consciousness or just the mind consciousness. Rather, it becomes an identity with the body-mind. Other cultures, such as the eastern Hindu system, gives seven levels of development all the way up to God-consciousness. One of the old Christ-based sages broke up development, and the realms of knowledge within each development, into three categories called the three eyes of knowing: The eye of sensibilia, intelligibilia, and transcendelia. They are broken up in so many ways that it is an entirely fascinating world to be in right now, since we have nearly every developmental chart from every culture and major spiritual figurehead at our fingertips for studying cross-cultural similarities. This however, is a much bigger topic of which ours is a part. Let's stick to the basic idea here.
There is a developmental pattern that we, as human beings, progress through and have the possibility of progressing through up to some of the highest known stages of being/identity.
Our last post on Religion and mask shamanism worked with these stages of identity. In that post, I used the terms pre and trans. This is using development with a map of three basic stages. Ex: pre-personal, personal, trans-personal. As a stage development, we concluded that shamanism rests within the trans-personal developmental levels. Later, we will explore these areas with more depth.
So what else do we have? Let us talk about the next part of AQAL theory that directly relates to our next definition. Along with natural hierarchical growth we have what is called heterarchical growth. Instead of developing up, we develop out...so to speak. Each level of development is going to have a heterarchical component.
2. Religion as extremely meaningful or integrative engagement. This usage says religion is not something that occurs on specific nonrational dimensions or levels but is a particular functional activity on any given level, an activity seeking meaning, integration, etc. In my opinion, this usage actually reflect's each level's search for mana-the search for meaning, truth, integrity, stability, and subject-object relationship (exchange.) Since mana'translation, as we have seen, must occur on each level of structural organization, then whether that level appears "religious" or "secular" does not matter; it is religious, or mana-searching, by this definition.
This usage is also reflected in common sense. Thus, even the typical individual who initially says that myths, saints, sages, and such are religious but science is not, will usually understand exactly what you mean when you say, "Science was Einstein's religion." Star Trek fans say, "logic is Spock's religion." Here, even purely rational endeavors are said to be religious, because they are, like all levels, in search for their phase specific mana, and this mana-search-on whatever level, high or low, sacred or secular-is natively understood as religion.
Notice that, although both rd-1 and rd-2 are acceptable usages, they are nonetheless quite different, almost contradictory, and unless we specify which we mean, certain paradoxes and spurious conclusions will result. For instance, rd-1 denies secular religion, rd-2 demands it; rd-1 denies science as religion, rd-2 says it is (or can be.) Both are acceptable, as long as we understand that behind the one word "religions" there are different functions. Oftentimes common sense will use both of these meanings without specifying them, thus producing a pseudo-paradox. The person might say, "Mr. Jones doesn't go to church; he doesn't believe in religion-money is his religion."
Well, when we look at this definition, we are almost certain to conclude that shamanism can be called a religion. However, this does seem to be a very vague use of the term. In fact, it seems to me that many people seem to have this context behind the word spirituality (a few others we will point out later.) Anything which is good, meritorious, or mana-generating (devoid of the opposite.) Good energy, good vibes, the whole shebang. Not that there is anything wrong with this type, since integration/processing experience is important in nearly every endeavor. It just won't likely lead to transcendance, which is what many of the worlds authentic religious traditions aim to do.
This use plays a minor role in a conceptual view of Mask Shamanism compared to the first definition. Wilber posits that shamanism helps to take you towards subtle, beyond the body-mind identities (soul.) I agree completely. This, by another word, is transcendence. However, his claim is that your hierarchical growth happens only up to a low level of trans-personal development. This is a part of his theory that I would like to work with and re-vise during the later periods of this blog, since I think it mistaken (slow down Justin, you will get there...)
When you have an initial immersion into reality through advanced shamanic techniques, such as making a mask, going on a vision quest, etc. you are thrown into something that is very deep and very profound. After you are done with the immersion, you have to make sense of the experience. So you let it settle for awhile. THIS tends to be the mana-generating, usage two Religion that we are talking about. You find meaning from the experience, relating it to your life process.
So where does this heterarchical term fit in? When you come to a major change in your identity and you make sense of the experience, you can usually do one of two things. You can keep generating more mana at that particular level. Or you can assimilate and work with just what is needed to keep moving forward/up. Heterarchy is just a precise way of saying we are focusing on outward, or horizontal, growth.
Often times a person may only develop through one or two major stages in their lifetime after they reach the stage development that their particular culture helps them to get to, if even. If you are a person that is deeply spiritual/religious and feels somewhat alienated by the people in the US around you, there is a good chance that you have passed through the major cultural stage development. Provided your sense of alienation is not based on a psychological dis-ease or illness (or is part of a normal, healthy psychological development of a younger person.) It seems that, the higher up you go with your development, the more you are on your own. That is why quite often the spiritual journey is one you walk alone. There are other people who see from the same stage as you...but it will just be a very, very small percentage of the world population the further up you go. This is probably another topic I should clarify later on so no-one develops confusion over it.
I would like to mention that it is highly unlikely, though possible, that you will go through a major stage development through receiving healing or working with ceremony. More than likely you are either working towards relieving past restrictions/fixations, assimilating/integrating, or working with state experiences (glimpses) from the next level of development to help prepare you for this "jump." This will be talked about more when I begin talking about what healing is and what healing practice can do for you. Right now, I speak of the deeper practices and understandings that come from subjectively working with non-ordinary realities and transcendent beings through advanced initiatory practices.
Along with the following definitions will come the discussion of what are known as states, types, lines, etc. These will all be explained thoroughly, so don't worry. Any big irregularities that you see may come from confusing what I am talking about with definitions in these areas.
In the end, once I have gone through the major definitions, I will synthesize and create an "overall view" of this practice. Editing and re-fining where needed.
Feedback is helpful! You may have the same thoughts someone else does, and it could help to clarify things for people. : )
Cheers!
Justin
We are moving on to our next common usage of the term religion and how it relates to Mask Shamanism. I think that before I head into this actual discussion I will talk a little bit more about the framework that Wilber posits in his AQAL theory. Diving deep into his work is quite the headspin, so I will keep it to the basics (which can still be overwhelming.) If your head hurts, I am sorry! This is an extremely good way to build the bridge towards understanding shamanism, masks, non-ordinary reality, spirits and how it all ties in with religion, spirituality, and transformative practice. I will even begin to point out where I believe he has erred when it comes to shamanism (at some point.)
Let's begin with human development. Nearly every culture in the world agrees with one thing: We all progress through successive stages of development. In order to begin a healthy development of a later stage, you need to first acquire the basic fundamentals of the stage that you are on. Different cultures have different models. Our modern culture begins with the stages around pregnancy and gears it's members on up to a highly developed, rational/logical autonomous self. This is a fully individuated self that functions within the given culture. To give basic examples, this could be the stereotypical university professor, psychologist, philosopher, mathematician, etc. Ideally, identity does not rest with just the bodily consciousness or just the mind consciousness. Rather, it becomes an identity with the body-mind. Other cultures, such as the eastern Hindu system, gives seven levels of development all the way up to God-consciousness. One of the old Christ-based sages broke up development, and the realms of knowledge within each development, into three categories called the three eyes of knowing: The eye of sensibilia, intelligibilia, and transcendelia. They are broken up in so many ways that it is an entirely fascinating world to be in right now, since we have nearly every developmental chart from every culture and major spiritual figurehead at our fingertips for studying cross-cultural similarities. This however, is a much bigger topic of which ours is a part. Let's stick to the basic idea here.
There is a developmental pattern that we, as human beings, progress through and have the possibility of progressing through up to some of the highest known stages of being/identity.
Our last post on Religion and mask shamanism worked with these stages of identity. In that post, I used the terms pre and trans. This is using development with a map of three basic stages. Ex: pre-personal, personal, trans-personal. As a stage development, we concluded that shamanism rests within the trans-personal developmental levels. Later, we will explore these areas with more depth.
So what else do we have? Let us talk about the next part of AQAL theory that directly relates to our next definition. Along with natural hierarchical growth we have what is called heterarchical growth. Instead of developing up, we develop out...so to speak. Each level of development is going to have a heterarchical component.
2. Religion as extremely meaningful or integrative engagement. This usage says religion is not something that occurs on specific nonrational dimensions or levels but is a particular functional activity on any given level, an activity seeking meaning, integration, etc. In my opinion, this usage actually reflect's each level's search for mana-the search for meaning, truth, integrity, stability, and subject-object relationship (exchange.) Since mana'translation, as we have seen, must occur on each level of structural organization, then whether that level appears "religious" or "secular" does not matter; it is religious, or mana-searching, by this definition.
This usage is also reflected in common sense. Thus, even the typical individual who initially says that myths, saints, sages, and such are religious but science is not, will usually understand exactly what you mean when you say, "Science was Einstein's religion." Star Trek fans say, "logic is Spock's religion." Here, even purely rational endeavors are said to be religious, because they are, like all levels, in search for their phase specific mana, and this mana-search-on whatever level, high or low, sacred or secular-is natively understood as religion.
Notice that, although both rd-1 and rd-2 are acceptable usages, they are nonetheless quite different, almost contradictory, and unless we specify which we mean, certain paradoxes and spurious conclusions will result. For instance, rd-1 denies secular religion, rd-2 demands it; rd-1 denies science as religion, rd-2 says it is (or can be.) Both are acceptable, as long as we understand that behind the one word "religions" there are different functions. Oftentimes common sense will use both of these meanings without specifying them, thus producing a pseudo-paradox. The person might say, "Mr. Jones doesn't go to church; he doesn't believe in religion-money is his religion."
Well, when we look at this definition, we are almost certain to conclude that shamanism can be called a religion. However, this does seem to be a very vague use of the term. In fact, it seems to me that many people seem to have this context behind the word spirituality (a few others we will point out later.) Anything which is good, meritorious, or mana-generating (devoid of the opposite.) Good energy, good vibes, the whole shebang. Not that there is anything wrong with this type, since integration/processing experience is important in nearly every endeavor. It just won't likely lead to transcendance, which is what many of the worlds authentic religious traditions aim to do.
This use plays a minor role in a conceptual view of Mask Shamanism compared to the first definition. Wilber posits that shamanism helps to take you towards subtle, beyond the body-mind identities (soul.) I agree completely. This, by another word, is transcendence. However, his claim is that your hierarchical growth happens only up to a low level of trans-personal development. This is a part of his theory that I would like to work with and re-vise during the later periods of this blog, since I think it mistaken (slow down Justin, you will get there...)
When you have an initial immersion into reality through advanced shamanic techniques, such as making a mask, going on a vision quest, etc. you are thrown into something that is very deep and very profound. After you are done with the immersion, you have to make sense of the experience. So you let it settle for awhile. THIS tends to be the mana-generating, usage two Religion that we are talking about. You find meaning from the experience, relating it to your life process.
So where does this heterarchical term fit in? When you come to a major change in your identity and you make sense of the experience, you can usually do one of two things. You can keep generating more mana at that particular level. Or you can assimilate and work with just what is needed to keep moving forward/up. Heterarchy is just a precise way of saying we are focusing on outward, or horizontal, growth.
Often times a person may only develop through one or two major stages in their lifetime after they reach the stage development that their particular culture helps them to get to, if even. If you are a person that is deeply spiritual/religious and feels somewhat alienated by the people in the US around you, there is a good chance that you have passed through the major cultural stage development. Provided your sense of alienation is not based on a psychological dis-ease or illness (or is part of a normal, healthy psychological development of a younger person.) It seems that, the higher up you go with your development, the more you are on your own. That is why quite often the spiritual journey is one you walk alone. There are other people who see from the same stage as you...but it will just be a very, very small percentage of the world population the further up you go. This is probably another topic I should clarify later on so no-one develops confusion over it.
I would like to mention that it is highly unlikely, though possible, that you will go through a major stage development through receiving healing or working with ceremony. More than likely you are either working towards relieving past restrictions/fixations, assimilating/integrating, or working with state experiences (glimpses) from the next level of development to help prepare you for this "jump." This will be talked about more when I begin talking about what healing is and what healing practice can do for you. Right now, I speak of the deeper practices and understandings that come from subjectively working with non-ordinary realities and transcendent beings through advanced initiatory practices.
Along with the following definitions will come the discussion of what are known as states, types, lines, etc. These will all be explained thoroughly, so don't worry. Any big irregularities that you see may come from confusing what I am talking about with definitions in these areas.
In the end, once I have gone through the major definitions, I will synthesize and create an "overall view" of this practice. Editing and re-fining where needed.
Feedback is helpful! You may have the same thoughts someone else does, and it could help to clarify things for people. : )
Cheers!
Justin
Friday, May 24, 2013
Walking through the streets of an old memory
So here I am, sitting on a picnic table outside of a closed public library in Pentwater, talking to you. I would say that these first two days have been a pretty good beginning to a journey. Let me tell you a little bit about it.
First, I arrived to P.J. Hoffmaster and set up camp. There were three lovely ladies at the desk and one of them was helping me to get all of my information ready to go. I arrived somewhat later in the day since I waited for my dad to get out of work to say good-bye. The drive was nice since I finally acquired some old hip-hop albums (Thanks Tavio!) It was a drive filled with fear though. Traveling in the way that I am is a dream that many people want to fulfill in their life. Although the dream of having the adventure of a lifetime can often be very real...the initial experience can be filled with many difficult situations and a torrent of emotions. Anyone that travels extensively knows what I mean. It is well worth it for those who feel the need to take the first step. Anywho...the first night of sleeping was bloody cold! I am quite sure I will run into worse though. Hoffmaster state park is an absolutely beautiful park to visit. If you are out in West MI I highly recommend it. Normally, I run around in the woods and across the trees that have fallen across the small valleys (I don't know the technical names for these hills.) I took a different route this time. Instead of running about like a very loud animal in the woods, I decided to walk the beach....and walk...and walk...and walk....you get the idea. I walked FOREVER! I wasn't particularly clearing my head either. I was just noticing. At some point I sat down and began to call the spirits. This is something that I have found myself doing at a lot of national/state parks that I have visited. I will call upon my teachers first. Then I will sing songs that the spirits of the land sing to me. It is a beautiful way to honor the ground beneath my feet, the surrounding landscapes, and the animals/spirits that inhabit them.
I awoke the next morning and began my routine. Meditating, showering, eating, packing up, etc. I had to be out of the campsite by 1pm. So I packed up and headed out to the beach. Since it has been cold out here, not too many people are going to the beach. However, there was an entourage of little kids from Grand Rapids public schools taking a field trip out that way. I am pretty sure a little black kid became really scared of me for some reason...maybe it was the dreadlocks with a cowboy hat look? Usually kids like me...until I let my hair down...what follows is the kid tugging on his mommy and hiding behind her leg lol.
I didn't stay too long. I handed out cards to a few people who I thought might be interested in what I am doing and headed on my way. I drove until I came upon a big restaurant called Hobo's Tavern. I figured it would be interesting. Maybe a place for travelers to gather? Nope?...it didn't even particularly look like a place a Hobo would go to. I did happen to meet some more friendly folk though. It was pretty nice inside.
I passed through many smaller cities/towns since I told my GPS to avoid highways and it obeyed. I also changed the car to shoes. Travelin' Man! ;)
Not a very informative blog on the shamanism end. However, I do have a ceremony in Pentwater tomorrow at Shared Space Studio. I am excited to meet this group and start doing some work. I used to vacation here with my mom when I was younger. Since I don't have anything planned for the following Saturday, I think I will be rooting here for a little while so I can get some work done out of the library. So you will be hearing more from me. Stay tuned for updates about the ceremony, as well as our next discussion on Mask Shamanism and Religion.
My camera and I don't seem to be getting along very well. It will only record and save seven pictures. So I will try to work on that in the coming weeks.
Cheers!
Justin
First, I arrived to P.J. Hoffmaster and set up camp. There were three lovely ladies at the desk and one of them was helping me to get all of my information ready to go. I arrived somewhat later in the day since I waited for my dad to get out of work to say good-bye. The drive was nice since I finally acquired some old hip-hop albums (Thanks Tavio!) It was a drive filled with fear though. Traveling in the way that I am is a dream that many people want to fulfill in their life. Although the dream of having the adventure of a lifetime can often be very real...the initial experience can be filled with many difficult situations and a torrent of emotions. Anyone that travels extensively knows what I mean. It is well worth it for those who feel the need to take the first step. Anywho...the first night of sleeping was bloody cold! I am quite sure I will run into worse though. Hoffmaster state park is an absolutely beautiful park to visit. If you are out in West MI I highly recommend it. Normally, I run around in the woods and across the trees that have fallen across the small valleys (I don't know the technical names for these hills.) I took a different route this time. Instead of running about like a very loud animal in the woods, I decided to walk the beach....and walk...and walk...and walk....you get the idea. I walked FOREVER! I wasn't particularly clearing my head either. I was just noticing. At some point I sat down and began to call the spirits. This is something that I have found myself doing at a lot of national/state parks that I have visited. I will call upon my teachers first. Then I will sing songs that the spirits of the land sing to me. It is a beautiful way to honor the ground beneath my feet, the surrounding landscapes, and the animals/spirits that inhabit them.
I awoke the next morning and began my routine. Meditating, showering, eating, packing up, etc. I had to be out of the campsite by 1pm. So I packed up and headed out to the beach. Since it has been cold out here, not too many people are going to the beach. However, there was an entourage of little kids from Grand Rapids public schools taking a field trip out that way. I am pretty sure a little black kid became really scared of me for some reason...maybe it was the dreadlocks with a cowboy hat look? Usually kids like me...until I let my hair down...what follows is the kid tugging on his mommy and hiding behind her leg lol.
I didn't stay too long. I handed out cards to a few people who I thought might be interested in what I am doing and headed on my way. I drove until I came upon a big restaurant called Hobo's Tavern. I figured it would be interesting. Maybe a place for travelers to gather? Nope?...it didn't even particularly look like a place a Hobo would go to. I did happen to meet some more friendly folk though. It was pretty nice inside.
I passed through many smaller cities/towns since I told my GPS to avoid highways and it obeyed. I also changed the car to shoes. Travelin' Man! ;)
Not a very informative blog on the shamanism end. However, I do have a ceremony in Pentwater tomorrow at Shared Space Studio. I am excited to meet this group and start doing some work. I used to vacation here with my mom when I was younger. Since I don't have anything planned for the following Saturday, I think I will be rooting here for a little while so I can get some work done out of the library. So you will be hearing more from me. Stay tuned for updates about the ceremony, as well as our next discussion on Mask Shamanism and Religion.
My camera and I don't seem to be getting along very well. It will only record and save seven pictures. So I will try to work on that in the coming weeks.
Cheers!
Justin
Monday, May 20, 2013
Mask Shamanism and usage #1: Religion as non-rational engagement
Here is a re-cap from my earlier blog on the first valid definition of Religion according to Ken Wilber in "A Socialable God."
"Religion as non-rational engagement. This has both positive and negative connotations. To theologians, it means that religion deals with valid but nonrational aspects of existence, such as faith, grace, transcendance, satori, and such. To positivists, it means religion is nonvalid knowledge; it might be "meaningful" to humans in an emotional way, but it is not real cognition.
This usage is often reflected in common sense. Most people would intuitively say that magic-voodoo is a type of religion, however primitive, and that mythic gods and goddesses are definately religious, although maybe not very "serious." They would also say that what yogis, saints, and sages do is certainly religious. But science-rationality? That is not religious. This overall usage says that religion is not so much something done on all levels but rather on particular levels, and specifically, those that are not rational-scientific per se. If you are pro-religion, then this definition implies that religion is something you can grow into; if con, something you hope to outgrow. In either case, it is nonrational; it belongs to or at least originates in a dimension that is other to reason."
If we were to have a discussion on mask shamanism and religion, using this definition, what would transpire?
I would like to first talk about the term non-rational. It is very vague term and covers basically anything outside of reason. Is there any way we can break it up better so as to have better clarity? Yes. The pre/trans fallacy. If our culture were to have, as its' center of gravity, a developmental structure geared towards rationality then we would have two categories of development outside of rationality. The two are: pre-rational and trans-rational. Early anthropologists studying indigenous cultures, without actively engaging in their methodologies, seemed to have labeled these people on the whole as savages, brutes, or non-rational (pre-rational.) Their practices were something used only for social cohesion and belongingness. Whereas many people can indeed be pre-rational (something that even our modern culture has issues with), this does not mean that the methods and observations of the practitioner were invalid. Rather, they just had, and still have, a different way of verifying the observation. This becomes a fallacy because you do not have a strong discernment between the two, causing categorical confusion during discussion.
Is it non-rational engagement? By now you can probably guess that my answer is going to be both yes and no.
Non-rational will be further divided into two categories (pre- and trans-) in order to better understand how.
Trans-rational: Rational might be a term that can confuse some people during this conversation. So let's substitute a different term for the moment. Instead of trans-rational let us use trans-personal. Normally, a person will walk around with an identity that rests either with the body, the mind, or the body-mind. In this case, mask shamanism functions as a trans-personal religion in the sense that it aims towards taking your identity into more and more subtle forms. For many people, this means the spirit, soul, etc. You work with beings that rest on subtler phenomena and, by virtue of learning from these beings, you begin to realize that your true nature, as such, is much more subtle than what you first thought. I would like to point out that this is more of a developmental stage, rather than a concept. Theology takes place where you use language, thought, the mind, etc. in order to prove or disprove the existence of something beyond the gross material realm or body-mind. A trans-personal identity (usually happening over a series of experiences that loosen your grip on your current identity) tends to happen first through experience. After the initial experience has settled you use the mind to try and develop a language or systematic way of explaining what happened so that others may understand.
Pre-rational: An authentic shamanic practitioner, one who engages in proper methodologies and assimilates the experiences into a healthy developmental structure, is far from the pre-rational religion. Many people who lived in tribes thousands of years ago could very well have been pre-rational or pre-personal. An example of this would be: A shaman, traveling into non-ordinary reality, comes into contact with his compassionate spiritual helpers (ascended beings.) Upon meeting them they rip his subtle spirit body into pieces and buries them each into the ground, having life-sustaining plants grow from them. Once the shaman returns to ordinary reality from non-ordinary reality and relates his growth/healing experience to people in his tribe (who may not have ever been introduced to non-ordinary reality subjectively), take it as literal and, as a way of honoring the experience, begin to literally make sacrifices and bury body parts in the ground. This could very well have been where such ritualistic practices found their beginnings. By now you can see quite clearly the categorical confusion that comes from lack of discernment from the subjective methodology and objective observation.
By now, you may be beginning to see that one really important thing to understand is context. Below I have copied six ways of defining context from a free online dictionary (thefreedictionary.com.) Even though each 1 and each 2 basically say the same thing, they all vary slightly.
Context:
1. the parts of a written or spoken statement that precede or follow a specified word or passage and can influence its meaning or effect.
A little bit of context can always help people to get on the same page. : )
I have become very passionate, engaged, and full of ideas by writing this article. At your expense I will leave it at that since it can be a lot to take in. We still have many more definitions to discuss before we move into other territories.
; )
Cheers!
"Religion as non-rational engagement. This has both positive and negative connotations. To theologians, it means that religion deals with valid but nonrational aspects of existence, such as faith, grace, transcendance, satori, and such. To positivists, it means religion is nonvalid knowledge; it might be "meaningful" to humans in an emotional way, but it is not real cognition.
This usage is often reflected in common sense. Most people would intuitively say that magic-voodoo is a type of religion, however primitive, and that mythic gods and goddesses are definately religious, although maybe not very "serious." They would also say that what yogis, saints, and sages do is certainly religious. But science-rationality? That is not religious. This overall usage says that religion is not so much something done on all levels but rather on particular levels, and specifically, those that are not rational-scientific per se. If you are pro-religion, then this definition implies that religion is something you can grow into; if con, something you hope to outgrow. In either case, it is nonrational; it belongs to or at least originates in a dimension that is other to reason."
If we were to have a discussion on mask shamanism and religion, using this definition, what would transpire?
I would like to first talk about the term non-rational. It is very vague term and covers basically anything outside of reason. Is there any way we can break it up better so as to have better clarity? Yes. The pre/trans fallacy. If our culture were to have, as its' center of gravity, a developmental structure geared towards rationality then we would have two categories of development outside of rationality. The two are: pre-rational and trans-rational. Early anthropologists studying indigenous cultures, without actively engaging in their methodologies, seemed to have labeled these people on the whole as savages, brutes, or non-rational (pre-rational.) Their practices were something used only for social cohesion and belongingness. Whereas many people can indeed be pre-rational (something that even our modern culture has issues with), this does not mean that the methods and observations of the practitioner were invalid. Rather, they just had, and still have, a different way of verifying the observation. This becomes a fallacy because you do not have a strong discernment between the two, causing categorical confusion during discussion.
Is it non-rational engagement? By now you can probably guess that my answer is going to be both yes and no.
Non-rational will be further divided into two categories (pre- and trans-) in order to better understand how.
Trans-rational: Rational might be a term that can confuse some people during this conversation. So let's substitute a different term for the moment. Instead of trans-rational let us use trans-personal. Normally, a person will walk around with an identity that rests either with the body, the mind, or the body-mind. In this case, mask shamanism functions as a trans-personal religion in the sense that it aims towards taking your identity into more and more subtle forms. For many people, this means the spirit, soul, etc. You work with beings that rest on subtler phenomena and, by virtue of learning from these beings, you begin to realize that your true nature, as such, is much more subtle than what you first thought. I would like to point out that this is more of a developmental stage, rather than a concept. Theology takes place where you use language, thought, the mind, etc. in order to prove or disprove the existence of something beyond the gross material realm or body-mind. A trans-personal identity (usually happening over a series of experiences that loosen your grip on your current identity) tends to happen first through experience. After the initial experience has settled you use the mind to try and develop a language or systematic way of explaining what happened so that others may understand.
Pre-rational: An authentic shamanic practitioner, one who engages in proper methodologies and assimilates the experiences into a healthy developmental structure, is far from the pre-rational religion. Many people who lived in tribes thousands of years ago could very well have been pre-rational or pre-personal. An example of this would be: A shaman, traveling into non-ordinary reality, comes into contact with his compassionate spiritual helpers (ascended beings.) Upon meeting them they rip his subtle spirit body into pieces and buries them each into the ground, having life-sustaining plants grow from them. Once the shaman returns to ordinary reality from non-ordinary reality and relates his growth/healing experience to people in his tribe (who may not have ever been introduced to non-ordinary reality subjectively), take it as literal and, as a way of honoring the experience, begin to literally make sacrifices and bury body parts in the ground. This could very well have been where such ritualistic practices found their beginnings. By now you can see quite clearly the categorical confusion that comes from lack of discernment from the subjective methodology and objective observation.
By now, you may be beginning to see that one really important thing to understand is context. Below I have copied six ways of defining context from a free online dictionary (thefreedictionary.com.) Even though each 1 and each 2 basically say the same thing, they all vary slightly.
Context:
1. The part of a text or statement that surrounds a particular word or passage and determines its meaning.
2. The circumstances in which an event occurs; a setting.
1. the parts of a piece of writing, speech, etc., that precede and follow a word or passage and contribute to its full meaning it is unfair to quote out of context
2. the conditions and circumstances that are relevant to an event, fact, etc.
2. the set of circumstances or facts that surround a particular event, situation, etc.
A little bit of context can always help people to get on the same page. : )
I have become very passionate, engaged, and full of ideas by writing this article. At your expense I will leave it at that since it can be a lot to take in. We still have many more definitions to discuss before we move into other territories.
; )
Cheers!
Passing through
Howdy!
Boy am I in need of rest! I feel a little like Rip Van Winkle over here. ; )
After I came home from San Francisco and packed up the car I headed down to Southeast MI to be a support person for a vision quest. What is a vision quest? It seems as though nearly all cultures who involve themselves in a spiritual practice have initiatory practices that help you to dive deeper into the big questions such as "Who am I? What is this? How can I help in the world?" The vision quest is such a ceremony. The person who is questing will spend a certain amount of time out in nature in seclusion. While out there they will fast from food and water, and only have basic things such as a sleeping bag, tarp, and a medicine bag. They may not even have the former two. I have never done such a quest...but I have helped out at two of them so far in my life. There is usually a community of people who support during the quest, and each person contributes in their own way. It may be watching children, cooking food, preparing medicine for ceremony, preparing the sacred ground for ceremonies both during the quest and for future times, eating food for the questers, etc.
The vision quest begins with a sweatlodge, where the questers will sweat for two of the four doors. After the two doors everyone will walk the persons out to their spot in nature and construct their temporary home. This is basically six long tree saplings that are driven into the ground with a prayer string tied around the saplings. The prayer string has tiny prayer bags that are tied onto the string months prior as a part of a preparatory practice. Once that is finished, the supporters will finish the last two doors of the sweat. The fire has to stay lit throughout the whole ceremony. So you have people taking shifts through all periods of the night/day to tend the fire. I helped as a fire-tender for the sweat (without entering into the actual lodge) and took the first night shift. Throughout the three days I was there we helped to organize all of the wood piles and clean up the area around the sweatlodge. This took a lot of work and we managed to get a lot done.
I am very happy to announce that I have been allowed to attend and support a "Danza De La Luna ceremony" this year. In order to be accepted, I had to bring a pouch of Tobacco with red ribbon tied around it to our Grandmother and formally ask to be accepted. This ceremony takes place along my route and I am very excited to attend...since I have known about it for years.
I have been attending sweatlodges since I was 16. At first I would go there just to sweat. But then I became more interested in getting involved and looked to one of the elders for guidance. This elder, who has been a mentor to me for many years, began showing me how to tend a fire. In all of our time together we did not talk too much about the nature of reality, spiritual realization, or the deeper aspects of that tradition. Mainly, he taught me how to tend the fire. In reflection this has been one of the best teachings I have ever received. It has had such a deep impact in my life that I could cry just thinking about how much I have developed as a result of that relationship. I love that man dearly and I thank him for all that he has taught me.
Unfortunately, I could not stay for the entire duration of the ceremony this time around. It happened to fall on the date of a dear friends graduation. I did not tell her I was coming...and I meant for it to be a surprise. In a way it was, but she had already guessed that I was going to attend. It was a very fun night.
So here I am spending a few days here in Grand Rapids resting and working. I plan to leave Thursday night and travel to P.J. Hoffmaster park (my favorite park so far that is close to Grand Rapids) where I will camp out for the night. On Friday I have my first ceremony for the 2013 trip in Pentwater.
Stay tuned for another blog before I leave!
Cheers,
Justin
Boy am I in need of rest! I feel a little like Rip Van Winkle over here. ; )
After I came home from San Francisco and packed up the car I headed down to Southeast MI to be a support person for a vision quest. What is a vision quest? It seems as though nearly all cultures who involve themselves in a spiritual practice have initiatory practices that help you to dive deeper into the big questions such as "Who am I? What is this? How can I help in the world?" The vision quest is such a ceremony. The person who is questing will spend a certain amount of time out in nature in seclusion. While out there they will fast from food and water, and only have basic things such as a sleeping bag, tarp, and a medicine bag. They may not even have the former two. I have never done such a quest...but I have helped out at two of them so far in my life. There is usually a community of people who support during the quest, and each person contributes in their own way. It may be watching children, cooking food, preparing medicine for ceremony, preparing the sacred ground for ceremonies both during the quest and for future times, eating food for the questers, etc.
The vision quest begins with a sweatlodge, where the questers will sweat for two of the four doors. After the two doors everyone will walk the persons out to their spot in nature and construct their temporary home. This is basically six long tree saplings that are driven into the ground with a prayer string tied around the saplings. The prayer string has tiny prayer bags that are tied onto the string months prior as a part of a preparatory practice. Once that is finished, the supporters will finish the last two doors of the sweat. The fire has to stay lit throughout the whole ceremony. So you have people taking shifts through all periods of the night/day to tend the fire. I helped as a fire-tender for the sweat (without entering into the actual lodge) and took the first night shift. Throughout the three days I was there we helped to organize all of the wood piles and clean up the area around the sweatlodge. This took a lot of work and we managed to get a lot done.
I am very happy to announce that I have been allowed to attend and support a "Danza De La Luna ceremony" this year. In order to be accepted, I had to bring a pouch of Tobacco with red ribbon tied around it to our Grandmother and formally ask to be accepted. This ceremony takes place along my route and I am very excited to attend...since I have known about it for years.
I have been attending sweatlodges since I was 16. At first I would go there just to sweat. But then I became more interested in getting involved and looked to one of the elders for guidance. This elder, who has been a mentor to me for many years, began showing me how to tend a fire. In all of our time together we did not talk too much about the nature of reality, spiritual realization, or the deeper aspects of that tradition. Mainly, he taught me how to tend the fire. In reflection this has been one of the best teachings I have ever received. It has had such a deep impact in my life that I could cry just thinking about how much I have developed as a result of that relationship. I love that man dearly and I thank him for all that he has taught me.
Unfortunately, I could not stay for the entire duration of the ceremony this time around. It happened to fall on the date of a dear friends graduation. I did not tell her I was coming...and I meant for it to be a surprise. In a way it was, but she had already guessed that I was going to attend. It was a very fun night.
So here I am spending a few days here in Grand Rapids resting and working. I plan to leave Thursday night and travel to P.J. Hoffmaster park (my favorite park so far that is close to Grand Rapids) where I will camp out for the night. On Friday I have my first ceremony for the 2013 trip in Pentwater.
Stay tuned for another blog before I leave!
Cheers,
Justin
Monday, May 13, 2013
Back Home
Hey everyone!
I am back in MI and about to hit the road! Today I am packing up the car, doing laundry, and taking a borrowed dremmel (thanks Kiel!) to the sign that I have been working on when I am able to find time. Here is a little re-cap of my journey:
I flew out of the Flint/Bishop airport on the 4th. This is a very small airport and has often been a place for me to fly out of cheaply, since it is a small airport and not used very much (compared to Detroit.) I find that traveling by air has become more enjoyable lately since I converse more with people in the ports. I love seeing the variety of culture walking about in the terminals. On the way out I met a kid who was taking off on an airplane for the first time to work on wind turbines. For a kid who never traveled much out of his small town he was very friendly and talkative to strangers (being me.)
Generally, I'll fly into San Francisco airport and take the Caltrain to the Mission/Noe Valley districts where I stay with my wonderful friend Artemis. This time, instead of going straight to her house, I walked to the restaurant "Rosamunde" to join up with her and some friends. Every time I walked through the Mission district I thought to myself "Gee, that looks like a cool place to hang out." It turns out I was right! The restaurant is owned by one of her close friends. I was treated to a veil, leek, and onion dog with fries. The whole night there were catchy hip-hop/rap tunes that were really delightful to have in the background.
There is a tradition of mine where I wake up in the morning and walk along to the Noe Valley Bakery and buy scones and fresh baked bread, followed by a coffee or espresso down the street. Most of the time I chow down on the scones before I even find a place to sit. ;) I happened about this place several years ago walking around and exploring the busy streets of SF. If you have never been to SF and you want to go, I highly recommend it.
The program I was involved in takes place at IONS (Institute of Noetic Sciences.) This retreat center rests just north of Olompali state park. Here we are greeted by beautiful hills containing pockets of wooded lands. I especially love the trees. You will have big limbs grow up and out, paralleling the ground and running back into the hill. They are great for walking on and climbing. The lizards lazily laying about, soaking up the sun. Deer grazing with their little ones. Turkeys roaming about in big groups. California vultures (I forget their real name) swooping about looking for food. All of these animals were out in the open and nearly everywhere you walked. It is quite an amazing place. This is the last year that the FSS is hosting their program at that center.
Our group consisted of 34 people (including our teacher and two assistants.) Most of the people are from CA...but we do have an international group. Next on the list is Canada. Then we have Europe, SE Asia, Australia, and South America (nearly every continent!) Out of all the people I am the only one that is under 30. In fact, I happen to be the youngest person in the entire history of the FSS. This happens nearly everywhere I go. It is quite funny...although I am realizing more and more how beneficial work like this is and I really want to bring it to younger people. Most of the people there are at least fifty years of age or older.
The program revolves around advanced initiatory methodologies that help one to gain a glimpse into phenomenal realities. For people who are really in love with science and find it hard to accept spirituality as real...this practice may be for you. It is a "do it yourself, see for yourself" spirituality. There is not much of a theology built around it, although many cultural mythologies and cosmologies tend to have basic maps, spirits, and stories based on ones relationships to acquiring knowledge and receiving healing from spirits. Although you can certainly journey into these realms on your own without the help of a teacher, it is best to have someone with a lot of experience to help guide you through the experiences and to understand them correctly.
Michael Harner has done a lot of experimentation with the initiatory practices and has found it best to introduce people in successive stages. This is quite appropriate and is often seen in wisdom traditions in general. This is because, without a proper foundation, you can find yourself taking in too much power too soon. This can actually result in extreme power loss instead of helping one to gain personal power. So as much as many of you would like to poke around and learn some of the deeper aspects of shamanic practice through talking to me, do not be surprised if I steer you towards learning the foundations of journeying, coming to future ceremonies, and receiving personal healing work. One of the ways you can learn a lot about shamanism is by coming to a ceremony. Another is receiving personal healing. I will probably post a thing or two about personal shamanic sessions in the following weeks. I feel as if I should add a small disclaimer saying that I will not be teaching any of the initiatory practices that the foundation has taught.
While I was in the program, I had a friend of mine throw out a contact. She wanted to introduce me to a friend of hers that just moved to SF. I love meeting up with people, and fortunately I could squeeze in some time to hang out before I left for the airport. It was a short but sweet meet-up. We walked around the Mission district, ate some Mexican food, and laid out in the sun at a very popular park. We ended up being in the middle of a group of kids playing Frisbee.
Lastly, I met three folks on the small plane ride back to Flint. It was quite enjoyable and we talked a lot about international travel, since one of them just came back from Jamaica. He carried with him a beat up box and bag containing wooden sculptures brought back from his travels. I was naturally curious to see them. ;)
News of the tour! I have found more places to provide ceremony in Ontario. Right now I have two in Barrie. Coming up I will have two more locations...one being in Hamilton and the other being in Ottawa. This packs up much of the first leg of my journey. Stay tuned to hear about the events of this upcoming week!
Also, friend me on facebook (the link can be found under contacts on my personal website) to see pictures of my travels. I have not posted anything yet though.
Cheers!
Justin
I am back in MI and about to hit the road! Today I am packing up the car, doing laundry, and taking a borrowed dremmel (thanks Kiel!) to the sign that I have been working on when I am able to find time. Here is a little re-cap of my journey:
I flew out of the Flint/Bishop airport on the 4th. This is a very small airport and has often been a place for me to fly out of cheaply, since it is a small airport and not used very much (compared to Detroit.) I find that traveling by air has become more enjoyable lately since I converse more with people in the ports. I love seeing the variety of culture walking about in the terminals. On the way out I met a kid who was taking off on an airplane for the first time to work on wind turbines. For a kid who never traveled much out of his small town he was very friendly and talkative to strangers (being me.)
Generally, I'll fly into San Francisco airport and take the Caltrain to the Mission/Noe Valley districts where I stay with my wonderful friend Artemis. This time, instead of going straight to her house, I walked to the restaurant "Rosamunde" to join up with her and some friends. Every time I walked through the Mission district I thought to myself "Gee, that looks like a cool place to hang out." It turns out I was right! The restaurant is owned by one of her close friends. I was treated to a veil, leek, and onion dog with fries. The whole night there were catchy hip-hop/rap tunes that were really delightful to have in the background.
There is a tradition of mine where I wake up in the morning and walk along to the Noe Valley Bakery and buy scones and fresh baked bread, followed by a coffee or espresso down the street. Most of the time I chow down on the scones before I even find a place to sit. ;) I happened about this place several years ago walking around and exploring the busy streets of SF. If you have never been to SF and you want to go, I highly recommend it.
The program I was involved in takes place at IONS (Institute of Noetic Sciences.) This retreat center rests just north of Olompali state park. Here we are greeted by beautiful hills containing pockets of wooded lands. I especially love the trees. You will have big limbs grow up and out, paralleling the ground and running back into the hill. They are great for walking on and climbing. The lizards lazily laying about, soaking up the sun. Deer grazing with their little ones. Turkeys roaming about in big groups. California vultures (I forget their real name) swooping about looking for food. All of these animals were out in the open and nearly everywhere you walked. It is quite an amazing place. This is the last year that the FSS is hosting their program at that center.
Our group consisted of 34 people (including our teacher and two assistants.) Most of the people are from CA...but we do have an international group. Next on the list is Canada. Then we have Europe, SE Asia, Australia, and South America (nearly every continent!) Out of all the people I am the only one that is under 30. In fact, I happen to be the youngest person in the entire history of the FSS. This happens nearly everywhere I go. It is quite funny...although I am realizing more and more how beneficial work like this is and I really want to bring it to younger people. Most of the people there are at least fifty years of age or older.
The program revolves around advanced initiatory methodologies that help one to gain a glimpse into phenomenal realities. For people who are really in love with science and find it hard to accept spirituality as real...this practice may be for you. It is a "do it yourself, see for yourself" spirituality. There is not much of a theology built around it, although many cultural mythologies and cosmologies tend to have basic maps, spirits, and stories based on ones relationships to acquiring knowledge and receiving healing from spirits. Although you can certainly journey into these realms on your own without the help of a teacher, it is best to have someone with a lot of experience to help guide you through the experiences and to understand them correctly.
Michael Harner has done a lot of experimentation with the initiatory practices and has found it best to introduce people in successive stages. This is quite appropriate and is often seen in wisdom traditions in general. This is because, without a proper foundation, you can find yourself taking in too much power too soon. This can actually result in extreme power loss instead of helping one to gain personal power. So as much as many of you would like to poke around and learn some of the deeper aspects of shamanic practice through talking to me, do not be surprised if I steer you towards learning the foundations of journeying, coming to future ceremonies, and receiving personal healing work. One of the ways you can learn a lot about shamanism is by coming to a ceremony. Another is receiving personal healing. I will probably post a thing or two about personal shamanic sessions in the following weeks. I feel as if I should add a small disclaimer saying that I will not be teaching any of the initiatory practices that the foundation has taught.
While I was in the program, I had a friend of mine throw out a contact. She wanted to introduce me to a friend of hers that just moved to SF. I love meeting up with people, and fortunately I could squeeze in some time to hang out before I left for the airport. It was a short but sweet meet-up. We walked around the Mission district, ate some Mexican food, and laid out in the sun at a very popular park. We ended up being in the middle of a group of kids playing Frisbee.
Lastly, I met three folks on the small plane ride back to Flint. It was quite enjoyable and we talked a lot about international travel, since one of them just came back from Jamaica. He carried with him a beat up box and bag containing wooden sculptures brought back from his travels. I was naturally curious to see them. ;)
News of the tour! I have found more places to provide ceremony in Ontario. Right now I have two in Barrie. Coming up I will have two more locations...one being in Hamilton and the other being in Ottawa. This packs up much of the first leg of my journey. Stay tuned to hear about the events of this upcoming week!
Also, friend me on facebook (the link can be found under contacts on my personal website) to see pictures of my travels. I have not posted anything yet though.
Cheers!
Justin
Friday, May 3, 2013
Some usages of the word "Religion"
In one of my previous blogs, I talked about putting out some information talking about the different usages of religion and spirituality. At this point, I have found ten (instead of fifteen) definitions. Nine of them are from the book listed below. These are pretty lengthy definitions and explanations. If you are unfamiliar with the terrain of religion then this will put you several steps ahead of many people when it comes to understanding what people mean when they say religion. It is not always something to shriek, shy away from, or put your guard up against when it is brought up in discussions. Nor does it mean you need to defend your understanding against people trying to proselytize (although that surely does happen.) So when someone says they are religious and want to talk about their experiences, understanding, etc. this allows you to open up to the idea of contextual understanding (or understanding the foundation of that persons worldview) so that you can genuinely learn from someone elses way of relating to reality, even if you don't agree completely with what is being said. For you youngins' out there...it is ok to say you are religious! As long as you understand what you mean when you say it. Spiritual works just fine, but it does tend to be more elusive as far as what it means (something I want to work with later on in regards to Mask Shamanism.)
Since this is an incredibly lengthy blog, I will hold off on my posts for awhile regarding how mask Shamanism works with some definitions and doesn't with others. All of these blogs are aimed towards bringing a little more insight about this practice outside of the experiential aspect. I will inevitably mess up on how I say something and will have to clarify what is being said. It takes time, so please be patient. : )
The book that this passage is from is an incredible book to read. You will probably see me referring to it every now and then when I talk about certain topics. Since the chapter is very short, I decided to use nearly all of it. If you don't understand exactly what he means, that is ok. I spent a year studying every one of his books from start to finish (it is probably enough to have a degree. In fact, there are a small number of universities out there that are offering programs learning specifically the AQAL/Integral theory.) He uses a lot of language that can take awhile to understand and to see the overall picture of what he is getting at.
A Socialable God - Ken Wilber pgs. 98-104
One of the great difficulties in discussing religion-its sociology, its possible universality, its "civil" dimensions-is that it is not an "it." In my opinion, "it" has at least a dozen different, major, largely exclusive meanings, and unfortunately these are not always, not even usually, distinguished in the literature. Let me point out some of the ways we can (and do) use the word "religion," and what I believe is actually behind each usage. My point will be that each of these usages is legitimate enough-we are free to define religion any way we wish-but we must specify that meaning. For what wel will find is that many scholars have several implicit but often very different definitions in mind, and they slip between these usages in a way that generates pseudo-conclusions. I will number these religious definitions and subsequently refer to them as rd-1, rd-2, and so on.
1. Religion as non-rational engagement. This has both positive and negative connotations. To theologians, it means that religion deals with valid but nonrational aspects of existence, such as faith, grace, transcendance, satori, and such. To positivists, it means religion is nonvalid knowledge; it might be "meaningful" to humans in an emotional way, but it is not real cognition.
This usage is often reflected in common sense. Most people would intuitively say that magic-voodoo is a type of religion, however primitive, and that mythic gods and goddesses are definately religious, although maybe not very "serious." They would also say that what yogis, saints, and sages do is certainly religious. But science-rationality? That is not religious. This overall usage says that religion is not so much something done on all levels but rather on particular levels, and specifically, those that are not rational-scientific per se. If you are pro-religion, then this definition implies that religion is something you can grow into; if con, something you hope to outgrow. In either case, it is nonrational; it belongs to or at least originates in a dimension that is other to reason.
2. Religion as extremely meaningful or integrative engagement. This usage says religion is not something that occurs on specific nonrational dimensions or levels but is a particular functional activity on any given level, an activity seeking meaning, integration, etc. In my opinion, this usage actually reflect's each level's search for mana-the search for meaning, truth, integrity, stability, and subject-object relationship (exchange.) Since mana'translation, as we have seen, must occur on each level of structural organization, then whether that level appears "religious" or "secular" does not matter; it is religious, or mana-searching, by this definition.
This usage is also reflected in common sense. Thus, even the typical individual who initially says that myths, saints, sages, and such are religious but science is not, will usually understand exactly what you mean when you say, "Science was Einstein's religion." Star Trek fans say, "logic is Spock's religion." Here, even purely rational endeavors are said to be religious, because they are, like all levels, in search for their phase specific mana, and this mana-search-on whatever level, high or low, sacred or secular-is natively understood as religion.
Notice that, although both rd-1 and rd-2 are acceptable usages, they are nonetheless quite different, almost contradictory, and unless we specify which we mean, certain paradoxes and spurious conclusions will result. For instance, rd-1 denies secular religion, rd-2 demands it; rd-1 denies science as religion, rd-2 says it is (or can be.) Both are acceptable, as long as we understand that behind the one word "religions" there are different functions. Oftentimes common sense will use both of these meanings without specifying them, thus producing a pseudo-paradox. The person might say, "Mr. Jones doesn't go to church; he doesn't believe in religion-money is his religion."
3. Religion as an immortality project. This is using the technical term we earlier introduced, but the actual term itself need not be invoked. The idea is simply that religion is fundamentally a wishful, defensive, compensatory belief, created in order to assuage insecurity/anxiety. This meaning is often applied to theology, but it is also used for rational and secular endeavors, as when Becker says that Marxism is Soviet religion, meaning not just mana-search but death denial. This can occur, as we have seen, on any level, and simply reflects that level's inherent taboo avoidance. In this particular function, science does for the rational ego exactly what myth does for the childish ego and magic does for the infantile ego-helps to veil the apprehension of ultimate and inescapable mortality by providing a belief system to "hang on to." This seems especially true of "scienticians," that is, scientists whose rd-2 religion (mana religion) happens to be science itself. I have found that, when push comes to shove, they will guard thei exclusively rational world view with a quivering passion every bit as charged with hoped-for immortality as that of a shrieking fundamentalist preacher. The point is simply that each level (short of the ultimate) tends to erect some sort of immortality project as part of its necessary defense structures, and this usage of religion simply keys on this particular funtion (although, typically, most of those who use this definition deny that there is any other.)
4. Religion as evolutionary growth. This is a sophisticated concept maintaining that all evolution and history is a process of increasing self-realization, or the overcoming of alienation via the return of spirit to spirit as spirit. Hegel, for instance, or Auribindo. In this sense, religion is actually a term for the transformative drive in general. The religious impuls here means, not searching for meaning, integration, mana or value on a given level, but dying to that level altogether so as to find increasingly higher structures of mana-truth, eventuating in God-Realized Adaptation itself.
5. Religion as fixation/regression. We already discussed this usage; the only thing we need say here is that this meaning differs from rd-1 only in being more specific and always deragotory. Religion is not nonrational, it is prerational, and that exhausts the alternatives. This is standard primitivization theory: religion is childish illusion, magic, myth.
6. Exoteric religion. This generally refers to the lower, outward, and/or preparatory aspects of any religion that has higher, inward, and/or advanced aspects of teaching and practice. It is usually a form of belief system used to invoke or support faith. both being preparatory to esoteric experience and adaptation. If a religion lacks an esoteric dimension altogether, then that religion on the whole is referred to as exoteric (the point of comparison being the esoteric dimensions of other religions altogether.)
7. Esoteric religion. This refers to the higher, inward, and/or advanced aspects of religious practise, with the proviso that such practices culminate in, or at least have as goal, mystical experience.
(For the next two definitions, we need a preliminary explanation. Once an author defines religions, he or she has automatically established some sort of criteria for "more valid" or "less valid" religion, simply because once the function of religion is actually specified, there are always better of worse cases. Now the nature of this "better or worse" depends upon the prior, basic definition the author gives to religion. If rd-1 is used-religions as a nonrational dimension or realm, and in this case it means higher realm-then valid religion, or more valid religion, comes implicitly or explicitly to mean actually contacting those authentic higher realms or levels. On the other hand, if rd-2 is used-religion as search for mana on any level-then valid or more valid religion does not mean experiencing a particular level but finding legitimate mana on one's present level. These are obviously two entirely different meanings of "valid," and it presents a chronic semantic difficulty rarely acknowledged in the literature. I therefore have no choice but to use two different words-"authentic" and "legitimate-to specify these two meanings of valid.)
8. Legitimate religion. This is religion that primarily validates translation; usually by providing "good mana" and helping avoid taboo, that is, providing unity of meaning on the one hand and immortality symbols on the other. If an author (implicitly or explicitly) defines religion as meaningful integration of a given worldview or level (rd-2), then the more integrative religion (within that worldview or level) is implied or defined by the author to be the more valid. In these cases, since we refer to rd-2 as mana religion in general, we refer to its more valid forms as legitimate or "good mana" religion.
A crisis in legitimacy occurs whenever the prevailing mana and immortality symbols fail their integrative and defensive functions. This can occur on the lower levels of mythic-exoteric religions (for example, the Pope's encyclicals on human reproduction, based as they are on Thomistic/Aristotelian biological notions, long outmoded, have lost legitimacy with many people), on the middle levels of rational-secular religion (e.g., the Newtonian paradigm as a world view has lost legitimation) and on the upper levels of mystical religion (e.g. Mahayana Buddhism eventually lost legitimation in India, its place being taken by Shankara's Vedanta.) In each case, the religion in its rd-2 function simply fails to provide meaningful integration, on the one hand, or enough immortality power, on the other, and thus loses its legitimacy, or its capacity to validate translation.
Corollary: "Degree of legitimacy" refers to the relative degree of integration, meaning-value, good mana, ease of functioning, avoidance of taboo, and so forth within any given level. This is a horizontal scale; "more legitimate" means more integrative-meaningful within that level.
9. Authentic religion. This is religion that primarily validates transformation to a particular dimension-level deemed to be most centrally religious. When an author (implicitly or explicitly) defines religion as a particular dimension -level of existence (rd-1), then the religion that more completely or accurately contacts that dimension-level is implied or defined by the author to be the more valid. In those cases, I use the word "authentic" or "more authentic" to indicate "more valid."
A crisis in authenticity occurs whenever a prevailing worldview (or religion) is faced with challenges from a higher-level view. This can occur at any level, whenever a new and higher (or senior) level begins to emerge and itself gain legitimacy. The new world view embodies a new and higher transformative power and thus challenges the old view, not merely as to its legitimacy but as to its very authenticity.
Corollary: "Degree of authenticity" refers to the relative degree of actual transformation delivered by a given religion (or worldview.) This is a vertical scale; "more authentic" means more capable of reaching a higher level (and not merely integrating the present level.)
An author is, of course, free to specify the nature of the centrally religious or higher realm. For myself, it is the psychic, subtle, causal, and ultimate levels of structural organization and relational exchange. It follows that, for myself, authentic religion is any practice leading to a genuine emergence of, and eventual adaptation to, those transpersonal realms (with the further understanding that causal religion is more authentic than subtle, which is more authentic than psychic.) I will occasionallyuse the corollary "degree of authenticity" in a looser sense, as meaning the degree of developmental structuralization in general (e.g., myth is more authentic than magic, reason is more authentic than myth, vision is more authentic than reason, etc.). However, when I refer to authentic religions per se, they are ones that have reached a degree of structuralization at or beyond the superconscient border (i.e., psychic or higher.) Thus, magic, myth, and reason can be (and often are) legitimate religions, and they can occasionally express authentic religious insight via peak experience. But in neither case are they the source of authentic religious insight, which, for me, is always and expressly transrational, not merely ration, and certainly not prerational.
Notice that, in very general terms, any religion (or world view) can be judged in its degree of validity on two different, independently variable scales: its degree of legitimacy (horizontal scale; degree of translative smoothness and integrity, measured against the potential capacity of the given level itself) and its degree of authenticity (vertical scale; degree of transformative power, measured by the degree of hierarchical structuralization delivered by the transformation.) Thus, for example, there are situation where magic, at its full potential (say, in some paleolithic societies) was just as legitimate as myth at its full potential (say, in some bronze age societies), but myth was more authentic (embodying a higher level of structural organization. If our scale of legitimacy is 1 to 10 (degree of using the integrative-mana potential of the given level) and our scale of authenticity is 1 to 10 (representing the ten levels of structuralization), then in that example, the ratings would be (10,4) and (10,5), respectively. Here are some other examples, more commonplace:
Chinese Maoism has (or rather had) a fairly high degree of legitimacy but had a very mediocre degree of authenticity. It was a legitimate religions (or worldview) in that it apparently integrated large blocks of peoples, provided social solidarity and a measure of meaning-value, and avoided a good deal of taboo by providing the immortality ideology of an unending, never-dying people's revolution (a legitimacy rating of, say, 8-9.) It was not very authentic, however, because it offered adaptation to, only God. Thus: Maoism (8-9, 5-6.) (Notice that today Maoism has lost some of its legitimacy in China; the cultural revolution and its subsequent events were exactly a legitimacy crisis as defined above.) Soveit Marxism/Leninism, on the other hand, is as inauthentic as was Maoism (5-6), for the same reasons (it does not produce psychic, subtle, or causal transformation), but it also appears to be of a much lower degree of legitimacy (say, 4-5) than Maoism in its heyday, because its mana and its immortality symbols apparently have to be backed by rather large sticks. So there we have examples of relatively legitimate/inauthentic (8-9, 5-6) and illegitimate/inauthentic (4-5, 5-6.)
As for authentic but illegitimate, examples abound. When Mahayana Buddhism died in India, it was not because its tenets were per se inauthentic, for they still embodied causal level practice (9-10), but because Vedanta Hinduism, regenerating itself via Shankara and claiming a more historical rootedness, became more legitimate with practitioners. Likewise, Vedanta is a perfectly causal-authentic religion, but it seems it will never achieve widespread legitimacy in America, its rating there thus being something like (1-2, 9-10.) In the West, in fact, most esoteric spiritual tenets, no matter how authentic, never gained much legitimacy (witness Eckhart, al-Hallaj, Giordano Bruno, Christ's esoteric-causal message itself.)
As for religions that have been both legitimate and authentic, we may take Ch'an Buddhism during T'and Chinda, Vedanta Hinduism in India from the time of Gaudapada and Shankara to the British intensified occupation, or Vajrayana in Tibet from Padmasambhava to Mao Tse-tung, all of which seemed somewhere around (8-9, 9-10.)
Each of the preceding nine (or more) usages of the word "religion" has its appropriate place-some "religious" expressions are fixation/regressions, some are immortality projects, some are mana generators, some are legitimate, some are authentic. But we must be careful to express precisely which usage we mean. Otherwise, statements such as "The religious impulse in universal," "All religions are true," "Religion is transcendental," "All religions are one at some deep level," and so on are at best strictly meaningless, at worst profoundly misleading.
The tenth definition that I've come across that I learned was from my teacher, Sokuzan. Religion=discipline.
I am sure that there are many, many more definitions behind the word religion. The basic point? Religion is an extremely confused topic in todays world because everyone seems to have a lot to say about it (or if they don't say it, they think it) without really understanding that people mean entirely different things that are completely legitimate based on where you are in life.
Since this is an incredibly lengthy blog, I will hold off on my posts for awhile regarding how mask Shamanism works with some definitions and doesn't with others. All of these blogs are aimed towards bringing a little more insight about this practice outside of the experiential aspect. I will inevitably mess up on how I say something and will have to clarify what is being said. It takes time, so please be patient. : )
The book that this passage is from is an incredible book to read. You will probably see me referring to it every now and then when I talk about certain topics. Since the chapter is very short, I decided to use nearly all of it. If you don't understand exactly what he means, that is ok. I spent a year studying every one of his books from start to finish (it is probably enough to have a degree. In fact, there are a small number of universities out there that are offering programs learning specifically the AQAL/Integral theory.) He uses a lot of language that can take awhile to understand and to see the overall picture of what he is getting at.
A Socialable God - Ken Wilber pgs. 98-104
One of the great difficulties in discussing religion-its sociology, its possible universality, its "civil" dimensions-is that it is not an "it." In my opinion, "it" has at least a dozen different, major, largely exclusive meanings, and unfortunately these are not always, not even usually, distinguished in the literature. Let me point out some of the ways we can (and do) use the word "religion," and what I believe is actually behind each usage. My point will be that each of these usages is legitimate enough-we are free to define religion any way we wish-but we must specify that meaning. For what wel will find is that many scholars have several implicit but often very different definitions in mind, and they slip between these usages in a way that generates pseudo-conclusions. I will number these religious definitions and subsequently refer to them as rd-1, rd-2, and so on.
1. Religion as non-rational engagement. This has both positive and negative connotations. To theologians, it means that religion deals with valid but nonrational aspects of existence, such as faith, grace, transcendance, satori, and such. To positivists, it means religion is nonvalid knowledge; it might be "meaningful" to humans in an emotional way, but it is not real cognition.
This usage is often reflected in common sense. Most people would intuitively say that magic-voodoo is a type of religion, however primitive, and that mythic gods and goddesses are definately religious, although maybe not very "serious." They would also say that what yogis, saints, and sages do is certainly religious. But science-rationality? That is not religious. This overall usage says that religion is not so much something done on all levels but rather on particular levels, and specifically, those that are not rational-scientific per se. If you are pro-religion, then this definition implies that religion is something you can grow into; if con, something you hope to outgrow. In either case, it is nonrational; it belongs to or at least originates in a dimension that is other to reason.
2. Religion as extremely meaningful or integrative engagement. This usage says religion is not something that occurs on specific nonrational dimensions or levels but is a particular functional activity on any given level, an activity seeking meaning, integration, etc. In my opinion, this usage actually reflect's each level's search for mana-the search for meaning, truth, integrity, stability, and subject-object relationship (exchange.) Since mana'translation, as we have seen, must occur on each level of structural organization, then whether that level appears "religious" or "secular" does not matter; it is religious, or mana-searching, by this definition.
This usage is also reflected in common sense. Thus, even the typical individual who initially says that myths, saints, sages, and such are religious but science is not, will usually understand exactly what you mean when you say, "Science was Einstein's religion." Star Trek fans say, "logic is Spock's religion." Here, even purely rational endeavors are said to be religious, because they are, like all levels, in search for their phase specific mana, and this mana-search-on whatever level, high or low, sacred or secular-is natively understood as religion.
Notice that, although both rd-1 and rd-2 are acceptable usages, they are nonetheless quite different, almost contradictory, and unless we specify which we mean, certain paradoxes and spurious conclusions will result. For instance, rd-1 denies secular religion, rd-2 demands it; rd-1 denies science as religion, rd-2 says it is (or can be.) Both are acceptable, as long as we understand that behind the one word "religions" there are different functions. Oftentimes common sense will use both of these meanings without specifying them, thus producing a pseudo-paradox. The person might say, "Mr. Jones doesn't go to church; he doesn't believe in religion-money is his religion."
3. Religion as an immortality project. This is using the technical term we earlier introduced, but the actual term itself need not be invoked. The idea is simply that religion is fundamentally a wishful, defensive, compensatory belief, created in order to assuage insecurity/anxiety. This meaning is often applied to theology, but it is also used for rational and secular endeavors, as when Becker says that Marxism is Soviet religion, meaning not just mana-search but death denial. This can occur, as we have seen, on any level, and simply reflects that level's inherent taboo avoidance. In this particular function, science does for the rational ego exactly what myth does for the childish ego and magic does for the infantile ego-helps to veil the apprehension of ultimate and inescapable mortality by providing a belief system to "hang on to." This seems especially true of "scienticians," that is, scientists whose rd-2 religion (mana religion) happens to be science itself. I have found that, when push comes to shove, they will guard thei exclusively rational world view with a quivering passion every bit as charged with hoped-for immortality as that of a shrieking fundamentalist preacher. The point is simply that each level (short of the ultimate) tends to erect some sort of immortality project as part of its necessary defense structures, and this usage of religion simply keys on this particular funtion (although, typically, most of those who use this definition deny that there is any other.)
4. Religion as evolutionary growth. This is a sophisticated concept maintaining that all evolution and history is a process of increasing self-realization, or the overcoming of alienation via the return of spirit to spirit as spirit. Hegel, for instance, or Auribindo. In this sense, religion is actually a term for the transformative drive in general. The religious impuls here means, not searching for meaning, integration, mana or value on a given level, but dying to that level altogether so as to find increasingly higher structures of mana-truth, eventuating in God-Realized Adaptation itself.
5. Religion as fixation/regression. We already discussed this usage; the only thing we need say here is that this meaning differs from rd-1 only in being more specific and always deragotory. Religion is not nonrational, it is prerational, and that exhausts the alternatives. This is standard primitivization theory: religion is childish illusion, magic, myth.
6. Exoteric religion. This generally refers to the lower, outward, and/or preparatory aspects of any religion that has higher, inward, and/or advanced aspects of teaching and practice. It is usually a form of belief system used to invoke or support faith. both being preparatory to esoteric experience and adaptation. If a religion lacks an esoteric dimension altogether, then that religion on the whole is referred to as exoteric (the point of comparison being the esoteric dimensions of other religions altogether.)
7. Esoteric religion. This refers to the higher, inward, and/or advanced aspects of religious practise, with the proviso that such practices culminate in, or at least have as goal, mystical experience.
(For the next two definitions, we need a preliminary explanation. Once an author defines religions, he or she has automatically established some sort of criteria for "more valid" or "less valid" religion, simply because once the function of religion is actually specified, there are always better of worse cases. Now the nature of this "better or worse" depends upon the prior, basic definition the author gives to religion. If rd-1 is used-religions as a nonrational dimension or realm, and in this case it means higher realm-then valid religion, or more valid religion, comes implicitly or explicitly to mean actually contacting those authentic higher realms or levels. On the other hand, if rd-2 is used-religion as search for mana on any level-then valid or more valid religion does not mean experiencing a particular level but finding legitimate mana on one's present level. These are obviously two entirely different meanings of "valid," and it presents a chronic semantic difficulty rarely acknowledged in the literature. I therefore have no choice but to use two different words-"authentic" and "legitimate-to specify these two meanings of valid.)
8. Legitimate religion. This is religion that primarily validates translation; usually by providing "good mana" and helping avoid taboo, that is, providing unity of meaning on the one hand and immortality symbols on the other. If an author (implicitly or explicitly) defines religion as meaningful integration of a given worldview or level (rd-2), then the more integrative religion (within that worldview or level) is implied or defined by the author to be the more valid. In these cases, since we refer to rd-2 as mana religion in general, we refer to its more valid forms as legitimate or "good mana" religion.
A crisis in legitimacy occurs whenever the prevailing mana and immortality symbols fail their integrative and defensive functions. This can occur on the lower levels of mythic-exoteric religions (for example, the Pope's encyclicals on human reproduction, based as they are on Thomistic/Aristotelian biological notions, long outmoded, have lost legitimacy with many people), on the middle levels of rational-secular religion (e.g., the Newtonian paradigm as a world view has lost legitimation) and on the upper levels of mystical religion (e.g. Mahayana Buddhism eventually lost legitimation in India, its place being taken by Shankara's Vedanta.) In each case, the religion in its rd-2 function simply fails to provide meaningful integration, on the one hand, or enough immortality power, on the other, and thus loses its legitimacy, or its capacity to validate translation.
Corollary: "Degree of legitimacy" refers to the relative degree of integration, meaning-value, good mana, ease of functioning, avoidance of taboo, and so forth within any given level. This is a horizontal scale; "more legitimate" means more integrative-meaningful within that level.
9. Authentic religion. This is religion that primarily validates transformation to a particular dimension-level deemed to be most centrally religious. When an author (implicitly or explicitly) defines religion as a particular dimension -level of existence (rd-1), then the religion that more completely or accurately contacts that dimension-level is implied or defined by the author to be the more valid. In those cases, I use the word "authentic" or "more authentic" to indicate "more valid."
A crisis in authenticity occurs whenever a prevailing worldview (or religion) is faced with challenges from a higher-level view. This can occur at any level, whenever a new and higher (or senior) level begins to emerge and itself gain legitimacy. The new world view embodies a new and higher transformative power and thus challenges the old view, not merely as to its legitimacy but as to its very authenticity.
Corollary: "Degree of authenticity" refers to the relative degree of actual transformation delivered by a given religion (or worldview.) This is a vertical scale; "more authentic" means more capable of reaching a higher level (and not merely integrating the present level.)
An author is, of course, free to specify the nature of the centrally religious or higher realm. For myself, it is the psychic, subtle, causal, and ultimate levels of structural organization and relational exchange. It follows that, for myself, authentic religion is any practice leading to a genuine emergence of, and eventual adaptation to, those transpersonal realms (with the further understanding that causal religion is more authentic than subtle, which is more authentic than psychic.) I will occasionallyuse the corollary "degree of authenticity" in a looser sense, as meaning the degree of developmental structuralization in general (e.g., myth is more authentic than magic, reason is more authentic than myth, vision is more authentic than reason, etc.). However, when I refer to authentic religions per se, they are ones that have reached a degree of structuralization at or beyond the superconscient border (i.e., psychic or higher.) Thus, magic, myth, and reason can be (and often are) legitimate religions, and they can occasionally express authentic religious insight via peak experience. But in neither case are they the source of authentic religious insight, which, for me, is always and expressly transrational, not merely ration, and certainly not prerational.
Notice that, in very general terms, any religion (or world view) can be judged in its degree of validity on two different, independently variable scales: its degree of legitimacy (horizontal scale; degree of translative smoothness and integrity, measured against the potential capacity of the given level itself) and its degree of authenticity (vertical scale; degree of transformative power, measured by the degree of hierarchical structuralization delivered by the transformation.) Thus, for example, there are situation where magic, at its full potential (say, in some paleolithic societies) was just as legitimate as myth at its full potential (say, in some bronze age societies), but myth was more authentic (embodying a higher level of structural organization. If our scale of legitimacy is 1 to 10 (degree of using the integrative-mana potential of the given level) and our scale of authenticity is 1 to 10 (representing the ten levels of structuralization), then in that example, the ratings would be (10,4) and (10,5), respectively. Here are some other examples, more commonplace:
Chinese Maoism has (or rather had) a fairly high degree of legitimacy but had a very mediocre degree of authenticity. It was a legitimate religions (or worldview) in that it apparently integrated large blocks of peoples, provided social solidarity and a measure of meaning-value, and avoided a good deal of taboo by providing the immortality ideology of an unending, never-dying people's revolution (a legitimacy rating of, say, 8-9.) It was not very authentic, however, because it offered adaptation to, only God. Thus: Maoism (8-9, 5-6.) (Notice that today Maoism has lost some of its legitimacy in China; the cultural revolution and its subsequent events were exactly a legitimacy crisis as defined above.) Soveit Marxism/Leninism, on the other hand, is as inauthentic as was Maoism (5-6), for the same reasons (it does not produce psychic, subtle, or causal transformation), but it also appears to be of a much lower degree of legitimacy (say, 4-5) than Maoism in its heyday, because its mana and its immortality symbols apparently have to be backed by rather large sticks. So there we have examples of relatively legitimate/inauthentic (8-9, 5-6) and illegitimate/inauthentic (4-5, 5-6.)
As for authentic but illegitimate, examples abound. When Mahayana Buddhism died in India, it was not because its tenets were per se inauthentic, for they still embodied causal level practice (9-10), but because Vedanta Hinduism, regenerating itself via Shankara and claiming a more historical rootedness, became more legitimate with practitioners. Likewise, Vedanta is a perfectly causal-authentic religion, but it seems it will never achieve widespread legitimacy in America, its rating there thus being something like (1-2, 9-10.) In the West, in fact, most esoteric spiritual tenets, no matter how authentic, never gained much legitimacy (witness Eckhart, al-Hallaj, Giordano Bruno, Christ's esoteric-causal message itself.)
As for religions that have been both legitimate and authentic, we may take Ch'an Buddhism during T'and Chinda, Vedanta Hinduism in India from the time of Gaudapada and Shankara to the British intensified occupation, or Vajrayana in Tibet from Padmasambhava to Mao Tse-tung, all of which seemed somewhere around (8-9, 9-10.)
Each of the preceding nine (or more) usages of the word "religion" has its appropriate place-some "religious" expressions are fixation/regressions, some are immortality projects, some are mana generators, some are legitimate, some are authentic. But we must be careful to express precisely which usage we mean. Otherwise, statements such as "The religious impulse in universal," "All religions are true," "Religion is transcendental," "All religions are one at some deep level," and so on are at best strictly meaningless, at worst profoundly misleading.
The tenth definition that I've come across that I learned was from my teacher, Sokuzan. Religion=discipline.
I am sure that there are many, many more definitions behind the word religion. The basic point? Religion is an extremely confused topic in todays world because everyone seems to have a lot to say about it (or if they don't say it, they think it) without really understanding that people mean entirely different things that are completely legitimate based on where you are in life.
Thursday, May 2, 2013
The birthing of the mask spirit
Well hello there folks!
Yesterday I had the birthing ceremony for my mask. It was much shorter than I expected! I brought a pouch of tobacco for the priest. He has a tradition where he will take a pinch of his tobacco and put it with yours, then he will take a pinch out of yours and put it with his. This way his tobacco mixes with everyone he does ceremony with. It creates more community in ceremony!
This man has a small platform that he consecrated to use for his spiritual practice. This is where the mask laid. He loaded his pipe with tobacco and smoked in front of the mask, letting the smoke from the pipe rise up and around it. After he was done with that he sang three invocation songs. These songs were so beautiful! They were very strong too. Before they put me into a state of extreme sleepiness I was able to see the mask spirit waking up. Wallah! Done! He gave me a beautiful cloth to wrap the mask in and sent me on my way. He is very supportive of this upcoming journey, as is my other teacher Sokuzan. This makes me very happy.
There is still more to do! I never thought that the mask would take as much time as it has. Sometime within the next few days I will make a fire and burn all of the woodchips from the mask carving with various herbs in it. I will use the smoke to help cure the mask and then rub some of the ash on it. I will even be taking it with me to the last week of the program I am involved in to deepen my relationship with the mask spirit.
The mask remains wrapped in the cloth and brought out only during healing or ceremony.
On another note...I am working on the "A vision for the future" page on my website. I believe that this page will help people to understand my direction more clearly. This will also give you an opportunity to see what I am looking to do through all of the donations that I receive.
Stay tuned!
Yesterday I had the birthing ceremony for my mask. It was much shorter than I expected! I brought a pouch of tobacco for the priest. He has a tradition where he will take a pinch of his tobacco and put it with yours, then he will take a pinch out of yours and put it with his. This way his tobacco mixes with everyone he does ceremony with. It creates more community in ceremony!
This man has a small platform that he consecrated to use for his spiritual practice. This is where the mask laid. He loaded his pipe with tobacco and smoked in front of the mask, letting the smoke from the pipe rise up and around it. After he was done with that he sang three invocation songs. These songs were so beautiful! They were very strong too. Before they put me into a state of extreme sleepiness I was able to see the mask spirit waking up. Wallah! Done! He gave me a beautiful cloth to wrap the mask in and sent me on my way. He is very supportive of this upcoming journey, as is my other teacher Sokuzan. This makes me very happy.
There is still more to do! I never thought that the mask would take as much time as it has. Sometime within the next few days I will make a fire and burn all of the woodchips from the mask carving with various herbs in it. I will use the smoke to help cure the mask and then rub some of the ash on it. I will even be taking it with me to the last week of the program I am involved in to deepen my relationship with the mask spirit.
The mask remains wrapped in the cloth and brought out only during healing or ceremony.
On another note...I am working on the "A vision for the future" page on my website. I believe that this page will help people to understand my direction more clearly. This will also give you an opportunity to see what I am looking to do through all of the donations that I receive.
Stay tuned!
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