What Does It Mean to be

1
What Does It Mean to be Spiritual?

• For the Multicultural Resource Center and
• Religious and Spiritual Life
• University of North Carolina, Charlotte
• March 22, 1010

2
Definitions of spirituality

• Personal, inner, goal-directed (enlightenment,
  awareness, Godliness, subjective, otherworldly
  focus)

3
Within a religious context (church, mosque,
synagogue)
4
Outside established religion(nature, dreams,
sacred sites)
5
Contemplation

• On a sacred text or revealed teachings (the
  Bible, Koran, Torah, Baghavad Gita, Visuddhimagga
  )

Teresa de Avila,French mystic It will be as
well, I think, to explain these locutions of God,
and to describe what the soul feels when it
receives them.
6
Tree of Practices

• Bearing witness
• Movement
• Creation process
• Martial arts
• Music
• Center for Contemplative Mind in Society
• http//www.contemplativemind.org

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Sacred Images and Icons
8
Action in the world
M. K. Gandhi What is faith if it is not
translated into action?
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Physical and mental self-exploration
10
Ritual for prayer, reflection and connection
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• Every image of every power was majestically
  danced with in their respective feasts. It was
  this dance, these words spoken with tears, these
  offerings ingeniously made and given, that
  renewed the spirits behind the images, bringing
  them back to consciousness, reanimating them out
  of their swoon of exhaustion after having worked
  so hard for us humans here in the Umbilicus of
  the World.
• Martin Prechtel, Long Life, Honey in the Heart A
  Story of Initiation and Eloquence from the Shores
  of a Mayan Lake. London Thorsons, 1999.

12
Healing
13
ANDREW HARVEY, DIALOGUES WITH A MODERN MYSTIC,
QUEST BOOKS, 1994, PP. 21-22.

• A mystic is someone who has direct cognition of
  God beyond thought or image. A mystic is one
  whose eyes have been opened through purification,
  discipline and grace to the living mystery and
  lives consciously in the divine presence. All
  cultures at all times have had their mystics who
  have known the supreme secret that God is in us
  and we are in God as a part of God and who have
  owed their spiritual health to the reality of
  wisdom and love which the mystic directly
  awakens

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• PurificationSilencePrayerSacrificeDisciplineP
  ractice

Rachel Mann Shrine of Healing The Art of
Surviving http//www.artofsurviving.org
15
In many ways disease and episodes of sickness
remind people that meaning is an achievement.
The notion that human beings live meaningful
lives is both a problem and a promise. In the
face of disease and other challenges that becloud
meaning or disclose it in painful glimpses, you
are impelled to try to discover, clarify, or
achieve meaning through creative
expression. Lawrence Sullivan, Images of
Wholeness Interview with Lawrence Sullivan,
Parabola, p. 13.
Lloyd, Dawn The Art of Surviving http//www.arto
fsurviving.org
16
At first, we cannot see beyond the path that
leads downward to dark and hateful things--but no
light or beauty will ever come from the man who
cannot bear this sight. Light is always born of
darknessCarl Jung, Modern Man in Search of a
Soul
17
BRADFORD KEENEY, SHAKING MEDICINE THE HEALING
POWER OF ECSTATIC MOVEMENT. DESTINY BOOKS, P. 39.

• Ecstatic bliss arises when the Bushmen throw
  themselves into spirited shaking and dancing,
  which serves to open their hearts. Shamans help
  bring forth the spirited interactions that open
  the doors to circular absorptive relations with
  others.

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Cave Paintings of Laas Gael, Swaziland

• 9,000-8,000 to 3,000 B.C.

19
The collective element is communitas, fellowship
or friendship.arising in times of illness,
danger, or change when new and exciting things
are going on and during sacred events.In these
circumstances, odd things

• happen. People are somehow freed not to be
  simply the result of social norms and their
  childhood conditioning. In these circumstances,
  they know each other as full human beings. People
  recognize this feeling and like it.
• Edith Turner, Among the Healers Stories of
  Ritual and Spiritual Healing Around the World,
  Praeger, 2005.

20
The survivor is a scholar of his or her own
experience.

• Roberta Culberton
• Director, Center for Violence and Community
• http//www.virginiafoundation.org/research/violenc
  e/index.html

21
Cold War Consciousness
The USSR and the US hold one anothers
shadows Carl Jung, Man and His Symbols
22
We are the cause of our own suffering
23

• Christopher Hedges, War is a Force That Gives Us
  Meaning, New York Public Affairs, 2002, 13.

24
The American Holocaust

• Understanding the Impact of First Contact

25
The Major Players
Christopher Columbus lands on the shores of San
Salvador in the Bahamas, 1492
26
The Explorers

• Norse, Newfoundland, 1000
• John Cabot, Newfoundland, 1497
• Amerigo Vespuci, South America, 15th century
• Giovanni da Verrazzano, North America, 1524
• Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro, Mexico, the
  Aztecs, 16th century

27
Delivering the Dark Ages
The Black (Bubonic) Plague spreads through Europe
in the 15th c. and continues through the
17th Estimated 20,000,000 deaths or 2/3rds of
the pop.
28
The Spain that Christopher Columbus and his
crews left behind just before dawn on August 3,
1492 as they sailed forth from Palos and out into
the Atlantic, was for most of its people a land
of violence, squalor, treachery, and intolerance.
In this respect Spain was no different from the
rest of Europe. --David Stannard,
American Holocaust (1992). NY Oxford Univ.
Press, p. 57.
29
European Famine

• While the rich and aristocrats lived high, tens
  of thousands lived on the margins of perpetual
  hunger
• An average increase in the price of wheat or
  millet killed a proportion of the French
  population equal to nearly twice the percentage
  of Americans killed in the Civil War

30
European Filth
31
European Filth

• No bathing
• Rotting offal of butchered animals in the streets
• Roadside ditches w/stagnatn water used as public
  latrines
• Open pits of the deceased
• Skin diseases

32
Witchcraft Accusations

• In many towns on the Continent, as many as 1/3rd
  were accused of witchcraft

33
Malnutrition, Disease, and Slavery

• Homeless poor sold themselves as slaves
• Most children died by the age of 15
• Abandonment of children and babies
• Children sold into slavery by parents

34
Violence

• Robberies, murder and revenge
• Among earldoms, republics, duchies and noble
  families there was kidnapping, torture,
  mutilation, fratricide, patricide, assassination

35
The Holy War

• Christianity seeks world domination from the 11th
  through the 13th centuries
• Other wars wage between nations and feudal states

36
Pre-Conquest America

• Estimated population 145,000,000
• Beautiful, clean, disease-free, gold-encrusted
  cities
• Lack of emphasis on warfare in most areas
• Children encouraged to be independent, yet
  responsible to the community
• Egalitarian political structures (Iroquois
  Confederacy)
• Elaborate social and cultural characteristics
• Affectionate and fearless cordiality towards
  strangers

37
The Figures

• By the time the 16th century had ended, 200,000
  Spaniards had moved to the Indies, Mexico and
  Central America
• By the same time, 60,000,000 to 80,000,000 were
  dead
• By the middle of the 19th century, 1/3rd of one
  percent of Americas population250,000 out of
  77,000,0000were natives
• By the end of the 19th century, 100,000,000
  natives dead

38
Death Marches

• Cherokee Trail of Tears, 8000 died
• Seminoles, Chikasaw and Chocktaw
• By the end of these forced marches, as many
  Natives had lost their lives as the deaths of
  Jews in Germany, Hungary and Rumania between 1939
  and 1945

39
Policies of genocide in the 20th century

• Forced removal of children into white boarding
  schools until the 80s and early 90s
• A federal program resulting in the involuntary
  sterilization of 40 of all native women of
  childbearing age in the U.S. in the 1970s
• Native Americans forced out of their reservations
  into the city in California in the 70s
• Imprisonment of Native Americans due to racism,
  such as Leonard Peltier

40
Racism

• European thinkers were certain, there lived
  creatures who may have seemed bestial, but who
  were humans, with souls, and who even might
  become the holiest of saints if treated with
  Christian care. However, in that indistinct,
  borderline, substratum of life, there also
  existed human-like creatures whose function in
  Gods scheme of things was to be nothing more
  than what Aquinas called animated instruments of
  service to civilized Christian humanity. That is,
  slaves.
• David Stannard, American Holocaust The Conquest
  of the New World, Oxford University Press, 1993,
  p. 173.

41
The Legacy Lingers
1490s to the 1890s An unbroken string of
genocidal campaign against the Native peoples of
the Americas
42
Environmental and Human Destruction

• One and a half acres of rainforest are lost
  everyday
• 137 species of animals, plants, and insects lost
  everyday due to rainforest destruction
  (50,000/year)
• 10,000,000 Indians lived in the rainforest 5
  centuries ago
• Today, only 200,000 remain

Rainforest Facts http//www.rain-tree.com/facts.h
tm
43
The Spain that Christopher Columbus and his
crews left behind just before dawn on August 3,
1492 as they sailed forth from Palos and out into
the Atlantic, was for most of its people a land
of violence, squalor, treachery, and intolerance.
In this respect Spain was no different from the
rest of Europe.David Stannard, American
Holocaust (1992). NY Oxford Univ. Press, p. 57.
44
Healing

• Healing always points toward a renewal of
  creative powers, toward a condition that is
  vital, stirring, strong and whole, as befits a
  creative beginning.One reason why people are so
  creative in relation to disease is because it is
  there that they face elementary forces that both
  constitute and decompose them.
• Interview with Lawrence Sullivan, Parabola
  Magazine

45
Shamanism and Neo (new)-Shamanism

• Shaman refers to communal leaders and
  religious practitioners who might otherwise be
  called by very different, more local names, such
  as bornoh, yadgan, mudang, angakoq, or referred
  to only adjectively as, for instance, paye
  peopleLast but not least, shaman also refers to
  practitioners within various therapeutic,
  spiritual and cultural movements in the West.
  
• Harvey, Graham. Shamanism A Reader. London
  Routledge, 2000. 

46
Putting Practice onto Paper

• The Literary and Spiritual Legacy of
• Black Elk Speaks

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Black Elk Speaks
Grandfather, Great Spirit, you have been
always, and before you no one has been. You
yourself, everything that you see, everything has
been made by you. The star nations all over the
universe you have finished. The four quarters of
the earth you have finished. The day, and in
that day, you have finished. Grandfather, Great
Spirit, lean close to the earth that you may hear
the voice I send. A prayer by Black Elk, Black
Elk Speaks (first printing, 1932 second
printing, 1959.)
48
The Story of Black Elk

• Born 1863 into a band headed by his father, a
  medicine man related to Crazy Horse
• Civil War ended and the US drove westward
  building roads and railway lines
• The original inhabitants of the lands were
  forcibly removed into a reservation under the
  terms of the Fort Laramie Treaty in 1868
• The official religion of the reservation was
  Christianity and all Lakota religious ceremonies
  were illegal

49
Joseph Epes Brown
I am fortunate in having met at least some of
those men of the old days who possessed great
human and spiritual qualities. But Black Elk had
a special quality of power and kindliness and a
sense of mission that was unique, and I am sure
it was recognized by all who had the opportunity
of knowing him. Joseph Epes Brown, Preface to
the The Sacred Pipe, 1953.
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The Sacred Pipe
Most people call it a peace pipe, yet now
there is not peace on earth or even between
neighbors, and I have been told that it has been
a long time since there has been peace in the
world. There is much talk of peace among
Christians, yet this is just talk. Perhaps it may
be, and this is my prayer that, through our
sacred pipe, and through this book in which I
shall explain what our pipe really is, peace may
come to those peoples who can understand, and
understanding which must be of the heart and not
of the head alone. Then they will realize that we
Indians know the One true God and that we pray to
him continually. Black Elk in his introduction
to The Sacred Pipe, 1953.
51
Sun Bear
This book is not written by an anthropologist.
It is not about one tribe, but a composite of
many. It is knowledge I have learned about my
people. It belongs to them, and credits are to
the American Indians. Sun Bear in the
Introduction to Buffalo Hearts (1970)
52
Sun Bear published 8 books between 1969 and 1994
53
Lame Deer Seeker of Visions
For us Indians there is just the pipe, the earth
we sit on and the open sky. The spirit is
everywhere. Sometimes it shows itself through an
animal, a bird or some trees and hills. Sometimes
it speaks from the Badlands, a stone or even from
the water. That smoke from the peace pipe, it
goes straight up to the spirit world. But this
is a two way thing. Power flows down to us
through that smoke, through the pipe stem.
Lame Deer from Chapter 1, Lame Deer Seeker of
Visions (1972)
54
Fools Crowby Thomas Mails
Dallas and I were astonished when Fools Crow
suddenly changed the conversation and said that
in his last vision quest at Bear Butte in 1965,
his god, Wakan-Tanka had told him that although
he was a humble man with little to offer, the
time had come for him to tell certain things
about himself and his Teton people to a person
who would be made known to him. This way the
record would be kept and the world would know
about it. Thomas Mails, in Chapter 1 from
Fools Crow, 1979
55
Voices of Our Ancestors Cherokee Teachings from
the Wisdom Fire
This book is written with the hope of bringing
to fruition peace and harmonious relationships
for all beings.In 1969, after generations of
secrecy, it was decided to share the teachings of
the Tsalagi tradition with non-native people, so
that our children would have water to drink and a
place to walk. The intention is to strengthen
individuals relationships with their families,
communities, nations and the land, the Earth
itself. We do not invite people to become
Indians. We invite people to be in good
fellowship and to respect the teachings of the
their family of origin. Thus may we all cooperate
in manifesting a vision of peace. Dhyani
Ywahoo, from the Preface to Voices of Our
Ancestors (1987).
56
Fools Crow Wisdom and Power
At first, Wakan-Tanka had all of the spiritual
power inside Himself. But He loves to share
things so He gave some power to Grandmother Earth
and some to each of the Persons He placed in the
Cardinal DirectionsThen He told them that when
faithful human beings or other creatures called
upon them for help they must send them their
powers and save the peopleWakan-Tanka taught
each tribe to believe in ways that work best for
them. It depended on where they lived nad the way
they thought about spiritual things. Fools
Crow as said to Thomas Mails, in Fools Crow
Wisdom and Power (1991)
57
The Way of the ShamanMichael Harner
Anthropologist Michael Harner publishes The Way
of the Shaman about his experiences with the
Jivaro people of the Amazon and creates the
shamanic method in 1980
58
Island of the Sun
Anthropologist Alberto Villoldo publishes Island
of the Sun in 1994 about his experiences as a
student of a Peruvian shaman named Don Manuel and
founds the Four Winds Society
59
Bushman Shaman
Psychologist Bradford Keeney publishes Bushman
Shaman in 2005 about meeting the Bushmen of the
Kalahari and finding the ancient traditions of
shaking medicine
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Secrets of the Talking Jaguar
Half-Indian, half-white Martin Prechtel publishes
Secrets of the Talking Jaguar and two other books
in a triptych about his training as a Mayan
shaman and village leader in Santiago Atitlan in
Guatemala (1999-2002)
61
Shamanism in a New Age
62
Exploring Suffering
63
The Four Noble Truths

• There will be suffering in life.
• Suffering arises due to attachment.
• Freedom from suffering is attainable.
• There is a path the end suffering.

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Transformation
65
Community Building
66
Spontaneity and play!
67
Connection
68
The Path of the Wounded Healer
69
We Heal and are Reborn in Every Moment
70
To contact me

• rachel_at_mettaknowledge.com
• 434-227-0538
• http//www.mettaknowledge.com