AN INTRODUCTION TO SACRED PLACES AND ANCIENT WAYS - THE SHAMANIC STUDIES PROGRAMME WITH AMIDA TRUST.
WHAT THE TERMS SRAMAN, SHAMAN & SRAVAKA MEAN:
The term sraman or sramanera, from which shaman derives, refers top one who keeps to a discipline or undergoes austerities. Usually a sramanera is also a sravaka, a disciple (literally one who listens). The western word disciple includes some elements of each of these ideas. However, the sraman also tends to be somebody who, with his discipline or with the formation of soul given to him by the ordeals he has passed through, often lives alone whereas the sravaka tends to be part of a community. I think that our usage of the term shaman can draw on both sets of ideas.
The basic idea of the shaman is somebody who goes into the spirit world either to perform work there or to return to this world with wisdom. Thus when Buddha went to visit his mother in heaven he was being a shaman. Sometimes the shaman visits the spirits and sometimes the spirits visit the shaman. However, a shaman is slightly different from a medium. In the case of the medium or oracle the spirit enters and takes over the whole or part of the body/mind of the medium and uses it to communicate with or act in the common world. In my life I have had many encounters of a shamanic nature but have never been a medium.
HOW ONE BECOMES A SHAMAN:
Being a shaman is not something that is easy to transmit to others. Many people have such experiences in childhood, but "grow out" of them, or are educated out of them. Others have them as a result of tragedies or ordeals that they encounter in life. Sometimes openings come through the effect of extreme experiences that are hardly replicable. Sometimes they come as from nowhere. Often they come to people who are close to the dying or recently bereaved.
The shaman is, classically, a person whose soul travels into the spirit world, or, we may say, the dreamworld or dreamtime. The dreamtime is not a different time from this one; rather a different kind of time concurrent with this one. We are always dreaming, but generally we pay little attention. The shaman learns to attend to the ever-present dream. However, the dream breaks through more forcibly at some times and in some places.
There is thus an association between shamanism and sacred space. Certain places have power. The shaman may visit such places and open him or herself to the dream of that place.
There is also an association between such experience and transition. The shaman lives straddling margins or boundaries. Thus the shore is a boundary. Equinoxes are boundary times, as are dawn and dusk. The time of waking and falling asleep are boundaries. These are the times when the dream is most accessible. The shaman is a "boundary person" who lives on the edge of the tribe and is often a bit odd as far as other people are concerned, but this oddness is due to her or his sensitivity to things that ordinary people do not notice or do not value.
Following the dream is a manner of spiritual practice. The nembutsu signifies a boundary. The limited being calls to the unlimited across a void. The shaman functions in that void. Calling, chanting, trance, and dream are all modes of shamanic activity.
One of the most potent boundaries is that between life and death. The most powerful shamanic initiations are thus dangerous to life. In the training of witch-doctors in Africa it may be that some of the candidates do not survive. This has often been the case in shamanic traditions around the world and some shamanic practices are not really fully replicable in a modern social context.
On the other hand, what the modern world does offer is ease of access to many cultures. It is thus possible for the modern person to gain exposure to a variety of shamanic traditions. This can lead to dilletantism, but it does not have to be that way.
The hijiri-nembutsu tradition of Japan involved people following the leadings of spirit allowing intuition to guide a personal spiritual journey. One of the best known of the hijiri was Ippen. Ippen combined the practices of Pureland with those of Shingon, the esoteric (tantric) tradition of Japan and he often travelled to sacred sites in order to practise.
POSSIBLE WAYS FORWARD
As nembutsu practitioners we can advance an interest in a shamanic approach in three ways.
1. We can create a programme of visits, pilgrimages and workshops, partly for ourselves and partly for interested members of the public. This can be a public programme which might yield some income for the Trust.2. We can ourselves form a fellowship of people interested in experimenting and developing our sensitivity, skills and openness, through gatherings in which we share with one another.3. Once we have made some progress in the above we may well be abl to develop a system of apprenticeship for others who come along later and want to enter into this path.
To some extent these three dimensions overlap. Our activity as a fellowship may often be to gather for a pilgrimage, visit or workshop and, as others come along, they will be seeking initiation into the same fellowship. However, thinking in terms of these three dimensions may help us to organise.
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