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.
Recent Comments