Shamanism and Enlightenment

The other day someone said to me, “Why bother seeking enlightenment it seems like hard work to me?”

Actually it’s a very good question. Ultimately it overcomes loneliness and enables us to find inner peace and a blissful happiness that that is indescribable, but yes it takes work.

The next question is “how is this achieved”?

Our shamanic practice enables students to actually experience their spirit guides such as ancestors, power animals, deities and angels.

It’s based on the concept that our ancestors, spirit guides and deities will help us when they perceive that we are striving to achieve our full potential and personal enlightenment. We define enlightenment as:

A shift in consciousness, where truth is discovered through personal experience, which is beyond all concepts and beliefs, this results in the recognition of fundamental oneness with all of existence and that your true nature is whole, unbounded and everlasting.

The question then becomes is enlightenment possible?

I have used this quote from Albert Einstein before and cannot resist doing so again. Below is his definition of enlightenment:

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”

Albert is in effect, saying that not only is it possible but actually you already are enlightened and to believe otherwise is a form of optical delusion.

We have said previously that we don't believe in belief and that we only consider personal experience to be meaningful. We also state that for us spirituality is a unique and individual experience between a person and the universe. Therefore, no two experiences can be compared and no person can judge another’s experience.

Belief is a very odd concept. We see almost daily people who are prepared to die for their beliefs. Others are adamant that their view is correct and other people are wrong. Some people believe that they are closer to god and so they can tell other people what they should do. We hold our beliefs close to our harts. Ironically there are some beliefs that are very harmful to us. For example, “I’m a bad person”, “I’m useless”, “It’s all my fault”, “Other people are better than me.” The irony is that we also cling to these beliefs.

Just for a moment let’s put all these beliefs aside and consider accepting things that are undeniable truths. For example, the earth is round, the moon goes around the earth, and the earth orbits the sun.

The next question then is what has experience got to do with this? Imagine that you went to Africa and met a ten year old child. You then told him or her that two thirds or the planet are covered in water. Do you think that they would believe you? Unlikely, but if you then brought that child to the ocean and let him or her paddle on the beach the child could not deny such a profound experience and must then accept truth over belief.

So what has shamanism got to do with enlightenment?

Shamanism at Frankly Shamanic offers experiences of union between the human world and the spirit world by connecting with ancestors, deities, spirit guides and power animals. These profound practices facilitate the process of the shift in consciousness, where truth is discovered beyond all concepts and beliefs.

Immediately I hear in my mystical ear the scientists (not Albert Einstein) saying, “science has not proven that spiritual beings exist”. While I accept the truth of this statement I must also point out that science has also not proven that they don’t exist. Therefore, the truth is that science simply does not know. I would like to add that “not knowing”, is not a bad thing. If more people simply admitted that there are many things that we just don't know the world would be a better place.

Let’s re-examine Albert Einstein’s quote.

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”

Consider for a moment the moon. Let me ask you this question. Is the moon inside your body or outside your body? Obviously it’s outside we can see it orbiting the earth. However, we also know that the gravity of the moon is powerful enough to affect the tides, and that the human body contains between fifty to seventy five percent water. Therefore, if the moons energy is powerful enough to affect the tides it’s possible that it’s also affecting your body, and so we are not separate from the moon but apart of it.

Air is just too easy obviously it’s outside until we breathe in. What about the sun? It’s a bit more difficult to imagine it inside our bodies? Until we remember that the sunlight is absorbed through our skin and becomes vitamin D. As for water well like air it’s too easy, just by observing these simple truths we can begin to understand what Einstein is saying.