new to the forum, posting a piece I wrote a few years ago might be a good way to introduce myself
I am living in Peru, ayahuasca tourisme here made me write this piece:
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Wake up call.
A wake up call. Not allways welcome, you might be
sleeping well.
Now that western believes and religions have been
loosing ground,the children of the new age searched
for new answers on the ancient questions;
``Where do we come from, what is the meaning
of life, why are we here? etc``
Head over heels they run into new/old believes. Shamanism,
curandism,eastern thought,tarot, astrology, entheogens
and so on,
provided the answers.But actually just substituted the
old superstitions for
new ones.
The patterns didn`t really change.
As in the old ways a new clercy developed of guru`s,
shaman`s,
spiritual
leaders etc., who just like before, claimed to have the
answers and
a patent on the truth. Again it proved to be a pretty
provitable
busines. Again power and greed rules the mind of most
these new age profets, just like the clergy of before,
from whatever
culture the came, hindus, buddhist, shamans, cristians all
the same.
Sadly enough nothing really changed.
Occidental materialistic thought managed to change
whatever
alternative it met,
into a commodety, a way to make money.
Shamans pulled out of their places, turned into busines.
Often
lost their mind
and forgot their own people.
A funny, but sad example: After been visited by americans,
sharing
ayahuasca and been
taken to the US, a shaman returns home with plenty of
$$, built
himself a brick house, bought a radio, tv etc. Than when
the money was finished, he just missed a bit to buy the
iron
bars to be placed in the windows, to protect his new wealth.
Couldn`t leave his house, afraid someone might steal his
new stuff.
Another one, now quite famous, also bought a brick house,
far from his tribe, whose healer he was, just forgot
about them.
How do you find a meastro in Huamcabamba, a little
town in
northern Peru, referred for its holy lakes and the
meastro`s who work there with the help of San Pedro, a
mescaline containing
cacti?
Well, the meastor`s are quite easy to recognize in this
terribly poor place, where hunger was and maybe still
is a problem, by their multi$$ leather jackets and
excessive big houses.
New Age books make millions. A Guru collects Rolls Royce`s,
others build ashrams like palaces.
Western people go to the jungle, or fly in a shaman,
everything quick, quick.
Drink ayahuasca and think, pretend or make themselves
believe to have had an authentic experience, as if that
can be bought.
The story of king Midas.
Shamanism, curandism can teach us a lot about plants,
but most of it
is mainly interesting for ethnobotanists and
anthropologists.
More superstitious baggage is not really where we are
waiting for.
What is it that makes us fool ourselves over and
over again.
Shouldn`t we know by now that real knowledge, the truth
cannot be bought?
Ayahuasca, entheogens are powerful medicine.
As are the words of Christ, Buddha, Lao Tse, the ancient
rishis who wrote the veda`s, and the enormous knowledge
of the true
shamans and curandero`s.
But as long as the user, listener expects those substances
and words, healers to do the job for them, they are
worthless, worse
even; just another obstacle, another veil.
The Light is inside. Any substance or teacher who
claims to have the answers,who can heal anything, should
be avoided,
beware of those guys.
What is it that makes us search every where, but not
where it is,inside.
Why we prefer a beautiful lie, above the maybe hasrh truth
(which actually is far more beautiful)? How come, we
are so deluded, So much so that people kill one another,
fight
holy wars, burn witches over superstitions, called the
cross,allah
or whatever. Shamans call other shamans brujo`s.
How painful and all that over superstitions, misleading
thought patterns.
As if life itself is not hard enough by itself from time
to time.
Or is it just that, what makes us so desperately persue
phantoms?
For fear. Fear not to know, fear of life. Not to know
why we are here.
There is such a freedom in not knowing, might be scary at
first, but if you dare, the universe opens itself for you.
Take a deep breath, take a broad view, drop all
preconvictions.
Try it when taking ayahuasca or any other entheogen.
Forget the shaman, the icaros, the healing, your own
misery, the fear. Just listen, listen attentively with
an open mind,drop all prejudges.
Learn to listen. It is all there, waiting for you, for god
knows how long.
You don?t need anybody. Seeds waiting for the right
conditions to germinate and grow.
It takes courage not to know, not to hang on to some
believe.
You believe what you don?t know. If you knew , there
would be no need to believe. Isn`t believing a bit
childish?
So what is the use?
Why not prefer the experience over some childish believe?
The truth is so blatantly in front of you, in you, that
it is hard to see.
Like the taste of water, or the smell of oxigen or your
own smell.
It is so much with you, that it is hard to see.
In Hindu nad Buddhist thought there is this concept
of Maya.
Maya is the biggest trip, the strongest hallucinogenic,
the most powerful illusion. The mother of delusion.
Compared to her Ayahuasca, LSD, ibogaine or whatever are
just toys.
Everything conceivable falls under the reign of Maya.
Whatever takes place in Time and Space is Maya.
As soon as the awareness of ``I`` pops up, in a living
being
the spell is there,Maya`s spell.
In Sanskrit, if you swap the syllables, you get Yama,
which is death or the king of death.
Ma for the mother, creation, that which gives birth.
Ya for death, destruction, anhilation.
Isn?t that what we experience as live, this constant
ongoing of creation and destruction.
Two sides of a coin, one cannot exist without the other.
What is this delusion? It is the misconception that you
are,
the idea that you are an independent being, separated from
the rest.
Which you are and you are not. Maya causes a world of
contradictions, a world of causalities.
When her spell is broken, All is One.
All is One, of course, everything is interconnected and
interdependent.
Nothing can be independent. You are connected to the
planet, the sun, the universe. Can?t live a second
without this connectedness
Remember this when you go on a Journey.
By grace, sometimes, the plants, entheogens might give you
a glimpse,a moment of timelessness, feeling whole, healed.
For a moment timeless, a contradiction in itself, a koan.
If you just could let go, forget yourself and all you
think you are, drop the fear of life and death.
Don`t let yourself be fooled, don?t mistake the
messenger for the message, in whatever form
he/she might presents himself or itself, a shaman, a
guru, holy words,
god all mighty . The postman doesn`t have to know the
content the letter, for the content to be off value to you.
Don`t worry, have no fear.
There is nothing to loose, except deceptions.
Suppose, believe, know, whatever you want, a tree has a
soul.
Takeoff a branch, plant it and with a little luck it gets
roots.
Did the tree`s soul diminish, got split in two?
Or did a new soul pop up?
A basic law of fysics is that energy is never lost.
From the viewpoint of Maya, questions like these can be
made.
But if All is one, which this law of fysics also suggest,
the question itself makes no sense. If All is One ,
there is neither coming, nor going.
No Death or birth. No beginning of live, no end. No past or
future, just now.
The big bang is still banging
Time and space are the result of the spell of Maya.
Time and Space, Maya, the law of cause and effect are all
one and the same.
The only freedom there is, is beyond these, beyond the
law of cause and effect. Think about it, what in you is
not ruled by
cause and effect.
The only freedom, healing is within.
Healing, that which is broken, repaired, back to oneness.
Forget the guru`s, shamans, curandero`s, holy books, holy
places, pilgrimages. Heal yourself.
Become aware that you are whole, already healed.> Made
of stardust, a universal being in the true sense of
the word.
There is no god outside, all is.
It sound pretentious to say or write anything, since the>
great vedic truth had been written:
Aham Brahma Asmi, I am Brahman
Tat vam asi , I am That.
Or Lao Tse: The Tao that can be spoken, is not the true
Tao.
He who sais he knows, don`t know.
He who knows, doesn?t speak.
Or Neti neti, neither this, nor that.
Think before you spend your money on some exotic trip,>
shaman or guru.
It might do more harm than good, both to yourself and the
others.
It seems often decadent to see how, people throw around
$$/Euro`s in places where many have a hard time to make a
little, just to be fed.
Listen to the plants, nature, they can`t lie. Learn to
listen.
Let`s develop our own ceremonies, pathways to
understanding within our own occidental frame of mind,
Use what can be useful for us from shamanism use it,
maybe our own
art, music psychology, science.
Fysics does get close nowadays with quantum mechanics.
As does astronomy.
Instead of blindly copying old,exotic pathways,
which often are soaked in superstition.
So, please Wake up!! For your own sake, the sake of
others, the sake of our children, the forest, the sake
of Mother Earth.
All is One and you are beautiful. Please, Please, wake up!!
There is no time (to waste).
Thanks to my teachers, mother Nature, the great and most
feared teacher: Death,
and mama Coca for keeping my pen going