Category: Uncategorized (Page 6 of 7)

I’m busy working with some waikis to nourish a salka community here in Salt Lake.  Here is something I came across in my old notes that I would like to share.  It comes from an interview with Americo Yabar in the Shaman’s Drum (Fall, 1994).

Hal Bennett:  In terms of meeting our global crisis, do you feel going out in this way–to have direct contact with Nature and the Cosmos–is more important than going out and talking with other people?

Americo:  Yes, yes, absolutely!  It is much more important in all aspects:  therapeutically, intellectually, spiritually–in all ways.  We have to speak to the mountains in the mountains, to communicate with the spirits of nature in nature.  If you go to the river, the river doesn’t lie to you; the river cleanses you.  The wind cleanses you.  The ancient voices and the spirit of a tree can give you much.  These are the only constant and direct presences of the Divine.

I am a little hesitant to post a picture of my mug and comment on it in this blog, it seems so self-aggrandizing.  This photo of me from my most recent trip, however, really shows what it is like for me to be in Peru.  Click on the photo to get a zoomed view of it and look at my eyes.  In the Andean Cosmovision the left side of Being is ‘lloqe’, it is our connection to the ineffable mystery of the Cosmos. My left eye looks like I am peering into the mystery of the void.  The ride side of our Being is ‘paña’, our connection to our everyday life. My right eye is full of love. And my hair, of course, is ‘salka’ (undomesticated energy). I love being in Peru.

(I have edited this since first posting it, including changing its title).

For a long time I’ve been going to a special place in the woods by a mountain stream. There, over many visits, I go through the various meditations I have learned from don Americo, including one of the simplest: ‘Go to a place in nature, open up your energy, connect to that place, still your internal dialog, and just be there, not-doing.’ I also–on an intermittent basis–practice as I take my walk some of the meditations I have learned from Eckhart Tolle; to become completely present in the now, to become aware of my own presence, to be aware of being the Being who is experiencing the world. Tolle also speaks of the great benefit of being totally present in a beautiful spot in nature as a way to experience who we really are.

I follow this path because at some deep level it resonates in beauty within me, just below the threshold of hearing my heart sings, even my intellect smiles and says “I don’t understand what is going on but I like it'”. This keeps me going, even though for me the momentous moments on the path are few and far between.

The other day I was sitting by the stream with my close friends who are walking this salka path with me. It was one of those internal dialog days where my mind just doesn’t seem to want to shut up its chattering and let more of who I am inform my experience. We went through a couple of internal-dialog-stopping meditations, and when we finished my internal dialog was quieter, but still nattering on. As we sat and chatted for a while by the stream I found myself withdrawing from the conversation. I was feeling such a strong desire to connect with the river and with the trees on the other side and with the cliff that towers up behind them. As I let my energy, my filaments, connect to the Nature around me my internal dialog faded away. Then for a brief moment my experience shifted in a way that is beyond words, but led to me exclaiming to myself (imagine a tone of fond affection and pleasant delight), “Oh…there I am!”.