Category: Uncategorized (Page 7 of 7)

Hi, I’m on a bit of hiatus from writing posts. My writing efforts right now are directed toward putting together a book based upon what I’ve written so far. I don’t want the Salka Wind blog to languish in the meantime, however, so I’ll continue to share what I can of salka and the Andean Cosmovision and the exploration of who we are as Beings in the Cosmos (put like that it sounds like a rather lofty goal).

About a month ago I returned home from another trip to Peru where I worked with don Americo and other mystics, p’aqos, healers and of course Peru itself. Coming home was hard on me. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say I made it hard on myself. I didn’t want to step out of the Andean Cosmovision and back into my western culture’s view of reality. After a couple of weeks, and fair amount of depression, I finally made the shift. It’s not bad, I’m glad I did, and I have learned something by looking back at what I went through during the transition.

My reluctance to return to my western perspective was based upon fear, a fear that in doing so I would lose what I had gained in Peru and simply return to how I was before I left. Silly me. That is never what happens, what does happen is that I return to my everyday life and to the everyday things I do, I go back to work, I go back to meditating at my favorite spot in the mountains, and then after a while I notice that I’m not like I used to be, I’ve changed in a way that leaves me often feeling happier to be on this planet and more enthusiastic to move forward in whatever-in-the-heck-it-is that I’m doing (“I don’t know what I’m heading for, but I’m going to head for it that’s for sure!”, Grateful Dead lyrics).

We don’t have to go to Peru to have this experience, every time we do one of the Andean meditations we step into salka, it is just juicier in Peru, but small steps will get us to the same place as large ones. Whether in Peru or meditating in our back yard we move into our salka way of being, and then we return to our everyday, domesticated, way of being, and then our Being subtly integrates the two. I’ve come to realize that this Being, not the U.S., not Peru, is my home. Every time we meditate and then go back to our everyday life we take a tiny step toward home.

When I came back from Peru I was afraid that re-entering my everyday life would lead to my losing what I had experienced in Peru. The opposite of fear is love.

The path to a greater experience of salka does not depend upon a specific set of beliefs, nor does it depend upon connecting with a certain teacher, it depends simply upon you, and Nature, and the Cosmos.

Of the three centers of your being the best place to focus your attention is in your munay. When light and energy grow in your munay then they also flow to your llachay and llankay.

Connect with Nature, connect with Nature, connect with Nature. Connect with the Pachamama, with the Apus, with the stars, with the trees, with the rivers tumbling down the mountain side, with the condor riding the thermals up into the clouds. The Andean Cosmovision gives you the freedom to do this, that is its main utility.

Connect through your munay, dance with Nature and the Cosmos, ayni will provide the music.

There are times to be on the right side and times to be on the left side; times to be feminine and times to be masculine; times to be your own mother and times to be your own father; times to operate from your intellect, times to operate from your heart, and times to operate from your body; there are times to engage in the dance and times to withdraw and gather your energy. You are not the various facets of your being, you are the diamond, you can be found in the profound silence of the Cosmos.

One day don Americo and I were driving between villages in the Andes in his son Gayle’s red Volkswagen beetle (the car’s name is Pinky Pinky). As we were were working our way up the side of a mountain valley Americo pulled the car to a stop by the side of the road. An old man was sitting there with his back to us, looking out over the valley.

When we drive through the Andes Americo brings a sack of small loaves of pocket bread to hand out to the salka children we pass in the remote countryside. Americo handed me a loaf and told me to give it to the old man. I rolled down my window and called out a friendly greeting to him but he didn’t turn around. I looked back at Americo and he gestured for me to get out of the car and hand it to him directly. So, I got out of the car and walked over and spoke gently to the old man, who turned, gave me a very nice smile, and accepted the bread before turning back to consider the valley some more. What caught me, however, was not his smile as much as his eyes. They were clear, and serene, and glistened in the sunlight.

As we drove away Americo told me that he had first noticed the man sitting there about ten years earlier, and that he was always there every time Americo drove past this remote spot. Americo began stopping to give the man bread, or fruit, or a bag of flour or sugar. Every time the man would not come to the car, but would accept the gifts with a smile, and then go back to looking out over the valley and to the mountains beyond.