Pissing In the Wind

"The shadow gone autonomous is a terrible monster in our house..."
The Shadow by Robert Johnson


As children most us learn that you can't spit into the wind or throw sand into the wind; you get back the same result: it flies into your own face! But somewhere along the way to adulthood we seem very often to forget this truth. Many of us seek to level our relations with others by these very means. There are relatively few facts in the world; most are about nature herself. For example, day follows night and night evolves again into day; there is the sun and the moon and all the seasons exerting their force and pull upon earth and its inhabitants.

There are airplanes, and then there are pilots; drivers who drive cars; wind and ice which foils them, sometimes with injurious or deadly results. We like to think of our self as master of all, in control. The sad fact of physics is that often we aren't. For many this provokes a deep anxiety or unconscious dread. We are protective, even defensive of ourselves and our positions. This often leads to a sort of self blindness, not unlike that experienced by the Emperor in the Hans Christian Anderson story, The Emperor's New Clothes. Regular readers here will recognize the theme...
Simple acknowledgment of our desire to make things safe for our self in relations with others goes a long way to enlightening the mind.

In the spiritual life, we seek to find a unity with these unacknowledged parts of ourselves, parts which often riotously erupt at sometimes the most inopportune, the most inconvenient moments. For some the solution, at least temporarily, is to squelch or sequester these emotions, this energy out of sight and effectively, out of mind.
"In the cultural process, we sort out our God given characteristics... we begin to divide our lives." This process Robert Johnson calls, 'shadow making' in his book, Owning Your Own Shadow.
Without some measure of self-regulation, routine social interactions would become potentially very messy on a very regular basis. However these now "forgotten" traits don't often slink away; instead they lay in wait for another time. Lying in the darkness of the anterior mind, the shadow strength builds. In some it provokes deep depression or anxiety, in others a general mental disorder.

There is the sorting process which we think of as culture, by which the facets of the accepted and unaccepted self are rendered either active or passive; the active parts we think of as personality and the inactive become unknown, or from time to time emerge as 'bad manners' which culture seeks to rope in and regulate.
Yet this sorting process is "quite arbitrary," Johnson observes. For the spiritual growth of a person in mid-life, the two must reconnect for a balance, for unity to arise.
The Hindus for example, acknowledge the presence of the gods of creation and destruction simultaneously. In Hinduism, the balance of these natural forces is called Ananda.
In the west, the word we use to describe this same process is religion, from the Latin, it means to re-relate, to put back together again, to restore. It is in this move towards restoration that our spiritual selves find rest, peace and balance of the whole.

Diwali Day and Other Hindu Festivals

Many of us who share many traditions don't often stop to think about what holidays and festivals others celebrate. If we are not exposed to other views and other customs it may come to seem that without our usual calendar, there is nothing else out there in the world. Yet the calendar in many places is filled with holidays virtually unknown in the west.

Let's Know Hinduism: The Oldest Religion of Infinite Adaptability and Diversity by R. C. Dogra, Urmila Dogra is a simple and interesting book about the ways of India, especially the major festivals celebrated by Hindus. He writes that Hindus celebrate hundreds of festivals, many of them with spiritual and cultural importance. They often involve dance, food, ritual, devotions, processions and feeding the poor. He details most of the occasions observed by most Hindus.

In the month of October-November falls the Festival of Lamps, or Diwali/Deepavali. In some places the festival is two days or as many as five. Celebrating Lord Rama return from exile. For some Hindus, the occasion commemorates the victory of Dharma and Ahisma over injustice and violence. In many areas there are events commemorating various aspects of the scripture regarding Lord Rama and the Goddess Lakshmi. Here in the United States more and more, Diwali day is being celebrated in communities small and large. Areas where there are growing numbers of  Indians are likely to have observances. It is also customary to wish friends and neighbors, Happy Diwali Day!

What About the Soul?

"Humankind are creatures in which spirit and material meet together and are unified in a single whole."-- Ratzinger

The word soul conjures for most things like: immutable, essence, animating, spiritual; also leader, fervor, exemplification or personification. Some say there is no such thing while others say it is as the wind--known by feeling, not by sight.
and while a majority of the world's people may admit themselves to the notion of an afterlife or an idea of reincarnation, what about the soul?

In the west, the soul is given often as a separate entity from the body. However within some of the great religions (great in terms of world wide adherence), be it Judeo-Christian, Muslim or Zoroastrian, some forms of Buddhism and Hinduism and others, there not only is a well developed sense of reincarnation but also of the corresponding soul, which ascends.

In recent times there is increasingly talk about a soul but a clear confusion, even avoidance of what it means. It seems more frequent that people wish to talk around it whenever possible. Ratzinger writes: Some Christian denominations try to persuade that it is actually a Pagan conception and somehow not within the Christian realm. This thinking is indeed at odds with the basics of Christian thought for it involves the splitting of the body from its spirit; in this way there cannot be unity for all manifestations of creation joined with the Creator for which we may take part.  Paraphrased

While the concept of the soul may be present in many, many cultures, within the Christian tradition, it is a part of faith, a part of the way of the Christ. He who has come into the world, has come both in a body and a spirit so that we may know the Creator and our part in the creation. Humankind are creatures in which spirit and material meet together and are unified in a single whole.

And if we are to set aside the notion of soul as some would do, then the body is alone, robbed of its dignity and without exaltation as both a creator and the product of Creation itself. It bears no part in the Creation of the world.
Many times people have fallen to speculation that a body has indeed fallen from its spirit, that the spirit roams about unattached. Indeed in Chinese folklore, for example, these spirits are often referred to as hungry ghosts who roam about looking to attach them self to matter. Many times as a result, the living are abhorrent to enter a cemetery for fear of possible entrapment by these spirits. And for those who say the disembodied soul is an absurdity, perhaps they have not understood the teachings on the matter of faith, as it were.

In at least the Christian tradition, the people of the Lord are known as the Body of the Christ; within this body there is the one Lord, whole and unified.  They are the people of the Christ; believers who cannot be lost as spirits, for theirs is contained within the greater body of this Christ!

Animal and Shaman

"... to the pioneering work on Turkic and Mongol religion of Frenchman and scholar, Jean-Paul Roux, who has laid the foundations for all future research in this field..." Animal and Shaman by Julian Baldick


In his current work, Animal and Shaman Ancient Religions of Central Asia, Julian Baldick writes of a fascinating, early world forgotten or unknown by Western scholars; yet the ancients knew first hand something of the history, and the religion which Baldick recounts. He writes the book to be a "comparative study of the indigenous religions of Central Asia." Baldick argues that there is a common thread among all these peoples in regards to their spirit lives and beliefs. Owing to anthropological evidence, he posits that of the people who migrated through what is now called Central Asia, some migrated out into what is now called Iran, Turkey, Hungary, Finland, among other places, while others remained in place, such as the Mongols, the Manchus, the Kazakhs, among others. Preferring the term "Inner Eurasia," Baldick gives a good overview of the people, including those of whom we may have customarily assumed to be "Europeans" such as the Huns.


While the geography occupied by these groups may be diverse, there is some commonality to their practice. Inner Eurasia describes a place in the world that has not been defined politically, rather it is a territory that gains cohesion in culture, the civilizations which surround it such as Middle East, India, China. Poverty, writes Baldick, defines this region like no other factor. It is a landscape characterized by harsh, unforgiving terrain. From mountains to deserts to the Siberian cold, the people and their populations were formed of those hungry, physically wanting nomads who historically eyed more hospitable territories; thus they were considered barbarians and military threats by their neighbors. They believed in the pressure of Heaven, says Baldick.


As far as their religion, to the ancient Mongols, for example, the soaring eagle was a symbol most important. Shamans of the Bronze age leave artifacts with many other animal symbols as well. Importance is also given to trees and fish. The historically 'first great people of Inner Eurasia' says Baldick are the Scythians. Accounts of them appear in ancient Greek chronicles. The Greek historian Herodotus, writes of them in the fifth century BCE. He gives an account of their invasion of modern day Iran in an area then called Scythia. Sythia may have centered in present day Iran, but the domain is thought to have extended to the modern day place of Siberia. Anthropologists trace their religious customs to a commonality with those of the Ossetians , Turks and Mongols.


Baldick goes on to give account of a people known in history as the Hsiung-nu who lived in geographic Mongolia from about the fourth century BCE to the second century CE. They are often associated with the Huns , who attacked the Roman Empire during the fourth and fifth centuries CE. One should not then suppose that Asia and Europe were so insulated from one another, or that western ideas were entirely absent from the east, or vice versa. Something was strong enough in the minds of those attacking to continue to do so--intermittently for at least a century.


The Husiung-nu believed in secrecy in the burial of their royal dead. They also, for example, held to a belief that an animal would lead them, acting as a guide on their migratory routes. They too share commonalities with others, like the Khazars, the Bulghars; also the Turks and Khitans who swore oaths upon the sacrifice of an animal, often a dog which was cut in half.


Lastly, the author, Baldick mentions the Khitans. The Khitans, "who conquered China in 907 and ruled it until 1125"; yet their history does not conclude until much later, about 1300 CE. Scholars disagree if the Khitans of the period were more, or less properly, Mongols. Their religious rituals called for the sacrifice of animals as well. Dogs, cattle, sheep and waterfowl were often used for this purpose. The coloration of the animal specified was to be white. They were known to worship trees as well as mountains, and the veneration of their ancestors, whom they thought to be animals in a human guise. The Turks are discussed at some length in conjunction with the Khitans. 


The earliest Turks are said to have originated from the Inner Eurasia region, and later were forced outward into their modern day 'homeland.' Of these earliest people, ancient Chinese historians give account: they are said to believe that they descend from the wolf; like other groups, their holy numeral was seven, and it was believed by their people that they possessed a 'holy stone' which could produce rain or snow. 

Karma Kagyu and the Golden Rosary

"After I pass away And my pure doctrine is absent, You will appear as an ordinary being, Performing the deeds of a Buddha And establishing the Joyful Land, the great Protector, In the Land of the Snows." -- from the Root Tantra of Manjushri

The term Golden Rosary refers, surprisingly to some, not to any western notion, but to a Buddhist tradition emphasizing the transmission of dharma instruction primarily by oral, non written means. Thus the forefathers of the Karma Kagyu sect are referred to as the Golden Rosary. The sect is thought to have been founded first in about the 12th century C.E. in the Eastern regions of Tibet, or Mongolia. Later the sect established monasteries both in India, Japan and in the central regions of Tibet. Briefly describing the practice, it is founded in Mahayana practices and is both tantric and vajrayanic; it is monastic and its members include llamas, nuns, monks, and the laity. Its teachings are firmly rooted in the teachings of the Shakymuni Buddha; the practice of "Mahamudra" is a strong feature of Karma Kagyu practice.

Mahamudra can be briefly described as a symbol which points to that which cannot be undone or broken, it is reality in the absolute dimension, in the now experience. There is, within the practice, an extensive use of symbols, visual elements as part of worship, a distinctive feature of what is commonly referred to in the West as Tibetan Buddhism, Kagyu being one of the sects encompassing this traditional use of symbols. Kagyu however, perhaps uniquely, employs both Sutra and Tantra mahamudras. As a heavily oral tradition, an association with a teacher or a monastery is thoroughly stressed for both instruction and practice.

The Tibetan Llama today best known for this practice is Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Llama from within the closely related school known as Gelug, a form most nearly associated with Mongol history. In fact the term "dalai llama" is Mongolian in origin, having no meaning in the language most spoken by the Tibetans. These Llamas have, in history, traditionally functioned as spiritual guides for those in the Western regions of geographic China, Mongolia and other Himalayan kingdoms. The history of the Gyatso forms a fascinating element of world history, in general and Mongolian history in particular, with respect to the development of the inter-relationship of various Khans and Llamas from the 13th century C.E. into the modern period.

Here in the United States, the recent introduction of a Mongolian-Tibetan Buddhist cultural center in Bloomington, Indiana in the tradition of the Kumbum Champtse Ling monastery, Tibet, has recently come into being with the support of the 14th Dalai Llama.Its establishment is with a mind to the perpetuation of the lineage, traditions and culture of Mongolian-Tibetan Buddhism; to foster understanding, harmony and interfaith exchange between those of the Buddhist and other faith traditions.