Why
Do Buddhists
Turn
to Shamanism?
Last year, I found out that noted American buddhist teachers, Shinzen Young and Jack Kornfield are also practitioners of shamanism. Today I found out that another secular buddhist, Mr. Stephen Batchelor, also uses shamanic substances, together with buddhist meditation practices.
Stephen
Batchelor, once a Tibetan buddhist monk and a tantric practitioner,
has for about 20 years now written about his (apparently mostly)
negative experiences with tantric buddhism and has been one of the
torchbearers of the so called "secular buddhist movement".
I commented on his interview a couple of years ago with the title Why
I Didn't Quit Guru Yoga?, see here:
Today
I learned from the insightla.org-website,
"When
Stephen turned sixty, he took a sabbatical from his teaching and
turned his attention to solitude, a practice integral to the
meditative traditions he has long studied and taught. He aimed to
venture more deeply into solitude, discovering its full extent and
depth.
The
Art of Solitude documents Stephen’s experiences appreciating and
making art, drinking peyote and ayahuasca, practicing meditation and
participating in retreats, and training himself to keep an open,
questioning mind have all contributed to Batchelor’s ability to be
simultaneously alone and at ease."
Like
Brad's, my attention was caught by Batchelor's use of peyote and
ayahuasca. I have no problem with shamanism as tantric buddhism
pretty much is a mixture of shamanism and buddhist philosophy
(without psychedelics though), and I neither have a problem with
shamanic substances such as peyote and ayahuasca. In fact, I took
peyote myself last August in Finland, in the presence of Native
American medicine man called Rupert Encinas, though it had no effect
on me whatsoever. Long story short, I thought the whole event was
really light weight compared to buddhist tantric practice. Anyway.
Mr.
Encinas also happens to be a long time teacher of Shinzen Young,
another noted buddhist teacher from the secular/mindfulness/science
influenced meditation scene. Mr. Encinas told me that Shinzen Young
had recently done a 4-day Sun Dance ceremony with him. Those who
complete Sun Dance practice can become shamans or medicine men
themselves within the tradition. Apparently Young's familiarisation
with the tradition is quite extensive.
Together
with Batchelor and Young, also Jack Kornfield, who is one of the
founders of Insight Meditation Society, has made a public testimony
about shamanism, see here:
http://openheartopenheart.blogspot.com/2019/08/jack-kornfield-and-shinzen-young-on.html
Seeing
how one secular- or theravada-buddhist after the other turn to
shamanic practices, I can't help wondering why. And in fact, there is
another sutrayana buddhist, Culadasa John Yates, who in the Summer of
2019 suggested that perhaps combination of shamanism and buddhism
would tap what his practices have left untapped. See full text and
sources here:
http://openheartopenheart.blogspot.com/2019/08/culadasa-john-yates-sutrayana-doesnt-go.html
Edit:
Adding to the list...
- Vanja Palmers (soto zen buddhist) says that after decades of zen-meditation he wanted to repeat impressive experience he had as a teenager on LSD: https://youtu.be/gsJ7Z_t5H_o?t=347
- Vincent Horn, How Psychedelics Improve Your Meditation (And Much More…). "...He found that psychedelics could be used in a similar way to meditation, in order to explore the mind and existence. By setting an intention, and creating an environment similar to meditation, he found he learned some things through psychedelics that his meditative practice hadn’t.Vince says that the visual experience of psychedelics was very different to that of meditation. Psychedelics allowed him to feel connected to his human ancestry, and gave him an ego death experience that shook him more fundamentally than any ego death he’d experienced with meditation. He warns, however, about the power of psychedelics – one experience made him “go crazy” for several days. He would slap a warning label on both psychedelics and meditation, describing them both as trial by fire...: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGA7L1TH1Gc
- Brad
Warner critisizes psychedelic buddhism
and Vincent Horn based on buddhist precepts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZysiPbe8ErY
Is
it just because of the lack of merit or lack of inner readiness, why
these noted teachers do not turn to mahayana and vajrayana buddhism?
Shamanism and buddhism were joined a long time ago so we already have
tantric buddhism that has a vast array of lineages, teachings and
teachers. Apparently they realise that their chosen paths of buddhism
lack something to seek a boost or extra gear from outside buddhism
but then, is it because they do not have fortunate karmic connections
with lineages and gurus of higher vehicles of buddhism, why they turn
to shamanism? Native shamanism seems like a lesser path in comparison
to mahayana, not to mention varayana. Or is it simple because of the
rigid aspects of Vajrayana buddhism, which is almost all Tibetan, and
also mentioned in a critical light by Culadasa because of theocratic
features, why these teachers don't feel interested in Tibetan
vajrayana? I couldn't blame them if they felt this way because I do
too on top of a bunch of other turn offs, but still this trend seems
strange.
I
am a practitioner and teacher of pragmatic vajrayana buddhism, with a
history in zen buddhism, so I know well what kind fo extra gear
tantra has to offer to even those who have trained in sutrayana
extensively. However, if tantra seems like a turn off and one doesn't
want to get involved with empowerments or lamas, I'd recommend
looking into Pure Land Buddhism and Buddha Amitabha. In Pure Land
Buddhism there are no empowerments, to my knowledge at least, but I'd
actually define Amitabha practice a tantric practice and because one
turns to Buddha Amitabha for spiritual liberation and knowledge, his
presence has the power to tap what in the words of Culadasa,
sutrayana leaves "untapped". If I was not a tantric
practitioner, with the knowledge and experience I have now, I'd
choose Pure Land Buddhism as my path, though with the features of
pragmatic dharma.
Thanks
for reading. May True Dharma flourish!
Kim,
Pemako
Buddhism,
