From the unreal lead me to the real! From darkenss lead me to the light!
From death lead me to immortality! The Brihad-Aranyaka Upanishad
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION So, Why Are We Here? About The Book
CHAPTER ONE - WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT? Opportunities
Mastery Moving energy Western Culture Connection and Separation Belief The Sandbox Ego Thought Maya Elementals Fear The Wound The Essential Struggle Steps Toward Mastery A Typical Life Through The Wound
CHAPTER TWO - YOUR LIFE IS PERFECT Perfection Self-Criticism Suffering Success Social Values
CHAPTER THREE - LIFE IS A MIRROR Wanting Prayer Intention The Ouroboros Refusing Children Coping Meditation Your Body CHAPTER FOUR - ATTACHMENT The Rock Perception Living on the Outside Childhood Groups Using Attachments Staying Alive Disease Rigidity Projection Releasing Attachments Dropping Your Rock CHAPTER FIVE - BEAUTY AND THE BAG The Bag The Warrior The Beast “Beauty and The Beast” Interpreting The Story Your Power
CHAPTER SIX - THE WOUNDED CHILD Meeting Your Inner Child Journey Issues Completing Your Journey Post-Journey Considerations The Shroud Attached to The Shroud Tigers Awareness Stop Look Listen Inner Listening CHAPTER SEVEN - HEALING THE WOUND Healing This Realm Working With Your Inner Child About Entities Dealing With A Negative Entity Evil The Hero’s Journey “The Prince And The Dragon” Interpreting The Story CHAPTER EIGHT- WORKING WITH THE SHADOW Considerations Meeting Your Beast Specific Issues Why Did It Happen? Anger At Parents
Healing Your Past Entity Problems God’s Love Past Lives Acquiring Positive Aspects Final Journey Thoughts CEREMONY The Seven Steps The Medicine Wheel The Four Directions Resources CHAPTER NINE - LEARNING MASTERY Practice The Light Giving Advice Allowing The Eternal Now Being Hurt God’s Rules Being Strong Love Siddhi and Shakti Forgiveness Regrets of The Dying In Closing
LIST OF BOOKS
TABLE OF EXERCISES
CHAPTER ONE The Buddha’s Prayer Sono’s Blessing Rules For Being Human CHAPTER TWO Love Everything The Light of Truth Protection Dreams CHAPTER THREE Refusing The Three Step Inner Messages
CHAPTER FOUR No Value Attachments Releasing The Pain of Your Past CHAPTER SIX Breathing CHAPTER EIGHT Your Issues Talking to Fear CHAPTER NINE Living From Your Heart Forgiveness Part I Part II
Introduction
“I don’t think I could love you so much if you had nothing to complain of and nothing to regret. I don’t like people who have never fallen or stumbled. Their virtue is lifeless and of little value. Life hasn’t revealed its beauty to them.” Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago
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ne day Gary Scott’s youngest daughter asked him a question that made him stop and think. She asked him, “What is the greatest problem in the world?” Gary learned a long time ago to listen for the teacher in everything, so instead of giving her some flip answer, he thought about her question. Actually, he thought about her question quite a lot. Without knowing it, his daughter had posed one of THE questions. And, after much consideration, Gary came to his answer. He told his daughter that the greatest problem in the world was “stifled passion.” Gary went on to explain that most people spend their lives doing things they didn’t really care about. And, since what they were doing was not really a part of who they were, they could not feel what they were doing, love it, or
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allow it to be an expression of their real selves. Important ideas often come in unusual ways and just like the question from Gary’s daughter, this next example was no exception. Late one summer evening a couple of friends and I were lolling on their porch watching the stars and sharing our concerns about life. Propped against the door, one friend arched his head back, gazed up at the twinkling stars and said, “You know, God didn’t put me here to be unhappy.” The beautiful simplicity and truth of that statement struck me like a flying truck. It seems futile to put people here to be unhappy, to stifle their passion, and yet, that is exactly what happens. Everyone struggles with the business of living. We strive to gain an understanding of why we are here and what the unhappiness and frustration in our lives is about. We are not who we could be, and we know it. We sometimes feel as though our lives have flat tires. We’ve read the books, done therapy and gone to workshops and although these things have helped, they have provided few ultimate answers. Even though we sometimes struggle with Herculean effort, we are unable to transcend our fears and limiting beliefs in order to find peace. We are not only trying to survive but are also seeking to put life into a meaningful context, one that provides some idea of why we are here and what keeps us from being happy. We do not consciously stifle our passion and we do not set out to be unhappy. Why then are we so powerless against these forces that so profoundly affect, and in some cases control, our lives? We are told that being happy is possible, but even that can be difficult. Most people settle into a routine and get by as best they can, blaming themselves for their inadequacies and failures, filling II
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themselves with self-condemnation and criticism. In the midst of all this confusion, some people ask, “Where is God?” There seems to be a significant discrepancy between what they have been told about God and their life experience. They ask, “If the Creator were really a divine and benevolent being, why does He allow or even worse, create so much pain and suffering?” It would seem that only an uncaring God would do such a thing. One answer is that God actually is ambivalent or maybe even unkind. Or worse, that he likes everybody else but lets bad things happen to people like you. Some people even feel that He wants to punish them. Another explanation as atheists maintain, is that God does not exist and that life’s pains and discomforts are simply the result of indifferent fate and happenstance. It is possible that we are adrift in the cosmos, left to find our way through the vast wilderness of the universe with only our wit and guile to guide us. After all, we did evolve from slime, and science has explained the process of evolution without a single reference to a Creator. Besides, if you look at human history, it is hard to find God amongst all the butchery, conquest, greed, pain and mayhem. Unfortunately, things are not always as they seem on the surface. In order to understand what is taking place, we have to shift our perspective and see things from a much wider frame of reference, i.e., from God’s point of view. The human outlook is simply too limited and localized. Spirituality is perplexing largely because we do not understand it. A puzzle or a riddle is baffling until you figure it out. Life is puzzling until you see it from an III
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outside perspective. I believe that the idea of a Godless Universe is false. God is there, whether you consider Him to be a separate being or merely the product of our collective consciousness. One thing I have learned for certain, He cares more for you than you can possibly imagine. So Why Are We Here? Life is simply not what we have taken it to be. We do not just exist to reproduce and die. As you go through your days getting the kids to school, deciding what furniture to buy or where to go for dinner, you are also actively involved in the development of your consciousness. That is why you have come to earth. The evolution of consciousness is quite different from the concepts of natural selection and survival of the fittest, developed by the Darwinians and taught in textbooks. Spiritual evolution is a carefully orchestrated process, lovingly created to bring to your awareness the places in you that do not move easily with life. My friend was right. We’re not supposed to be unhappy, suffering and struggling. We can learn to move more easily in life with less effort, less pain. Each step of the process is carefully designed to nudge you to find your way home, to that place inside where your truth and happiness live. Nothing about it is accidental. Nothing is random. Your unfinished areas of awareness create conflicts with others and, most importantly, conflicts within yourself. Most of the time you focus on the conflict, but each instance also offers you the opportunity to look at the false beliefs you carry – especially about yourself, IV
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that at the moment drive the whole process. We rarely take these opportunities and focus instead on ameliorating the pain that the situation has created. When we react to the situation something occurs in us, something so profound and powerful that it shuts down our natural selves. It creates an artificial persona in its place. This thing closes off our natural warmth and caring. It causes us to wall off from others and from ourselves and to be unkind to both. This dark force is incredibly powerful. It has tumbled kingdoms and destroyed armies. It affects saint and sinner, rich and poor, powerful and powerless. It recognizes neither race, religion nor political boundary. It humbles even the bravest warriors. It is the single most dominant factor affecting all of human history. That something is fear. Fear stifles our passion and causes us to be miserable. Fear keeps us from touching and expressing the essential beauty of who we are. It also inhibits us from seeing the beauty in others. Fear pushes us to do hurtful things. It drives us to be bigoted and unkind. Fear causes us to hate. Fear drives materialism, greed and the lust for power. However, fear also does something else. Fear and the conflict it creates, both within and outside ourselves, painfully exposes our unfinished areas of awareness. These unfinished aspects, expressed through our false beliefs, create and generate our fears and emotions. It is the unpleasantness of these things that eventually pushes us to change. Because of the charge you place on your life situations, you generally ignore the opportunities offered you. And although you can live in pain for some time, life has been designed so that even if you ignore what is happening V
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today, you will eventually be forced to address your pain and face your fear. You will eventually be forced to examine your beliefs, and since they are patently untrue, you must eventually discard them for The Truth. Then you will naturally reconnect with the rest of The Universe. And in that process, your fear, pain and conflict become your most important teachers. All of this then begs the larger question: Why are we afraid? Where does all this come from? Fear did not simply arise from the depths of our emotional well. Fear serves a very specific purpose in the process of our development. Fear manifests when we experience separation separation from others, separation from life, and especially separation from ourselves. When we are separated, we are out of alignment with The Universe, which leads inevitably to pain. Underlying the pain is the fear that we will not be, cannot be, or do not deserve to be, reconnected. Although enlightenment is our goal, because we have free will, the way we get there is important. Otherwise the Creator could simply have made us enlightened long ago. But giving us enlightenment would have given the Creator a bunch of enlightened robots (which is a non sequitur). But because of your free will, anything you achieve must be accomplished through your conscious choice. Therefore you must choose to be happy, which in turn means that you will have to decide that you deserve it. You will have to leave your fear-based existence and accept the beauty of who and what you really are. Our culture teaches us to be afraid. It does not honor our spirit. It sanctifies power and the manipulation of the powerless, creating significant disillusionment and pain. For all the glorious words that are spoken about freedom and democracy, people today have little sense of their VI
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place in society and feel impotent to change it. As a child I was taught that I was the captain of my fate. I could choose to do life well or not, and I would reap the consequences. Failure, a dismal quality, was to be avoided in favor of success. Success had a large string of particular accomplishments attached to it, most of which had to do with financial security, a career, possessions, a family and a home in the suburbs. What I had been taught about life was useful in that context. But to step outside those narrow confines was to face the grim specter of failure and social disapproval. That may not seem like such a big deal today, but when I was young, it certainly was. The problem was that the things I had been taught about life did not make me happy. In fact, trying to achieve most of them made me downright miserable. I was trying to reconcile my inner pain with what I had been taught, and the two were like oil and water. They just did not mix. One weekend as a young man, I was privileged to witness a Native American ceremony and as I watched the traditional dances and ritual, I was reminded of the fundamental need we all have for spiritual connection. I was struck with the thought that, I ,too had tribal roots but that my connection to them had been torn away by a jealous church, sterile science and the greed of capitalism. Spirituality cannot flourish in a society that makes money more important than people. Some years ago, Plenty Coups, the great Chief of the Crow Nation, observed about white people that, “They are smart, but not wise.� 1 Social conditioning is only a part of the problem, however. We must look even deeper for the real causes. The answer has to do with the nature of life itself. During my search, one phrase has guided and influenced me more than any other. It is an answer the Buddha gave VII
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to a question about the meaning of life. You probably know it. When asked the meaning of life, The Buddha answered, “Life is pain.” Contained in those three simple words are layers of deeper meaning. It is what this book is about. The goal of life is to move toward living in harmony with ourselves and everything and everyone else on the planet. We stifle our passion because we are afraid, but The Universe urges us not to do that. That is why we are here. Disharmony and fear create pain. Pain exists not to hurt us but to make us aware of the places we do not move gracefully with life, where we separate instead of connect. Pain is not here to punish. It is the inevitable consequence of our refusal to respond to what is being asked of us. The challenge is to learn to use the pain to find our real selves. You cannot ignore or overpower pain, but you can learn to work with it. The ultimate challenge is to learn to live in the light rather than from fear. As you heal, you will learn to stand in the world by yourself and be connected to everything without the fear of rejection. Once you realize there is nothing wrong with you and that you cannot be harmed, you begin to appreciate the magnificent being that you are. You will then be free to enter the realm of light, a most extraordinary domain. I have learned part of the meaning to the Buddha’s answer, and I know that he was correct. Pain and suffering comprise the private hell we create for ourselves by being attached to fears, by clinging to possessions, beliefs, other people and our “needs.” We suffer when we cling to our woundedness and our fear. When we do this, we resist the VIII
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flow of the great Universal River. My friend’s truth that we were not put here to be unhappy is also more profound than I had realized. Although there is pain in life, the path does not have to be one of misery and suffering. But we are free to make it that way if we desire, in response to our fear-based choices. We create our pain and we can choose to stop it. It is not easy, but the benefits are certainly worth the effort. We do not have to stifle our passion. Actually, we are being asked most strongly to embrace it. I have wandered most of my life through a mythical dark forest, pulled like a moth to a light in the distance. Fluttering around in the dark, I have torn and tattered my emotional wings as I have been bumped and bruised by unseen obstacles. Finally reaching the light that drew me, I found it came from an old hut in a clearing. Living in the hut was a wise shaman who, after putting me through many trials, has given me gifts beyond my wildest expectations. I have moved from the darkness a little way into the light and I wish to share with you what I have learned. My intention is to create a guide that offers a different view of life. This is not a philosophical treatise, I will leave that task to others. I offer this material humbly, for far greater minds have wrestled with these questions for centuries. I have found some answers and I offer them for whatever use you may make of them. I am a simple person and I search for simple answers. Fortunately, The Universe is a magnificent process based upon a few simple principles. Having awakened a bit I now see my life from a significantly different perspective. Today I know that IX
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the purpose of life is to facilitate the development of my consciousness. The events and struggles of my life have taken on a much different meaning than they used to. I know that my experiences have been exquisitely purposeful and I can see their perfection. Life is not a random series of events, nor is my ego the captain of my soul. There are far greater and more meaningful processes at work. I am so much more than the ego-dominated personality that used to run my life. I have access to a limitless wisdom and can call upon energies far greater than my own when I need them. About the Book I use the term “The Universe” to describe those forces which appear to be outside ourselves and which guide everything that happens. The “Universe” is a concept I picked up from Arnold Patent, one of the people who helped crack open the shell of my previously numbed awareness. You may see this energy as God or some other entity, deity or being. That is perfectly fine. I have only glimpsed where it all comes from and the being there is not attached to anything. I am aware that it is fashionable to refer to God these days as He/She/It in deference to thousands of years of patriarchal domination of women. However, I refer to God as “He” because when I journey, that is the energy I encounter. God does not seem to be particular about what He is called or what form we see Him in. I believe we are all aspects of His consciousness or, as some believe, that God is an expression of our collective consciousness. Whatever its origin, the consciousness I encounter is so X
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vast and profound that it is difficult for me to accept that He is an extension of me. Partly, that is because I thought at one time I understood some things, but today I realize that I really understand very little. For many years there has been considerable disagreement about the existence of evil as an independent, pernicious force in The Universe. After many years of work and study, I have come to the firm belief that what we call evil is largely a human generated energy. When we enter that space filled with hate and anger, there are other-worldly beings who are only too happy to manipulate what we start. But they do not have the power to create evil on their own in our realm. I believe that the origin of our darkness, our shadow, is twofold. Part has to do with the karma we carry from our unresolved past life struggles and part is from this life’s unresolved childhood wounding. The issues of both are the same. Both reside in the shadow and if not healed, will lead us to inflict pain upon others and ourselves. In the extreme this is the basis for violent crime, sexual abuse, political corruption and white-collar crime. Dealing with our wounds is a matter of choice, but it is not the choice you may think it is. You are free to choose when you will deal with your emotional issues. Once in a while, you get backed into a corner and are forced to address something or other, but most of the time you get to skip the often gut-wrenching ordeal of addressing your self-doubt and fear. Unfortunately, this creates a false impression. Ultimately, you are going to have to address and give up the false beliefs you hold, especially the ones about yourself. That is not an option. The choice is not whether XI
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you will go into your pain (the darkness in your shadow), heal your wounds and move on, the question is when you will do it.2 Today you can refuse and only have to deal with the consequences of your decision. But in doing that, you also guarantee that the pain of your next experience will be more intense. The real issue is, how much pain are you willing to endure before you give up, stop living in pain, surrender your ego and your beliefs, come into the light and live in the truth? The interesting thing is, once you find the truth, there really are no other choices, because to chose anything other than peace and harmony makes no sense. It would mean being in disharmony with the infinitely greater power of The Universe and no one can do that for long. The Creator has given us many years to address our issues but the time of unlimited free choice is ending. Our social, economic, and political systems that have been built upon greed, manipulation and power - completely contrary to God’s teachings - are about to collapse under the weight of years of corruption and the additional stress of a string of environmental catastrophes. The upshot of this is that you will lose the protection of your isolation. We are going to be forced to work together to get through these difficulties. The process will make your present beliefs, fears and anxieties intolerable. You will be forced to change. It will be time to “grow or die.” Current books about shamanism are often based upon the old ways and traditional cultures. They are filled with animal spirits, rituals, psychotropic drug journeys and ceremonies borrowed from these other cultures. Although there certainly are wonderful things we can gain from other ways of being and other beliefs, we are not a people XII
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who live close to nature. We know a great deal more about air conditioning and Botox than we do about the trees and grasses that grow in our own yards. The only animals we see, other than our domesticated dogs and cats, are in zoos. I sincerely hope that this will someday change, but until it does, I must accept and work with where our culture is. Therefore, there will not be bears or jaguars in this book. I have left them in the jungle where they belong. I hope, however, that what I offer might make you think more about them and the rest of nature. Perhaps, someday you will find them and their powerful spirits. I have lived and studied with tribal people and have tried to bring the essences of their practices and beliefs back to you so that it will assist you in your transformation. For all its romance, the jungle is a tough place to live. Spiritual richness notwithstanding, most tribal people jump at the opportunity to have some of the things you take for granted like clean water, tools, roads and motorized transportation. However, as technology reaches these people, the inevitable conflict over its impact causes them problems. Western technology has no heart. It is devoid of spirit. The elders there understand the vital role that spirit plays in human existence and they have seen what happens when people lose their connection to it. But there is often little they can do to slow the juggernaut of technology and economic development that brings inevitable destruction to their natural world and their traditional culture. What you will find in this book is an explanation of life that might bring you to look differently at what you do and what you believe. I hope that it will lead you to XIII
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make some changes in the way you live. I have shared stories from the journeys of people like yourself who now experience life from a very different perspective. The stories of their journeys are an ongoing inspiration to me. Although this book provides useful information, it is not intended to replace the guidance of a competent shaman. Emotional problems can be vexing, so if you find yourself swimming upstream, get some good help. The Sections This book is in three basic segments. The first part, Chapters 1-3, present a view of life that is different from the one you grew up with. It explores the perfection of life on earth and the mirror that the Creator has given us that we might better see ourselves in order to heal. You will be encouraged to look at the ways you were taught to relate to life and how most of them not only do not work, but actually interfere with your reason for being here. The second segment of the book Chapters 4-5, looks at the ways in which you create your shadow, how it operates and the ways in which it sabotages your life. We will investigate fear and attachment, two of the dominant mechanisms through which the shadow functions. You will also be introduced to a part of yourself called the “bag� and the Beast who lives in it. You will be offered a new perspective on how to deal with him. The third segment, Chapters 6-9, will introduce you to your wounded inner child and his or her critical role in the function of your shadow. You will learn the shamanic journey process that you can use to deal with the dark forces in your shadow. Chapter 6 will take you on a basic shamanic journey to meet your inner child. Chapter 7 will XIV
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guide you through addressing specific issues and answer some basic healing and journey questions. Chapter 8 will discuss refinements and some of the roadblocks people typically encounter in journeying. You will learn to work with past lives and how to access qualities that you always wished you had. Chapter 9 is a foray into some aspects of Mastery. We will look at living from the heart, the Eternal Now and the important topics of compassion and forgiveness. Healing The Shadow will show you how to liberate your passion. The book deals with a vast cosmology in relatively few pages. The text has undergone many revisions as my own understanding has deepened and expanded. What you are reading is an expression of my present understanding. That understanding deepens daily. This is where I am today. I hope that this book comes to mean a lot to you. The most sincere compliment I have received over the years is that people repeatedly tell me this is the book they keep next to their bed to read a little of each night before they go to sleep. Writing it has been a rich experience for me. Everything surrounding this book has been full of surprising and unexpected gifts. I hope that reading it will be rewarding for you as writing it has been for me. Ross Bishop Sante Fe, New Mexico 2012
1. Frank B. Linderman, Plenty Coups Chief of the Crows, (1962), p. 265. 2. I am indebted to Carl Jung for bringing the concept of the “shadow� out of the jungle and into Western awareness.
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