The Native American Sweat Lodge Ceremony - Part 1 of 2

So I'm wearing this.

Rather.

Striking shirt.

That was given to be by a Cree Medison man friend of mine Vern Harper, who I've known for many years. He's a rather well known spiritual leader among the creep people in the Toronto area. I'm up in Canada. Now, running a retreated Niagara Falls and I'll be seeing him in just a week when the retreats over.

Because we offer.

As a feature of our retreats here in Canada, the opportunity for our retreat and Stew participate in traditional Native American Sweat Lodge ceremony. It's not a required piece of the retreat. But if they want to stay on after the retreat ends. We go to some property that he owns and he does a sweat lodge for us, the same thing happens? When I run retreats in Arizona?

I have a

Todd not autumn, Medison man named Rupert and Sinas, who I've known for 27 years. He does the same thing for my retreats in Tucson, AZ fact? I just saw Rupert just one week ago, I just completed running a retreat in Arizona and indeed we had sweat lodge ceremony there too.

It was with Rupert.

In Arizona that I had my first experience of the Native American Sweat Lodge, which pretty much convinced me that this is something for me. I would say that the sweat. Lodge ceremony, which the Lakota people. Call me PINIPI literally in their language, meaning a tool for life.

I would say that the Sweat Lodge ceremony is the representative, spiritual practice of the Americas. It's done all the way from Canada down into Mexico. If not further into S America. I don't know about.

The southernmost part of the Americas, but it certainly for Mexico and North America, absolutely representative. In fact, in Los Angeles, where I come from. There is a Canyon in Southern California called Temescal Canyon, which is from the.

Mexican Spanish tennis call Temis Cal is the Spanish word at least in Latin America for the Sweat Lodge. It's an Aztec word from the Aztec Thomas collie, meaning hothouse literally.

How I got involved in this was that 27 years ago I was running retreats in Arizona?

And I was using the ranch of a man named Doug Boyd, who has written some books about Native American spiritual leaders. Doug had this idea that Buddhist leaders should be getting together with Native American leaders. So he said. After your retreat, if you want I can have a local Indian.

I can have local Medison man run a sweat lodge for your retreatants.

I didn't know what a sweat. Lodge was I said, well what is it he described it to me.

It's in some ways like a like a sauna in that there's a hot rocks and water is poured but whereas the sauna is secular event. The Sweat Lodge is a deeply transformative spiritual event with prayers songs and a kind of shared enerji so explain to me. The Sweat Lodge and the mechanics of it and it sounded interesting.

And he said, You're very fortunate. I know this local spiritual leader here in Arizona Rupert and seen us.

Up and he is a veteran sundancer. In addition to being a sweat. Lodge leader I said, what's a Sundance and he described to me, this almost inconceivable shamanic ordeal of that Plains Indians? Do called the Sundance and he said rope. It is done. This many years actually at this point group. It's done at 18 years on 18 Sundance is.

Each one of which involves 4 days in the blazing sun without food or liquid and with pierces through you that have to be torn out, according to the Lakota tribe anyway. You have to do 4 years of sun dancing before you're qualified to lead a sweat lodge.

So I say Rupert is not an 18 years, which is by the way.

The difference between doing sweat lodges with native People and doing sweat lodges with incompetent non native People.

There's absolutely no danger whatsoever in I've been sweating for 27 years.

Starting with Rupert and I've never, ever heard of any even minor physical problems developing.

As the result of a traditional sweat run by competent. Lee trade native People, but you see the kind of training. You have to go through before they'll give you the responsibility of running a sweat lodge is pretty amazing.

So.

Doug described the Sweat Lodge. He described Rupert described Rupert's qualifications and it sounded interesting. It seemed to make sense to me, so we had our vipasana retreat and then Rupert came over and they had a sweat. Lodge it dogs. Rauch the physical structure sort of Dome shaped and it's got a

A dug out area in the middle where the grandfathers grandfathers are the hot rocks. There looked upon as the oldest People on the planet. There addressed as People when they're brought in their sort of given their taken back to their original condition of being hot, the way they were at the beginning of the Earth. There heated in a fire then their broad and this water is poured on them that gives off an intense.

Steam that is called the breath of the grandfathers and so these ancient ancient ones breathe on you and that purify's you physically and Psycho spiritually that sort of the model have a lookup on it. We took the group into the lodge and.

Ah, he did, he did that ceremony and I remember?

Coming out of the lodge.

The first thought that occured to me.

In talk space was this joking thought OK.

This irony thought.

Uh.

Oh, so this is what they call primitive religion.

Because I can remember when I was young, reading about the religion of tribal peoples under the title primitive religion.

So it's like and I saw that would primitive in quotes and.

The joke was that.

It was one of the most sophisticated and subtle an advanced spiritual modalities. I'd ever encountered.