The Native American Sweat Lodge - Part 2 of 2

Yes, a stone axes in some sense more primitive than steel. Axe so I guess the assumption among the Europeans when they came to the Americas was well their axes are more primitive than ours. Therefore, their consciousness must be more primitive in ours. Once you've participated in their ceremony. You don't know whether to laugh or cry at that motion.

Because it is so deep and so subtle on the surface. It's a prayer ceremony. It's also a physical cleansing. It's also a shared groups sort of Group Therapy 'cause People talk and their defenses are down.

It is a shamanic journey into the power realms because of the altered states that you may enter at a deeper level. It is purification of consciousness through having equanimity with strong sensations. Both physical and emotional sensations. Come up and within the context of the ceremony ceremony induces a mindful state.

And therefore consciousness is purified purification equals.

Sensation multiplied by equanimity fits in my model perfectly.

So that's a very deep level and at the deepest level. It's experience of the flow of nature in terms of the fundamental forces of expansion and contraction. They may use different words. They use father Sky Mother Earth. Or they talk about the bowl of the pipe versus the stem of the pipe the Earth versus.

The tree but everything is built on an interplay of flow of affirmation and negation. I've even heard native People.

Talk about yin and Yang actually use those words in the ceremonies because of their education. You know that they've learned of concepts from E Asia and so forth and see how they map on in fact, the word me pee in the Lakota language. I said it means a tool for life. But the stem knee in Lakota Lakota. If you're not familiar with the term is the Western Sioux.

Need means life, but it also means breath.

And it also means the sort of.

Flowing enerji of spirit that would be vibrating expanding contracting and so forth so it's the whole ceremony is built around merging with the fundamental flow of the expensive Sky and the contract if Earth and the vibrating enerji that's born in between them so it's like.

It's the essence of mindfulness practice as I understand it.

And on Top of that it's fun. It's

It's colorful it's shared with a group Buddhist practices, so well. I mean, there's the subtle sharing that happens on a silent retreat. But it's sort of like silent, with yourself. This is not a subtle sharing your singing they're like really singing and People are crying and People are saying things because their defenses are down and then everybody is affirming them, they're saying that's good, yeah that brother.

Good you know it's like this.

Shared support structure that you have it's very communal so it makes the perfect complement to the Buddhist practice. the Buddhist practice gives you systematic techniques for doing things they don't have those systematic techniques because they don't need those systematic techniques. They just do these ceremonies. They don't have the concepts of purification equals plane plus equanimity multiplied by clarity etc.

They just do the ceremonies, OK, they don't need the terminology. They don't have to have a philosophical system about the fundamental Oneness of things. They just say all my relations and that sums it all up OK. We're all related. It's like Oh, so this is what they mean by primitive religion, OK In other words, this so called primitive religion is really subtle multilayered.

Goes down to the deepest you know from the most surface to the deepest.

In a single integrated ceremony it's like.

So impressive as a spiritual vehicle so I knew this is for me.

It was 27 years ago and it's been true. I've been doing. These ceremonies with native People. Wherever I can wherever I run a retreat and there is someone that can do it in the traditional way. I make it available for our retreat and's my metaphor is that for me the Buddhist practice will always be the cake sort of the substance, but I like a little frosting on my cake and the date of American ceremonies.

In general, specifically the Sweat Lodge.

Represents that frosting on the cake for me.