How Shinzen Became Involved in Native American Spirituality

You do Native American SER.

I'd be interested in how you got into that and also how that fits into the Buddhist doing the ritual ceremony? How these 2 practices are compatible for you, sure the way it started was G.

I'm thinking.

Maybe at least 25 maybe 30 years ago, I was running retreats in the Tucson area at a ranch that was owned by a man named Doug Boyd.

3rd Point's father is very famous his name is Elmer Green and he's one of The Pioneers in brain wave biofeedback actually.

And Doug had this ranch that he let us use to run our mindfulness retreats.

So the first time we did a retreat out there in him to me at the beginning of the retreat and he said. You know, I grew up in Asia and I've always wanted to bring good representatives of Asian spirituality. Together with good representatives of the native spirituality of this area. the American Indians from this area, the Arizona area.

And he tells me he's got a friend named Rupert Encina's who he describes as a pipe Holder. A Sweat Lodge leader and a sundancer.

And I had no idea what any of those things implied but the way he said it. It sounded like it was important, and a big deal. And then he says that if you want at the end of the retreat, he will run a sweat lodge ceremony for your group.

So I asked him to describe the Sweat Lodge ceremony and he did, and it sounded like well that could be interesting.

So that's what happened when the retreat was over. We told People anybody. That's interested. You can stay on one of the local Native American, a spiritual leaders named Rupert Encina's is going to take us through a traditional ceremony called The Sweat Lodge.

And a bunch of People did elect to stay so we did this.

I remember vividly what that experience was.

It impacted at all levels.

I was just amazed I was amazed at how subtle and multi leveled this thing was.

On the surface, it was sort of like just a physical thing. Hey, we're in a sauna here. We're kind of like sweating for maybe even health purposes. So they had a surface level of maybe a physical cleansing paradigm.

Then deeper level, it's a religious ceremony, you're praying and so forth.

It's also a group psychotherapy where People are bearing their souls manner, crying its boundaries in the inner visions breakdown here. Sort of all together in this small hot area and it's dark and women are wearing just cotton dresses. Men are in their bathing trunks very intimate very close. There are these intense physical sensations from the heat or whatever, so it's opening People up it's a group psychotherapy.

Whatever anybody says everybody supports them, they say that's good, you know, or washed and all that's good or.

Hatchet hatchet and it's like yeah, you know, so be it. So it's like this huge supportive environment where People are just letting all this psychological material out so it's like a group process. A group therapy group psychotherapy and another level. It's a shamanic journey because the intensity of the heat and whatever you're starting to go into the power rounds and see spirits in the rocks and so forth and another level.

It matches the Buddhist paradigm of purification equals intensity multiplied by equanimity so you're in this ceremonial context.

And within that context everything has become very simple. It's very formulaic so there's nothing to do. But just open up be focused and be quantumness with the heat and whatever emotions may be coming up so the basic boot is paradigm is.

Intensity plus

Equanimity equals flavor of purification and sure enough, native People call this a purification ceremony. So I could see how it worked at that level.

And then at a symbolic level. It was the whole idea of expansion and contraction. The interplay of Father Sky and mother Earth. The pipe has the long stem, but it has the Earth Bowl, you could see every single thing that they did have that fundamental sense of a simelton 80 of affirmation negation expansion contraction.

So, In other words, it incorporated all of these levels simultaneously into one ceremony.

So I remember when we it was intense and I'm sort of like crawling out. You know half passed out the first thought that went through my mind is and this was a facetious thought it had a facetious tone.

The thought was this is what they mean by primitive religion.

And the primitive was in quotes because of course, it was the antithesis of primitive. It was so multilayered and so subtle and so integrated I guess.

When the Europeans came here they saw that material culture was primitive located a stone. Axe is not as good as a steel. Axe so they just assume that the People were primitive in all ways and that their religion, was primitive.

It was amazing that they were able to do all these things at once.

In woven into this integrated experience so I got out of there and I just knew this is for me.

And that's how I got involved.

And if I were to say the relationship between the Native American path and the Buddhist path.

I would say that it's a complementarity. They they both move you in the direction of concentration and equanimity.

But the Buddhist one is sort of like it's very systematic that's good.

But it's sort of a very personal experience.

And it's sort of not all that, flamboyant or fun. You just sort of sitting there, you know dealing with stuff.

Whereas the native ceremonies are shared there's a social context and it's fonder your singing and you're talking in your home. You talk, for Yala, seeing you know you could just like let it all hang out you get to learn another language, yeah, when you're singing and your drumming. It's sort of flashy and an interesting so I would say for me. the Buddhist practice is the substance that will always be the cake.

But I like to have some frosty and that's the Native American ceremonies.

Open.