With my plunge into yoga discipline early in my adult years, I came to an appreciation of non-Western ways of perceiving the world around us. For someone rooted in scientific, empirical , Aristotelian logical thought, this came as a jolt. Or, as Gary Snyder has argued, every poet must have an appreciation of some archaic system of awareness, be it astrology, I Ching, tarot, palmistry, well, you get the picture. Just listen and look.
What I’ve come to appreciate is the alternative wisdom carried by Native American elders, gurus of all sorts, and the range of those labeled shamans, East and West.
And so, at last summer’s sessions of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, I was intrigued by an opportunity to view a movie on Mongolian shamans. It’s a remarkable work, by a registered nurse who has worked for two decades with nomadic reindeer herders in Mongolia. Having earned their trust and respect, and realizing their own vulnerability in the face of global changes, the shamans allowed her to film their healing ceremonies.
As I viewed the documentary, I was struck by how much of what she observed leads into Tibetan Buddhism, too.
This is remarkable work. What is healing, anyway? From a Christian point of view, I can say healing can differ from a cure. So just what happens in a shaman ceremony? And where can Eastern and Western health care interact? How much of our physical state is a reflection of our emotional and spiritual conditions.
We might wonder, too, how the Nativity stories would appear from the world view of the herders, how much their insights would inform us about shepherds and angels. Would a stable be that much different from the homes where the shamans enact their rites? As for the Magi? Or the heavenly wonder? Or even an oppressive political and economic presence? As the Gospel message insists, the world needs healing, no doubt about it.
To learn more of the reindeer herder perspective, go to Nomadicare.
Jnana's Red Barn 
This piece is very nice on this Christmas Eve. It brought to mind a comment made several years ago by a Domincan priest who was suffering through post-stroke complications: “I don’t expect to get any better, but I will be healed.” A man of deep faith.
Did you know that in New Testament Greek, the verbs “to save” and “to heal” are in fact the same word…?
Yes! And I love the fact that in Hebrew, “soul” and “breath” are the same.
And here’s wishing you the best of Christmas spirit.
I’ve gradually come to the conclusion that “soul” is a word which should not exist, and that we should always translate those words as “life.” The idea of a “soul” as some sort of separate part of a person which can exist in a state independent of the body is, I think, fundamentally unbiblical and out of keeping with early church understanding (crept in with Greek philosophy).
But I digress…
Digress? Oh, but we could go far with this one. We could start by looking at the many varied senses of “soul” as used in the Psalms. I’ve come to appreciate that usage as recognizing the location (for want of a better term) within us that experiences or communes with the Divine.
Now, let us breathe!