A WALK WITH A SURGEON SANGOMA #4

INWARD BOUND

(again apologies for changes in font sizes - they would not correct)

“Those of us who have spent time in wilderness are aware of the fact that there is something more to the wilderness than we ourselves can express. Wilderness is an instrument for enabling us to recover our lost capacity for religious experience...”
We cannot today recreate the original wilderness human in shape form or habitat. But we can recover him because he exists in us. She is the foundation in spirit or psyche on which we build and we are not complete until we have recovered him/her…” 

Laurens van der Post

Not all of us can relate to wilderness or truly wild places but most can relate to nature and if we cannot its because modern living has managed to extract this vital ingredient from our lives. 

If we substitute the word "nature" for wilderness it can be found just about anywhere; a park, a garden, a retreat, the right spar, a cabin in the woods or by a lake. We don't have to be hunter gatherers to deepen our natural experiences. However, if we could   reach this level of expertise in wilderness we would begin to live beyond the five senses and enter a reality few of us would ever realize and most can only imagine.

"The force of the primal manifest as love is the glory of God." The Ancestors

When I came back from the Kalahari I wrote Inner Passages Outer Journeys and formed a small company called Inward Bound whose purpose was to simulate the Bushman consciousness as much as feasible by keeping as little as possible between us and nature. It worked amazing well, though the two weeks we spent in some pristine wilderness area doing this was not easy. It required a significant amount of time and expense getting to, immersing in and then returning back to our normal lives. In these journeys - for structure - we simulated the three phases of the Hero/ine;
 Separation - Theshold - Incorporation 
and embraced all its associated polarities using nature as the catalyst.

For my personal self the best I could do was to "hunt and gather" in the supermarket, fill my backpack and walk into the wilderness for several days or more.
 These acts can have profound healing effects and help us connect with a primal part of ourselves that may have been lost in the eons of time. It's not so long ago that we were all hunter gatherers. The essence of this inner journey is to keep it simple and have the minimum of material possessions between ourselves and nature. Anything that separates us from the Earth Mother must be carefully scrutinized, whether it be the wrong company, alcohol, a horse and its care or even a camera. It one ventures forth on foot with a backpack it is unlikely that anything redundant will be carried. 

 Few of us use nature or wilderness as spiritual practice or for deep inner healing. There is little spiritual information to be gleaned from research on the subject. Wilderness psychology is full of data, but usually the closest one can get to the word "healing" is the term "restorative." Their information seems limited since the authors only report what can be objectively measured and most of what happens in wilderness cannot be put into words. Transcendence and healing in the wild has been labeled the “wilderness effect” but I prefer the term "wilderness rapture” which speaks to the psycho-spiritual transcendence that can occur, similar to Maslow's Peak Experience. 

Martin Buber said, 
"All humans have access to God, but each has a different access." 
Nature is a preferred environment for rapture and healing especially if we immerse in it for several days - five is optimal in order to discard the polluting effects of civilization and more if practicable. Experiencing nature in the right way is not only non denominational but is a tool for transcending ego and reaching for a deeper reality.

Yoga philosophy would say that this mini-samadhi or rapture occurs when;
 the Observer (you,) the Observed (say a sunset) and the Process of you observing the sunset all fuse into one. 
This is also called unity consciousness or the oneness experience. For a brief ecstatic period one fuses with or becomes the "observed" and enters the "Field." Many of us may have had this experience but also may have forgotten, trivialized and not validated and actualized it for our-Selves.

Nature is a room with many doors and windows to spirit and has all the polarities required for Self "Becoming." In nature we can find the middle way described by the Buddha between the opposing dynamics of up/down, hot/cold, terrified/tranquil, thirsty/quenched, hungry/satisfied, light /dark, exhausted/rested, wet and dry. It is in this polarity that we can find balance and equanimity. 

The San's ability to transcend ego, open their hearts and travel out of body during their trance dance is a testament to the power of these influences. 

Many go into wild places to work out, stress bust, run rapids, conquer mountains and bag peaks. This militaristic form of lingo and the experience of rapture may be mutually exclusive. Nature often bats last especially in the face of arrogance when it is often the mountaineer who gets bagged and the river that is running the kayaker and not always in the best way.

This was how I used to be when I lived in South Africa and ventured into the bush regularly with a 4x4 and all the camping accoutrements. However, after emigrating, with the help of a "California connected consciousness," yoga and more especially after the San experience I found this was no longer tenable.

Below is what I wrote in Inner Passages Outer Journeys - nothing that has not been described before and more eloquently but it had now become my own experience. Around the same time I had a dream message that said;

"It is better to experience the learning than learn the experience."

Kabir overstates it a bit - even more powerfully - it helps to know the "words" as well; 

"The Sacred Books of the East are nothing but words. I looked through their covers one day sideways. What Kabir talks of is only what he has lived through. If you have not lived through something, it is not true."

Having previously been outwardly directed I knew all the pitfalls.

On our trips I became the "policeman," if you like, guarding myself and others quietly from going OUT rather than IN.

 Inward Bound is about; 

Self Realization or Becoming rather than self mastery/concept.

Transcending ego rather than subordinating ourselves to its power (in the words of a U.S. military general who came on one of our trips and after being immersed in the San experience for two weeks; 

"The secret to spiritual power is not having power.")

Higher chakras rather than lower survival ones.

Inward Bound rather than being outwardly directed.

"Soft" skills rather than hard skills.

"Soft" fascinations and silence rather than needless chatter.

Attending to needs rather than wants.

Connection and simplicity rather than excessiveness and luxury. (but definitely not being cold, wet or hungry!)

When we enter our nature space, wherever we find it to be, we should regard it as Sacred, as if we were entering a temple. I recall a wilderness guide's words to us before we entered the Umfolozi game reserve with its Big Five for a five day hiking immersion;  "This is my church - don't desecrate it!"

Sacred space is somewhere special where we enter with sacred intent and behave in a way that reinforces this intent. We cannot remain there - its a gift to us where we can connect with the Field, our guides, dreams and the Garden of Eden archetype. When we enter we should open the space formally and when we leave close it - with gratitude. When we return to Incorporate we can look at and even journal what the journey may have brought to us. These effects often take time to germinate.

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