Shaman’s Stories. Part 3

I went to school when I was 8 years old. Granny was still psychically insane and concentrated only on me. We lived in a small house, too small for all of us. A new flat was promised to us we had been waiting for 15 years. The house was near “the Birch Wood” – the park situated on the place of a ruined cemetery. The church had been ruined by tanks in spite of the people’s indignation. My attitude to the Christian priests is negative, but the church was one of the oldest ones in the city, and during the Soviet power people had no other alternative except Christian orthodoxy. So to say, the place was not good. One wall of our house was burnt out as it had been the additional building to the main, very old one. Behind that wall there were only bulks of ash and a rusted chain with a hook. The chain was always squeaking, particularly at night, as if a little girl was crying.

Reading this text is a kind of micro-initiation, Shaman traveling, communion with the space of Urban-Shamanism forces.

Hi! I invite you to carry out an absorbing and terrifying journey into the world of Spiritual Realities to get Force and Knowledge. It is not necessary to do the rituals suggested by me practically; you can confine yourself to thinking and dreaming on this theme, or simply reading it. The result will come soon.

Sometimes changes happen at once, instantly. It can be recovering from old diseases which not only doctors but the tiered patient himself don’t believe in any longer; or an unexpected phone call from an almost forgotten friend who offers a new and perspective project; or a meeting with your beloved for the rest of your life. And it is a feeling of the incredibly deep and unite existence of yours, the sense of the surrounding world’s support and in the deepest corners of your soul.

Hello, my dear reader! I wish you light and warmth. I’ll tell you about Urban Shamanism and give some pieces of advice how to find the sources of Force inside you and outside. If you want, you will find. It will prove useful to you in your life.

I live in the city and am not going to move to the countryside. I communicate with the Spirits of city nature. I feel that the whole world surrounding us is alive and pulsing. But the consciousness of natural Spirits differs greatly from that of the city ones. So, Marsh Spirit and Municipal Sewerage Spirit have similar nature which is deadly for people; but like marsh was necessary for our ancestors as they picked cranberries and some other things needed and important for their country life, the municipal sewerage system is inevitable in the City life as well.

Yoga: History, Philosophy, Psychology. Part 1

The prominent place among the cultural values of Eastern countries is occupied by the philosophical idea and spiritual practice associated with it. One of the most significant schools is Yoga.

Yoga is not the eastern exotic gymnastics for body and mind as it can be accepted in mass awareness. The real Yoga is the system of a person’s spiritual self-perfection based on profound philosophy which has kept keen actuality and practical significance in modern everyday life.

            The western way of life, which aggressively imposes craving for profit in order to match the stereotypes of social successfulness, has led the planet to ecological crisis and the mankind to the really happening process of complete abolishment during ecological and technological crises.

Yoga: History, Philosophy, Psychology. Part 2

Yoga’s origin and forming Yoga philosophy

 Yoga goes back to the limits of the furthest historical retrospective view which is acceptable to the modern researcher. Since the most ancient times, there appeared some literature sources in the Indo-Arian civilization, both of epic and religious character, in which Yoga and the description of Yoga self-development methods are mentioned.

 Generally speaking, within the visually graspable history it is possible to distinguish 3 main stages in developing Yoga philosophy and practice.

Yoga: History, Philosophy, Psychology. Part 3

As a method of human’s spiritual development, Yoga was used by the followers of many philosophic schools of ancient and middle-aged India; the representatives of them applied Yoga practice for discipline of body and spirit. In spite of this, Yoga philosophy, as such,

(Sanhya-Yoga school) wasn’t the dominating school.

In the cultural environment of Post-Classical India, philosophy was developing in fighting between only two philosophic and spiritual traditions – Vedic or Hindu (uniting the philosophic trends based on Vedas and strongly attracted to Hinduism) and Buddha philosophy.

Yoga: History, Philosophy, Psychology. Part 4

The beginning of the third stage of Yoga development fell on the period of colonizing the East by European countries. The Western world discovered Yoga for itself in XVIII-XIX centuries. The colonization resulted not only in imposing so called ‘achievements’ of European civilization in the states caught by it. The Eastern world also started to have a great cultural influence on its colonizers. The epoch of intercultural East-West dialogue started as a result of which Europe, America and Russia discovered the spiritual thought of India, China, Tibet and Arab countries.

During this period, the variations of classical Yoga and other oriental schools including the elements of Yoga methods began spreading in the Western world. Originally they were studied only by specialists. Philosophers, linguists, culture experts had been researching Yoga preferably without any practical interest up to the moment when the researchers began to understand the spiritual value of Oriental schools which was more attractive than the dogmatic religions, Western materialism and positivism.

Yoga: History, Philosophy, Psychology. Part 5

Among Western researches-specialists and public opinion, the question of so-called perfect abilities was especially popular and accompanied with hot discussions. In Indian philosophy it was also defined by the term ‘siddhi’.

These perfect abilities were taken significant attention in ancient Yoga manuscripts. Nevertheless, in Classical Yoga having paranormal abilities was not considered as a special aim of Yoga practice. Patandjali and Vyasa described and commented these abilities only as far as it is necessary for the practitioners to know when they naturally encounter the unknown forces and abilities during their practice. Their application is controlled by the ethic Yoga principles and finally aimed at the achievement of superior spiritual Yoga purpose and help for living beings.