Is Meditation Part of the Shamanic Tradition?

Excerpt from the lecture “Wisdom Teachings on Shamanic Healing” by Maestro Manuel Rufino, given at The Ark in Brooklyn, NY on January 13, 2016.

Q: You said previously that meditation is not part of the shamanic tradition. I would like to ask if there are  practices that deal with somatic awareness, awareness of the body in the shamanic tradition?

MM:  The shamanic tradition is all meditation. We don't practice meditation separately. The mind is always in meditation. It is not like, ‘I am going to do meditation, I am going to meditate.’ No, everything that we do is a meditation. We are going to plant the field, the field is divided into four or five colors; where is this color going to go? That is going to go that color, and this color and that color. So we don't just do farming. It is all a whole meditation.

Q: I think what he is referring to is, “how do we stay present?” And I think your answer just mentioned that: that's how we stay present.

MM: Everything that we do is to stay present. There is a present moment in everything that we do daily, there is an awareness. There is an intention that we call the intent. It is an intention: we know why we are doing that. We know that there is a time for that and so on, but we don't get caught into a practice because everything that we do is a practice. That's why the monastery of the shaman is his village. He does not go somewhere else to be trained. The training is right there with your family. Your family is your meditation. You don't go somewhere to meditate about the family. No. Your family is your meditation. Some people think, ‘Oh my God, I don't have time to meditate since I have this baby.’ I say to them, ‘Your baby is now your meditation. Now that baby is your meditation’. How to meditate for 25 years. Twenty-five years of meditation with the baby. Until the person is 25 or 30 years old, it is a whole meditation. 

Q: So you say that Western, American, modern people can practice meditation in our very busy, very electronic, very distracted lives?

MM: Everything that you do is your meditation. Your work is a meditation. You are a computer expert, and your whole meditation is about the computer situation. Then it is there where you discover how to make it better, how to make it so it becomes a whole meditation. You don't need to go somewhere to meditate. You are right there meditating. Just be present there, aware of the meditation. So whatever job that you do, even as you walk, it is a walking meditation. When you eat, it’s an eating meditation. You are aware how that food is going to affect you; is this good for you or not? You know. That cheese is very bad, then meditate until you finally figure it out. Is it good for you or not? You need to figure that out. So, in the shamanic tradition meditation is just 24 hours a day. In everything that you do there is a conscious intention with what you are doing. Be present there. 

Q: Before you said we are not our name, it is the mask that has a name. I sort of do this holding on to identity and letting go of identity. When I let go of identity for me and my life, all of a sudden I have no plan and no job and no clothes etc. It is like everything falls apart. And then who am I?

MM: Hmm. That is the question. Somebody gave me a dog. And she did not know the name of the dog, neither did I, so we named it Mani. And she was very happy reacting to the name of Mani. She had no name. And that's why we create an identity which is a false identity, and that creates a lot of problems. Because now if I don't have a job, it means that I am a bad person, a poor person, an ungrateful person, an unlucky person. You create all of these things because you don't have something that somebody else has. I say, ‘You should be happy that you don't have a job now.’ ‘Oh my boyfriend left me.” I say, ‘You should be happy. You may get something better. What is your problem?’

Why are you so attached to identity? Why are you so attached to things? That is what happens when you identify too much with things. Now you want to get a job: go ahead and get a job. You are not a job, you are not that particular thing because this is just what you are doing at the time. No. Sometimes a lawyer would do a better job as a carpenter than as a lawyer. But because they went to school to be a lawyer, they are lawyers. But they are the worst lawyers because they would have done better as a carpenter. It would have been a happier profession.

Q: Do you have any direction for finding what it is that you're best at?

MM: Yeah. Just feel it. Just feel it. You will feel it. You’ll say, ‘Wow I feel really happy doing this. Do I want to identify myself with this? Is this really something that calls me? Maybe it is ok for a little while but do I really identify myself with that? Maybe not.’ For a period, I designed labels and packages for photography, and it was, like wow, a high level job situation, but it took all my time. So one day I just decided, no, I am going to become a carpenter. I was so happy being a carpenter, like very happy. I had a lot of free time and made a lot of money. Now I could go to be trained as a shaman somewhere else, and I just let it go. That job was an experience I had, I am not that job. I am just doing that now. So I got some training from that, but this is not me. It is ok to do it if you are really happy about it, but I am not by nature the person meant to be sitting at the desk the whole day long, it is not me. I said, ‘Wow, that is really crazy just being there eight hours a day sitting at my desk, designing things. No wait. This would be driving me crazy.’ I said, ‘No way. It does not matter how much money I make, this is not for me.’ And I just got out. 

So, there is no need to identify with a job. If one is happy with a job, like really happy about it, and you really like it that is fine. Or you can find something that can give you more freedom. They will give you less money, but more freedom, then it is better to be more happy, joyful. Then it is better to make a change. You are capable of just changing things. You identify yourself too much with something. That's why you continue with something that is bad for you, and you become really unhappy. So it is better not to. I say no, I am not that. I was not born to do that. No one was born to do anything specific. We all come here well equipped with all kinds of things.

Q: So should we all be flexible?

A: Yes. We need to learn to be flexible. Daily. That's why the practice of Hatha Yoga and other things will keep your body flexible, and the other thing is, because you need to learn to keep yourself flexible. The best way, as people approach you, there is a discussion, there is a conversation, keep your mind flexible. If the mind is flexible, all the wiring in your brain will always be flexible. Easy to change. You will be easy to change.

Q: Is it possible to be maybe too flexible?

MM: Oh. You can do whatever you want with it. Because once you tap into that, you can rewire that any time that you want. You make decisions from within. That is the benefit of the practice. It is supposed to bring you to the capacity where you can rewire things when you need to and if you need to. 

Q: When you meet a person, and the energy is really intense and you feel it in your body, how do you know that you are actually perceiving the energy in such a depth, if that is happening? Does it mean that you should not contact that person or does that mean that something should work? 

MM: You should hug the person. Give them a big hug just to make sure that you don't get involved in the ‘you have too much negativity’ situation. Rejection, no. Embrace, include. You include and embrace and integrate. Then the energy will be integrated as something positive. Even if it is very negative. Just the same way that you integrate negative experiences. If you integrate them in a good way, they become positive. If you integrate them as something negative like, ‘Oh my God. I did not want that,’ that is something that will damage you. But if you integrate that experience as positive, you may learn something from that. It may be difficult. Then you have to acknowledge that it was difficult but I can integrate that as something positive even if it was a difficult experience. And one needs to learn to do that with every single experience that one goes through. Don't allow any experience to make you bitter, or revengeful. Integrate it. So, wow that was difficult, but I can deal with it. That was a very difficult girlfriend, God bless me, but I can deal with that.

Q: I’m going through that exactly, I’m sure you know.

MM: You need to learn to integrate things as positive, as very good experiences. Thank you for that. One should thank the other person for training you.