We don’t all have to be "shamans"!*

Photo: Goddess Saraswathi, who reminds us that our authenticity is perforce an expression of creativity and beauty by Barbie Robinson

To you, who is free from envy,

I proclaim this secret wisdom

The knowledge and practice of which

Liberates you

-Krishna’s words from the Bhagavad Gita

I adored my teachers in dance, philosophy, Yoga, martial arts, and literature. Finding inspiring teachers is a blessing I have been honoured to have in my life and almost makes up for all the turbulence in other quarters! Each time I studied under a teacher, I aspired to be like them—a dancer, philosopher, Yoga guru, or a writer. For a while I would be thoroughly distracted, pursuing the next aspiration as my “calling”.

I was in my twenties when it dawned on me that I did not have to become my teachers. At the time I was studying philosophy with a traditional Indian teacher. Luckily for me, he disliked dance. When he dismissed dance as a legitimate philosophical inquiry, resistance hitherto unknown to me emerged within me. I recognised how mainstream philosophies entrench Body-denial arguments about the frivolity of sensorial experiences. And I was not inclined to conform to this dogma. So, while I happily learnt from the philosophical wisdom he offered, I relinquished all desire to become his version of philosopher.

This was in no way a diminishing of my respect for him. Rather it was a return to my authenticity, which could be enriched by the inspiration from his teaching without needing to copy it.

It is only natural to aspire to “have” what inspires us. When a teacher appears to offer what meets our deepest yearning, we want to have what they have so that we can be in the world as they appear. We live in a world where paradigms of competition and imitation are upheld as the most valuable ways of finding one’s place. With the advent of social media, these paradigms have cemented themselves as exclusive modalities of interaction and visibility in the public spaces of life.

Hierarchical approaches to Reality inherently reek of envy. Envy is the birthplace of comparison, the stench of competition, and the sorrow of so-called failure as assessed by these paradigms. We do not have to moralise envy into a ‘deadly sin’, rather it is a more banal sensation, lurking and ubiquitous in all of us. It is also fostered as the basis of most of the systems of Reality in which we live which are competitive, hierarchical, and judgmental.

It is inevitable then that we will assume that the only way to manifest our yearning is by owning someone else’s expression that appeals to us. An archetypal Self-inquiry is the invitation to manifest our authenticity, that expression which, in the words of the Deity Krishna quoted above, liberates us. Competitive models may well serve skills acquisition, or to learn and master a technique. However, authenticity pertains to our primordiality, the “sovereign knowledge”, sovereign because it is unique to each one of us. According to Krishna, this revelatory insight is what comes effortlessly, which does not perish (because it does not depend on anything external to us) and is excavated through direct experience.

The teacher in a Self-inquiry into our primordiality is not imparting a technique or a skill. Their role is to facilitate your own excavation so that you can be liberated to express your authenticity in this world. This is not the same as a certification offering that is training you to be the teacher of that modality. This is in no way a diminishing of certification offerings or one’s desire to become a certified teacher. It is just that it may not always be the same as expressing your authenticity. Once you have the intelligence of igniting your authenticity, it may well be expressed in an entirely different way—as a parent, a gardener, or a CEO.

The romanticizing of service in our times has meant that we feel ignoble when we attend to our own authenticity. In a troubled world, we feel that helping others is the only morally right way to be a spiritual person. Therefore, we assume we cannot do Yoga without becoming a yoga teacher, or lead a spiritual life without becoming a guru, or enjoy rituals without becoming becoming a “shaman”. In teaching others, we feel we help make the world a better place.

The astrologer Adam Elenbaas spoke about the saviour paradigm in a recent video. He asked the question; do we need to save the world or does the world need to save us? He was posing that question from a spiritual or consciousness context where the “world” is sentient and divine. Therefore, attending to how we become cognisant to that sentience is the greatest service we can do to return to balance within and without.

The paradigms of envy render any intimacy to our authenticity without value and purpose. All purpose is outward directed and must be judged relative to other offerings. These judgements are, in essence, economic in nature—who is more visible, who has more numbers, who has met the milestones of success as upheld by capitalism and the like. It has nothing to do with what aligns with our own primordiality, that domain of our Consciousness which connects both to our ancestral connections to Nature and to our unique expression of Nature in this embodied life.

In a world of relative valuing, authenticity is absent. We are encouraged to imitate, follow, and be better than our competitors. The most we celebrate freshness is as “innovation”. Innovation is not the same as the radical transformation of authenticity because it is measured in marginal and accumulative movements.

Authenticity is a lightning bolt where the “way” such as it is, is only illuminated for a brief flash and must be reignited again and again. Authenticity has no templates. It may not be connected to the past nor does it propose projections about the future. It is the fullest and unapologetic embrace of the present as experienced in our own intimacy.

Krishna says that the wisdom of authenticity liberates us from self-destruction, shame, and calamity. Distant from the wellspring of our authenticity, we roam the wilds of disorder, desperately pouring our yearning into places which diminish that sacredness into envy and imitation.

An ancient inscription in a cave in India (where it is suggested that ritual dances were once held) simply states, “The sculptor loved the dancer.” The sculptor did not want to be the dancer, rather his love for the dance was the muse that enchanted his own artistry. So also, it is vital to perceive the Muse that unlocks the flow of our authenticity and not mistakenly don the Muse’s garbs!

*I use this label with respect well aware that it pertains to ancient cultures and traditions and has been usurped well beyond its respectful application in our times. Part of this reflection is also an invitation to consider how we, perhaps unintentionally, disrespect cultural wisdom in our competition-fueled reality