No Way - No method - No Master - No steps
Just the sound of one hand clapping and some dry dung on a stick.
The monk asks the master once more "How can I reach enlightenment?"
The master answers "Did you cook? Have you eaten? Did you wash up? Have you shit?"
And again the next day the monk asks "There must be something I can do? Yes, I will be the most virtuous monk."
The master answers, "And do remember to tell the tiger that you are vegan!"
The monk asks the master once more "How can I reach enlightenment?"
The master answers "Did you cook? Have you eaten? Did you wash up? Have you shit?"
And again the next day the monk asks "There must be something I can do? Yes, I will be the most virtuous monk."
The master answers, "And do remember to tell the tiger that you are vegan!"
Training as an Agent of Change
In many cultures the figure of the Shaman is someone who lives at the margins of society, who may live a precarious existence, who may have been identified as special during childhood, with some illness or handicap, but who will have passed through a range of 'deaths' and transformations in their own life. The Shaman is almost certainly not a person living in material and social comfort and security, rather in continuous exploration of the limits of consciousness. Indeed she might be the person sacrificed to facilitate change, like Jesus Christ and many other martyrs and so called witches.
Shamans are not 'perfect beings' or necessarily very healthy themselves. They might actually be quite ill, at the edges of madness, addicts or alcoholic, …. continuously struggling for their own health. Because of their personal history, each shaman is distinct. They will have developed their own particular mechanisms for survival. They will have their neurotic defences and their own 'special skills'.
It is from this vulnerable place that they can empathise with, understand and accompany others in their difficulties. From this uncertain, insecure and possibly painful place they develop a series of 'extra ordinary' skills, initially often just to survive, but which then go on to be useful in helping others in their processes of 'death' and transformation.
What helps the shaman live close to death and possible madness is their roots in and trust in the spirits and their support, and the deep connection developed with these out of personal need. La locura lo cura!
Our work is aimed at these people described above, to help integrate their personal experience, wounds, and forces, to put these at the service of humanity towards peace, love and consciousness. Courses offer the basic skills, within a flexible structure for each person to explore and develop their own Shamanistic style.
The Agent of Change
The Agent of Change is a kind of therapist, healer, eco-warrior, monk, working with holistic, Shamanistic and modern models and techniques. The Agent is most definitely a normal person with their own wounds and struggles, chaos and wisdom ... but with some kind of special capacity. This Training is aimed to help you integrate these life experiences and to put them at the service of humanity by compassionately helping others expand their consciousness.
This modern shamanism is based on a simple Medicine Wheel and is an approach to life with personal and spiritual practice that:
We do not own or sell any special higher truth or path.... No Way
The Wounded Healer - Dangers and precautions
The concept of spiritual practice and training (the Church, religions, the transpersonal movement, New Age) attracts many hurt people, who feel marginalised from what we might call 'normal society'. The 'promise' implicit here is something like - “If I pray, meditate and do my spiritual practice then I will be able to avoid facing the complex and painful areas of ego, body, emotions, relationships, managing my material and economic life,....” and so forth. This is a trap which is dangerous to the practitioner as well as anyone they may work with.
All people and all therapists have our wounds. When we try to hide or escape these pains we lose our ability to see clearly and this will pervert our attempts at healing. Often, where the therapist tries to cure the client, it can be seen that they are using the client for their own process, which is not effective for either. We may be more of a danger than a help. It is true that any therapist can numb the "pain" of the client, however this firstly will inhibit the growth of the individual, and secondly can become the cause of some other much more complex type of pain.
We are born into this material world at this time to learn to work with the current economic life, with our ego, body, emotions and relationships. Any pains in these areas are our teachers, to be openly explored. Where we attempt to cover up or escape from any pains, this action will both inhibit our ability to 'see clearly' that with which we are working and also it will 'pervert' our attempts to bring healing.
Here at No Way Training we recognise that there is a high percentage of shamans (alchemist, medicine woman, wizard, druid, monk, therapist, healer, New Age practitioners, gurus, etc.) who use their skills to defend their neurosis (illness, psychosis, ) manipulating others and even using 'black' magic. We all have something of this tendency, to escape from seeing the painful in ourselves. In these cases they are generally rejecting some aspects of their childhood, parents, ancestors, and remain dangerously stuck in battles with their own body, history and emotions. For these reasons we insist on an ethical training and practice in shamanism. Here we can again learn from many traditions, religions and modern psychotherapies in constructing a modern, integrative and ethical shamanism.
Some of the key principles we insist upon to ensure an ethical training and practice are:
The training follows your personal process and your needs. It respects your individuality within the context of your culture, history and the complexity of modern life. No Way is rooted principally in deep compassion for the human condition and addresses what it is to be human and what we need to live an authentic life. In both individual and group work we look at these questions from a variety of approaches: economic, ecological, social, demographic, personal and spiritual.
In many cultures the figure of the Shaman is someone who lives at the margins of society, who may live a precarious existence, who may have been identified as special during childhood, with some illness or handicap, but who will have passed through a range of 'deaths' and transformations in their own life. The Shaman is almost certainly not a person living in material and social comfort and security, rather in continuous exploration of the limits of consciousness. Indeed she might be the person sacrificed to facilitate change, like Jesus Christ and many other martyrs and so called witches.
Shamans are not 'perfect beings' or necessarily very healthy themselves. They might actually be quite ill, at the edges of madness, addicts or alcoholic, …. continuously struggling for their own health. Because of their personal history, each shaman is distinct. They will have developed their own particular mechanisms for survival. They will have their neurotic defences and their own 'special skills'.
It is from this vulnerable place that they can empathise with, understand and accompany others in their difficulties. From this uncertain, insecure and possibly painful place they develop a series of 'extra ordinary' skills, initially often just to survive, but which then go on to be useful in helping others in their processes of 'death' and transformation.
What helps the shaman live close to death and possible madness is their roots in and trust in the spirits and their support, and the deep connection developed with these out of personal need. La locura lo cura!
Our work is aimed at these people described above, to help integrate their personal experience, wounds, and forces, to put these at the service of humanity towards peace, love and consciousness. Courses offer the basic skills, within a flexible structure for each person to explore and develop their own Shamanistic style.
The Agent of Change
The Agent of Change is a kind of therapist, healer, eco-warrior, monk, working with holistic, Shamanistic and modern models and techniques. The Agent is most definitely a normal person with their own wounds and struggles, chaos and wisdom ... but with some kind of special capacity. This Training is aimed to help you integrate these life experiences and to put them at the service of humanity by compassionately helping others expand their consciousness.
This modern shamanism is based on a simple Medicine Wheel and is an approach to life with personal and spiritual practice that:
- Supports the completion of cycles for the spiralling expansion of consciousness – helping you to find and complete appropriate rites of passage – letting the self die and transform
- Recognises and supports the rites of passage of both 'Death through Conflict' and 'Death through letting go' as essential phases in cycles of transformation
- Offers loving and holding spaces within which you can bring your life and your process for these transformations. This can be anywhere we can meet up, physically, digitally or energetically
- Draws on the roots found in Shamanistic cultures from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Taoism, Celtic traditions, Druidism and Wicca - and the cycles of nature, 4 Seasons, 4 elements,
- Draws on modern integrative psychotherapies and other practices, including: Gestalt, Arts, Drama and Dance therapies, Family Constellations, permaculture, Aikido, ...
- is a shamanistic practice based on life cycles, the body and movement, and creative expression in many forms. The structure of this practice recognizes and celebrates the changing seasons
- supports you to work at your own pace with your own tools and resolve your difficulties with the on-going support of the group
We do not own or sell any special higher truth or path.... No Way
The Wounded Healer - Dangers and precautions
The concept of spiritual practice and training (the Church, religions, the transpersonal movement, New Age) attracts many hurt people, who feel marginalised from what we might call 'normal society'. The 'promise' implicit here is something like - “If I pray, meditate and do my spiritual practice then I will be able to avoid facing the complex and painful areas of ego, body, emotions, relationships, managing my material and economic life,....” and so forth. This is a trap which is dangerous to the practitioner as well as anyone they may work with.
All people and all therapists have our wounds. When we try to hide or escape these pains we lose our ability to see clearly and this will pervert our attempts at healing. Often, where the therapist tries to cure the client, it can be seen that they are using the client for their own process, which is not effective for either. We may be more of a danger than a help. It is true that any therapist can numb the "pain" of the client, however this firstly will inhibit the growth of the individual, and secondly can become the cause of some other much more complex type of pain.
We are born into this material world at this time to learn to work with the current economic life, with our ego, body, emotions and relationships. Any pains in these areas are our teachers, to be openly explored. Where we attempt to cover up or escape from any pains, this action will both inhibit our ability to 'see clearly' that with which we are working and also it will 'pervert' our attempts to bring healing.
Here at No Way Training we recognise that there is a high percentage of shamans (alchemist, medicine woman, wizard, druid, monk, therapist, healer, New Age practitioners, gurus, etc.) who use their skills to defend their neurosis (illness, psychosis, ) manipulating others and even using 'black' magic. We all have something of this tendency, to escape from seeing the painful in ourselves. In these cases they are generally rejecting some aspects of their childhood, parents, ancestors, and remain dangerously stuck in battles with their own body, history and emotions. For these reasons we insist on an ethical training and practice in shamanism. Here we can again learn from many traditions, religions and modern psychotherapies in constructing a modern, integrative and ethical shamanism.
Some of the key principles we insist upon to ensure an ethical training and practice are:
- Trainees, clients, healers and trainers work openly with their own wounds, shadow, neurosis and defence mechanisms. These are part of our strength and style as practitioners. They are our allies and teachers.
- These are worked with gently and respectfully using both shamanistic and psychotherapy supervision models to integrate and balance inner conflicts with the complete and complex ecology we live in.
The training follows your personal process and your needs. It respects your individuality within the context of your culture, history and the complexity of modern life. No Way is rooted principally in deep compassion for the human condition and addresses what it is to be human and what we need to live an authentic life. In both individual and group work we look at these questions from a variety of approaches: economic, ecological, social, demographic, personal and spiritual.