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Reality
Check
- Alan Cohen
I spent some time with John Perkins, author of the fascinating book, The Way of the Shuar. This amazing story has its origin in the 1960’s, when John joined the Peace Corps to avoid the draft. He was assigned to live with the Shuar tribe in Ecuador. His mission: to educate the Shuar how to build their financial investment portfolios. Now this was a particularly challenging assignment, since the Shuar had no money, few possessions, and very little contact with the civilized world. Moreover, the Shuar are the original headhunters (literally)
- they invented the practice of shrinking heads. To this day, a young Shuar man passes his initiation to manhood by killing an enemy and bringing back his shrunken head. (And you thought your teenager’s navel piercing was bizarre!)
John learned a little Spanish and set up a series of investment seminars for the Shuar. To his surprise, the classes were packed, with his hushed listeners hanging on every word. Later John found out that his audience didn’t understand a word he was saying
- they were there just for the entertainment value of watching a crazy white guy go on about nothing.
After a short time, John became deathly ill in the jungle, and a Shuar shaman was called to heal him. The healing, John recounts, was extraordinary, and he became a convert to the Shuar way of life. John went on to live with the tribe for many years, meanwhile justifying his presence to his draft board by sending them an annual letter convincing them he was saving the world from Communism.
Over time, John became fascinated with the sexual mores of the Shuar, which are quite sophisticated. Like many indigenous peoples, the Shuar have a healthy, playful attitude toward sex. And, like the creators of the Kama Sutra and Tantra, they have honed their practice of sexuality to an art and a science. First of all, (until the missionaries convinced them otherwise) the Shuar would make love only in nature. They felt that being in the great outdoors increased their sense of oneness with nature and their partner.
Further, an older Shuar man customarily takes a younger woman as his wife, and teaches her the secrets of lovemaking. Then, after he grows older and dies, she takes a younger husband and trains him in the ancient art. So the process goes on from generation to generation, ensuring quality lovemaking taught by experienced elders.
One day several tribespeople asked John, “How do people in your culture learn about lovemaking?”
“Well,” he answered hesitantly, “you get a couple of 15-year-old kids, they find the back seat of a car, and figure it out.”
“My God,” the Shuar elders exclaimed, aghast. “How primitive!”
While you and I may have been led to believe that our version of reality is the only one or the wisest one, there may be many other versions of reality that can help us if we are open to learn from them. Often, what we call “reality” is but one aspect of the Big Picture. The joy of true learning lies in discovering ever-new and more rewarding aspects of the Big Picture and expanding our understanding of how big reality truly is!
I have learned a great deal by traveling throughout the world and meeting people of many different cultures. In Bali I learned that happiness does not depend on having material goods; joy is an inside job. In Russia I discovered that the human spirit cannot be dampened by political oppression; the power of the heart outshines and outlasts any regime. In Mexico I saw how life revolves around families who love and care about each other and support each other above all else. In Greece I saw that celebration of passion yields more life force than societal rules. And on, and on. Every culture has something to teach us, as we have something to teach them. Like the five blind men groping to describe an elephant, we each have a piece of reality that makes sense only when we contribute our part, and open to accept the other parts as well.
Ram Dass tells of a time when, during his drug experimentation days, he was backstage at the Newport Jazz Festival. Under the influence of an hallucinogen, he saw a peephole in the back of the tent and, just for fun, he looked out of it. To his surprise, he found another eye looking back at him. The two eyes stared into each other for a long time, quite fascinated with each other. Finally Ram Dass heard a voice from the other side of the tent, obviously connected to the mysterious eye. The voice asked, “Wanna get in?’
The cosmic joke, of course, is that Ram Dass thought he was on the inside, and so did the other fellow. Who was truly on the inside? Both of them. Each was on the inside of his own reality, as we all are.
What seems quite sophisticated to us, may be primitive to others, and that which we judge to be Neanderthal may offer more truth than we recognize. Spirit, love, and wisdom have a way of showing up everywhere.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Alan Cohen is the author of many popular inspirational books, including the best-selling The Dragon Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, the award-winning A Deep Breath of Life and the recently released Mr. Everit’s Secret: What I learned from the World’s Richest Man. Alan offers Living Prosperously, a home-study course in creating greater abundance, and the life-transforming Mastery Training in Maui. For information on these programs and a free catalog of Alan's books, tapes, and seminars, phone 800.568.3079, visit www.alancohen.com, email info@alancohen.com, or write P.O. Box 835, Haiku, HI 96708. |
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