[Buddha-l] Re: Magic

[Joy Vriens]

Hi Curt,

>Strickman's point of view makes even more sense when you take a  
>comparative approach. The Tantric view of sexual love is similar to (but  
>obviously not exactly the same) as what one finds in Taoism and  
>Platonism - as well as in the "romantic" poetry of Rumi and the Troubadours. 

Nothing is ever exactly the same and if we want to stigmatise differences, there will always be possibilities to do so. I know, I know many people earn a living by indexing, analysing and comparing those differences so I will shut up. :-) 
 
>In fact, even if one sticks to India, "Tantra" still lends itself to  
>comparative study - because there is no bright line separating Buddhist  
>and Hindu Tantra - as anyone familiar with the texts of Shingon knows. I  
>am not claiming anything here beyond the simple idea that "Tantra" is,  
>in fact, "part and parcel of religious culture" - as opposed to being  
>some sort of "degeneration". 

I know, but ssshhht.
 
>I am also very glad to see that we have exorcised Protestant Buddhism. I  
>have been praying for that. 

Well I don't know whether I exorcised my inner Protestant Buddhist, but it is not sitting on the throne anymore.

It got another knock yesterday when I watched a stunning documentary about a Sora tribe in Orissa and it's wonderful Shaman, an authentic artist. The makers of the documentary followed this tribe for six years and show in this film how this tribe copes with the loss of their dear ones. It's shamanism (there's my inner Protestant Buddhist again), but so pragmatic and efficient and intelligent. The son of the chief died suddenly in an accident and the shaman acted as an intermediary between the dead soul and his parents. The soul entered the body of the shaman and the shaman became the son. This enabled the parents to cope better with the sudden loss of their son. They got some time to say goodbye and both the parents and the "deceased son" (shaman) could express their mutual sorrow. During three years rituals would be carried out on the anniversary and in the last ritual the name of a son would be given to a young child in the tribe, so the parents of the deceased son could d!
 irect their interrupted love and affection onto another being. This is not the only thing that struck me in the film. Thanks to the simplicity of the people and of the rituals, it became evident to me (or to my inner Protestant Buddhist) in what way the shaman was an intermediary between the "world of the ghosts" and this world. In what way he was "possessed". He was an actor and his role was to re-anact the deceased boy, so the parents and the village could come to terms with the sudden loss. In this way the deceased boy could react and interact with the others. It also shows that rituals can make sense when they are not too sophisticated, stylised or removed from whatever called them into life. Highly recommendable.

"Seelenreise der Sora-Schamanen". By Gerhard Heller and Christopher Sommerkorn    

Joy