Awakening the shamanic dimension

In my time of more religious - Catholic formation Leonardo Boff was one of the bedside theologians of my spiritual guide, Father Arturo; at that time I read him as part of one of the theologians of the revolution with a postmodern thought that broke doctrines and spoke from the heart to the people, peace and a human life project.

Recently I received this text, beautiful and reconciling with Mother Earth from a very interesting worldview, which has allowed me to remember that knowledge, the theology of freedom and the work for a real life project from peace, respect and the values of reconciliation and love.

I hope you enjoy it.

The category sustainability, taken in its broad sense and not reduced only to development, encompasses all actions focused on keeping beings in existence, because they have the right to coexist with us, and only from this coexistence we use, with sobriety and respect, a part of them to meet our needs, preserving them also for future generations.

Within this conception also fits the Universe. Today we know from the new cosmology that we are made of stardust and that we are sustained and passed through us by the mysterious Background Energy that feeds everything and that unfolds in the four forces - gravitational, electromagnetic, strong nuclear and weak - which, always acting together, keep us as we are.

As conscious and intelligent beings we have our place and our function within the cosmogenic process. If we are not the center of everything, we are surely one of those advanced points by which the universe turns upon itself, that is, becomes conscious. The weak anthropic principle allows us to say that, in order to be what we are, all the energies and processes of evolution were organized in such an articulate and subtle way that they made our appearance possible. Otherwise, I would not be writing here now.

Through us, the universe and the Earth see and contemplate themselves. The ability to see arose 600 million years ago. Until then the Earth was blind. The deep, starry sky, the waterfalls of Iguaçu, where I am now, the greenery of the jungles next door, could not be seen. Through our sight, the Earth and the universe can see all this indescribable beauty.

The original peoples, from the Andeans to the Arctic Sami, felt united to the universe, like brothers and sisters of the stars, forming a great cosmic family. We have lost this feeling of mutual belonging. They felt that cosmic forces balanced the course of all beings and acted within them. To live in consonance with these fundamental energies was to lead a sustainable and meaningful life.

We know from quantum physics that consciousness and the material world are connected and that the way a scientist chooses to make his observation affects the observed object. Observer and observed object are inextricably linked. Hence, the inclusion of the consciousness in scientific theories and in the very reality of the cosmos is a fact already assimilated by a large part of the scientific community. We form, indeed, a complex and diversified whole.

The figures of the shamans, so present in the ancient world, are well known and are returning today with renewed vigor, as shown by the quantum physicist P. Drouot in his book El chamán, el físico y el místico (Vergara 2001), for which I had the honor of writing the prologue. **The shaman lives in a singular state of consciousness that brings him into intimate contact with cosmic energies. He understands the call of the mountains, lakes, forests and jungles, animals and human beings. He knows how to conduct such energies for healing purposes and to harmonize them with the whole.

**Within each one of us there is a hidden shamanic dimension. This shamanic energy makes us remain silent before the grandeur of the sea, vibrate with the gaze of another person, tremble before a newborn baby. We need to release this shamanic dimension in us to be in tune with everything around us and feel at peace.

Our desire to travel with spaceships through cosmic space, is it not perhaps the archetypal desire to seek our stellar origins and the impetus to return to the place of our birth? Several astronauts expressed similar ideas. This irrepressible quest of ours for balance with the whole universe and to feel part of the universe belongs to the intelligible notion of sustainability.

Sustainability brings with it the valuation of this human and spiritual capital whose effect is to produce respect and a sense of sacredness before all realities, values that nourish deep ecology and help us to respect and live in harmony with Mother Earth. Today this attitude is urgently needed to moderate the destructive force that in recent decades has taken hold of us.