Following the Shaman’s Path

As a nagual, a Toltec shaman, don José Ruiz knows how commanding our thoughts can be, both for and against us. The path of the shaman is one of self-healing and reverence for the natural world. “Nature always speaks to us,” Ruiz says, “but not in a language we're meant to understand with one another, like English or Spanish. It's a feeling, and when we begin trusting that feeling, we begin to know where to apply our energy.”

This energetic application enables shamans to control their dreams, their own circumstances, through the viewpoint that nothing is personal and everyone is doing the best they can with what they have. The dream of humanity is comprised of the collective dreams of the characters, the humans, who believe what they think is the truth. “But they cannot understand the ultimate truth,” Ruiz says. “Every world is a mind; every mind is a world.”

In the July 2023 issue of Science of Mind magazine, Ruiz explores his shamanic path and the twists and turns that brought him to where he stands today. To him, true forgiveness means never repeating the addictive patterns of his youth. Unlearning how to hurt himself meant being honest in every direction: no guilt, shame or hiding. Facing his challenges head on, giving voice to them with gratitude, created a space for profound healing.

Ruiz describes the Eternal as one essence of energy that exploded in the Big Bang and then got put into little jars everywhere — our physical bodies. In the end, you see the whole universe as one organism. And, he says, no matter what we choose to do in life, we all work for the same boss. He believes our energy passes through all places we enter, where we leave an impression.

In his travels, Ruiz has felt deep kindness from all cultures. “It is one of the most beautiful things,” he says. “It's everywhere in the world: people being kind and walking their talk. People are the same everywhere.”

—Read the full interview in the July 2023 Science of Mind magazine. Join the conversation as the CSL Speaker Series presents José Ruiz on Friday, July 14, 8 a.m. PT. The online event is $25, and all attendees receive a free 6-month trial to the digital edition of this magazine. Register at shop.csl.org/ruiz-shamans-path-to-freedom.

Shamanism as a Spiritual Practice

The word “shaman” may conjure images of ancient cultural and spiritual healers, dressed in tribal robes, engaged in rituals beyond our experience. Shamanism as a spiritual practice has a broader reach in cultures worldwide, from ancient times to today. Shamans' practices coexist over millennia within an array of cultures and religions. 

In fact, as pointed out in a discussion on www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/shamanism, many religions, from Buddhism to Christianity, began with ancient shamanic practices and still weave the shamanic threads of deep connection to the Divine in all things.

John Matthews, author of “The Celtic Shaman,” writes, ”Because it is not an organized religion as such, but rather a spiritual practice, shamanism cuts across all faiths and creeds, reaching deep levels of ancestral memory. As a primal belief system, which precedes established religion, it has its own symbolism and cosmology, inhabited by beings, gods and totems, who display similar characteristics although they appear in various forms, depending on their places of origin.”

Today in non-indigenous cultures, people follow shamanism as a life path. Using a shaman's perspective, they focus on being in relationship with the spirit in all people and things, intentionally forming life experiences that honor all cultures and the natural world.

Learn more in don José Ruiz's book “The Shaman's Path to Freedom.”

All of Life Responds to Our Affirmations

By Ernest Holmes

Not only do our physical bodies respond intelligently to our affirmations, everything in life does. Our success, our happiness, our ability to get along with others — everything is included in the one Mind that flows through all things. It is impossible for a person to find success while looking only for failure or to find happiness while looking for unhappiness. It is equally impossible to find love if we are looking for hate.

We don't have to take time to affirm that this person or that person or some other person will like us. But we do have to take the time to say, “I am one with all people. There is nothing in me that dislikes anyone.” Our complete coverage here will be to affirm daily, “Everything I do and say and think is inspired by Divine Wisdom, governed by Divine Intelligence, which knows all things, and every impulse in me responds to love, to good and to that which is right and happy and constructive.”

We have time daily to affirm that everyone we meet also is some part of God. The Mind that is in each person is the same Mind that is in us, for there is one Mind; that Mind is God; and that Mind is our mind now. And when Mind meets with mind, it comes together in harmony, in joy, in peace.

We do have time to say, “I am being directed by Divine Intelligence, which always moves in love and harmony and goodwill. It always establishes right relationships between me and what I am doing.”

We do have time to say, “Every good and constructive thing I think about finds fulfillment. There is one Presence in which I live and move and have my being, which prepares the way for me.” …

So our practice should always be the affirmation of the Divine Presence everywhere, flowing through everything and making everything what it is, and flowing to you and me, causing the things we think about to react to us in the way we think about them. This is the secret. This is what Jesus knew. This is what he taught. This is what he told us to do.

—Excerpted from the July 2023 Science of Mind magazine.