The Sweet Medicine SunDance Path is one in which we don't separate spirit from body, or from emotions, or from our sexuality. It is all part of our desire for and path to growth.
In the first year of the Red Lodge Longhouse, we look at our 5 aspects, and what we call "proper choreography." In other words, what do we do with our physical body? Do we determine with it - e.g., the strongest person gets to be the boss? Or do we give with it - e.g., taking care of everyone else's needs while our own go neglected? What do we do with our emotions? Do we determine with them - e.g., the person who screams the loudest or cries the longest wins?
How we coordinate our spirit with our bodies, our emotions, our thoughts, our sexuality, is an important part of spiritual growth as we speak of it on this path.
Some traditions, in some periods of time, have a perception of the body as evil :
"For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." The King James Bible, Romans 8:13
That is not the case in the Sweet Medicine SunDance Path. We ask, what have we come into human form to learn? What is our spirit, our soul, demanding in this lifetime? And so every part of us contributes to our spiritual growth.
How does your spiritual tradition work?
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It is interesting that the writer of Romans 8:13 also wrote, "don't you know that your body is the temple of the living God?" The writer then went on to say that we need to act like it.
ReplyDeleteObviously, the integration of physical, spiritual, soul, and mind are of value and comprise the great mystery. It is a great and interesting journey.
I came from a chatolic education.
ReplyDeleteThen I approached Osho in 2004 and since 2006 Sweet Medicine SunDance Path.
Before 2004 I perceived my body as something "potentially sinful".
Now I think that the only "sin" is living without making a complete experience of world through the body.
In italian "peccato"(=sin) sounds like "what a shame!"
;-)
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Luca