South African shaman, John Lockley, returns to talk about his book, Leopard Warrior, and share wisdom about dreams, the rhythm of truth and finding our center.
Show Notes
Into the Bush (Opening) – John shares his incredible journey of becoming a sangoma, a South African shaman, in the Xhosa tradition along with some of the wisdom he was exposed to in his years of training. John shares with us the leap of faith he took in becoming a sangoma and finding the strength to overcome the hardships of his training.
“The sangoma shaman is called and each of us has a particular calling within the medicine work. Each sangoma is going to use their skills and their medicine in a different way. We have a saying that the depth of your calling, in terms of the illness you have received and have had to work through, is also the depth of the medicine that you have in terms of healing the world and healing others.” – John Lockley
Finding our Center (15:40) – Before his sangoma training, John studied under the renowned Zen master Su Bong in South Korea. John describes his time studying Zen Buddhism and the life changing lesson he learned about what it takes to truly help others.
“Often I come across people who want to help the world, which is wonderful, but they are struggling so much with their own lives and their own body. The first thing is that we have to bring the teachings home, and that means bringing them literally to your own body.”
Qualities of a Master (33:30) – In his journey, John has encountered true spiritual masters that can be considered to be enlightened beings. He describes the qualities of these masters that he has experienced.
“These qualities that I have found common is the qualities of service and humility. It is all about what can I do to help, not about me. “
Connecting with our Dreams (39:00) – John shares the role of dreams in the Xhosa tradition, as well as wisdom on connecting with our dreams. He and Raghu discuss the ability to navigate our lives on more than one plane of reality at once.
“The reason I work so strongly with these dreams is that they help me to track my road, in terms of my living road. They help me to navigate my spirit in the waking state.”
The Rhythm of Truth (52:25) – John discusses the rhythm of truth found in all things.
Listen to more stories from the South African bush from John Lockley on previous episodes of Mindrolling on Ep. 126 and Ep. 163. Find out more about John and his new book, Leopard Warrior, online at johnlockley.com.
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Photo via Somak Pal