Monks and Shamans

I'm going to use this blog to create teaching journals for my Monastic Psychology class that runs from September 9 to October 14 2005. I'm teaching novices, candidates and juniors.
The first topic begins with the question: "Who were the first monks?" The answer is: "The shamans who created the cave paintings in Lascaux France and Altmira Spain, over 16,000 years ago."

The word shaman comes from the Siberian Tinglit language. It means "one who travels between the worlds", namely the physical Earth that we presently inhabit and the Spirit World from which we came to and to which we will return (most of us) at death. The very definition hints at the Christian monastic's understanding of "in the world, but not of it."

Just as a monk has duties that tie him to Earth, so does the shaman. What differentiates the two can be clearly seen in the Rule of Benedict: coenobitic community. Shamans traditionally have only one or two disciples, much like the early Fathers of the Desert, but Benedict came to realize that for most men and women to grow spiritually, they would need a larger community environment to do so.

What is common to the Christian monk and the Altamiran shaman of the New Stone Age? The quest for transcendance; that is, to discover the power of the Spirit World in the sufferings and struggles of the here and now. For the male shaman, the hunt was the most sacred and paradoxically practical event in life. Christian monks can be seen as a hunting party, hunting for God.