Category: Shamanism

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Sunday Satsangs

Ask the Mountains

Just wanted to share the times and info for upcoming online satsangs* for 2026 if anyone would like to join these beneficial Dharma sessions 🙏🏼✨️

“Amrita Baba is the founder and head teacher of the international Amrita Mandala community. In Amrita Mandala we practice both buddhist and hindu tantra with the goal of supreme awakening (skt. anuttara samyak sambodhi) in this life for the benefit of all beings.

Baba, a direct disciple of Mahavatar Babaji and a dharma heir of Sivakami Om Anandi and Terayama Tanchu Roshi, is known for his extremely effective and direct teachings that have helped hundreds of people attain awakening and 20 people reach wisdom stage of full enlightenment. Baba’s books that are all freely available from Amrita Mandala-website have been downloaded over 20 000 times.

*Satsangs are meetings with truth, including practical advices and instructions. These sessions will include instructed meditations and are open to all! These meetings will take place on Zoom.

Fee & Registration:
First time join for free.

Please register on this link.

2026 Winter & Spring Schedule:
– Sunday 11 January 2026,  6.00-8.30 pm Slovenia Time Zone
– Sunday 8 February 2026, 6.00-8.30 pm Slovenia Time Zone
– Sunday 8 March 2026, 6.00-8.30 pm Slovenia Time Zone
– Sunday 22 March 2026, 6.00-8.30 pm Slovenia Time Zone
– Sunday 19 April 2026, 6.00-8.30 pm Slovenia Time Zone
– Sunday 10 May 2026, 6.00-8.30 pm Slovenia Time Zone
– Sunday 24 May 2026, 6.00-8.30 pm Slovenia Time Zone
– Sunday 14 June 2026, 6.00-8.30 pm Slovenia Time Zone

Wear light clothes for all sessions and have your yoga mat available for rest and physical practice.

Welcome!”

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Trauma healing specials – try it now 🙏🏼

Ask the Mountains

Wanted to share this free online playlist on Youtube in six parts, focused on the healing of traumas in the psyche. It can be done sitting in a comfortable posture, or laying down if you prefer. It has been extremely helpful for me, so I share it in hopes someone else will benefit 🫶🏻

Acrylic painting, Adventure, Animals, Anthropology, Arctic, Art, Artist, Aurora borealis, Awareness, Beauty, Carnivore, Culture, Duodji, Everyday life, Family, Finnmark, Health, Heritage, Indigenous, Landscape, Nordic, Painters, People, Pets, Photography, Reindeer, Saami, Sámi, Sápmi, Shamanism, Shop, Spirituality, Tromsø, Uncategorized, Uralic, Womanhood

Way of Life | Art print

Ask the Mountains

This is the landscape nomadic peoples of the Arctic have travelled for decades and generations. Moving their herds and homes and children safely tucked onto sleds, across the tundra. This is still the case in some areas. If you’ve witnessed the ever-changing play of colours and atmosphere during the Arctic winter and Polar night, it looks something like this; pastel skies, crisp clear air, moon in daytime and the sun hiding behind the horizon, blessing us with a few rays here and there before leaving for a few months. I am in awe at how my ancestors have survived and even thrived here for so long; I feel moved to my core by their know-how of the elements, seasons and animals. “Way of Life” art print, 2400 NOK 🩵💜🤍🧡 89 x 46,5 cm including white edges. The prints have the title written on the white part in front, and signature on the back.

Can be shipped anywhere 🙏🏼

Shown on dark wall 🖤
Shown on light wall 🤍
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Zen revitalisation?

Ask the Mountains

A zen tradition that doesn’t separate buddhanature from substrate consciousness (skt. alaya vijnana), doesn’t speak or teach kensho but then claims to be able to just sit (j. shikantaza), that doesn’t have one on one instruction (j. sanzen/dokusan), that has no emphasis of any type of dynamicity or physicality in training, where lineage blessings go unnoticed, where students and roshis spend sesshin after sesshin half asleep, has got to be the most decadent form of Zen to ever exist. These are the very problems that Bodhidharma corrected by teaching the weak, sleepy and ignorant meditation monks dynamic movement practices but also how to transform, stretch and strenghten tissues (c. yijinjing) and how to transform all three bodies from samsaric to nirvanic state (c. xisuijing, bone marrow washing). It’s been long since Bodhidharma’s time but the state of some systems that claim to be zen buddhism merely based on lineage transmission and mimicked external form, proves that the deluded mind is master in deluding itself, without much ability to learn from the mistakes done by others. It is indeed difficult to find practitioners who are able to analyze and extract the essential meaning of dharma thus demonstrating abundant merit (skt. punya).

Baba,
Revitalized Zen
16 March 2025

Yes, this seems to be true; that the state of Zen lineages today is simply not producing Masters, as was the whole point of Zen training. The state of Dharma is seemingly in a bad shape all around. Therefore, I find it very refreshing and interesting to read such quotes as the one above. Here is the YouTube channel of Revitalized Zen, the facebook group and here is the blog. Excellent reading for any spiritual seeker 🙏🏼🪷

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Yogi on display

Ask the Mountains
Yogi on display in nature for the birds, foxes and rabbits to see 😄 also i found a long-ish animal bone that was perfect to use for hitting on a rock to keep the rhythm while chanting and singing prayers.  🐰🐦🦊🦴

What is #YogisOnDisplay?

“Unlike in cultures long established in the dharma, spiritual practice is not visible in the everyday life of Western society. While many Westerners practice some form of spiritual practice, the actual practice is often kept private. This is a great pity. Not only does it speak volumes about the level of spiritual maturity of the West, but it also means that many people never encounter dharma in the first place. If spirituality is not publically displayed, the fact that there is an alternative to existential confusion and suffering does not reach the masses.

In an attempt to counter this, Amrita Baba has initiated the Yogis on Display project. The idea behind Yogis on Display is to encourage spiritual practitioners of the West to become living examples for others. Instead of hiding away in our modern city caves, we need to bring meditation, mantra singing, yoga practice, and so on, directly to where it matters; straight to the middle of the hamster wheel. Displaying the solution to existential confusion and suffering is a hands-on, time-tested way of practicing care and compassion for all beings.

To spread the message of Yogis on Display the hashtag #yogisondisplay has been created. Practitioners who chose to take part are encouraged to take a picture of themselves and share it on social media using this hashtag. This way more people can learn about the initiative and become inspired to light the torch of dharma in our public spheres.” (AmritaMandala.com)

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Tantra with shamanistic roots

Ask the Mountains
It is from Eastern Siberia that the word shaman comes from, which means to ‘heat up’. Where it originated before that, I do not know. The ‘new shananism’ people in the west speak of today can hardly be compared.
Shamanism and animism has permeated most if not all of the nomadic and semi-nomadic cultures in this part of the world. The shamans have traditionally been both women and men, though the word ‘shaman’ is masculine form. The feminine word for a female shaman is ‘udugan’ in Tungusic language. In Northern Sámi a shaman is known as a Noaide.
(Acrylic on mixed media paper, A4)
Shaman’s drum to aid in the trance travel

Here is some pictures I used for inspiration for my painting.

I can also highly recommend these practices on youtube by a Uralic Tantric yoga teacher Amrita Baba; where he teaches tantric practices with ancient shamanic masters. Here is part 1 of 4, and the other parts linked below video.

Part 2: https://youtu.be/vS-7P3B7N2Q?si=14fzDmiSptsM0a_q

Part 3: https://youtu.be/2h04mO6bPt4?si=jfKcEQCKLXDRqCcJ

Part 4: https://youtu.be/Auq6GWt-u84?si=BMk0oaolL6tJYPgC