Relating to Non-Physical Beings

Doing the ritual practices is not like going to a doctor and getting a pill. Healing is something we can do for ourselves. We need to learn to protect ourselves from illness and negativity.

One way to do this is through making offerings, which pacifies spirits and also develops generosity and compassion.

In the following practices, we ritually invite four levels of guests to attend. We have a different relationship with each type of guest.

First Guests

The first guests are the fully enlightened beings, the (1) buddhas and (2) bodhisattvas and (3) enlightened masters. Included are the (4) tutelary deities (yidam), (5) fully realized goddesses (khandro), and (6) all beings who are free of ignorance and who have perfected the five wisdoms.

These guests we do not control. We don’t tell them what to do—we ask for their blessings.

First guests are always invited in meditation practice. They are the beings to whom we bow when doing prostrations and to whom we turn for refuge.

Energy is needed for healing and it is important to connect with the right source for that energy and have the right relationship with that source. The best source is the first guest.

Second Guests

The guests of the second level are generally not fully enlightened but are nevertheless powerful. They are (1) beings from the god realms, (2) beings in the retinues of major deities, (3) guardians, and (4) dharma protectors.

Second guests may include powerful beings from any realm of existence.

In the Western tradition, (5) angels are considered powerful beings, often frightening to encounter; these would be considered second guests.

Also included would be (6) spirits associated with planets. In the West we don’t think of the planets as beings, but they are: the moon embodies a being as do the sun and the other planets.

Many healing practices are done with the help of the second guests and we treat them with respect and devotion.

Third Guests

The guests of the third level are (1) all those beings with whom we have karmic connections and (2) the beings from the eight classes that I described earlier.

This means everyone with whom we have connected and with whom we still have karma—friends and enemies from this lifetime and all previous lifetimes. It doesn’t have to be a negative thing that connects us; it can be something that simply needs to be completed.

However, as this practice is about healing, it’s most important to invite the beings with whom we have a connection in need of healing.

A karmic debt means a karmic connection. For example, in the business world two people may run into difficulties with each other but because of the circumstances are unable to let the relationship go. Or there are people (1) who seem to be intent on making things difficult for us or (2) who irritate us for no reason. Such situations indicate a karmic debt.

Many of the disturbances and obstacles we encounter in life have to do with interference from the karmic guests.

Just as we can have trouble in life with a neighbour or colleague with whom we have a bad relationship, so it is with non-physical beings.

When there is a problem, it isn’t helpful to think it is the fault of the other, whether human or spirit. It’s better to realize there is something that needs to be done, something we have to do.

Like us, the spirit would rather not be involved in a disturbance.

Ritual practice is a way to finish the disturbance. Through it, debts can be paid. That’s the principle in shamanic practices. We can heal these connections through ceremonies, offerings, burning food, or offering smoke, as described below.

Fourth Guests

The fourth guests are the guests of compassion. These are the beings who are weaker than we are and who can benefit from our help.

In the Bön shamanic tradition, it is important to develop compassion as the foundation for practice.

A motivation to do shamanic practice that is based on having some kind of spiritual adventure or becoming distinguished as a special person will not be helpful. It seems to me that many of the current shamanic traditions don’t have true stages of growth.

Drumming and taking journeys, leaving the body and having imaginal experiences, seem to be what is considered important. But if that’s all there is, it might be more helpful for the practitioners to have vivid in-the-body experiences.

If the motivation is a desire to help others, to heal and alleviate suffering, then the intention is based on compassion. In this case shamanic practice will grow and lead naturally into the higher practices.

The more the spirits connected to us are happy, the happier our lives. This is true on every level.

When the beings around us are happy— neighbours, spouses, friends, children, the people we work with—it makes us happy.

When a person we are connected with is not happy, often he or she wants happiness from us. And often we don’t know what we can give—and sometimes we can’t give, or we don’t want to give. And then we have a problem.

Similarly, beings in the spirit realms can want or need something from us and we don’t know how to give it to them. We don’t realize that we can give something non-physical.

In the West, material is valued. It’s harder to value gifts that are immaterial, though we know how important they are. To be given love, trust, respect, honesty, and friendship by others is of great value; it’s more than money can buy.

Spirits are non-physical and can be satisfied with non-physical offerings. The best basis for these offerings is compassion.