Way of the Bushman: Spiritual Teachings and Practices of the Kalahari Ju/'hoansi - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1591432057 ISBN 13: 9781591432050

Publisher: Bear & Company, 2015

Synopsis

The first comprehensive presentation of the core teachings of the Kalahari Bushmen as told by the Tribal Elders

ˇ Reveals how the Bushmen are able to receive direct transmissions of God’s love for healing and spiritual transformation

ˇ Explores tribal legends and teaching tales, the importance of dreams and animals, and the origins of their dances, rituals, and ceremonies

Step into the imaginative realm of one of the oldest continuous cultures on Earth, the Kalahari Ju/’hoansi Bushmen. Translated by Beesa Boo, a Bushman, and interspersed with detailed commentary from Bradford and Hillary Keeney, this book presents the core teachings of the Kalahari Bushmen as told by the tribal elders themselves. Decades in the making, it constitutes the first comprehensive work on the world’s oldest tradition of healing and spiritual experience.

Told in their own words, these teachings reveal how the Bushmen are able to receive direct transmissions of God’s love in the form of the universal life force, n/om. The individuals who are filled with this force describe it as an awakened, energized feeling of love that inspires a spontaneous and heightened ecstatic awareness that opens mystical perception. Having your heart transfixed by this force enables true healing and spiritual growth to occur. Experiencing the force in your entire being, through a vision of “God’s egg”, awakens deep spiritual wisdom and extraordinary healing gifts. Those who “own the egg” are blessed with the ability to have direct communication with the Divine, a “rope to God,” and can communicate with others for all “ropes” are connected.

Conveying the deep love that is the dominant emotion of Bushman spirituality, the book explores tribal legends and teaching tales, the importance of dreams and encounters with animals, the origins of their dances, such as the giraffe dance, and specific rituals and ceremonies, including puberty rites for boys and girls.

“As the elder teachers of the Ju’/hoan Bushman (San) people, we hold the most enduring traditional wisdom concerning healing and spiritual experience. This book is a testimony of our ecstatic ways. We happily share our basic teachings about spirituality and healing with those whose hearts are sincerely open.”

About this title

From the Author:

Bradford Keeney, Ph.D., is a renowned traditional healer, spiritual teacher, musician, and scholar. His fieldwork with the Kalahari Bushmen (San) in Namibia and Botswana began more than two decades ago. He is the author of many books, including Bushman Shaman and Shaking Medicine. Hillary Keeney, Ph.D., is a traditional healer, spiritual teacher, dancer, scholar, and associate editor of Dance, Movement, and Spirituality. Together the Keeneys cofounded the Keeney Institute for Healing.

About the Author:

Bradford Keeney, Ph.D., is an internationally renowned scholar, therapist, and shaman who has led expeditions throughout the world to study cultural healing practices. He is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Rock Art Research Institute, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, and is the author of Bushman Shaman: Awakening the Spirit through Ecstatic Dance, Shamanic Christianity: The Direct Experience of Mystical Communion, Shaking Medicine: The Healing Power of Ecstatic Movement, and the editor of the Profiles of Healing series.

Hillary Keeney, Ph.D., is a traditional healer, senior research fellow at the University of Louisiana, and distinguished visiting professor at Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla in Mexico. She cofounded with her husband Bradford Keeney the Keeney Institute for Healing in New Orleans.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bear & Company
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1591432057
• ISBN 13: 9781591432050
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256
• Editor: Keeney Ph.D. Bradford, Keeney Ph.D. Hillary