Ayni and Beginner’s Mind

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Sunday, 15 October 2023

Written by Alberto Villoldo PhD

When we are in the proper relationship with our destiny, with the cosmos, and with the earth we acquire great wisdom and can transform our wounds and traumas into sources of power; to shed our past stories so they no longer confine or define us; and release our daydreams about the future. Andean shamans call this Ayni.

When we are in Ayni with all living beings, love (Munay) becomes the operating principle in or lives. We no longer respond out of spite or anger or fear. Great power to do good and to create become available to us. And after we have tasted true power to create, we can stop feeling like victims or being experts and know-it-alls. We can begin to think like children again, with a beginners mind, seeing life freshly as if for the first time.

We drop the attitude of “been there, done that.” A beginner’s mind compels us to let go of preconceived notions about who we are supposed to and the way things are supposed to work. Our lives become simpler as we aren’t weighed down by expectations that no one ever seems to fully meet. Innocence and spontaneity infuse our lives again – not that we forget our years of experience – we simply don’t confuse what we learned yesterday with what we’re discovering today.

When we practice Ayni we can begin to chuck limiting beliefs about scarcity, abundance, intimacy, and our self-worth. Gradually, we realize that every belief is limiting, and we begin to toss them all into the recycling bin. We then develop a hypothetical relationship with the world, testing every notion we have for its usefulness. We understand that “believing is seeing,” and that the universe will validate every belief we hold about the nature of reality.

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Alberto Villoldo PhD is a medical anthropologist who has spent the last 30 years investigating the healing practices of the shamans of the Amazon and the Andes. He is the founder and director of the Four Winds Society, and author of Shaman, Healer, Sage, Mending the Past and Healing the Future with Soul Retrieval, The Four Insights and Yoga, Power and Spirit. Alberto is founder of the world-renowned Four Winds Society and of the Light Body School. In his teachings and writings, he shares the experience of infinity and its ability to heal and transform us, to free us from the temporal chains that keep us fettered to illness, old age and disease.