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Originally Posted by Shaunc
What you have said is pretty much true for a lot of S.E. Asia. My wife is from a small fishing village in the Philippines. She is probably related to most of the people in the village either through blood or marriage. Her sister was what the locals refer to as a witch doctor but what I would call a herbalist, first-aider, mid-wife. The local religion is Catholic but they also have a reverence for the sea, they look at the ocean as their mother. Also a huge belief in both karma, which is even acknowledged by the local Catholic priest and also a strong belief in the supernatural like ghosts and spirits etc. I have spent a lot of time in her village and it's a great lifestyle if you've got money but it's a hard life without it. It's good to romantisize about how beautiful it could be but the reality is that to survive in the world today you must have a certain amount of money.
My wife says that the big difference between Australia and the Philippines is that in Australia we're rich in money but poor in time and in the Philippines they've got plenty of time but not much money. If somehow I was smart enough to get the pendulum to stop swinging somewhere around half way it'd be ideal.
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It is unfortunate one needs money to survive, isn't it? it kinda ruins everything.
We have a similar thing over here with our Koori folk in Western Australia and the government cutting off any funding to them because the Prime Minister (at the time) called Tribal living a "lifestyle choice" and not a "Birthright".
The argument flows in both directions.
I just know that whenever I feel the presence of the tribal 'ancestral spirits' I feel totally warm, secure and at total peace, like the universe is cradling me within Her arms.
It was they who wanted to share this...
...but yeah, so much knowledge gets lost...cures for diseases....ways to meditate....healing herbs....
Oh the joys I had in Fiji (my ex husband I was married to for 17 years was Fijii Indian) living among the villagers and taking part in their Kava drinking and fire walking ceremonies....that was awesome too!
...and nowhere is the spiritual carnage seen more than in India...where the Tantrik people (who have all the secrets to the Hindu religion) are seen as nothing more than soothsayers, fortune tellers and curse-providers...it's totally 'shake my head' time...
Thanks for your reply.