AYAHUASCA: Initiatory Path — Sincerity and Courage
The function of a substance like Ayahuasca is often misunderstood. Some imagine that extraordinary experiences provide answers and transformations. There are many layers of conditioning separating superficial understanding from the core of the state-of-being. Ayahuasca, and other so-called 'teacher' plants, can lead to the transposition of these barriers, allowing for an initiation, access to the essence, but commitment and patience are required in modifying and removing old habits that tend to recur and persist. Some imagine that the repetition of the experience will maintain a state of lucidity and vision: nevertheless, change requires dedicated work and effort; occasionally, the experience transforms; other times it shows the possible and points the paths — the responsibility of implementing the discoveries belongs to us.
The most important characteristic of those who seek profound self-knowledge is honesty and courage to observe what presents itself in the process, the ability to admit faults when they become apparent, to cultivate the determination to change behaviors according to what is revealed. The content and nature of the experiences induced by plants are not alien, artificial products, but expressions of the psyche at levels and modes inaccessible to the ordinary state of consciousness. For one whose real intention is to install a transformation, Ayahuasca functions as a natural catalyst, revealing and releasing intuitions and knowledge (meanings) originating from the most hidden facets of the state-of-being, allowing access to a fundamental wisdom relative to the universe and to our position as individuals. The great value of Ayahuasca, a method of instruction of indigenous societies, is to extend the limits of consciousness, giving access to repressed or forgotten contents. The brew enables the recognition of universal configurations of the psyche (archetypes), eventually, the experiencing of the various aspects of mystical union.