Tony Samara, the author of A Shaman's Wisdom, is a contemporary spiritual teacher
whose approach of consciousness borrows inspiration from Zen Buddhism and South
American shamanism while taking a clear distance from these conceptual systems and
others. In this book, he answers questions asked by a social anthropologist, Christian
Ghasarian. In a conversation of simple tone, Tony Samara speaks about moments in his
life that helped him understand things, important journeys and encounters, the interest
and the limits of Zen Buddhism and South American Shamanism that he personally
went through. He also addresses themes such as the essence of consciousness,
spirituality and religions, energy points in the body, health and diseases, relationships
and sexuality, spiritual discipline, students' expectations on teachers, sacred plants,
masculine and feminine aspects, attachment to forms, dreams' messages and many
other topics related to spiritual life...
 
Tony Samara also tackles fundamental anthropological issues such as the relativity of
cultural models, the influence of ready-to-think social ideas on people's behaviour, the
psychological mindset produced by mass programmed aspirations and the universality
of human quests and dilemmas for example. While avoiding the traps of abstractions
and dogmatism, he constantly emphasises the emancipating potential associated with
taking a distance from ingrained certitude, always coming back to the necessity to
unlearn what is preventing spiritual awareness. His largely intuitive philosophy points
out the sameness behind the apparent differences. Through an unusual spiritual quest
and itinerary, this book explores universal concerns beyond psychological and cultural
frames and invites the reader to acknowledge the essence of life.
 
"It is necessary to put the cultural program into question and completely go to the
point where we look at things with clear consciousness, not with the idea that we know
everything"