Petra Rethmannspheres of what I thought then were reality and fiction began not only
to blur but to collide. Feelings of anxiety, helplessness, and despera-
tion set in. They shaped a great deal of what I then experienced. Shura
Chechulina was the woman I, like so many other people in Tymlat, the
village in which I lived, called grandmother. It was only through her
teachings that the first kind of being out of one’s mind became more
clear to me, and venues into the second kind of being out of one’s mind
opened up. It is the second kind that interests me here.
Many of the insights offered in this article derive from the almost
five years I spent in the northern Kamchatka and Chukotka peninsu-
las in the Russian Far East between 1992 and 2000 , in periods vary-
ing from one month to two years. These were formidable years that,
from the beginning to the end, set me on a path that returned me to
some of the issues and themes by which I had always been intrigued,
whose pursuit inspired me to embark on an academic career, and that
I had begun to forget in the course of my graduate education. But the
insights offered here also emerge out of the wisdom offered by Bud-
dhist teachings, in particular the Zen teachings of the Soto schools. I
have encountered these teachings only recently, but much of what I
have gathered from them relates to a kind of inner patience and peace
in which life is no longer controlled by the fear and anxieties of the
mind. It is not necessarily the case that these teachings are exclusively
related to Eastern philosophies. Within the context of Western spiri-
tual traditions, Francis of Assisi and Teresa of Avila, for example, de-
veloped certain meditations, peaceful and compassionate practices and
writings. I have found these teachings inspiring in a variety of con-
texts, for a variety of reasons. They also inspire me here.
From an academic point of view, the problem with the teachings
and names of those identified above is that they do not possess many
intellectual credentials. For the most part, these teachings and teach-
ers are the objects, and not subjects, of critical inquiry. In fact, infor-
mation about their philosophies and wisdom is more easily found in
the curricula of religious studies departments than in the seminars and
courses of cultural anthropology. Buddhist, spiritual, mystical, and
other kinds of teachings provide the sites (for example, Obeyesekere
1984 ) but not frameworks for inquiry. Looking for literature con-
cerning this article, I have come across only Michael Jackson’s ( 1998 )