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Wetiko is a term used in Native American spirituality to describe a “contagious psycho-spiritual disease of the soul” and a “parasite of the mind.”
In his book, Levy argues that the concept of wetiko is present not just among the Native Americans, but in several spiritual traditions, including Kabbalah, Vedanta, and even the psychology of Carl Jung.
Levy writes:
“Wetiko is a cannibalizing force driven by insatiable greed, appetite without satisfaction [craving giving rise to repeated disappointment the Buddha called dukkha], consumption as an end in itself, and war for its own sake against other tribes, species, nature, and even the individual’s own humanity. It is a disease of the soul, and being a disease of the soul, we all potentially have wetiko, as it pervades and informs the underlying field of consciousness. Any one of us at any moment can fall into our unconscious and unwittingly become an instrument for the evil of wetiko to act itself out through us and incarnate in our world. If we see someone who seems to be taken over by wetiko and we think they have the disease and we don’t, in seeing them as separate we have fallen under the spell of the virus ourselves.”
This video is a deep dive into the concept of wetiko and how we can prevent ourselves from being infected by this “mind-virus.”
The video also talks about how wetiko was perceived by the great Indian mystic Sri Aurobindo. #wendigo #wetiko#nativeamerican #entity
What solution did the Buddha offer?
"A Cure for Wendigo/Insatiable Craving" by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly
How'd you let go, Wise One?
One cannot "resist evil," as Jesus would say, because the attempt to do so only makes it stronger. If ego could overcome insatiable greed (for the pleasant), aversion (toward the unpleasant, manifesting as hatred, fear, frustration, running away), and ignorance (giving rise to wrong views, delusions, confusion). The ego will not destroy the ego. Greed for freedom-from-greed will not succeed. Hating hatred (or fearing fear) will not make it go away. And, alas, at the root of all mental defilements and suffering is ignorance (avijja, not knowing, manifesting as delusion or moha).
I want to be reborn in space, in a pleasure heaven
Okay, there's the problem. We can't overcome these three roots of all that is unwholesome and giving rise to suffering (disappointment, pain, unpleasant experience). What's a possible solution? Rather than the ego letting go, we will let wisdom (panya, vipassana, insight) uproot ignorance. Letting go vanquishes greed -- but letting go is impossible by willpower. The solution? Mindful observation of what is -- what is really there, this gross body or any conditioned (composed, fabricated, formation) thing, which is not at all what it seems to be and is utterly incapable of giving what it promises and therefore always leads to disappointment and dissatisfaction -- with heightened mind. When the mind/heart sees things for what they really are, it lets go. "Ego" (the Five Aggregates clung to as self) does not let go, "I" do not let go, "will" does not let go. Just as when a feather or a plastic bag fall into a fire, what happens? They shrink back, pull away, withdraw, in other words let go of the fire that is clung to. The heat does it, not the feather or bag.
Not by will but by watchfulness.
For example, look at the lovely, say a person inspiring lust and craving. I want, I want, I want! How can this addiction, obsession, craving be cured? (We don't want to cure it; we just want it, in ignorance believing this object will satisfy and fulfill us when it will not, cannot, and never has). Not getting it or getting it and realizing it didn't fulfill us or satisfy us, but only disappointed and became the source of great pain, how can this craving (addiction, clinging) be cured? How? See it for what it really is. Wise reflection (yoniso manasikara). First, mind must be heightened (temporarily purified/cleansed of the Five Hindrances and basic defilements, asavasand kilesas) then the mind must be systematically applied to looking objectively (vipassana) at what is clung to.
What is clung to? Only five things, the most fundamental five things in all of our many existences (countless rebirths), are tenaciously clung to and identified with even though they are impermanent, disappointing (unable to ever fulfill us), and impersonal. These are the Five Heaps, the Five Aggregates clung to as self (khandhas):
form (body, materiality);
feelings
perceptions
mental formations
consciousness.
Then there was peace, light, awakening
Letting go of these, there is no more disease. Ignorance is cured in an instant and with it go clinging and aversion. Poof! This is the first stage of enlightenment, stream entry (entering the current that inevitably and invariably leads to the end of all suffering, complete awakening, full enlightenment, arahantship). This is liberation, a cure for the insatiable desires that plague us. While in English we say "desire" is not all bad, remember that "desire" is a translation of the Pali word tanha (lit. "thirst," "craving," "insatiable greed"). That's bad, but how to translate it. The Sanskrit trsna means the same thing, and only "craving" and "clinging" come close in English. We cannot let go by will only by wisdom, so there is no need for asceticism (rooted in aversion) or saintliness (rooted in a desire for more refined desires) or delusion (the ignorance of thinking we understand when the heart/mind has not yet been trained and has not yet penetrated the truths the Buddha talked about. This is not an intellectual endeavor. True freedom comes from true experience. That is what the Ennobling (Enlightening) Eightfold Path is for.
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