Holy Trinity as Our Own Identity

 

Holy Trinity as Our Own Identity

Since 37 years ago I have studied Eastern methods and practices. For over 20 years I have spent my life in full time practice and the past 15 years teaching professionally. I have understood and figured out everything there is to know about buddhist and hindu practices and paths and none of it is no longer a mystery to me.

Recently I have felt the calling of God, not christianity but God and the Holy Trinity. I feel and hear this calling because just like buddhism and hinduism there is much mistaken in christianity that has spread into people's minds and lives with the outcome that they don't really get relief and spiritual benefits from the christian religion.

I know it from my own experience. I was baptized into orthodox christian church as a baby, went to church as a child, went to literally at 14 and discussed the doubts and questions I had about life and existence with priests, church workers and teachers of religion but was left with same doubts, and actually even added contradiction because of the way some priests talked about God and Jesus. Those unanswered questions and contradicted atmosphere lead me to look into Eastern ways and so I have spent my life practicing.

Through those years of studying and practicing buddhism and hinduism, and becoming more and more awake, I intuitively understood that Jesus was a yogi and that he has been greatly misunderstood and misinterpreted for the past two thousand years. I learned from some fine works from christian contemplatives, supported by my own experience of yogic meditation, that there are basic mistakes in the way christianity and its practices are presented and taught. This is the main problem that has created the gap between people and church and thus also between people and God and Jesus which is greatly regrettable. Because of this people, whole nations and cultures, have lost the light of their very own life and being so disillusioned about religion they want nothing to do with it. This is only understandable to me because the way how God, Jesus and prayer is taught feels so wrong.

About the Holy Trinity

God is the spirit in all beings. God is the spirit which is always pure and good. God is our own heart and soul. There is no God sitting somewhere on the clouds commanding people to eternal damnation and hellfire. God neither judges us. God is the pure good in everyone of us. This is no different what awakened nature or buddhanature is. God is purity, love and utter kindness in us. If you asked me to choose a pronoun for God, I'd call Him "He". From analytical perspective when you pray to God and feel Him in your body and bone marrow, He feels exactly the same as the masculine principle and archetypal deities of buddhism and hinduism, namely Samantabhadra (lit. basic goodness) and Shiva. I've spent more than 30 000 hours in meditation analyzing these things so I know, and I teach people practices how they can verify these things for themselves. That's what I've always done.

Holy Spirit is the pure energy of God. When you pray for God to bless, heal or come to you, He himself comes as pure presence but also as Holy Spirit, as pure energy that flushes through your mind and body to shift your energies from confusion and pain to clarity and ease. Holy Spirit is God's active side and if I had to choose a pronoun for Her, it's be "She". Again, the same principle applies to both buddhism and hinduism, through Samantabhadri (lit. feminine basic goodness) and Shakti (lit. feminine power). Alternative way to adress Holy Spirit is to call Her the Divine Mother.

Son of God is embodied by Jesus Christ in the christian doctrine and he is presented as the only one who is the son of God but to think that way is incorrect because all of us has been made in the image of God, meaning that each one of us has the same potential of God, Holy Spirit and Divine Child in us, it just hasn't been tapped yet. Jesus is just one example, one embodied person and a master who tapped His innate potential.

One big problem with christian doctrine that affects countless people of the world is that with its basic views it condemns us to stay deluded and in pain, though it tells us to turn to God. The thing is that the closer one gets to Holy Trinity, the clearer it becomes that the Trinity is in us and is us. Through direct experience we can and need to grow to understand that God and the Trinity are not separate things, that we are not in dualistic position with it. Actually, we can realize and experience without any weird ideas or weird features that the Spirit of God is our very own essence and that there is no separation between oneself and God.

Again, there are very weird views about God that he judges and condemns sinners but we should forget all these and start fresh,accompanied by our first hand experience. Union of oneself with God means that one is no longer bound by the delusional belief of believing oneself as a separately existing entity called "me" or "I" but understands that the original purity, kindness and love which is selfless is what and who God is. It is the selfless pure nature of God that flows through our whole being which is what God and God's nature is.

May the Pure Spirit of God descend on you to show you the light that is in you,

Baba, 2 9 23

Amrita Mandala

 

 

Jesus and Maranatha, the Guru of Jesus By Amrita Baba

 

Jesus and Maranatha, the Guru of Jesus

 

By Amrita Baba

If we look with the eyes of a yogi at Jesus' resurrection, we understand that he attained the so called lightbody or rainbow body that has been attained by many male and female masters of buddhism, hinduism, christianity and taoism, and is still attained by yogis today.

Despite of Jesus or Ishanatha, like we call him, having been a central master behind Amrita Mandala mission since 2008, it has taken me many years to come to this point when the whole mystery of Jesus and his attainment has become the centerpoint of my study and teaching but finally this time has arrived. This was preceded by making sense and explaining of the whole buddhist system which I think is a necessary foundation for understanding anything else.

Since couple of years years ago I have written about the lightbody or rainbow body phenomenon that has happened widely across esoteric traditions. It can be said that this phenomenon is universal. If one understands what full enlightenment is and how it works, it becomes apparent that like many others who have attained lightbody, Jesus also attained it through esoteric or tantric practices. This cannot be attained without in-depth study with a tantric master or a guru. Then the question arises who was his guru, what did he practice and what happened during the time that have been removed from the history of christian religion.

After many years of studying yogic engineering and making sense of hindu and buddhist training systems, I feel not only very fortunate but also ready to arrive to Jesus and his lineage because he is the most famous yogi in the whole world, though people don't really know him as a yogi. Without the slightest doubt it is Jesus out of all masters, and his living presence that has had the greatest impact on humanity. So I feel priviledged to be in this position and to be able to explain who he was, how he became the great master he is and offer answers to the most basic questions about him, that have been denied from humanity by the religious establishment but most importantly it is Jesus' and His Guru's, Maranatha's living blessings that matter the most. Inviting the masters to us for support, guidance, protection and enlightenment and feeling their presence in our bodies, hearts and minds, is Guru Yoga.

Maranatha's name is mentioned in two places in the Bible. For all this time the christian tradition thought the name was an aramean word, and yet there was no certainty what it meant because it can be read in two different ways. There are different interpretations of its meaning but apparently no one ever thought that it is not aramean, nor greek but sanskrit. 

Jesus’ or Ishanatha's as he is known among the tantric natha yogis or nathas, biography and his longtime study in India has been completely removed from approved christian literature, like a lot of other very important teachings, so it is not a surprise why no one ever thought about the possibility that the word everyone thought was aramean is actually sanskrit. I read the name from the Bible long time ago and knowing about a certain tantric tradition instantly thought, ”Well, that’s interesting…'

I want to introduce Jesus' guru properly like I have introduced my students to other gurus. I want to put him into context and explain the things one's needs to know to have right view about him and to approach him in right way through Guru Yoga. A book about Maranatha is in the making but will take several months to finish. In the meantime our monthly retreats in August, September, October and December-January will focus on him. You are welcome to join us.

One unique feature of Jesus’ Guru, is that he was born fully enlightened and never needed to practice. He took rebirth just to be an example of full and perfect enlightenment for people around him. He had a lot of impact on the local community in Kashmir and was widely known among yogis in the area. To merely be and live with such a perfect avatara is like being in the immediate presence of a spiritual sun of immense power and constant blessings. 

 

Jesus came into the world with very special karma and purpose but he was not born perfect, most who have the karma to become Gurus don’t which is why Jesus’ Guru was very unique. Jesus reaped great benefits of living with his Guru or Father as he was affectionately called by his disciples, who was actually few years younger than Jesus was. It is fascinating how great masters take rebirth and keep working for the liberation of beings from one era to the next.

The essential purpose of all masters is to help those who turn to them to recognize and realize their innate enlightened nature. The purpose of gurus is not that their followers lift them on high thrones and give their own responsibility to them. There is Christ, fully enlightened nature within everyone of us. It is Jesus' and His Gurus gift to each one of us to show and reveal it to us through practice until we become Christs ourselves.

 

Amrita Mandala, https://www.amritamandala.com/

Jesus, Easter, Pharisees

 

Jesus, Easter, Pharisees

It’s been a long day of work today but I still wanted to say something about Jesus, as it is Easter Friday.

Long time ago today, Jesus was crucified and killed by the ruling religious authorities, the pharisees, carried out by the Romans. I have often thought about this and the way how ruling authorities use their power when they are challenged or if they feel threatened. That very same clash of mentalities, one dogmatic and the other pragmatic keeps happening today, even though in most countries of the modern world forms of physical punishment are no longer. It wasn’t long ago though that Tibetan spiritual authorities would order whippings and in some islamic countries they still punish people with physical violence. Anyway, in most areas of the world such practices are long gone.

I don’t think there ever was an enlightened master who wasn’t passionate about what they had and needed to share. Some stories of Jesus paint an image of a passionate character with a radically different spiritual message than what was known at the time, and it is because of the compelling internal energy of compassion that made him do what he did and say what he said, that lead to the clash that got him murdered. I don’t think we could find a single person alive today who knowing of the story agreed with the pharisees that Jesus got exactly what he deserved. That’s an interesting angle, isn’t it? So I think most people today think he was unjustly murdered but I wonder what the popular opinion back in the day might have been. After all the pharisees were the ruling religious authority with lots of power and influence.

Even today, dogmatism is widely practiced. In all walks of life including anything from science, politics and art it is still the same. People are very passionate about their beliefs, blinded by their investments that we are lucky to find one person out of hundred who can keep an open mind for new ideas. It seems that it is hard to find open mindedness and fearless objectivity from areas where one would expect to find it easily but it is not so.

I know from personal experience how the world of dharma is full of fundamentalists who get as brutal as the pharisees the very moment their ways and views are challenged. I wasn’t killed like Jesus but I have wondered if it had been easier for me if I had because I’ve had to deal with the crucifixion of my name and reputation that the internet pharisees of buddhism did. Because of this I have stopped using my given name, had to change the name of my sangha, stopped being a ”buddhist” and was verbally abused countless times during the past years . I am not comparing myself to Jesus but I think I know how he felt hanging on that cross. All he tried to do is to help people. All I can say of both his and mine cases that apparently there is no way avoiding these kind of situations.

Anyway, it all happened and Jesus died. As we know his remains were put inside a sealed tomb, and three days later his corpse was nowhere to be found. But I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ll continue about resurrection in three days.

May all beings be free and happy.

Many Easter blessings,

Baba, 7 April 23

Qi, Prana, Chakras, Dantiens?

Qi, Prana, Chakras, Dantiens?

J: Babaji, I hope I'm not disturbing. I was wondering in your experience, what the differences are between Qi and Prana as well as the Chakras and Dantiens.When you have time, love to hear your views and experiences.

Baba: Hi J Not disturbing at all, the opposite, always pleasure to chat with friends of the path. Aha, yes. You're discussing about different frequencies and systems of the subtle body. So I'll give it a go

In short, there is frequency and corresponding energy related to nadis and chakras. In all hundreds of thousands of nadis, that creates the aura, there are two different aspects. The inner core of all nadis is always pure and the nadis connect directly with the four dantiens in the gut, heart, head and the two extreme ends of the vertical energy pillar that extends 5-6 meters up and down from the body. The second aspect of nadis is where most of the karma and samskaras are stored. These are stored on the outer layer of all nadis. So, this system consists of nadis, chakras and what in systems influenced by taoism are called dantiens.

Then there is frequency and corresponding energy related to meridians. The meridian field covers the insides of the whole physical body and it is the closest energy body to the physical body and its organs. Meridian field is also grossest of the energy bodies.

When all bits and pieces; chakras, nadis (their outer layers) and meridians are cleaned, they all connect with dantiens (or amrita kshetras) to create a mind that is in its natural state and body that rests in its natural state. Mentally/psychologically nondual and also physically nondual.

If you're interested we just had a chat about this with my heart student. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_TCjJT-Dh0

What are your experiences?

Many blessings,

Baba, 8 April 23

Lightbody and the Internal Arts of China and Japan

 

Lightbody and the Internal Arts 

of China and Japan

(email exchange with an indoor student)

Simha: Been making some wonderful personal discoveries lately with regard to Amrita Asana and its relationship to inner martial arts/inner hatha yoga.

A few weeks ago when traveling to Finland I practiced standing meditation at the airport. As I stood past the first minutes, I started naturally applying the principles of Amrita Asana to the standing posture. More specifically, I understood the importance of "expanding" in all directions (up/down, front/back, left/right). At first, I was thinking of it as kinda pushing to fill the whole frame but soon realized I might as well just allow myself to be pulled.

Whichever perspective you take, what I am describing is sort of intentional settling into the whole "frame" of the posture. This very quickly unifies the whole body in the standing posture and thus activates the meridian field.

This week I made the same discovery with regard to various aspects of pranayama. I've always loved breathing techniques, and have regularly practiced Bellows Breath (bhastrika) and Shining Skull (kapalbhati), combined with breath retention and yogic locks (bhandas).

First I connected the actual inhalation and exhalation with the "expanding" in all directions. This wasn't entirely new, of course, as it's how Vajra Breath is taught in RBY, but I felt a deepening in the sense of the whole body breathing 360 degrees regardless of intensity. This feels effortless (and very empowering!) when all muscles are working in unison.

Then, with regards to yogic locks, more specifically root lock (mula bhanda), abdominal lock (uddijayana bhanda), and chin lock (jalandhara bandha), I realized that I have been doing these three locks separately from one another. This has caused unnecessary effort required in holding the locks. When applying the principles of Amrita Asana, on the other hand, the body (and thus the locks) become united, revealing the great lock (mahabhanda), which again instantly forces open the meridian system. It's a subtle point but makes all the difference.

The above discoveries have also led me to experiment deeper with the basic posture in sitting meditation. It seems obvious when I say it, but of course, the very same principles apply to just sitting as well. By intentionally filling the frame of the seated posture, the meridian body is forced open and sitting becomes effortless.

I know Baba has been talking about these things for a long time, and I've had glimpses of it myself too. Nevertheless, the practice of Amrita Asana has propelled the maturation of this understanding like nothing else. It feels like it has naturally opened up a whole nother dimension to the practices I've been doing for years. Very much looking forward to exploring this further. Thank you!

Baba: I remember when I first taught you standing practice (c. zhan zhuang) in Tammisaari in 2016-2017. We've come back to it every now and then at retreats and when hanging out. I've also lead qigong and zhan zhuang sessions at retreats for years and years but I saw a problem there: that it was too hard (unpleasant) and too difficult to people to understand what the practice was about. I've done that work when I began internal martial arts 25 years ago and it took me years to even get the basics right, even with lineage teachers, and it was just uncomfortable to grind all those hours. So seeing this problem with my students I wanted and needed to find a way to make the training much more enjoyable than the grind or die-traditional training style so that you'd even get interested in internal arts and their principles as they are taught in East-Asia, namely China and Japan.

After having learned a wide variety of internal practices it took me a number of years to come up with a sensible structure that my students could learn and start practicing. So I took some bits that I had learned from internal martial arts, such as Yi Jin Jing, Second Course Yiquan of Han Jingyu and hard Shaolin qi gong, Indian yoga postures, basic elements of yoga tantra (prayer and mantra) and subtle centers that have long been forgotten by the yogic culture and put them all together as the first level of Amrita Asana Yoga (abr. AAY). I've gotten so many positive comments about the practice, people really love it but the thing is that if I had taught under the name of "internal martial training", people would have had no interest, I am certain. So I tricked all of you, ha, but as you know the results are great. There is no yoga or qigong style that puts all these elements together but I suspect there might have been in ancient China in the days of the ancient immortals.

What you describe about realizing how to activate the frame (after just 6 months of regular Amrita Asana practice) took me years of traditional internal martial arts practice to understand. I got glimpses of it and of many other things but I didn't really understand it but after a number of years. Through your AAY practice you have now developed a connected physical frame that you can apply your intent (c. yi/意) on, to affect changes and transformation in the meridian field. Adding yi to AAY is taught on level 2 but you already got it.

I have made quite a few posts about yi recently because it is one of the key practices to transform the meridian field which condition as you know is the ground of immortality/lightbody/rainbow body. Yi is physicalized concentration. Being able to focus one's mind mentally is one thing but to focus (yi) with one's whole body mass, the whole skeletal structure, muscles and tissues harnessed behind it, like a pack of horses in reigns, is entirely different thing. The principle of yi is entirely unknown in Indian and Tibetan yogas and their traditions but developed into a key principle in China and Japan, and their many arts and traditions.

From the perspective of hatha yoga, without yi you're just doing a physical workout with moments of mental focus here and there through dristhis, bandhas and so on but what is typical is that even highly regarded professional of hatha yoga never develop a frame as it is understood in China and Japan. If you don't have a connected internal frame, even if you could put yourself into very complex and advanced postures, the effect on the meridians that makes a great part of our psyche will be very limited. With a built frame, yoga asanas will immediately take a different gear because the frame allows one to not only work on the physical field but also the meridian field which is really really important from the common perspectives of health and wellbeing, but also from the point of view of trauma healing and preparation of the lightbody. In Amrita Asana Yoga you start with postures but through the tensing of all muscles at once in each posture, you actually start building that frame effectively from the start and work out the whole meridian field. It makes the body very strong very fast because you're doing a gym workout (without weights) through the tensing and flushing the whole system with prana/chi that is spiritually charged because of the preparation in the beginning of practice and during through mantras or whatever techniques from RBY you might be using. The difference between level 1 and 2 of AAY is that it just becomes subtler and with yi-without yi is given more emphasis.

That phrase "with yi - without yi" is something that I could say a few words. It is written all over the Taoist classics, this thing about "marvellous alive non-doing" or wu wei and it has been extensively written by zen artists of Japan during the past over 1000 years. My master Terayama Roshi dedicated his life to studying and writing about it, as did the masters before him in the lineages. But just like on the side of dharma or spirituality this principle is vastly misinterpreted in various ways. Not having to do anything about it for one to realize or to successfully wu wei just like the immortals or that if you just sat immovably like the Buddha that'd be the same as being a buddha are two of them.

One great gift that mahamudra and dzogchen texts by Tibetan masters such as Gampopa and Longchenpa have to give us is the clear definition about the most fundamental spiritual part of us. It does not matter whether we discuss of the Tao, Christ, God, buddhanature or whatever, it makes sense that regardless of beliefs and opinions we are all built the same way and have the same basic nature of mind. Understanding this was made into science by the master yogis and while I can see many others from other traditions speak about it sometimes identically or similarly, I think it is because of the unreligious pragmatic nature of buddhadharma that makes it more understandable and therefore better accessible than any other system I know about. Poetic, mystical and glorificational sources definitely give as much benefits as they do harm because of the option of (mistaken) interpretation. My point is that without knowing the ground of all beings or the mind common to all beings, it is impossible to understand without yi (c. 無 意) but you know all this already.

So, next in your practice, now that you have grasped all three: the frame, yi and without yi; next step is to play with them. Form doesn't matter. I stand, do yoga, sit, dance, walk, do crossfit and lift weights applying "physicalized intention together with basic awareness" and "basic awareness together with movement but without intention". This strikes the main teaching of Garab Dorje.

Rainbow-light blessings,

-Baba, 30 March 23

Secret Chakras or 4th Dantien

 

Secret Chakras or 4th Dantien

I have been extremely fortunate to learn about certain chakras that most methods and traditions do not know about. I am talking about the chakras below and above the physical body, as you can see from the pictures attached.

I remember my beloved teacher Sivakami saying that there is a push from the masters in inner realms trying to bring knowledge and practices relating to these centers back to humanity because they have so much positive impact, i.e. because they are spiritually so powerful. I am certain that these centers have been known much more widely in ancient times than they are now.

In buddhism there are "bhumis" or grounds, written in old sutras such as the Avatamsaka and yet there is not a single buddhist lineage that uses them or knows how to use them and it is rare to find a buddhist master ever even mention them. Even though most buddhists don't know about bhumi chakras, just recently the wonderful Garchen Rinpoche clarified their meaning by saying,

"As Milarepa has said: the empty clear mind just becomes increasingly clear as you keep meditating. That's what we call the Bhumis and the paths, the different stages. Even though they're given different names, it's just an increasing becoming clear of your natural state... So this is how the four yogas really are a gradual development of the realization of the mind. So even though we count and list different Bhumis and different paths and there's different teachings on that, this is really how we should see it.

This is also a very important teaching, the most important teaching by Milarepa where he said that the so-called Bhumis and the paths are the progressive realization or recognition of the clear and empty nature of the mind. The Bhumis and the paths are nothing but signs or road signs so you know where to go. You know where you're at. So practitioners need some kind of signs so they know they're on the right track.”

from Garchen Rinpoche's introduction to the Four Yogas of Mahamudra (May 13th 2021), translated by Ina Bieler

In a bit more cryptic manner but still clearly the Secret of the Golden Flower, a taoist-buddhist text from few hundred years ago says,

"The ancients' method of transcending the world, refining away the dregs of darkness to restore pure light, is just a matter of dissolving the lower soul and making the higher soul whole". (2:14)

In taoist terms, the mentioned higher bhumis (that relate directly to the chakras below and above the body) would be called the fourth dantien. I am not that learned about the variety of taoist methods but if I remember correctly the fourth dantien is mentioned and taught by Mantak Chia, famous taoist teacher, although I have not seen it mentioned by others. It is worthy to mention that the formerly buddhist esoteric practitioner Mikao Usui (1865-1926), who discovered and taught reiki, a form of spiritual cultivation and healing included fourth dantien, i.e. the body's external centers in his system. In kriya yoga, a form of internal yoga taught by Mahasiddha Babaji to his Indian student/s that is widely spoken in Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahamsa Yogananda, the heart and soul of the method are these centers. My zen art master Terayama Roshi from Tokyo practiced the 4th dantien daily, both through chi gong and zen calligraphy.

So, from what I have seen over the past decades there are bits and pieces of the fourth dantien or bhumi chakras as we call them in Amrita Mandala method, here and there...

But people should really learn about them because connecting the bodymind with them is like hooking into a source of pure love and pure energetical power that to borrow the words from the Secret of the Golden Flower, "dissolves the lower soul and makes the higher soul whole", i.e. dispels self-centered confusion and habits, and makes the human energy system or psyche whole.

There are all kinds of little secrets and things that would make the path so much easier to lot of people if they only knew about them.

Monsoon blessings,

-Baba, 19 March 23, Amrita Mandala Sangha

Connected Field of Aliveness

 

Connected Field of Aliveness

So, you are this energy and this energy is connected, it is a connected field that moves when your body moves and keeps still as a connected field of energy when your body doesn’t move. When you stay still, this field of energy radiates like a star. It shines light or subtle energy just like a star. There’s countless little processes happening there but the main thing is that it is utterly alive, present and there is no sense of me, as an individual entity there so it is devoid of self. So you just sit there, totally alive, totally present, there is no ”me” having the experience and it feels great because it’s perfectly natural. Because it is natural is why it feels right and because of that it answers so many questions to those who need to get answers. But basically this aliveness happens by itself, is there or here by itself and that’s all. It’s not a big mystery or a thing that only sages on mountain tops have or are able to understand, no, all of us share it but it needs to be discovered though.

When we take this connected field of aliveness without self into movement and start expressing things artistically, oh there is nothing more delightful because it is our true undefiled being or true me expressing itself purely. This is ”zen art”. This is the view of zen art or spiritual art. And you can take it into anything from East Asian arts to sports to painting to writing poems; anything form of expression, any art.

As a unified field you play, move, bounce, draw a line, sing, dance, walk and simply exist without a self or a center. Awake and aware, nothing lacking, enjoying it all, without the notions of win or loss, victory or failure.

- Amrita Baba, Amrita Mandala Sangha