lauantai 18. maaliskuuta 2017

Eating meat by Shenpen Dawa Rinpoche

Eating meat

by Shenpen Dawa Rinpoche
(Dudjom Rinpoche's son)

Many, if not most of us, eat meat. I’m going to share some important
understandings regarding the eating of meat. Essentially we are eating one of our parent sentient beings. An animal has lost its life to feed your life. You need to remember this. Before you eat, be grateful that the animal has given its life for you. Renew your determination that by eating this meat you will practice well and dedicate all the merit to the animals. It is customary to first offer the meat — even the whole meal — to all the buddhas. Don’t just start eating. What you are eating becomes blessed when you offer it. Then think about all the positive things you will do, all the strength you will have by being nourished with this meat, this food. Dedicate the merit from this positive activity to them.

Eating meat has different meanings depending on your level of development.
For ordinary practitioners, giving gratitude and merit to the animals is the only thing they can do. Advanced practitioners bless the meat and it immediately turns into nectar. Even more advanced practitioners see that meat they are eating as part of their yidam. In that process, the animal receives total liberation. Literally, eating the meat is a blessing. When a great sage or extremely realized practitioner eats meat, it is not meat. It is liberation because this person has the power to liberate. To our eyes, it looks like he is doing something negative, but, in fact, what appears as negative is actually extremely positive.

When eating animals, be satisfied by consuming larger ones. That way, one life feeds many people. Why would you want to eat small animals, like small shrimp, twenty, thirty or forty of them at a time? A lot of lives are sacrificed in one shrimp cocktail. Believe me, all these animals living in the world, in our universe, are here to balance our ecosystem, not just to feed you. The animals are not in the world so you can eat them. We eat them out of necessity. If those animals disappear, it will unbalance the ecosystem. On the other hand, you need not worry about overpopulation of animals: nature will always rebalance the ecosystem through a cycle of balance and change.

Some of you are vegetarians or vegan for your health. Not everyone can be
vegan or vegetarian. It depends on what four generations of your ancestors have been eating. Only then can you change the habit to be a vegetarian. Until then, it is not in your blood system to become vegetarian. In an earlier time, we were all vegetarians.

That changed once we tasted the blood of animals. Our habitual system changed. If your ancestors were meat eaters and all of a sudden you change to being a vegetarian, you are diminishing your health. At the beginning, you will feel light, light headed, and weightlessness. Later, this will become total weightlessness. Eventually a sickness displays the imbalances in one’s air or lung. Yes, from the point of view of not taking life, it is good not to eat meat, but from the point of view of health, it may be essential to eat meat. (source)

Then particularly as practitioners when you are eating meat, have respect for the animal that has died and laid down its body for you.  Dedicate the merit. As you see the meat, dedicate it. There are different ways of eating meat depending on the level of your practice. The first basic level is to feel sorry for that animal that has laid down its life for you and that you are now partaking. Say, “whatever karma I get by taking this meat, may the strength I get from this being’s life be put into practice so that I can dedicate it for the benefit of others. Thank you for your gift. It is a gift that allows me to survive. I will put it into practice and I will dedicate the merit for all parent sentient beings. Thank-you for giving me that potential strength.” This is the least you can say when you eat the meat. If your meditation is a little bit higher than this then you transform the meat by the syllables Om Ah Hung. Purify by the three syllables and see the meat as nectar. Don’t see it as meat. Have respect for flesh and blood. It you want to go one step higher, as your Yidam, (main practice deity) you consume that meat as a means of liberation. You see it as a wrathful Buddha’s display that is now in front of you. For this the three satisfactions must be present; first, the satisfaction of the being you are consuming; second, the satisfaction of the Mandala; and third, the satisfaction of yourself as Yidam. Apply these satisfactions at this moment. Then, as Yidam, a wrathful Buddha, consume and liberate that being. Make sure you are able to liberate the being that embodied the piece of meat you eat. So then, to be clear here for this, the Mandala is satisfied, you are satisfied and the animal that has been killed is satisfied. Three satisfactions must come together.  This will only be possible once you have accomplished your Yidam practice to a certain extent. (source)

perjantai 17. maaliskuuta 2017

Bringing light to the darkest pit

Bringing light to the darkest pit

This is actually a very interesting and profound thing, the matter of meeting and blending with things and situations.

When we are in self-mode, our being becomes contracted in time and place, that is becomes localised. When we are in selfless mode, our natural state, we are not localised in the same way even though our physical body of course has a concretic form and exists in time and space. So, when we are in our natural state with open mind and receiving heart, we can meet things as they come and blend with them. I am not saying that we can "accept" everything because not every thing we meet can be accepted due to common morals but still things can be met with and be blended with skillfully, with warmth and clarity of our true being.

This skill of meeting and blending is subtle thing, or actually not really a thing because it is based in natural awareness itself. When we are or true beings, we can feel it and know it through our bodies. When someone investigatingly touches you when you are in selfless mode, it can be felt concretically that the body feels different. This is a reference to Testing the Mind of Meditation, find a blog text and Tube video with that title.

So, meeting and blesing is subtle happening and if we are encased to a self, we cannot meet people, things and situations naturally. Unconditional compassion means that by relaxing we insist being in the natural mode. It is such a relief. Whatever comes to us then is not a problem be it praise that would make us feel egoistically elevated or hatred and aggression that we would ordinarily meeth with fight or flight reaction or "spiritually by trying to accept it". In our natural mode, we don't need to accept because everything is already accepted and blended with. But as said, this doesn't mean that everything is OK all the time. If that would be the case it would be dark as in the midnight during midday but this is not the case, isn't it. On a relative level we do have high and low, good and bad, stupidity and wisdom.

So, next time when you notice that oh-ou that ego of yours rears it's ugly head with some nasty thoughts and emotions, give it full freedom to do so. Pain may come, ache may be, the emotion of being pissed off can come completely freely. Give it some understanding, give it a blanket to keep warm and some warm soup, instead of trying to fix it or remove it. "Here, Blind Rage, my old buddy, have a seat and take comfort in this body. Stay as long as you want, no hurry. Enjoy the muscles and bones of this body. Create pain as much as you want. It's totally fine."

As Mother Machig Labdron famously said:

"Confess your hidden faults.
Approach what you find repulsive.
Help those you think you cannot help.
Anything you are attached to, give that.
Go to the places that scare you."

It is a pitfall to want to have happiness and joy. It's an egotrip. By meeting and blending with whatever causes discomfort, pain and suffering, that is the rocketship that all mahasiddhas have taken to reach the full moon that never waxes or wanes.

tiistai 7. maaliskuuta 2017

Bhumi Study Series, Part 9: 13th bhumis

Bhumi Study Series, Part 9
13th bhumis

Bhumi Study Series presents information on many of the contemporary gurus, lamas and spiritual teachers, and their respective spiritual attainments, or bhumis. This study has been conducted by two founding teachers of the Open Heart-method, Kim Katami and Pauliina Katami on the basis of photographs available about the concerned persons. For more info on Open Heart, go to http://www.openheart.fi

Familiarizing yourself with the Open Heart bhumi-system is recommended, in order to understand what this series is about. Read "Stages of Spiritual attainment" and go through Kim Katami's video documentation on the topic to get a better picture of what bhumis are. Studying and understanding bhumis in this manner is a deep subject which requires meditation and analytical skills. One may or may not be able to discern the outcome of this study series without extensive practice experience. On the other hand, the differences are quite easily seen when studied attentively and when the information is offered in context as has been done here, where one may compare between teachers, right next to each other. The study has been divided into several categories. As the Open Heart-bhumi model is universal, it applies regardless of possible differences in methods used by distinctive traditions.

This Bhumi Study Series has been made public in order to bring awareness, lucidity and clarity to the present spiritual culture of the world by explaining and showing what many of our well known teachers have actually been able to attain. There is much confusion about this topic, so we wanted to clarify this matter from our part, for the benefit of all.  

May this study help and serve many in their understanding and study of the path of mind training.


Bhumi Study Series



13th bhumis

You can find pictures of some of the people below in their lower bhumis from the previous episodes of the Bhumi Study Series.




 











Bhumi Study Series, Part 8: 12th bhumis

Bhumi Study Series, Part 8
12th bhumis
Bhumi Study Series presents information on many of the contemporary gurus, lamas and spiritual teachers, and their respective spiritual attainments, or bhumis. This study has been conducted by two founding teachers of the Open Heart-method, Kim Katami and Pauliina Katami on the basis of photographs available about the concerned persons. For more info on Open Heart, go to http://www.openheart.fi

Familiarizing yourself with the Open Heart bhumi-system is recommended, in order to understand what this series is about. Read "Stages of Spiritual attainment" and go through Kim Katami's video documentation on the topic to get a better picture of what bhumis are. Studying and understanding bhumis in this manner is a deep subject which requires meditation and analytical skills. One may or may not be able to discern the outcome of this study series without extensive practice experience. On the other hand, the differences are quite easily seen when studied attentively and when the information is offered in context as has been done here, where one may compare between teachers, right next to each other. The study has been divided into several categories. As the Open Heart-bhumi model is universal, it applies regardless of possible differences in methods used by distinctive traditions.

This Bhumi Study Series has been made public in order to bring awareness, lucidity and clarity to the present spiritual culture of the world by explaining and showing what many of our well known teachers have actually been able to attain. There is much confusion about this topic, so we wanted to clarify this matter from our part, for the benefit of all.  

May this study help and serve many in their understanding and study of the path of mind training.



Bhumi Study Series

Bhumi Study Series, Part 1: Before and after awakening, and 2nd-5th bhumisBhumi Study Series, Part 2: 6th bhumis with notes
Bhumi Study Series, Part 3: 7th bhumis
Bhumi Study Series, Part 4: 8th bhumis
Bhumi Study Series, Part 5: 9th bhumis  
Bhumi Study Series, Part 6: 10th bhumis
Bhumi Study Series, Part 7: 11th bhumis 
Bhumi Study Series, Part 8: 12th bhumis
Bhumi Study Series, Part 9: 13th bhumis  
Bhumi Study Series, Part 10: From Zero to Mahasiddha Bhumis
Extra: How to do Bhumi Mapping


12th bhumis

You can find pictures of some of the people below in their lower bhumis from the previous episodes of the Bhumi Study Series.