Bringing
Joy Back to Buddhism
Every
now and then I feel like writing reviews about what has been going on
with Open Heart. This is one of those reports. I'll be talking about
Guru Rinpoche's recent instructions and guidelines along with how our
method is taking new (actually old) steps in it's evolution.
Several
years ago a dear friend and one of my gurus, mahasiddha Babaji, told
me:
”This
is one and the same yoga. There is no this or that
yoga. There is only that which is according to the great tradition of
yoga and that which is outside of it. At the moment much yogic
knowledge is scattered around the world. It is your work to bring it
all together.”
For
the last 3-4 years Open Heart has taken a very buddhist tone. Along
with studying scriptural sources and lectures, Pau and I received a
long
list of empowerments of buddhist deities, pointing out
instructions and practices that has been the main cause to increase
my understanding about the basic principles of sutra, tantra and
dzogchen. During this time I have sometimes looked back into earlier
times with hindu deities, Shaivite tantras, kundalini kriya yoga and
bhakti yoga, feeling that those days have passed while wondering
whether some of that, greatly powerful and beneficial style of
practice will ever be integrated into Open Heart. For a long time I
couldn't see how this could be done.
Head
Buddhism
is a wisdom (skt. prajna) and knowledge tradition. By wisdom and
knowledge I refer to the principles of seeing, knowing, thinking,
analysing and understanding. Buddhism and it's many schools from
theravada to mahayana and vajrayana are known for it's detailed
analyses and maps. I think that having a clear and understandable map
is an essential requirement in seeking our way out of cyclical
existence. Without a map and direction it's very difficult to find a
way out from a foreign place.
Having
said that, I feel that buddhism overemphasises the masculine feature
of analysis and wisdom with the expense of intuition and
heartfulness, which corresponds to the feminine principle. As
buddhism has mostly been transmitted and molded by men, especially
monastics, it is no surprise that this is the case. This gives
buddhism a very distinct feel and energy. I completely understand why
some people are not attracted by buddhism because of this and choose
other approaches, my teacher Sivakami was one of them.
If
we look at the way buddhist practices and training systems from the
vast majority of it's schools are formulated and how they are
cultivated, we can see that they are the creations of men. To
exaggerate it, we can observe formality, seriousness, emotional
coldness, hardness, rigidity and desire to be utterly transparent. If
we consider these features according to our psychology, we can see
that they relate to the head space. Wisdom of the head without heart
is like this. We can be very sharp, clear and discriminative in our
thoughts and actions but if we lack warmth and openness of the heart,
we will not feel well. Any system created by men, like buddhism, can
be very lopsided and this of course, is a problem.
I
have often asked the challenging question: If vajrayana's potential
is to fully liberate it's practitioners in this life and body, where
are all the living buddhas? It is a legitimate question. I think a
great part of the problem, that extremely few buddhists of all
schools actually attain full enlightenment, lies in this question.
Heart
Being
heartful, open minded, a receiver (instead of a transmitter) and
being intuitive are feminine features. When we become ”open minded”
or are in the receiving mode, we can feel that our heart space opens
and softens up, and the mind shuts down very thoroughly. We become
kind and mother-like, and it is wonderful. If we overdo feminine
features, for example follow our intuition without thinking what we
intuit, we become onesided. If we only follow our hearts and leave
the head out of the picture, we become unrealistic dreamers. Both
clarity and warmth are needed because, after all, we all have heads
and hearts.
As
a side note I would like to add something about lack of intuition
among buddhists in relation to OHBM.
For a couple of years I've tried to tell buddhists of various schools
about it and how wonderful and exceptional tool it is. Potentially it
could solve a lot of problems in buddhism today.
I
have wondered why most buddhists have hard time accepting that
attainments, closed, opened or perfected bhumis, could be sensed from
other person whether present physically or from distance. Although
mahayana buddhism talks about bhumis and attainments, they do not
have another way to measure attainments except through long term
relationship and verbal exchange between a teacher and student. Of
course, there is nothing wrong in this but this leaves us utterly
ignorant about the attainments of others, and actually often
ourselves too. Verbal communication can never be as precise as direct
exchange of living experience.
I
have heard buddhist teachers say that one's attainment can be
detected from the gaze but it never gets more specific than that. Why
not? At some point it dawned on me that while for some who consider
themselves buddhists understanding OHBM is easy, to most it is hard
because they lack intuition. A buddhist who follows a system that is
said to have worked for generations, has no need for intuition and
hence might not even know what it is. Anyway.
Misleading
Joy
While
blissful and ecstatic states can also be relatively helpful, from the
point of view of dzogchen, the ultimate nonduality, exalted states
are pitfalls. This is very common in religions other than buddhism,
namely hinduism and christianity in their many forms. I have talked
about this here.
Intoxicating
states are caused by 1. kundalini movements in the energybody of an
unawakened person and/or 2. mental-emotional impurities, i.e. karmic
traces stored in the subtle body. As far as I am aware only buddhism
has a clear view and ways of dealing with both of these factors, so
that the practitioners don't get stuck with heavenly experiences and
realms.
In
short, kundalini is resolved by awakening
and all the many karmic traces are purified through distinct sutra or
tantra methods that cover the full
scope of human psychology. In the calm state, it is the deep
subconscious mind (skt. alaya vijnana), in it's self-deluded mode,
that causes strong bliss and ecstasy. Therefore thinking that exalted
bliss is ”the” thing, is false.
It
is interesting to note that great yogis and mahasiddhas who have
greatly or fully nullified their deep mind, do not get intoxicated by
over-emotional bhakti yoga, drugs or alcohol. A few glasses of
whiskey, an easy way to test (some) one's attainment.
Joy
To
know true joy, we first need to recognise and integrate it's basis
which is awareness (tib. rigpa) or ”nature of mind”. While many
traditions of nondualism point to this basis, as a rule in the
history only tantric buddhists and dzogchenpas seem to be the only
ones who manage to neutralise all karmas and hence attain the first
stage of full enlightenment (OHBM,
perfection of bhumis 1-10) or buddhahood.
The
main point is that if we know how to avoid and remove the common
pitfalls of the devotional approach, the feminine way of using
emotional opening and loving surrender, it can be faster and more
powerful way for getting into the natural state in it's profoundest
meaning. Through emotional opening, the natural state is easily
accessed and more pronounced than through mental or analytical means.
That is my experience. True joy comes through uniting clarity of
awareness of the head and warmth-aliveness of the heart. Together
they make a whole.
Pure
Land Buddhists
Recently
I have corresponded with Pure Land Buddhists who have a wonderfully
light and carefree spirit. Their main practice is remembrance and
devotion towards Amitabha Buddha, through singing his name. This
makes their apporach unique among buddhist schools because their main
principle is devotion and surrender, instead of willpower and
analysis.
Dharmavidya
David Brazier, Pure Land Buddhist teacher:
”It
does seem that traditionally in India there was a strong buddhist
tradition of buddhist music until quite late on. Much of the music
which style you now associate with hinduism, like Hare Krishna
chanting, that sort of tambourine banging: Haa-ree Raa-maa!, that
sort of thing was buddhist originally. It was a buddhist style. As
India became hindu rather than buddhist again, the music continued.”
(link to video)
Fujita
Kotatsu in Genshi Jodo Shiso No Kenkyu
about sound use of emotion in Pure Land Buddhism:
”In
Hinduism, the idea of faith is expressed as bhakti. Bhakti is
regarded as the highest path of interface with the gods and also
implies the deepest reverence for gods. On the other hand, Pure Land
prasada differs in that it appears less emotional and more serene and
subtle due to its relation to prajna (wisdom) and samadhi
(concentration).” (copied
from here)
So
it is also important to have wisdom because it naturally combines
with emotional warmth.
Guidance
of the masters
A
few months ago Guru Rinpoche told me to,
”Bring
joy back to buddhism”.
When
he told me this I knew it would be another task and challenge in my
work. An obvious point about his request is that I cannot bring joy
back into all of buddhism, just to Pemako Buddhism, bring
another bit of yogic knowledge to make our path whole and balanced.
After having pondered the question of over-masculinity and emotional
coldness of buddhism for some time, I understood master's request and
agreed. At that point I remembered what I had heard David Brazier say
in his talk quoted above and started remembering the ways and
melodies we used to sing and chant back in the kriya yoga days. Those
sessions were a blast!
After
this year's annual Summer Retreat, in early July, Guru Rinpoche and
mahasiddha Thirumular, started to introduce me to further options.
To
inform those who do not know of Thirumular, he was the main guru of
Open Heart before. He is one of the main founders of tantric Shaivism
and a great mahasiddha who attained light body many centuries ago. A
wonderful, jolly and joyful persona whose presence is felt in the
physical body and it's tissues very palpably and concretely,
not merely as plain awareness and subtle aliveness of the energy
body, as is the case with the vast majority of buddhist masters.
You can invite him over to feel him yourself. I am sure he is happy
to come.
The
further option they introduced me to was the option that ”the
practitioner can dissolve his or her body into the Light Body (Tib.
འོད་སྐུ་,
ö ku), where the body transforms into light and disappears
completely into space. This was done by Garab Dorje, Manjushrimitra,
Shri Singha, Jnanasutra and Vairotsana.”
(from RigpaWiki)
My
understanding is that also Jesus and Ramalinga
from Tamil Nadu attained this option of the light bodies.
Interestingly, both Jesus and Ramalinga, who I consider to be
reincarnations of the same person, greatly emphasised love and
devotion, the feminine approach of the heart, towards the highest
ideal.
Easiest
Way to the Light Body
Guru
Rinpoche and Thirumular asked me how I felt about mixing these two
approaches, 1. emptiness/selflessness and 2. devotion of the heart to
strike at the light body attainment of great perfection (tib.
dzogchen). Since thogal-practices require a lot of time and specific
practice circumstances for attaining light body and therefore is not
a reasonable option for householders, I instantly felt this was a
good and creative idea, as well as an interesting way to join
different approaches, so I agreed.
Since
Padmasambhava's attainment, his presence and vibration, emphasises
transparency (emptiness) and subtle aliveness (and therefore doesn't
concretely connect with the physical tissues), they demonstrated to
me how both of their vibrations could be joined together. For this
reason the vibration and transmission through Namo Guru
Rinpoche-mantra has been different for a few weeks now. Now, it is
very different compared to the common buddhist vibe. One can easily
feel joy and lightness, together with penetrativeness (emptiness)
through chanting it. Such a delight!
In
case someone is new to this mantra, it does not require an
empowerment, you can just start using it and plug into Guru
Padmasambhava directly, he will take care of the rest. If you used
this mantra before or if you have done other Guru Rinpoche'mantras
from other lineages, you can easily feel that the charge reaches your
physical body, soft and hard tissues, in a solid manner. This is a
huge blessing from the gurus, so cherish it with sincerity and love.
This guru yoga is one of the two ways to activate this particular
vibration.
Another
way to do this is through a particular mantra which is the seed
mantra (skt. bija) of the 13th bhumi within ones own bodymind. It
corresponds to the light body attainment and when used, starts to
make it a reality. According to Guru Rinpoche's will, there is no
need for an empowerment of this mantra either but you can ask him a
blessing for it and you will receive it.
This
mantra is HU. English speakers can get the correct pronounciation by
considering ”Whooo?”. It can be chanted a few times or longer
duration-wise, according to the situation and it will do the trick.
Bringing
Joy Back
Beautiful
and unique developments. I invite anyone to try out the mentioned
mantras. That's how we will bring joy back to buddhism, at least to
Pemako Buddhism.
Thank
you for reading.
Yours
in dharma.
- Orgyen Pema, 21.8.2017
Open
Heart, www.openheart.fi
