Awakening
Statistics
-
People who awakened in this guidance: 98/100
-
Percentage of people who attained awakening in this guidance: 98%
Since
April 2014, when I started giving Guidances
to Awakening,
I have kept statistics which have been visible at the Open
Heart-website. My purpose was to gather data from the first 100 cases
(4/2014-10/2017) to see how well or poorly the technique, The
Two-Part Formula, and the instructions would do. In the beginning
I didn't know how the success rate would turn out and whether the
percentage of success would be very low, high or something in
between. Here are some facts and my thoughts about the statistics
from the first 100 cases.
Why
compile statistics?
An
important reason behind compiling this data was that to me it got old
that reliable data about how well or poorly a practice or a system
does, is extremely scarce. If you start thinking about it, the field
of spirituality is the only one to do so among all other possible
fields of human endeavour and expertise. If data about functionable
and beneficial applications was not available in science, education
or culture, it would be seen suspicious and unacceptable. It is not
common to find statistic data regarding awakenings or other levels of
attainment (which has also been done in this blog here)
but I personally think it should be a standard.
Doing
this would illuminate a lot of corners. The most obvious concern is
of course whether practitioners of a system do or do not wake up at
all. And if they do, the next logical questions are how, within what
time range, with how much effort and time put into the practice and
how much help was needed from a teacher or a guide. This is simple
logical reasoning, isn't it.
Guidances
given by myself or other teachers
The
statistics include the first 100 guidances that were given by myself
or a couple of other Open Heart-teachers. The number of cases done by
other teachers were 9 in number which included 7 succesful cases and
2 unsuccesful ones. At their first try (also the teacher's) two
persons didn't get awakened through the guidance. After participants
had failed to get awakened, I offered to do the guidance with these
people for second time through which both cases succeeded. In the
beginning, in all arts there are failures until the art is mastered
enough for keeping the standards where they should be. This is a
natural part of the learning process.
During
my first 10-15 guidances I had two cases who didn't awaken. These
failures happened due to my lack of expertise in giving guidance with
the Two-Part
Formula
(2PF). Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to do the guidance with
them for second time.
Even
though the 2PF hits precisely at the core of the selfing mechanism,
it requires skillfulness from the guide to both give helpful pointers
as well as to intuit what the person needs. Just as peoples
personalities differ, guidances differ quite a lot. An advice that
worked for one person might not work for another, even though they
are using the same technique as the basis for their processing.
Through
doing these 100 guidances I've noticed that my way of doing it has
changed and developed along the way. I have always put a lot of
emphasis on the preparation of the person involved and as a general
rule I always require 1-2 weeks of preparation, going through the
materials and doing the 2PF on their own, before the guidance begins.
One reason for this is that if the preparation is not well done, then
the teacher has to work needlessly hard and repeat the same points
over and over, from one guidance to another. A more important reason
of the preparation is that the responsibility of the process is and
always should be on the seeker as it his problem that the guidance
seeks to solve, not the teacher's. The person involved needs to
understand his responsibility and make the commitment. There were a
couple of cases who started the process too casually but who
understood the importance and value of the opportunity once it was
pointed out to them. The teacher is there only to give pointers, and
even though they are crucial, the work has to be done by the person
in question.
Three
kinds of cases
12
cases of the total awakened without any one-on-one attention from
teacher. These people include cases who joined public lectures (30-60
min in duration) given about awakening and the technique (where
technique was taught to them) and people who studied the online
materials (dialogues found from Awake-ebook and Open Heart-blog) and
did the 2PF on their own. All these people contacted me to ask what
had happened to them or whether they had awakened. I verified their
awakenings, as in all cases, through reading their verbal
descriptions and by analysing their photographs.
Some
people, perhaps about 15% of the total (15/100), needed very little
help from the teacher. When learning about it, these ”easy cases”
realised the usefulness of the technique and did the heavy lifting by
themselves without much help from the teacher. In these cases the
guidances lasted from few hours (the shortest was two emails changed
within 6 hours) to few days. The average duration of all guidances
was 4-5 days of emailing. The longest guidances, less than 10 cases,
lasted for 4-5 weeks, where a break of two weeks was held in the
middle.
In
overall
In
the beginning I didn't expect the success rate to turn out as high as
98%. As I also was identified with some of the many mistaken views
about awakening out there (that have been extensively discussed in my
blog and The
Lion-Faced Guru Podcast), I became convinced of the effectivity
of the Two Part-Formula and the guidance only after 30-40 cases.
Various
aspects of awakening has been covered in my talks, writings and other
materials so I will keep this short but I'd like to mention one
thing. Resistance and cynicality towards Guidance to Awakening and
the 2PF has been extensive, in many forms. While witnessing the peak
of people's delusion disappear first hand over and over again, I have
come to see this foolish critique as an indication of a very low
level of understanding about awakening in our present spiritual
culture, whether hindu, buddhist or otherwise. To date, I have not
received a single disappointed email from anyone who took guidance or
were verified awakened by me, obviously because (one of) their
problems was solved for good.
It
has become apparent to me that most old traditions who are the main
proponents of the whole theme of awakening (!), often actually know
very little about it. I have discussed problems related to this here:
A
Look at Awakening and The Two-Part Formula.
I
am genuinely woeful for having to say this as it always upsets people
who have invested in the old traditions but I have to speak my mind.
I'd like to remind that in my own case it took 8½ years of 8 hours
daily sitting, following old ways and views with full dedication,
until I woke up. Awakening certainly doesn't replace long-standing
practice but I, like many, was a victim of false views of what
awakening is, how it fits in the big picture and how it is achieved.
I hope it need not be so for future generations.
Thank
you to all those who took this teaching seriously, worked hard and
burst their bubble of self. Great!
Thank
you also to many dharma friends and teacher colleagues who have given
their support to my work and Open Heart.
Finally,
thank you to Guru Rinpoche, Yeshe Tsogyal and the whole Mahasiddha
Family. Jai Guru!
-
Kim Katami, 20.10.2017
Open
Heart, www.openheart.fi
