If you listen, I got you
Training Teachers and Instructors
of
Mahasiddha-style Yoga and Tantra
"If
you listen, I got you". -Eubie Blake, jazz pianist
What
Eubie Blake means is that if he gets the listener's attention, he
will catch the listener through his music. Catching the listener
means to get the listener disappear in the direct nonconceptual
experience of music. We've all experienced getting lost in music
where the sense of small self disappears and authentic enjoyment
comes forth. We begin to sing and dance, we begin to enjoy. I heard
Carlos Santana say this about Miles Davis, and instantly thought
about Pemako and our teachers in training.
Becoming and serving as a Pemako teacher has few important requirements. First, one has to know the method through first hand experience. Two, one has to have stable recognition of one's buddhanature, i.e. at least all bhumis open. Three, one has to be suitable to be a teacher in terms of social and organisational skills. All three make one fit to begin one's service as a teacher. At the moment we have nearly ten people doing their training.
Over the years I've discussed other traditions, their teachers and teaching styles, their pros and cons. There is the path of scholars and there is the path of yogis. Ours is the latter type. I recall Dr Nida calling this the "mahasiddha style".
I want our teachers to be able to "get you", like Eubie Blake. I train teachers who know what people look for and know how to give it to them, so that they don't leave our training sessions "belly empty", without real experience, or head spinning with fancy, scary or uninteresting concepts. I've always emphasised direct experience and tantric or atiyoga transmissions which is the mahasiddha style. I confess (gladly!) that I haven't even opened the suttas, recordings of Shakyamuni's teachings except maybe twice in my life, for a brief moment. I haven't read books, sutras and tantras, because that way didn't speak to me but nevertheless, looking at my students, I feel confident to say that I've been able to "get them" as so many of them grow into the recognition of themselves as buddhas so fast and effectively. During my days of traditional training I couldn't even dream of the pace of progress my students have. I yearned, dreamed and busted my ass for 8½ years for the first bhumi opening! I'm actually glad it all didn't work for me either because it lead to even greater dissatisfaction and disillusionment about the establishment. When that happened, time was ripe for me to begin receiving teachings from past masters.
I have used this methodology of direct transmission and introduction because that is how my masters have taught me. I remember Guru Rinpoche telling me few times to read some of the teachings he'd given to some past tertons but I just never got around to it. I bought the books but chose to use the time of reading to hanging out with my guru, him, instead. I will always choose to spend time with my guru (through tantric guru yoga), instead of reading. Seekers seek to find the truth of existence or to know themselves because they feel they are lost in life. Seekers are entangled in the net of their self-delusion. Someone who has stable recognition of buddhanature (all bhumis open) lives most of the time freely and happily because 13 major breakthroughs through the bhumi chakras enables that. When such a person knows what introduction into the nature of mind is and how it happens, there is no way avoiding directly helping or pointing out the nature of mind to others, and that is "getting them". This is an instant relief and discovery for seekers.
What
is transmitted and pointed out is our effortlessly satisfied nature,
so fresh, spontaneous and free of fixations, where there is no
existential confusion and neither solutions to remove it. What is
pointed out and transmitted is the vision of reality. That is how I'm
training our teachers.
I am also training 15 people as Pemako
acharyas (pron. uh-chuh-ryuh) or instructors, who once they finish
their training in the Spring of 2021, can give extensive
introductions, short courses and retreats to newcomers, hopefully
mostly at live locations rather than the internet. These people are
from Scandinavian countries, central Europe, UK, Russia and United
States. Out of these 15 trainees most have stable recognition and
some of them lead sessions at our main Facebook page which all are
welcome to join, https://www.facebook.com/groups/pemakobuddhism/
May all beings be free and happy,
-Kim, 27.2.2021
