Contemplating A Shift
Kim: If your deceased relative was a religious person, you should ask the founder or highest ideal of that religion to take the deceased person. In the case of baptised christians, for example, practicing or non-practicing, you should say a sincere prayer to Jesus, Holy Spirit or God. Then observe what happens or doesn't happen. As yogis we should make sure that the prayers work. Lip service is never good enough.
As buddhists, we are often given the advice to ask Amitabha, the buddha of light, to bless and help deceased people, and it is a good advice. However, I recently made an observation that it is best to pray and ask blessings from the figures of the religion that the person in question is familiar with. As christians, for example, are familiar with the face of Jesus their subconscious mind accepts and receives the blessings of Jesus easily, without any problems, while the face and energy of Guru Rinpoche or any other guru or archetype, such as Amitabha, that the person is not familiar with is rejected. This happens simply because the face is foreign, in other words, there is no karmic connection. We can speculate about this and say that Amitabha is not an archetype but our own true nature but this isn't exactly true because Amitabha is both an archetype and the nature of our minds. When we talk how we can help people who are dead or who are ill, for example, we need to understand that it matters who we pray to even if all gurus and deities are expressions of the same nature of mind. Meditators know this but non-meditators don't.
Recently I was in the following situation after I moved to a new building. The building where I live is mostly for senior citizens and as one might imagine there is lots of illness and even the energy of death in the building. I sensed this during the first couple of days after my move and like I always do to clarify stale energy, I chanted some Guru Rinpoche mantras into the building and the habitants to do some cleaning. I could sense that the building was affected by my prayers but the habitants weren't so I took a moment to observe why that was the case and I realised that the subconscious minds of the habitants are unfamiliar with who GR is. Once I realised that I turned to Jesus and asked his blessings which worked instantly. It blew through the house and everyone in it like a fresh Autumn breeze. This made me realise how precious the christian baptism actually is because it creates a fortunate karmic connection between the one who is baptized and Jesus, who is a fully attained mahasiddha. As I've long contemplated the suitability of tantric buddhism or the lack of it for the Western audience, this experience again spoke in favour for presenting yogic teachings in the West with Jesus as the head figure, rather than any foreign figure who the vast majority of locals have never heard of. Anyway.
I wish much love, light and blessings to your deceased relative and pray that his journey continues lightly and pleasantly in the guidance of great masters who he knows. Much blessings to him.
Karl:
Lately I’ve been thinking about whether the
establishing of Budehism or a Christian renaissance would be the most
effective answer to the general degeneration of the West.
I used to think that Buddhism would gain a solid foothold here, but I’ve come to doubt that. Perhaps secular Buddhist practices, but they don’t seem to work very well in realising the actual purpose of Buddhism, to say it the least.
Also, if the law of action and reaction holds true in a conventional manner in society, we should soon see a mass reaction to the secularisation and subsequent deconstruction of traditional Western values. I’ve come to believe over the past few weeks that a revitilisation of a living Christian faith will be at the centre of that.
Anyways, just sharing recent thoughts regarding this topic, as your post was well timed with my own musings.
Ben K: Very interested in this conversation. My question is, though, ok pretend we want a new revitalized Christianity: how do you fit all of these effective tantric practices into that system? I just don't see how to do it without the rich lineage of mahasiddhas that all contribute to buddhist tantra being so effective. I mean look at how weak hindu tantra is today, because most of the lineages are dead now, even though they had all the same techniques (and more probably) that the buddhists have. But they lack the living lineage...
Karl: I guess it must be possible seeing that there are (seeming) accounts of rainbow body attainments in Christianity too (as well as in Hinduism and Daoism).
Also, a tantric system essentially only needs one mahasiddha to bring the juice into the practices, whatever form they would take.
And if, hypothetically, a Christian tantric lineage would manifest , I don’t see why other mahasiddhas wouldn’t support it, as long as it works.
That being said, I have no idea how it would look other than having Jesus at its centre, so I am just thinking out loud here.
Ben E: My own two cents is that anything too rooted in religions of the past will bring too much associated baggage into the future.
Something that avoids being boxed in as a religion would be ideal. The way a martial art is not a religion but a way of living.
Robert: Would you say a secular, more "sciency" approach to end our existential suffering could serve that rebound in the future too? What I mean is that I'm seeing a general belief in scientific methods to solve all our problems as rising in the collective mind. Which for all intents and purposes I think is a good development, but I'm curious whether those methodologies could ever serve for our existential liberation as well. I know the positivistic discipline of modern psychology already hosts terms for Atiyoga, Open Monitoring and Shamatha, Focused Attention (perhaps there are more), and studies are made upon these; what are their effects and so on. There's nothing to say tantra couldn't be observed and documented in a similar fashion, not to say the entire path through the bhumis could be studied scientifically. So the question is if repackaged ancient methods, stripped of their history and cultural context, if the data is significant, could gain momentum as a vehicle for mental health in the modern world, or are we also thirsting for the air of mystery that classical spirituality and religion offers when push comes to shove? So this post turned out way more complex than when I thunk it, but I hope the thought comes across
Karl: Perhaps, but I don’t necessarily see cultural baggage as all bad. It can, as illustrated in the OP, also bring familiarity into the picture.
Christianity is, whether we like it or not, very much a part of the Western psyche. In most descripitions I’ve come across of near-death experiences of Western people, for example, some form of Christian narrative is presented. Though, not in a dogmatic or narrow-minded way. And these are not from people who perceived themselves as Christian prior to the NDE, but mostly atheist.
While that is anecdotal of course, it does suggest (to me atleast) the importance of tradition and familiarity with regards to spirituality.
Ben E: I see your point. Although there are plenty of religions in the US besides christianity, such as judaism (where I come from), islam, and hinduism. I think the people who will take up spiritual practice in earnest don’t necessarily need something familiar to appeal to them.
Karl: Yes, I am overgeneralising when using the term «the West», but still, according to The 2020 Census of American Religion, 70 % of Americans identify as Christians. The numbers are very similar in Europe.
As for the latter point, I’m not so sure if categories sparking karmic affinitity are not necessary. Perhaps for some some people it is not so important. For myself, however, the familiarity with (originally Machig Labdron, and later) Guru Rinpoche and Yeshe Tsogyal, definitely helped propel my practice forward and past the initial doubts.
I’m not rejecting the idea that a non-traditional, non-religious approach would work well, I just don’t presently see how it would deal with these issues.
Kim:
Here's my further thoughts about this.
First of all, Jesus
was not and is not a christian, i.e. a follower of christian
religion. If I think about a method leading to full enlightenment,
centered around Jesus as the master, (like I've done countless times
by now) I don't associate it with christianity at all and therefore
would not present this method as a revitalised form of christianity.
My personal experience of Jesus is what matters the most and this I
would like to give to all those who know about Jesus but don't know
him due to various reasons. The biggest one of those reasons is
christian dogma and lack of contemplative know-how within that
tradition.
Having said that even the most basic christian
practice of prayer is in the style of call and response. If you call
for Jesus's blessings, it is there instantly to be felt and received.
This is what in yoga and tantra is known as tantric guru yoga.
Contemplative christians, who are a minority among christians,
practice tantric guru yoga with Jesus and other saints, and have done
for ages.
It is true that there has been many christian
contemplatives from the desert and orthodox traditions who attained
what in tantric buddhism is called rainbow body. This is known as
resurrection in christianity. View and practices to attain what Jesus
is said to have attained has been kept secret but what I'd like to do
is to explain Jesus as a master yogi and his attainment, and his
example that all us can follow, to others.
Many years ago I
was asked by my master to collect bits and pieces of wisdom practices
and put them together in a system that people could practice. Now, we
have it all figured out, the whole path from unawakened state to full
enlightenment, but the problem is like I stated above that this
teaching, now known under the buddhist banner of Pemako Buddhism,
doesn't reach people effectively enough, and it is yet to be seen who
any type of buddhism takes foothold in the West. I took this rebirth
voluntarily to try to make a difference but even after 13 years of
teaching full time, I spend most of my time alone when I would want
to connect with many people and instruct them how they can become
free. That is really the only thing I want to do but it is clear that
if I remain under the banner of tantric buddhism, completely foreign
to the vast majority of Westerners, this will keep imposing limits on
my work and consequentially at the end of the day benefits will also
be limited, when they needn't and shouldn't be. It actually feels
against me to stay in this situation. I feel that it is my own true
nature that is pushing me for change.
Secular teaching is not
my thing but I think that the spirit of pragmatic dharma would go a
long way with a method where Jesus was the main master. There is so
much misinformation and sheer absence of knowledge of views and
practices, results and attainments in christianity that it is a mess,
so many people don't have even basic view and knowledge that
something could be done about our sense of being lost or having no
purpose in the world. In Pemako method we have pragmatised both the
view and the practices, results and attainments and the effectiveness
speaks for itself. It would not be much different with Jesus as the
captain.
Jesus was a yogi who practiced with masters,
received many transmissions and as a result had great compassion
(bodhicitta) and attained full rainbow body. It is not possible to
attain rainbow body without (tantric) transmissions, including
atiyoga, which is why he must have had (tantric) masters. There you
have it. Explaining this in pragmatic way and offering a method that
would empower one to achieve the same as Jesus would have great
potential in this world. There is not a single person here who
doesn't know who Jesus is.
