Tantric Methods Compared
and Amrita Shakti
As I've mentioned in my recent posts here and there, I've gone back fully to "hindu tantra". I actually feel a bit disrespectful towards my gurus by using the term "hindu tantra" because it is far from what is should be called but anyhow you all understand me better when I say hindu tantra.
I realize now that there are but 2-3 people in the sangha who practiced hindu tantra with me before 2014 when we shifted to buddhism. So I wonder if I should clarify what I mean by hindu tantra, and that of course is impossible to do by words alone. Y'all need experiences to understand what I'm talking about. Heck, it actually feels weird now that only few of you have been with me longer than 8 years.
Anyhow... hindu tantra (as an internal method) is all about the light body or rainbow body as tantric buddhists call it. It's all focused and geared up for this ultimate goal of all spiritual accomplishments, and there are actually many mahasiddhas (who I know, many more who I don't know) who have attained it, as Padmasambhava, Garab Dorje and Vimalamitra who are the three greatest masters of tantric buddhism. So, based on my experience of countless guru yogas and transmissions given to me by hindu mahasiddhas over the years, I can say without the slightest doubt that the real and original purpose of hindu tantra was to help adepts to attain full light body that at death would be marked by the physical body disappearing over a period of days. This is exemplified by Jesus's and Ramalinga's (Vallalar of Chidambaram) stories for example.
The core problem of the hindu yoga and tantra method is now and was back in Buddha's time the same: to get stuck in intoxicating bliss. There are different kinds of blisses that we as practitioners can experience and that the texts mention. There are gross, subtle, subtlemost and pure blisses. The problem is that without removing dualistic self-centered ignorance the first three blisses will inevitably keep the practitioner bound and shackled into a loop. This was both Buddha's as well as my problem. I meditated as much if not even more than young Shakyamuni did, sitting in different types of blissful frequencies (that now are called jhanas in theravada) but kept coming back to self-based ignorance after meditation sessions. So, without emptiness insight, the first three blisses will definitely keep one imprisoned and one will plateau in practice. Many have wrongfully commented that such blisses are "awakening" or "enlightenment" and that one only needs to remain in such states for extended periods of time to be "enlightened" but this is all wrong. The idea that one would need to remain in a special "state of meditational bliss", that obviously is in dualistic position in relation to other states, to be enlightened is completely off, or at least it is not the enlightened state of any of the masters I've met and I've met many, many times.
Without self-based karmic junk in the machine, life energy (prana) becomes pure and flows throughout the system smoothly. It is beautiful and I pray that everyone who reads this attains it. At this stage all the three blisses and their pitfalls are gone forever. At this point you cannot and won't experience gross states of bliss anymore and therefore cannot get caught in them. At this point the fourth kind of bliss -sahajananda - starts to become active. This "spontaneous (sahaja) and natural bliss (ananda)" is the bliss of the natural state itself which is depicted as pure rainbow light radiation in tantric art. In your subtle there will be beautiful rainbows radiating when you reach this point. Your energy starts becoming very soft and fresh, and people who meet you feel like they've been on a holiday after they spend an afternoon with you. In Pemako, giving birth to this rainbow phenomena of the enjoyment body (sambhogakaya) is supported and speeded up not only with basic prayers and relative bodhicitta but with visualizations and deities of the 12th and 13th bhumis, namely Kunzang Gyalpo, Dechen Gyalmo, Vajradhara and Saraswati. And with hindu deities, because like I said they really ramp up the speed of the process after emptiness (sunyata) has been realized. Because of this I have given Dasha Mahavidya, the Ten Great Wisdom Goddesses, empowerment to my students. Because they have finished wisdom practice, they reap benefits from this hindu tantric practice very quickly, and it is really at this point where the treasure of hindu masters begins to be revealed.
Over the past roughly 1500 years buddhist tantra has developed into a thing of its own. It has developed its own feel, tone and character, and it is wonderful. We could say that buddhist tantra as we know it now was made what it is because the lineage holders made decisions and created policies. It is natural to create policies and it is common maybe you could say even inevitable in all systems but defining ourselves and our practices as "buddhist tantra" necessarily leaves something out from the table. What was left out from the table of tantric buddhism and dzogchen was the ramped up fourth bliss that the hindu masters had.
It is a fact that both hindu and buddhist masters have attained full light body and as a sign of this accomplishment left no physical remains at the time of their departure. But, as my students know from many of the practices that I have taught them in the form of Rainbow Body Yoga for example, all practices can be made more efficient and powerful if the principles are well understood. So, long story short the problem of buddhist mahasiddhas is that as they don't have the ramped up fourth bliss, ramped up sahajananda, on their table, only very very few of them reach full light body that would make the corpse disappear. If we call this ramped up fourth bliss energy with the name of Amrita Shakti, lit. power of deathlessness, it is proper.
Based on what I have partially experienced, based on tantric transmissions that I've received, Amrita Shakti connects the nonphysical mind with the physical body and its cells very effectively and the experience of that... is incredible. If you ask, I can gladly transmit this to my students because words fall short.
The point of my long post is that there are tantric technologies to deal and speed up everything, including how one can directly hook up enlightened mind into the physical animal body to transform it into pure light. Some of you have picked this up and felt it from my recent photos. I have not yet completed my practice with deathlessness but well on my way.
Many blessings! You are the real deal.
Kim Rinpoche, 19.4.2022
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| By Jason Steyn |
