Holy Trinity as Our Own Identity

 

Holy Trinity as Our Own Identity

Since 37 years ago I have studied Eastern methods and practices. For over 20 years I have spent my life in full time practice and the past 15 years teaching professionally. I have understood and figured out everything there is to know about buddhist and hindu practices and paths and none of it is no longer a mystery to me.

Recently I have felt the calling of God, not christianity but God and the Holy Trinity. I feel and hear this calling because just like buddhism and hinduism there is much mistaken in christianity that has spread into people's minds and lives with the outcome that they don't really get relief and spiritual benefits from the christian religion.

I know it from my own experience. I was baptized into orthodox christian church as a baby, went to church as a child, went to literally at 14 and discussed the doubts and questions I had about life and existence with priests, church workers and teachers of religion but was left with same doubts, and actually even added contradiction because of the way some priests talked about God and Jesus. Those unanswered questions and contradicted atmosphere lead me to look into Eastern ways and so I have spent my life practicing.

Through those years of studying and practicing buddhism and hinduism, and becoming more and more awake, I intuitively understood that Jesus was a yogi and that he has been greatly misunderstood and misinterpreted for the past two thousand years. I learned from some fine works from christian contemplatives, supported by my own experience of yogic meditation, that there are basic mistakes in the way christianity and its practices are presented and taught. This is the main problem that has created the gap between people and church and thus also between people and God and Jesus which is greatly regrettable. Because of this people, whole nations and cultures, have lost the light of their very own life and being so disillusioned about religion they want nothing to do with it. This is only understandable to me because the way how God, Jesus and prayer is taught feels so wrong.

About the Holy Trinity

God is the spirit in all beings. God is the spirit which is always pure and good. God is our own heart and soul. There is no God sitting somewhere on the clouds commanding people to eternal damnation and hellfire. God neither judges us. God is the pure good in everyone of us. This is no different what awakened nature or buddhanature is. God is purity, love and utter kindness in us. If you asked me to choose a pronoun for God, I'd call Him "He". From analytical perspective when you pray to God and feel Him in your body and bone marrow, He feels exactly the same as the masculine principle and archetypal deities of buddhism and hinduism, namely Samantabhadra (lit. basic goodness) and Shiva. I've spent more than 30 000 hours in meditation analyzing these things so I know, and I teach people practices how they can verify these things for themselves. That's what I've always done.

Holy Spirit is the pure energy of God. When you pray for God to bless, heal or come to you, He himself comes as pure presence but also as Holy Spirit, as pure energy that flushes through your mind and body to shift your energies from confusion and pain to clarity and ease. Holy Spirit is God's active side and if I had to choose a pronoun for Her, it's be "She". Again, the same principle applies to both buddhism and hinduism, through Samantabhadri (lit. feminine basic goodness) and Shakti (lit. feminine power). Alternative way to adress Holy Spirit is to call Her the Divine Mother.

Son of God is embodied by Jesus Christ in the christian doctrine and he is presented as the only one who is the son of God but to think that way is incorrect because all of us has been made in the image of God, meaning that each one of us has the same potential of God, Holy Spirit and Divine Child in us, it just hasn't been tapped yet. Jesus is just one example, one embodied person and a master who tapped His innate potential.

One big problem with christian doctrine that affects countless people of the world is that with its basic views it condemns us to stay deluded and in pain, though it tells us to turn to God. The thing is that the closer one gets to Holy Trinity, the clearer it becomes that the Trinity is in us and is us. Through direct experience we can and need to grow to understand that God and the Trinity are not separate things, that we are not in dualistic position with it. Actually, we can realize and experience without any weird ideas or weird features that the Spirit of God is our very own essence and that there is no separation between oneself and God.

Again, there are very weird views about God that he judges and condemns sinners but we should forget all these and start fresh,accompanied by our first hand experience. Union of oneself with God means that one is no longer bound by the delusional belief of believing oneself as a separately existing entity called "me" or "I" but understands that the original purity, kindness and love which is selfless is what and who God is. It is the selfless pure nature of God that flows through our whole being which is what God and God's nature is.

May the Pure Spirit of God descend on you to show you the light that is in you,

Baba, 2 9 23

Amrita Mandala

 

 

From Beginningless Past to Endless Future

 

From Beginningless Past to Endless Future

I remember how I had breakfast this morning and I remember what happened yesterday. I remember my childhood and I remember my youth. I remember the time before I was born into this body and I remember how I had no physical body before this reincarnation. I remember my last life before this one, in Northern India, and I remember the live before that one in Japan. I remember my time with Padmasambhava and I remember many lives with different masters. I remember being a seeker and master myself, alternating my role from one life to the next. I remember over 7000 lives in a human body and I remember the time when there were no human beings on Earth at all.

We all have a beginningless past and we all have an endless future. Life continues and never ends. All of life is marked by the same aliveness. "All of life" is an endless vast whole happening right now. This is our body, though we are centered in these small bodies of ours. All of life is pure and sacred, and all life is equal. Everything is truly pure and positive. In this goodness all things and beings rest, from the beginningless past to endless future.

This is the love we are.

Kim, 11.10.2021

Goals and Goal-orientedness in Pemako buddhist practice

 

Goals and Goal-orientedness in 

Pemako buddhist practice

Every now and then someone sends me a message saying that Pemako practice seems so ”goal-oriented” as if we were aiming for some special experiences. I'll put this into a proper context so that you can understand what goals and goal-orientedness in Pemako means.

In Pemako practice, we have the so called ”bhumi openings” and ”bhumi perfections”. Bhumis (lit. ground) are areas or fields in our mind, i.e. the subtle body made of energy channels and centers, where any kind of awakening/insight/enlightenment experiences happen. The reason we speak of the 13 bhumis in total and purification of the 10 bhumis is because this is a specific way to understand and to apply practices. Because of this knowledge about the subtle body; that there is a chronological continuum from beginning of insight practice (opening of the 1^st bhumi), then consecutive openings (openings of 2^nd to 13^th bhumis), then completion of purification (perfection) of each of these bhumi fields in chronological order from 1 to 10; all this is actually a clear map how it all works. And actually this applies to every type of training system, not only Pemako. So, what we have in the 13 bhumi map is a clear and solid path map from unawakened state to full enlightenment.

As a teacher and founder of Pemako, I put a lot of emphasis on teaching my students about the distinction between self-based mind of confusion and our basic state, or buddhanature. I point this out on all retreats and the reason for that is that practitioners need to know what their buddhanature feels and tastes like. They need to have it pointed out so that they gain confidence quickly. But in our system pointing out instructions given by the teachers is really just a safety valve because our practices enable recognition of the basic state very easily and quickly.

What does all this have to do with bhumis and goals?

If you ask me, there is no other practice in buddhist yoga except to recognise ourselves as fully enlightened, awake and aware beings. In zen, some masters say the same thing that there is no other practice but kensho (lit. seeing one's true nature). The way I teach is that I explain to my students how each technique, be it prayer, mudra, visualisation or anything else makes this recognition happen, so that they know how to do their practice correctly. Not knowing this is, in fact, faulty practice and largely a waste of time.

When with the help of yogic exercises, purposefully and not accidentally, we make our buddhanature appear and its recognition takes place, this is all there is to it in all of buddhist yogas. This moment of the recognition of the basic state is unlike any other kind of experience in all of existence, and that is why the recognition of oneself as a fully awakened buddha has the power to eradicate our self-based existential confusion.

So, what bhumi openings and bhumi perfections are, are moments when our buddhanature shows up and is recognised fully. These bhumi events are so called cessations, widely discussed by all buddhist traditions. Cessation of the mind means that the self-construct that causes confusion and existential pain, ceases to be for some period of time. Even if it lasts for only just few seconds, it leaves a permanent mark in the mind, in other words, a notable bit of the ego-construct becomes untangled and deconstructed. Again, this is what buddhist yoga is all about. This is how we come to know ourselves.

So if we do practice correctly, as a sign of succesful practice, we inevitably have recognitions of the basic state, recognitions of ourselves as buddhas, that is, bhumi events. On the other hand, if our practice and view is incorrect this sign is absent and our basic state remains foreign to us.

So when you hear our sangha members speak about this, they are talking about the signs of correct practice. That's all. This is actually universal not only to all buddhism but to all types of methods. This is because the basic state is the same in all beings, regardless of spiritual or religious denomination or interpretations. You either know yourself or you don't. You are either accumulating first hand experience of your basic state or you aren't.

So on the surface you might think that ”oh those Pemako folks just focus on achieving some momentary goal” but actually we put focus on the correct understanding of practice and then the signs of succesful practice, bhumi events, come automatically.

In us there is perfect purity and freshness, clarity and sobriety. Discover it.

Kim, 9.8.2021

About Readiness and Basic Principles

 

About Readiness and Basic Principles

We start with no confidence at all in who we truly are because we don't know who we are. However, my style of dharma is entirely tied and related to practice, that is, actual recognition of our true being, and in this way we start coming up with confidence little by little. In a year or two your life will change altogether because that recognition becomes stable.

However, to some people, for various reasons it can take longer to stabilise the basic state. Some are not ready when they come to pemako and for this reason they can't really understand how buddhist meditation works and how tantric meditation works. This is a sign of having not enough "merit" which means not being ready, not having realised that the pain is inside or heads and hearts, that it's not anywhere outside. Anyway these students still make some progress, though usually slowly.

If your progress is slow, openings and perfections come slowly, the problem can definitely be found from 1) not understanding the four noble truths and/or 2) not having developed genuine bodhicitta. Of course poor health can make progress slow (or very fast) but that's another topic.

So those who feel like practice is heavy or hard should contemplate the 4 nt's and bodhicitta. If they still don't hit one's heart, then I think it is better to stop practicing because practice will only just make you feel worse by making subconscious negativities and self-based habits come to the surface but if you don't know and cannot practice correctly, you'll just project your negativity to those around you.

People who have this problem don't often realise how much chaotic energy they might be bringing to their teacher, the sangha, their families or even work environments, so this is something we all definitely need to contemplate because not only we might be making ourselves feel like shit with our wrongly directed and motivated practice, but we might be making others feel like shit too, and that obviously misses the mark entirely.

Those practitioners who are ready, have merit, have grasped the meaning of the four noble truths even before hearing about them. I mean that ready students know that the suffering is inside us, in our minds, in our self-delusion, and that spoils life for us. A good practitioner remembers this always and uses all opportunities, day and night, for being and becoming aware of the endless negative and small-minded forms and ways the small self takes. The difference between unripe and ripe practitioner is in this alone: a ripe practitioner uses the self-based stuff for practice while an unripe practitioner thinks that the problem is somewhere outside and so begins the endless complaining and conflict-making. This is the reason why teachers and masters of old didn't take students unless they tested their ripeness. They were very smart to do that because 1 or 2 unripe students in a sangha can create hell of a lot of problems for others.

In a sense, a good practitioner is on guard at all times and especially when the subconscious negativity hits the fan. Together with bodhicitta and understanding of the practice and the path, alertness and vigilance, is the formula that takes us all the way to perfect freedom, unshakable stability and firsthand realisation of the buddhanature. There is no doubt about that.

The secrets are in the basics. Although there are great differences between methods and vehicles, all of dharma is based on the same principles that are shared even by other religions than buddhism. So, all secrects are in the basics.

The reason why the word secret is often used is because for someone who is ignorant of the basic state, the reality of oneself and all things remains a hidden secret. It remains a secret because we are deluded but to undelude ourselves all we need to do is grasp the basics. Knowing the most basic theory and practices from inside out will make you a master, a living buddha, who is a living embodiment of bodhicitta. It is all so simple. 

 

-Kim, 4.8.2021 

Buddhanature in Inner Martial Arts

 

Buddhanature in Inner Martial Arts

Oskar: What are these qi gong exercises for? Any spesific yogic purpose I mean? (Comment to this video).

Kim: Hi Oskar⁠. I come from a tradition that combines dharma practice with martial and fine arts. But I realise it is very difficult for me to answer what would be the purpose of it. Well, there are common reasons, like learning to unify the body and to move with a unified body. This alone is a tremendously rewarding learning process and we can all understand what is the benefit of learning how to use and carry our bodies well aligned. You don't learn this from only doing sitting practices, nor you learn it from Western sports. From the purely physical perspective, Alexander technique is somewhat close to what is done in (specifically) Chinese "inner martial arts" but what is done inwardly in Chinese arts, that knowledge is entirely absent in modern sports and forms of exercise whatever they may be. The result of this can be seen how (fit) people carry their bodies, how people jog and so on. There is no inner structure, no inner composition or understanding how the body could be used in optimal fashion.
​
⁠Regarding the internal aspects of what I am doing on the video, I wriote this few days ago: http://openheartopenheart.blogspot.com/2021/07/doing-nothing-just-stand.html
​
⁠What you are seeing on the video is atiyoga from one perspective of mind, while simultaneously using dynamic concentration (active mental pushing while doing the pushing movement). Here from the point of view of mind, the basic state and the action of dynamic concentration (in the form of physical and mental pushing) are of same taste, and not two separate things.
​
⁠Typically active mental pushing, called yi in Chinese, pronounced ee in English (the yi in yiquan, lit. intent), in inner martial arts is practiced just like mindfulness is cultivated by mindfulness practitioners. Mindfulness is always momentary and then you get distracted. Thosewith excellent concentration abilities can remain mindful for as long as they want but this doesn't mean that the basic state would be there as a sort of bedrock. So, to me, merely cultivating active mental pushing (yi) in yiquan momentarily, just like the practice of mindfulness, is incomplete. This is the reason why I spent years in dharma practice stabilising the basic state. Now when it is stabilised, I feel ready and very motivated to give my inner state an external expression, here through this movement. And as you can see there are no “gaps”.
​
⁠To me, all forms of practice have always been about reality and it's expression and this is also of course how Terayama Sensei taught. But even long before that,when I started judo at 7, I wasn't interested about belt colours or competing. It's been a life long haul and now finally, with unshakable confidence, I can focus on inner martial arts and bodywork.
​
⁠I don't know what I can accomplish through this but because I took a vow of trying to bring zen arts to Westerners and people of the world, that is what I will do. 

 

- Kim, 4.7.2021 

We are Pure, Sober and Holy

We are Pure, Sober and Holy

 

Each one of us has tremendous spiritual potential. Essentially and basically, we are pure, sober and holy. After purification, we can perceive ourselves as bright balls of light that radiates joy and blessings all around us, at all times. This ball of light, our subtle body, is pure and clean, without the slightest dirt of selfishness in it. The same goes for our physical body. It is basically holy, pure and divine, every cell and muscle of it. We can glimpse that this is a fact and we can actualise this basic nature of ours through proper practice. All we need to do is remove the dirt that hides it.

-Kim, 2.6.2021

God - Selfless Brillance

God - Selfless Brilliance

Angie: >I seem to be picking up that you perceive monistic nondual consciousness to be a higher state than unitive consciousness. To my knowledge, this idea of “ascent” is not held by the Christian contemplative tradition in the sense that one does not “ascend” in relationship but rather grows closer and more open to the Beloved. (Note the unitive rather than monistically nondual flavor of that last statement.)

Kim: -To be honest, I don't know who or what God is, although I pray and enjoy Him everyday. In my exp there is no God and there is no me either and yet it is not a state of suffering and confusion. Technically, I could describe God as: Buddhanature* + Love = God. I use the term buddhanature as described by tantric buddhists, namely mahamudra and dzogchen. I couldn't help myself but blurted out implying that my view is higher. No matter what I do, I cannot help making myself an ass... Anyhow, what I try to convey is that in terms of nonduality which basically means less of me, there is great depth and potential to be set free. As I said, I am not enlightened but in my exp God is not an experience who someone or even God her- or himself experiences. In my exp God is simplicity of being, clarity imbued with love without conceptual labels or interpretations. Everyone of us is free to have our own truths and interpretations, perhaps how I feel my life to be at the moment in day to day life could be termed, not as union or connection, but as selfless (nondual) brilliance.

How Zen Buddhism Can Be Bettered

How Zen Buddhism Can Be Bettered

In this text, I will use Hakuun Yasutani Roshi's instructions on just sitting, as a source for commentary of my own, where I present an idea how the training paradigm of zen buddhism, could be greatly enhanced. For those not familiar with Yasutani Hakuun Roshi, a rather famous figure of Japanese and Western Zen of the 20^th century, I recommend reading his Wikipedia page.

Yasutani Roshi's instruction of shikantaza, or just sitting, are from the book ”On Zen Practice: Body, Breath and Mind” by Taizan Maezumi and Bernie Glassman. You can read this chapter that I will quote and comment below, from here. I would ask the reader to read his instructions carefully, to be sure that with my comments I am not mispresenting him.

Quotes from Yasutani Roshi, with added comments.

Yasutani: ...I will briefly explain how to practice shikantaza... This is the key to practicing shikantaza... Casting all sorts of self-centeredness away and making yourself as a clean sheet of paper; sit, just firmly sit...
In doing shikantaza you must maintain mental alertness, which is of particular importance to beginners - and even those who have been practicing ten years could still be called beginners! Often due to weak concentration, one becomes self-conscious or falls into a sort of trance or ecstatic state of mind...
When you thoroughly practice shikantaza you will sweat - even in the winter. Such intensely heightened alertness of mind cannot be maintained for long periods of time. You might think that you can maintain it for longer, but this state will naturally loosen. So sit half an hour to an hour, then stand up and do a period of kinhin, walking meditation.
During kinhin, relax the mind a little. Refresh yourself. Then sit down and continue shikantaza.
To do shikantaza does not mean to become without thoughts, yet, doing shikantaza, do not let your mind wander. Do not even contemplate enlightenment or becoming Buddha. As soon as such thoughts arise, you have stopped doing shikantaza...
Sit with such intensely heightened concentration, patience, and alertness that if someone were to touch you while you are sitting, there would be an electrical spark! Sitting thus, you return naturally to the original Buddha, the very nature of your being.



Kim's Comment: In his instructions, Yasutani quotes Dogen (see the original text), to indicate what shikantaza is. However, Yasutani's take on shikantaza is clearly different to Dogen's, because his instructions describe ”intensely heightened concentration”. Anyone who has studied vajrayana buddhism, and its clear expositions of meditation practices, can see that Yasutani confuses concentration practice or cultivation of one-pointedness (skt. samadhi, j. zanmai), as it is termed in zen buddhism, with effortless buddhanature sitting, which is what just sitting is. He confuses effort-based heightened concentration or heightened attention, with knowing awareness.



Yasutani: Then, almost anything can plunge you into the sudden realization that all beings are originally buddhas and all existence is perfect from the beginning. Experiencing this is called enlightenment...



Kim's Comment: Here, Yasutani describes how ”anything can plunge” the practitioners into ”sudden realization”, or kensho. This is where he unknowingly explains his erroneous pedagogy of just sitting. In the above bits, he gives instructions of sitting with high alertness, that can only be maintained for short periods of time, until it loosens. This is a classical description of samadhi meditation, which as many zen stories depict, is shattered by some sight, sound or event, which makes one see one's true nature (j. kensho). In a nutshell, Yasutani describes concentration practice of heightened intensity that is then plunged or shattered, which makes the natural state appear, to effect an insight, and he calls all of this with one term, that of shikantaza. This is where the pedagogical mistake is, for heightened concentration, or heightened attention is not the same as kensho, which is a synonym for shikantaza. For this reason, there is a significant difference between Yasutani's and Zen master Dogen's instructions.



Yasutani: In short, shikantaza is the actual practice of buddhahood itself from the very beginning - and, in diligently practicing shikantaza, when the time comes, one will realize that very fact. However, to practice in this manner can require a long time to attain enlightenment, and such practice should never be discontinued until one fully realizes enlightenment. Even after attaining great enlightenment and even if one becomes a roshi, one must continue to do shikantaza forever, simply because shikantaza is the actualization of enlightenment itself.

Kim's Comment: In correct buddhanature sitting, there is no beginning, realization or diligent practice. In correct shikantaza, there is no effort, nor distraction, such as drowsiness, to a slightest degree. I offer my further comments. 

 

Samsaric beings, such as myself, have two kinds of minds: one bound by confusion (samsaric mind) and the other one free (buddhanature). The way to illuminate the samsaric mind and its many traits, in Rinzai-style of zen buddhism, is to focus strongly and keep focusing strongly (samadhi), for in some cases several years, until some spontaneous event from outside occurs, breaks the samadhi, and in consequence, the practitioner momentarily sees his or her buddhanature. What happens with concentration practice, is that one becomes focused, instead of being distracted, while at the same time, establishing calmness of the mind. This is how it ideally is, but in some cases strong concentration, carried over a long period of time, can also create great health problems. For this reason instructions like this, without learning how to relax well, can be altogether counterproductive. In regards to strong sitting, I find it questionable what is the benefit of this for older people, from middle-aged and older, who many are already calm and in general have less vitality than younger people.

Being concentrated is in a way, being self-immersed, self-indulgent. Because the mind is restless and distractive, it requires a lot of training to be able to create a samadhi, a state of complete self-immersion or absorption. In rinzai zen, the logic is to create this samadhi which when it is accomplished, will be automatically smashed into bits by a sound or a sight, such as view of mountains, red Autumn leaf falling from a tree, barking of a dog, sound of rain, seeing of a flower or a yell of a zen master. The main point here is that the cause that shatters the samadhi, never comes from the mind of the practitioner him- or herself, because the mind is in samadhi, in a state of immersion, without thought. In tantric terms, the cause that generates kensho, always comes from outside of the practitioner's energy field.

In my view and experience, as well as those of my students, it is not necessary to generate samadhi first. I have discussed this in Rethinking Zen and Kensho, which mentions how the whole process could be made more efficient, through dynamic concentration. In the instruction above, Yasutani speaks of dynamic concentration, done silently, actually at a medium, rather than high intensity.

If the reader is not familiar how concentration is used in Open Heart, as in Tibetan dzogchen, we use short sharp shouts, like short vocal explosions, to cut through the many layers of the mind, to access and recognise the natural state. This is not unfamiliar to zen buddhism where teachers and students yell to each other, or in some lineages have shouted MUUU! for hours on end to have kensho.

The main difference between medium and (truly) high intensity focus is that with short explosion the desired outcome, that of recognition of buddhanature which is kensho, is accomplished in few seconds, while with medium concentration it takes a lot longer, for the above mentioned reason that one constantly gets distracted. Medium intensity concentration also needs to be fed with energy which makes it demanding of vitality and can even ruin one's health, as in the cases of young zen master Hakuin, and my own, for example.

It is a simple fact that the process of samadhi can be bypassed, while prioritizing the recognition of buddhanature. The essential point is that it is not through concentrative focus but through many kenshos that one becomes familiar of one's buddhanature.

Thank you for reading,

- Kim Katami, 10.12.2018

Helsinki, Finland.

In my book, available free of charge, I have given detailed instructions about dynamic concentration and its effectiveness, What's Next? On Post-Awakening Practice.

See demonstrations of dynamic concentration, playlist here.

Rethinking Zen and Kensho

Rethinking Zen and Kensho

There are many examples of zen practitioners, both monastics and laypeople, who experienced seeing one's true nature, or kensho, first by cultivating one-pointedness (skt. samadhi, jp. zanmai), and then shattering that one-pointedness through various spontaneous or purposeful ways. What happens when one-pointedness becomes shattered is that one's mind shifts from self-based and self-experienced concentrative calm, to one's natural state, or buddhanature.

I have questioned the necessity of cultivating samadhi because, from the point of view of having kensho, it seems quite useless, that takes a lot of time and effort to come up with. While from one perspective being mindfully concentrated is better than being distracted, neither of these conditions are the natural state, that is, kensho. Thousand hours of concentration on one's breath or koan is little, based on queries and observations, and still it is not certain that kensho will happen. All in all, it is very unreliable. The good side is that it needn't be so.

Buddhism teaches that all sentient beings have buddhanature, so the question is how can we most effectively access this buddhanature of ours, instead of remaining in our samsaric state? If we managed to recognise our natural state correctly, on regular basis, we'd be glimpsing and familiarising (kensho) our buddhanature all the time.

In my view, the reason why kensho zen is near to extinction is because training in samadhi has taken the place of prioritising kensho. It's all backwards. If recognition of one's buddhanature was prioritized, we would instantly see a change in our sanghas and in the whole zen culture.

The thing is that in order to have kensho, we need not cultivate samadhi. We need not go through the hardship of learning how to concentrate but by the means of dynamic concentration (pg. 21 in What's Next? On Post-Awakening Practice) can access the natural state as soon as we utter a sharp shout. In this way we can bypass samadhi cultivation and save a lot of time and energy, while inevitably having one kensho after another.

Thank you.

-Kim Katami

Open Heart Sangha,

www.en.openheart.fi