Insults from One's Teacher

 

Insults from One's Teacher

This is true but to be clear. Many teachers insult their students to point out their issues to them. I don't do this. If you do your practice, you can't avoid your bananas coming up. True, sometimes people don't realise that they have a dark night or that they are very angry but pointing this out to them is very different from insulting them to have the subconscious stuff come up. I am sure some teachers like this kind of "pointing out", by insulting them and it is good to ask why but I think that if one needs the practice, to solve one's existential problems, then you'll do the practice and persevere it, no matter how rough it gets. If the student is not ready, on the other hand, they'll quit and find some easier practice. That I would have to go into all this and start insulting my students on top of everything else, I don't think would be that helpful and would just be something extra for me, the teacher, to do. I have faith in the Four Noble Truths and our Pemako method.

Kim, 9.7.2021

If you listen, I got you - Training Teachers and Instructors of Mahasiddha-style Yoga and Tantra

 

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

About Empowerments and Practice of Tantra

 

About Empowerments and

Practice of Tantra

Question: May I ask about empowerments; I was listening to one teaching from Garchen Rinpoche a while back, it was an Yamantaka empowerment. Is the general idea that its not recommended to take empowerments from other teachers than Pemako let alone to practise that/those deities? Thank you

Kim: Your question concerns *tantric* teachings and empowerments.

You can take all the empowerments you want from anyone you like and practice what you wish but few things you need to know.

1) for someone who is still a beginner, having more than one teacher will make one's head spin, i.e. one can loose clarity regarding direction because it is like trying to travel on two boats at the same time and 2) due to slight differences in subtle energy between lineages, if one does practices from more than one teacher/lineage on regular basis, there might be some subtle friction, sort of like food that digests poorly, in the system. I speak from my own experience and remember Sivakami telling me of some of her students who started making good progress with her teachings that then deflated when starting second practice at the same time. The nervous system is simple in the sense that it cannot be tuned into more than one musical key at once.

Point number one I've seen quite a few times in my teaching career, that beginners minds get confused about direction when they try to follow two (or more) teachers at once. There is an old saying about digging wells, that to find water one should dig deep in one spot rather than dig many shallow holes. Same thing with practice. I think that especially in the US where there is a lot of selection, people dig shallow holes and consequentially don't make much progress.

There are some good teachers out there, such as Garchen Lama, so I see no problem in joining teachings and *receiving* empowerments as much as you like. However, keep in mind my second point. Whether some teachings from separate lineages match or not, you just have to test yourself.

I have joined many teachings over the years both live and online but I have purposefully avoided receiving empowerments from lamas who I didn't feel a click with. Empowerment also creates a karmic link with the teacher so I haven't wanted to create otherwise unnecessary karmic connections with lamas who I am not excited about, and also because most vajrayana teachings/empowerments come with rules and regulations aka samaya, that usually is strict. Because of these reasons I have not taken that many empowerments from living lamas. I have of course received hundreds of them from dead lamas 　

As a teacher of this sangha, I highly recommend all to do some reading on whatever you wish to read and if you wish to join whatever buddhist/spiritual/psychological events/retreats you might be interested in, go ahead. But please understand my motive in saying that. I don't wish our sangha to be close minded or attached to Pemako. I don't wish our practitioners to become cultish even in the slightest. At the same time, joining other teachings, you will probably see yourself why I have critisized the established methods so much, so you will understand Pemako and my style of teaching better.

Finally, like I've said, if you find a better teacher and method that bears fruit more effectively than this one, choose that one. This is common sensical.

Tertons: Dharma Treasure Revealers by Lama Tashi Tobgyal

Tertons: Dharma Treasure Revealers

by Lama Tashi Tobgyal,

Retreat master from Raktrul Gompa, Bardor Tersar lineage:

"With regard to Guru Rinpoche himself we have to remember that Guru Rinpoche was, in a sense, even kinder, even more beneficial to Tibet, than Buddha Shakyamuni. Really, there is no difference between Buddha Shakyamuni and Guru Rinpoche. Guru Rinpoche was the direct emanation of Buddha Shakyamuni. But the difference is, for Tibetans, that Buddha Shakyamuni never visited Tibet, never brought the teachings there; Guru Rinpoche did. So all Tibetan Buddhism really owes its existence to the kindness of Guru Rinpoche and the Kashmiri abbot Shantarakshita.

Especially, Guru Rinpoche insured that he would, and has, produced a ceaseless stream of emanations. For example, his best known disciples, the twenty-five disciples, were each his own emanation to begin with: five emanations of his body, five of speech, five of mind, five of qualities, five of activity. And, each of the five [had five emanations] — body [of] body, body [of] speech, body [of] mind, etc. He gave each of them a different set of instructions, predicted their time of rebirth, who their disciples would be, entrusted their particular teachings to particular dharmapalas or protectors, and prophesied those future events that would indicate the time had come to revive their teachings. He provided the specific teachings that would serve as remedies for those particular events or situations and then concealed all of this — the teachings themselves, the prophesies, and the entrustment — as treasure or terma, so that they would survive until the time came for those future emanations to take birth.

These terma teachings are therefore very different from most dharma. They are not the clever compositions of brilliant scholars. In fact, the tertons, the treasure revealers who had discovered them, have in many cases been utterly illiterate, or functionally illiterate, or is some cases merely poorly educated. Yet they were able through receiving, finding the physical texts, and through their visions, to transcribe sometimes ten or even a hundred volumes of teachings."

"Tertons are always challenging to people because they often act unconventionally. And it’s natural, or not surprising, that during the life of a terton people usually think they’re crazy. After they pass away, of course, we all make statues of them and worship them and so on. Or they say, “Well, this is just too much — too many revelations, too many discoveries; this is not possible.” Actually if you learn what they’re really doing and what’s going on, you start to understand that they are emanations of Guru Rinpoche. They seem like ordinary men and women when you meet them, but they’re doing things that are simply beyond our usually experience. For example, they might lapse into a nap for a few minutes and you think, “Well, what is that? He was asleep for two, three minutes.” But as in the case of Chokgyur Dechen Lingpa, since dream time can be very different from waking time, he was able to get detailed instruction on feast dance from Guru Rinpoche and a retinue of dakinis in what for us probably would just look like somebody slumping for a few minutes and coming back out of it. And that’s what they’re doing. They’re doing things like this all the time. And it’s not surprising that we don’t recognize because we don’t it."

God Took Him With The Body by Ivo Kalushev

God Took Him With The Body

by Ivo Kalushev

”Nobody "verify" this kind of result in christian mystical tradition. When after death, they discover that the body is missing from the tomb after just couple of days, they just consider that "God took him with the body also", and they consider this as a sign of his great spiritual realization. That's it. You can find a lot of recordings of facts like this in some texts called "teachings of the olders". I remember a story which impressed me, from such a texts of "desert fathers", about a monk, who came suddenly at a monastery in Sinai, become a monk, practiced the contemplative hesychast tradition very seriously in his cell, without talking almost with anybody, and after some years died suddenly, and his body disappeared from the tomb after couple of days. Even the authors if this old texts asked themselves who was this man, what was his real name, what was his history before coming to the monastery.. But they all praised his high spiritual realization, his great humbleness... At the highest stage; the practitioner will experience "the Uncreated Light" continuously, without any break, even in sleep, and here they acquire all kinds of extraordinary power: levitation, extraordinary knowledge, etc. But the essential characteristics of this advanced practitioners/saints is the overwhelming love, and the extraordinary capacity to sacrifice themselves for anybody, (with great joy!), a deep humility, and (the essential aspect) the continuous experience of "Uncreated Light". There are hundreds of example like this in the history of orthodox Christianity. But what impressed me the most is the fact that in the texts which records this facts, there are also a lot of references at a strange phenomenon: sometimes when a great saint like this one died, his body was impossible to be found in the next days. This is a very known phenomenon, and it is considered a clear sign that the realization of that individual was so complete, that "God took him with the body" also.

Tibetan buddhist nun who attained small rainbow body in 2016.

Tibetan buddhist nun who attained small rainbow body in 2016.

In Bulgaria, where I come from, in the Eastern Orthodox tradition there are numerous instances of what appears to be the lesser rainbow body among the early isihast mystics. The body shrinking to the size of an infant is considered a very common sign of spiritual accomplishment and these remains are preserved in many, many monasteries throughout the land to this day. Anyone can go to the Rila Monastery to see one of the most famous remains of St. Ivan Rilski, but the same goes for many other places and for Greece too where many such remains are also kept. On Mt. Athos presumably the isihast practices are even still preserved and practiced, although generally not in the monasteries but only by the hermit community in the caves. The knowledge of these shrunken bodies was very common when I grew up. It was even taught in school as a normal part of the Orthodox tradition and everyone was very comfortable with the idea as everyone had seen these relics as they are all over our monasteries. I have seen them numerous times when I was a kid. Almost every major monastery has one - either a full body or a limb, or fingers, etc. They are all the size of an infant. The isihast tradition was very deep, they practiced only in caves, the teacher-disciple connection was of paramount importance and it was all oral transmission. From what I heard during my childhood they definitely had some thogal-like practices using postures and light."

See also: Bodily Dissolution in Dzogchen, https://openheartopenheart.blogspot.com/2019/10/bodily-dissolution-in-dzogchen-by-fr.html

Lama Glenn Mullin: Ordinary People Cannot Practice Dzogchen

Lama Glenn Mullin: Ordinary People Cannot Practice Dzogchen

”Mahamudra I think is easier for the West. Just sitting in meditation and noticing the natural flow of the body and how it has natural joyful quality, play of the universe. Form is emptiness, emptiness is form, sitting between those two, can be a way of generating great bliss and so forth. These four mudras (samayamudra, karmamudra, mahamudra, and dharmamudra) often are put in reverse order in terms of who is qualified to practice successfully. In other words, ordinary people don't get much success from, much benefit from mahamudra or dzogchen practice because they're not wangpo rab (have maturity from previous lives). They can't sit between form is emptiness, emptiness is form in a way in a very stable way or conscious way. Once they go into very deep meditation everything just sort of flows into nothingness... like a sleeping marmot. So it's very difficult I think for ordinary people, meaning those who don't come with full trunk of good karmic forces from previous lives to have much success in mahamudra or dzogchen, in my opinion.” 
- Lama Glenn Mullin, Guru Viking Interview, Ep 19, 56:00.

I agree with Lama Glenn that people who might have sincerity, devotion and effort in trying to remain in the natural state, are unable to do that. I've seen it so many times how practitioners and lamas who try to practice dzogchen meditation, are actually unable to remain in the natural flow. Karma plays a part in this but as Open Heart teacher, my view of this is also different to Lama Glenn's. Eleven shifts in perception or bhumi openings, as we call them, enable anyone not only to have a brief recognition of the natural state but to rest in it without time restriction. We accomplish this mainly through Two-Part Formula and Dynamic Concentration, combined with tantra. 30-40% of our sangha has reached this stage. On some retreats where the majority of participants have reached this stage, group practice is like being in Pure Land of buddhas. I have not seen anything like this in any other sangha that I have trained with or visited. I would be curious to see a traditional lama witness our group meditations.



-Kim, 10.10.2019

Transmission - Heart Of All Buddhism

 

In this text, I will discuss the topic of transmission in buddhism, particularly from the point of view of dzogchen but also sutra and tantra. I was inspired to write this after I read Tahlia Newland's blog entitled, Can you get a Dzogchen Transmission from an Unrealised Teacher?.

Since 2017, Mrs. Newland has discussed abuse and problems in Tibetan buddhism, especially those related to Sogyal Lakar (Sogyal Rinpoche) and his Rigpa-organisation. Her above linked text discusses dzogchen practice in very much the same way I have in many blogs and talks, so I felt like offering my take on these essential questions that do not concern only dzogchen but are to all forms of buddhism, and other approaches. For full presentation by Mrs. Newland, I recommend reading her original text. Questions presented here are from her text. 

 

Comment: I would like to begin my comments by expressing my deep sympathies to abuse victims of Sogyal Lakar and his former followers. I wish that all involved may heal from their traumas quickly, for liberation of all sentient beings.

 

My own experiences cannot be compared to those accounted in the letter by Sogyal's senior students but I have also experienced psychological abuse as a student of a certain person, who had authentic lineage of tantra. I have not talked about this publicly, nor mentioned the name of this abusive guru. Despite of my relatively short association with this person, in 2007-2009, as a practitioner with no first hand experience of insight and high respect towards gurus and their traditions, I was psychologically abused badly enough for me to experience high anxiety, stress and fear for several months. I could speak about this extensively but here it is sufficient to say that it was highly unpleasant. Later, I understood that I found my way out because of my commitment to ethics of dharma, namely honesty and non-harming, as well as because of Bodhisattva Vows. 

 

Positive side of my experience as abuse victim was that it completely shattered by blind faith towards traditions and their authorisations. Until then I believed in all kinds of nonsense from this yogi and other sources such as books. I believed in what I now see as unproved miracles and fairytales. I thought very highly of dharma heirs, titles and traditions; all the external prestige, but due to these events, it all came down. I no longer blindly believed anything about dharma and I started to think for myself. I could say that these negative events, set my feet on the path of pragmatic dharma and has had a huge impact on my work as the founder and head teacher of Open Heart Sangha. 

 

I wasn't happy when the outbreak happened but I am happy about it now because it brought me to a place as a practitioner and as a teacher, where I wouldn't be without it.

Question: Can you get a Dzogchen Transmission from an Unrealised Teacher?

Comment: To answer this question, we first need to understand some basics about meditative experience and especially those of spiritual transmissions. I will first discuss blessings and transmissions from the perspective of sutra, tantra and dzogchen which, according to buddhist teaching, all are valid ways to attain buddhahood.

Sutric Practice

Blessings and transmissions are all over spiritual, yogic or dharmic practices. All spiritual paths have the element of transmission in one form or the other. All buddhists paths do too, even if they don't discuss them. What do I mean with blessings or energetic charge in the context of sutric buddhism? With blessings and transmissions I refer to a very basic element in buddhist practice that I have witnessed in all buddhist events that I have ever gone to.

In sutrayana, regardless of vehicle, blessings come through daily prayers. Daily prayers; such as mantras, dharanis or sutras, have a hidden aspect to them, which is the energy or blessing that the prayers carry. Refuge prayers, where Three Jewels are mentioned, as well as Bodhicitta prayers and Dedication of Merit all carry tremendous charges. The energetic side of prayers makes the air become thick with blessings wherever they are practiced. It is also very much the case with chanting the names of lineage masters.

All buddhist prayers carry blessings and since all buddhism is based on the Three Jewels: Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, everytime prayers are exercised, it offers practitioners an opportunity to receive them, to be used for practice.

This is a gift offered by the buddhist tradition, founded by Shakyamuni Buddha and followed by numerous dharma ancestors. While I have witnessed this energetic aspect of practice in the practice of all yanas of buddhism, with only one brief exception, I have never seen it be pointed out by teachers. For several years now, whenever I have joined teachings, I have witnessed the charge without people noticing and connecting to it.

If the experiential energy of blessings is pointed out, then it can be effectively used for practice. However, in most connections the charge is never discussed about, verbally described or pointed out. Consequentially, this prevents students from getting and using it.

It is important to understand that blessings through basic buddhist prayers are available to everyone anywhere. They are not kept away from practitioners, except by one's ignorance of it. This aspect of buddhist practice is hidden but completely out in the open for anyone to receive. Unfortunately very few teachers discuss blessings or transmissions properly and because of this, blessings that could be received and experienced in one's own body, mind and heart, go unnoticed and are unused.

If practitioners of sutrayana began to recognise and absorb the blessings of their prayers, it would make their practice more effective and enjoyable. We would see more psychological change and openness of mind in practitioners who adopted this way of practice.

Tantric Practice

Tantric practice is typically marked by energywork in the form of mantras, breathing exercises and visualisations. Tantric practice also typically discusses energy centers and energy channels of the energy body which is nonphysical. Myself, often when explaining tantra to beginners simply describe it as ”energywork”.

Tantric lamas give empowerments of different deities, practices or texts. At the event of empowerment, the lama says prayers, such as those mentioned above and generates a charge through whatever mantras, visualizations and mudras that are connected with the particular practice. Even if tantra is all about energywork and energetic experiences, which are based on the same principles of shamatha and vipashyana meditations known in sutrayana, I have never heard but one lama briefly point out blessings and the energetic aspect of empowerments or tantric practices.

Do the students then receive the empowerment of the deity? Although they don't consciously recognise the charge, their subconscious mind receives it. This means that recognition of the deity, which is an archetype of the natural state, does not happen at the moment of empowerment. Through practice on one's own, one gradually gains the recognition.

What I have observed as a vajrayana teacher, is that if blessings and transmissions are discussed and pointed out for the students from the beginning, it makes the progress of the student much quicker than without it. Riding the energy of buddhas and bodhisattvas, also makes one's practice very enjoyable and fulfilling because consciously recognising, receiving and experiencing the energy of Guru or Deity is a very pleasant and enlightening experience.

As silly as it sounds, all that is needed to fix the problem of the energy not being recognised is just to begin to become aware of it and stay with it in meditation. Just feel it.

Dzogchen Practice

The main practice of a dzogchen practitioner, is to return to the recognition of the natural state, remain in it and let whatever emotional or psychological issues arise and self-integrate into the natural state. This is the dzogchen way of practicing shamatha and vipashyana, or in Tibetan, shi-ne and lhak-tong.

As Garab Dorje has defined in his Three Statements, dzogchen path begins with the teacher pointing out the natural state for the student. This simply means that the teacher remains in the recognition of the natural state and shares it with her or his student, so that she or he can recognise her or his own natural state, know oneself as an enlightened buddha. This is what empowerment means in dzogchen. Here, the student is required to understand that she or he needs to receive the pointing out, just like blessings could be received by practitioners of sutra and tantra. If the student doesn't know this, it is very likely that she will keep missing it many times, even if the pointing out is given by a great teacher. This can be understood through the below quoted example, narrated by Lama Pema Chophel:

”A few months ago, one of my teachers told a story about a well-known khenpo. This is relatively contemporary, like in the last 20-30 years. Sorry, I forget the khenpo's name. This Khenpo had received pointing out instructions many times from many great Dzogchen Gurus. He had also received the oral transmission and commentary for numerous Dzogchen texts which he had studied assiduously. However, after many years he still hadn't "decided on one thing." It could be this or it could be that. Maybe it's like this; maybe it's like that. Finally he was at his wits end and he went to yet another Guru where he broke down and cried, sobbing uncontrollably. Explaining to the Guru his situation, the Guru suggested that they say some Vajrasattva mantras together. Then they sat in meditation and suddenly certainty dawned in the mind of the Khenpo.”

 

As it was mentioned above, buddhism teaches that there are three paths to full enlightenment. These are sutra, tantra and dzogchen, also known as the path of atiyoga. Now, as I have explained, each of these vehicles have the component of blessing or transmission in them.

In their quality, blessings of sutric prayers are not different from those of tantra because the Three Jewels and Bodhicitta are the body, mind and energy of the buddhas. In the same way, tantric practices of deities and mandalas are not different from pointing out given in dzogchen. Each of these paths deal with the very same principle of buddhanature of all sentient beings, including mine and yours. From this point of view, even if it is missed by most, all of buddhism is abound with pointing out of the natural state.

Finally, it needs to be said that even if practitioner has the know-how to recognise and feel blessings, transmissions and empowerments, they are not necessarily able to recognise the full scope of it. We need to understand that even if buddhanature can be momentarily glimpsed and we can have insights or shifts that stay with us, the experience of buddhanature is something that has tremendous scope, flavour and depth. Even with one shift of perception (bhumi opening), we can see buddanature and even though it is same for all, the experience of it is very different to someone who has had many major shifts and established rigpa as one's default state. This description is very fitting. Through a keyhole we can see the view on the other side of the door in some extent but if we remove the whole door, the view becomes much better seen. And further, if we remove the whole house around us, again we see the view in a very different than through a keyhole or without the door.

In this way, in the best of knowledge, I have clarified the meaning of blessing and transmission in buddhist vehicles, including dzogchen.

Perspective of Open Heart

In terms of Open Heart-teachings, one will not come to certainty of one's natural state until one has had 11 bhumi openings or major shifts. This is what Garab Dorje means with his second statement. At this stage, natural state becomes one's default mode and whatever is left of karmas and samskaras, are then integrated back into one's true body. Over third of our present sangha has reached this stage. When one has opened all bhumis and perfected several of them, certainty about one's existence as empty awareness embodied and expressed through one's bodymind, is how one lives. This is Garab Dorje's third stage. After certainty is gained, one keeps practicing until every bit of one's mind is merged with the natural state. This is how one becomes completely free.

The original question was: Can you get a Dzogchen Transmission from an Unrealised Teacher?

Basically, no. Pointing out of the nature of mind can only be given by someone who is familiar with that state. Therefore, someone who is unrealised or unfamiliar with the natural state does not abide in that state and hence, can neither pass it to others. Considering Garab Dorje's three vital points, someone who has not only recognised knowing awareness or rigpa, but also has unshakable confidence in it, who has no uncertainty about her or his buddhanature, can transmit the mind of great perfection to others, although then again it is questionable if the receiver gets it.

It needs to be understood that dzogchen transmission is not just any energetic transmission. Those who do not understand this and who have no yogic finesse, can easily confuse gross or even samsaric energies and think that they have received and recognised the state of great perfection, when they in fact haven't. It is necessary to understand that buddhist transmissions and enlightened energies have immense depth and delicacy that cannot be perceived if one's mind is gross and clouded, even if all sentient beings have buddhanature. Dzogchen transmission is all about subtlety.

Although generally in Tibetan vajrayana energies of deities are clean and pure, and therefore lead to buddhahood, sometimes even leaders make mistakes and deities that have been made part of the method, later need to be banned. I am mentioning this just to point out that to gain certainty of practices and transmissions, one needs to undergo indepth training.

Is There A Way To Measure Someone's Realisation?

- Open Heart Bhumi Model

In the question there appears the term unrealised. In general, the level of realisation of dharma teachers is a highly interesting topic for me.

I have discussed the levels of realisation of buddhist leaders publically and in retrospect I have regretted that because not all were as ready to ask this quite central question, like Mrs. Newland and her dharma friends as ex-members and students of Sogyal Lakar are. Few years ago, when I published my studies of the levels of realisation of various buddhist leaders, I was harshly critisized, simply because few were willing to consider the possibility that well known buddhist leaders might not be as highly realised as it is generally believed.

Nevertheless, in Open Heart Sangha, we still use the so called Open Heart Bhumi Model as our path map and as well as a meter of progress in our practice. I have written a book about it which is available for free so I won't discuss it in detail here.

Central to Open Heart Bhumi Model is the so called bhumi analysis. This is the act of measuring one's own or someone else's stage of attainment or bhumi. Bhumi analyses can be done in person or through photographs. For someone who is proficient in the art of bhumi analysis it makes no difference whether the person is present in person or if the analysis is conducted through a photo. Tuning into one's own or someone elses bhumi centers, that pop open along the degrees of emptiness insight, are sensed through subtle perception. After several hundred training analyses one begins to see and sense whether bhumis are open or closed, i.e. whether or not the recipient has had any, little or a lot of emptiness insight. After few thousands analyses one knows how OHBM works and can trust one's reading skills.

Question: The big issue, however, is the dzogchen teachings because doesn’t a dzogchen teacher have to have some realisation before he can introduce a student to the nature of their mind?

Comment: Above I have discussed the subtlety of dzogchen transmission in relation to the comprehensiveness of emptiness realisation or the lack of it. I would say that the minimum requirement for giving a dzogchen transmission would be to have 11 bhumis (1-11) open. At the opening of 11^th bhumi, rigpa becomes stable, and although it's rainbow like palette of colours is not yet perceived, the knowing quality of awareness is stable. Prior to this it comes and goes. Based on countless bhumi analyses, I can say that the majority of those who teach dzogchen and have authorisation in their lineage, do not meet this requirement.

Question: Could Sogyal, through his devotion for his masters, have had the blessing even without the realisation?

Comment: My answer is affirmative. Many lamas do not teach from their own realisation but from the blessings of their lineages that are always invoked in the beginning of teachings. In my understanding, this was also the case with Chogyam Trungpa who sometimes gave splendid teachings and transmission with great clarity (support from his lineage) but was an addict and abusive monster (his own lack of realisation) at others.

Question: Isn’t devotion a prime key to transmission in dzogchen?

Comment: No, it isn't. This is kind of black and white but devotion and rapturous tears belong to the world of a practitioner, not to that of a vajra master. Mrs. Newland writes that, ”Before he gave dzogchen teachings, Sogyal stared at the images of his masters, his eyes moist with devotion, hands in prayer position. He aroused his devotion and taught from that state.”. This means that Sogyal made himself a channel for the blessings of his teachers and lineage to flow through him. Whether he knew or not, he was channeling his lineage, just like Trungpa did. However, I do not believe that dzogchen transmission can be channeled from past masters without the lama her- or himself being in that state because a nonpractitioner or someone who has low level of attainment, is unable to recognise the subtlety of it. Lesser states of attainment can be channeled and transmitted. This is done by many teachers of buddhism and hinduism.

Question: Was it really the nature of mind? How do we check whether or not we got the ‘real thing’?

Comment: As I have discussed the criteria of dzogchen transmissions, i.e. pointing out the nature of mind and receiving of it, I doubt students could get it without a solid foundation of emptiness insight. An example of this is narrated in the story about the khenpo above.

I do not know which practices Sogyal taught but I would assume that as a nyingma-teacher he taught semdzins, such as A and Phet. If his students learned these practices and exercised them, then the probability of correct recognition, as well as bhumi openings, are more likely.

Question: Yes, the religion says we’re supposed to get a ‘lung’ or oral transmission in order to unlock the power of such texts, but is that really so important?

Comment: Yes, empowerments for texts and deities are important because through the empowerment, the practice in whatever form it may be, reveals the mind of a buddha in the place of one's samsaric mind. However, again, if the charge, is never properly recognised and felt, there is not much use in getting the lung or reading the text. In this case it is all very superficial and therefore, ineffective.

Question: Or is it just another way to keep the gurus employed? Isn’t reading it slowly aloud in your own language better than hearing it raced through at a frantic speed in a language you don’t understand?

Comment: I am of the opinion that the Tibetan vajrayana puts too much emphasis on the role of the lama and that the lama is given so much power that the students do not seem to have much independence. While I think that spiritual mentors and especially mahasiddha gurus are indispensable on the path, vajrayana cannot be effectively taught to masses through big organisations. See Mr. Brad Warner's take on this. I do think that the Tibetan system, like all established religions, are good at keeping their lamas employed even when they are not needed or if they are useless.

Regarding the way of practice, I did a fair share of fast recitation in my days of Zen, chanting in a language that I couldn't understand and without knowing that I was actually chanting. In Zen, there are no reading empowerments, so recitation of texts is seen just as a mean to develop concentration.

While I think that fast recitation can be good to balance slow recitation, I do not see much point in chanting in language one doesn't understand. However, if the foreign text has been learned through empowerment, then the charge gives it a different spin. If the inner energetic meaning is recognised, then it is correct practice. This of course doesn't mean texts in languages other than Tibetan or Japanese couldn't be empowered.

About Dirty Faces

Open Heart Bhumi Model enables us to see how high or low someone's attainment is. With the knowledge and skill of it, we can learn to see beyond words, descriptions, resumes, ceremonies and titles, which are usually the first things that catch the attention of the seeker. I think OHBM is an immense gift for the whole culture of dharma, buddhist or otherwise.

One thing that one learns through doing bhumi analyses is to discriminate between samsaric or dirty and nirvanic or pure energies. For this reason, learning to do bhumi analyses is also a way to see if someone, despite of her or his formal credentials, is a pure hearted practitioner, a charlatan or possibly even an abusive guru. I have thought of publishing my analysis of known abusers, such as Sogyal, Norlha, Namkha, Sasaki, Shimano and others because their faces are marked by dirtiness, arrogance, suppression, selfishness and egoistic power, rather than clarity, equanimity, light, compassion and kindness.

Bhumi analysis not only helps us to see into the mind of past masters but also into the minds of our contemporaries. Needless to say, through establishing Open Heart Bhumi Model and training many dharma teachers and meditators in its use, would be highly useful and beneficial for themselves to better understand their own practice, for example, in the question of dzogchen transmission, but also to seekers who by default should be eligible to truly authentic guidance, given by actually realised teachers, rather than people who have no experience of reality.

Thank you for reading,

May All Beings Be Free,

- Kim Katami, 12^th of August 2019,

Open Heart Sangha,

www.en.openheart.fi

Wearing Medals

Wearing Medals

You take refuge and put a medal in your chest. You become a buddhist and put a medal in your chest. You read a pile of books that makes you knowledgeable and again put a medal in your chest. You wear a certain kind of Oriental garb and put a medal in your chest. You get a dharma name and a title, and oh that medal, it really is something special, so you smear yourself with those ideas like pigs roll in shit. ”I became a student of Mega Rinpoche, the head lama, already back in 1967”. You have that medal in your chest and those with similar mindset, who are as stoopid and ignorant, are impressed and sorry that they weren't first instead. They think you are something to look up to because all the medals you have. Years go by and you end up with an impressive resume and yet you remain more or less that same unkind self-centered asshole you were in the first place. Now, after many years of so called practice, instead of being aggressive, you are merely passive aggressive and as confused as ever about your true being. How are you different from the rest of samsaric beings who take credit and create an identity of their accomplishments? You'd fit right in, in the club of selfish businessmen, politicians, agitators and such who think they are better than the rest and deserve more than others because your mindset is the same as theirs. When practitioners look at you, how could they not feel sorry for you? When buddhas look at you, who could they not feel great sadness?

- Kim Katami, 5/2019

North Korean Generals

Terton's Sexual Misconduct

Terton's Sexual Misconduct

Tibetan buddhist teacher, Chandra Easton, narrates a story of sexual misconduct by an unnamed Tibetan terton. In general tertons, or dharma treasure revealers, have a high status in Tibetan buddhism and they are considered highly attained. Find the full interview here.

”I was raised from age 5 on as buddhist by my mother, who became a student of his holiness, the Karmapa, in the late 70's. I have very wonderful memories of that time and very rich connection to this tradition.

Then in my early 20's. I began to take my path more seriously. I met a teacher in the early 90's, a Tibetan lama who had come from Eastern Tibet, he was a terton, a treasure revealer, very magnetic and powerful teacher. There was a lot of kind of frenzy, ”Oh, this great teacher is coming, he has never come to the West before”. My parents came to study with him, I became a student and received my ngondro, preliminary exercises of how to begin my path, and everything was great.

Then one day I was in his quarters with a bunch of students and the translator, and we were discussing some dharma… All of a sudden from front of the house there was a car crash. Everybody ran out of the room to check what happened. I was getting up to follow them, but the lama said to me, ”No! Stay.”, and beckoned me to him. He was sitting on his bed. I thought, ”Wow. Does he need something? What does he want?”. I went up and he beckoned me closer to him, so I got real close up to him, as if he was going to whisper something into my ear, and instead of doing that he put hand on my shirt and grabbed my breast. I jumped away, pushed his hand away, slapped his hand, and said, ”No!”. He kind of chuckled. I was really flustered and taken off guard and walked out.

At the time, I thought he was a monk. Later I found out he was actually married to a Tibetan woman and had children. That was shocking, it was not OK. Even thought he wasn't a monk that kind of behaviour isn't appropriate, especially for a teacher, to a young woman. I was probably 40 years younger than him.

What ensued for me was very painful because I confided to one of my dharma sisters, one of my friends there, I said, ”Please don't tell anybody but I really need to talk to somebody about this”. So I told her what had happened. She was so upset that she told a lot of people and it caused a huge division in the community.

I was called back to this teacher's room with the translator about a week later. I was still there trying to figure out what I am going to do because my family was still there, I hadn't yet told my mom yet, and I was still wanting to go along, ”Oh, this was just a silly thing” but I wasn't feeling good at all.

I was still there, still involved with the community. He calls me into his room, chews me out, through the translator, and tells me I was ruining his dharma activity, because half of the community has left because how angry they are.

So he is blaming me for quote ”disrupting his dharma activities” for raising money so he can create a big stupa in Eastern Tibet, you know, a shrine, and he is putting the blame back on me. It was very confusing time for me... It made me feel very disillusioned about the path and I almost left buddhism altogether.”

CR Lama's Unholy Style

CR Lama's Unholy Style

James Low talks about his teacher Chimed Rigdzin Rinpoche, also known as CR Lama:

"My main teacher is the late Chimed Rigdzin Lama, also known as CR Lama. He was a married lama who lived with his family and, when I knew him well in India, he taught in a university. He was a great scholar, a very powerful person, and he was not at all holy. He was very ordinary in his way of life. His qualities showed themselves without his making special claims about himself. In the lineages of Tibetan Buddhism there are many different styles of practice. Some lineages display themselves as being very pure and holy; that is to say, they set themselves in the domain of the sacred and create a mood which is separate from ordinary life. When you encounter that kind of setting you have the opportunity to experience something which is not like ordinary existence. Such settings tend to be ritualised and choreographed so that everyone knows their place and what they are, and are not, allowed to do. My teacher was, however, very much in ordinary life. He was very fond of university politics, supporting his friends and attacking his enemies. This is not holy activity. But oh, so very pleasurable! For many years I was his secretary, and I had to write, on the basis of his special English, very insulting letters. In order to enter his world I had to let go many of the assumptions I held about how to live in a proper way. In the end, in order to practise, we each have to find a style which is in harmony with the energy of our potential as it responds to each unique setting in which we find ourselves. Being in the mandala, or environment, that Rinpoche created was very disturbing, and yet it was also liberating. It opened the space to see that our world is indeed a construct of our beliefs and assumptions. Freeing ourselves from relative truth, from truth based on comparing and contrasting, involves a leap of faith. Encouragement to make this leap was Rinpoche’s wondrous gift."

Authenticity of a Buddhist Teacher

Authenticity of a Buddhist Teacher

Unfortunately being an "official dharma descendant" in far too many cases seems not to be a quarantee of someone being a good teacher. Formal authorisation is often the first thing a buddhist wants to know of a teacher in question. People often seem to think that teachers are somehow very special or ”out of this world” in some way. It is silly how far this sometimes goes. But buddhism is not actually ”other wordly” or ”amazing” in some mystical way. Buddhism is about human suffering, the confusion that we all experience. A teacher should be an honest person who has something useful to share with others, whether it is something very basic for beginners, something more advanced or very advanced. Sometimes it seems that buddhist teachers are expected to be special or great in some miraculous way but honestly, the vast majority of all buddhist teachers out there are more or less samsaric beings. This should affect the way we view our teachers. Just because someone is a specialist in some ancient dharma method might not mean much in understanding how to eliminate existential suffering (dukkha) or even how to be a good human being.



Just like in all other religions it happens in all schools of buddhism that "lineage holders" cause suffering to people close to them because they are momentarily blinded by their self-delusion. Horrible things happen when a samsaric being is given too much attention and power. I don't know that many teachers who without formal authorisation say they are buddhist teachers but the few cases I know are saying useful things due to thinking "outside the box" of traditional buddhist education. Of course there are also those who claim big things but are actually small in their understanding and cannot help people out of samsara. However, what is interesting is that I've seen students of both greatly honoured teachers as well as "fakes" who are not making much progress. Why?

How do we know a teacher is authentic if authorisation is not a quarantee of quality teachings and the student's progress? What are quality teachings in the first place?

Quality dharma

Buddhism is about 1. recognising and illuminating suffering through becoming aware of it and through that 2. recognising the natural state, one's own buddhahood. As a functionable spiritual path, buddhism comes down to both sudden awakenings and gradual practice. To enter the Way, like Shakyamuni and numerous others before and after him, we need to get insights, awakenings (kensho, shinjin), and through regular practice grow in awareness, buddhanature, until none is left.

Although I have never met a person who practiced and followed authentic or inauthentic teacher and didn't make any progress (purification of mind) I've seen numerous people who practiced with top teachers and even after decades of practice didn't get awakened, didn't have any irreversible insights, although might have had other impressive experiences. I think this is a problem and also an indication of the concerned teacher's and lineage's (lack of) knowhow. The only way to buddhahood is through insight.



Honestly, I think that if this bit is missing the whole path becomes questionable. It is the irreversible insights that matter the most because with each recognition of the natural state a chunk of self-delusion drops off. If practitioners are not having insights it is an indication that something about the teacher or the method is not right, although the teacher might be a nice person and his tradition might somehow be very impressive.

I am certainly not saying that one single kensho or even a few of them is everything there is to buddhist path, of course not. All I am saying is that regardless of the particular philosophical view and a practical method of any buddhist path, it is the insights into the selfless nature of mind that matters the most to anyone out there because havings insights means growing in true existential freedom, devoid of suffering (dukkha).



But like I said above I've seen so many people who have done years of practices, numerous retreats and have been instructed by their teachers on regular basis and yet are not having initial or consecutive insights. This I consider to be an indication of inauthenticity of the teacher and the lineage whatever the teachings are. This is what I understand when the Dalai Lama says that genuine disciples make genuine teachers.



In buddha's grace.

Pema.

About my masters and Sivakami

Kim wrote:

Hello D,

Traditions, yeah. I have a bit mixed feelings about long traditions these days. When thinking about the number of only buddhist lineages, not to mention others, existing today, which are numerous, I am not that convinced of their ability in keeping teachings alive. There is so much useless baggage.

I've studied with about 3 dozen teachers and masters, both in and out the physical body, but my main teacher who really got me started, after a number of years when I hit my head into patriarchal zen, was an American housewife, a liberated arhat and a mystic of very high caliber. Her name was Sara or Sivakami and she was very private person. She left her body  in 2010. She got her initial transmission from Yogananda's student back in 1976, when she was 36 or 37 years old. The second time she sat down to practice those techniques she had learned, she spent 10 hours in immersion and during the next 4 months that same kept happening everyday. It was tough on her body as her mind was completely transformed, all her personal karmas burned. So, she got her initiation from a physical teacher in a lineage (which by the way was started 3 generations earlier by a non-physical master called Babaji) but after that initial samadhi streak, she started having non-physical teachers and masters visit her both when awake and when asleep. Lama Thubten Yeshe, after he left his body the previous time, was one of them. He offered Sivakami to take his teachings but she kindly refused because she was never that keen about the buddhist vibe. She was pretty much a heavily meditating bhakta all her life. She also had the fortune to witness on two  non-physical masters appear in physical form to her. One of them was Babaji known from Yogananda's book, and the other one was a shaivite master called Thirumular, the author of the famous Thirumandiram, a shaiva classic. So, anyway through her initial contant through Yogananda's disciple, something clicked and she started meeting all these masters from many traditions in astral form. It sounds pretty wild... but to me what she later passed to me were of true quality... compared to teachings that I've received from many lamas or gurus alive today. Her mind and teaching was juicy and fresh, delicious. That freshness didn't come from a tradition that had been kept alive for centuries in a physical form but came from these non-physical mahasiddhas, mostly Babaji and Mular.

So it turned out later that I also had a karmic link to these masters who asked Sivakami to teach. It was her who re-initiated me into this congregation of masters which in turn enabled me to initiate my work, part of which is about helping people get awakened. Like I've said before I didn't learn the two part method that I use when guiding people from any living teacher. It came to me intuitively, a memory from past lives. Later I read they use the same formula in some lineage of dzogchen... So fast forward to this day... I've studied, worked and received transmission from many non-physical masters, yogis and buddhas. I felt for years that I wanted to find a rinpoche or some lama to study with but I don't feel like that anymore because buddhas in the physical are so extremely rare. So what all these traditions out there can offer is quite limited and rarely of superb quality, I feel.
I didn't mean to babble and sorry for keeping so long but I just wanted to say this as "traditions that keep the teachings alive" don't always mean "just physical".

Kim Katami
18.1.2016. 

Open Heart, www.openheart.fi