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lauantai 8. huhtikuuta 2023

Qi, Prana, Chakras, Dantiens?

Qi, Prana, Chakras, Dantiens?



J: Babaji, I hope I'm not disturbing. I was wondering in your experience, what the differences are between Qi and Prana as well as the Chakras and Dantiens.When you have time, love to hear your views and experiences.



Baba: Hi J ? Not disturbing at all, the opposite, always pleasure to chat with friends of the path. Aha, yes. You're discussing about different frequencies and systems of the subtle body. So I'll give it a go ?


In short, there is frequency and corresponding energy related to nadis and chakras. In all hundreds of thousands of nadis, that creates the aura, there are two different aspects. The inner core of all nadis is always pure and the nadis connect directly with the four dantiens in the gut, heart, head and the two extreme ends of the vertical energy pillar that extends 5-6 meters up and down from the body. The second aspect of nadis is where most of the karma and samskaras are stored. These are stored on the outer layer of all nadis. So, this system consists of nadis, chakras and what in systems influenced by taoism are called dantiens.


Then there is frequency and corresponding energy related to meridians. The meridian field covers the insides of the whole physical body and it is the closest energy body to the physical body and its organs. Meridian field is also grossest of the energy bodies.


When all bits and pieces; chakras, nadis (their outer layers) and meridians are cleaned, they all connect with dantiens (or amrita kshetras) to create a mind that is in its natural state and body that rests in its natural state. Mentally/psychologically nondual and also physically nondual.


If you're interested we just had a chat about this with my heart student. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_TCjJT-Dh0


What are your experiences?


Many blessings,


Baba, 8 April 23


keskiviikko 22. helmikuuta 2023

Put your faith in spiritual masters, while studying with teachers

 

Put your faith in spiritual masters, while studying with teachers



I understand that faith towards one's/your teacher because I was once there myself. In my case blind faith which is the wrong kind of faith shattered because the practice just didn't give the sought results.



I've seen so many people turn solely to their living physical teachers and turn away from nonphysical masters such as Jesus, Babaji or Padmasambhava, even when they never needed to choose either or. Well, in some cases like yours your religion prohibits you from turning to other masters but even if it didn't, people still make that choice. It's been said over and over by past masters that their help and blessings (that are immensely powerful) are available to anyone at anytime and yet people keep missing that precious opportunity and stick to their partially awakened teachers and lineage holders instead with very limited results. It is one kind of dharmic stoopidity. What is mindboggling to me how most people get stuck and agreeably fixated with their less than enlightened teachers like little babies to their mothers without the slightest ability of common sensical thinking. Even committed practitioners get attached to teachers of this world just because they think it is automatically a better option but that is completely wrong. 



There are all the samsaric realms inhabited by countless sentient beings. The only ones who are free from samsaric mind and samsaric rebirths are the mahasiddhas, the genuine gurus and attained master yoginis and yogis. So, you have all categories of samsaric beings who are bound by their karma and their self-centered delusions and then you have mahasiddhas who are free and fly in and out the realms like majestic eagles. To yogis, to people who study and validate dharma through their own experience rather than dogma, all of this is play.



The mistake many practitioners make that it would be better to put one's faith on the guy or gal who is little or partially awakened rather than to turn to masters who've already left this plane and no longer inhabit a physical body. It's such a rookie mistake because what people are left with is a teacher who is categorically a samsaric being and not a mahasiddha with perfect knowledge and pure energy. Your teacher might be just a little bit farther in your practice than yourself. Such a teacher should be very careful about making rules to her/his students because such limiting actions have serious consequences, plus keeps the progress of the students bound. I am saying that you can have both.



You have a very good connection with Jesus. Cherish it! Make him your compass and you will never regret it.



-Baba, 22 Feb 23


keskiviikko 19. tammikuuta 2022

Asana as Mudra

 

Asana as Mudra



When master yogis, mahasiddhas, go about their daily lives, they naturally manifest the yogic seal (skt. mudra) of the two awakened bodies. These two bodies are; mental body of empty phenomena (skt. dharmakaya) and mental body of playfulness (skt. sambhogakaya). Be it day or night, in peaceful or wrathful circumstances, the minds of mahasiddhas are in perfect harmony and balance. This is the great yogic seal, mahamudra, which entirely concerns nonphysical bodies of man. There is no question about the fact that the foundation of yogic accomplishment is the mind.


In human form, however, seals or mudras can take a further expression of physical postures or asanas. Before delving further into the meaning of asana, the reader should remember that the foundation of all and any type of yogic practice is the nature of mind, in other words, basic wakefulness-kindness-peacefulness. If asana yoga is exercised by practitioners who haven't yet established natural state as their default mode of being and remain in the samsaric state, this needs to be simultaneously adressed during asana yoga by appropriate techniques that enable the practitioner to resume recognition of the two awakened bodies whenever it is lost. Without this, the real meaning of asana as mudra will never be understood as mahasiddhas of the past understood them.


The real meaning of asana is mudra, and the real meaning of mudra is asana. Asanas, regardless of their simplicity or complexity, are physical expressions of the awakened nature of all sentient beings. Also, as is commonly said, asanas are a way to stay healthy and strong. From this perspective we could say that asana yoga is maintenance of our body instrument that we use to live in this world. What is interesting is that contrary to advancement in the yoga of mind*, which is irreversible, one can never achieve a state in physical yoga that would be irreversible. If one doesn't practice asana, be it on yoga mat or in any other form, the condition of the physical body begins to deteriorate.


*purification of mind, advancement in bhumis



Asana as Mudra



A common way that asanas are practiced, is to just do the movements and put one's body into some postures. One tenses, relaxes and stretches the muscles of the body and opens its joints through various applications. From the point of view of keeping the body healthy and strong, this is perfectly sufficient. From the point of view of practicing asana as mudra, however, this is incomplete.


For one to understand what asana as mudra means, one has to meet the following requirements,


  1. have recognition of wakeful nature of one's mind

  2. feel the spontaneous unification of the wakeful mind and the physical body

  3. learn to move the body while recognising the wakeful mind

  4. study the alternation of tensing, stretching and relaxing of muscles while recognising the wakeful mind

  5. realise that there is no difference between tensing, stretching and relaxing of muscles while recognising the wakeful mind

  6. realise that all postures and movements, both in and out the yoga mat, are asana as mudra



I have taught extensively on point 1. how to recognise the wakeful mind so I will simply refer to Pemako-website and youtube, and won't repeat anything here but to introduce this idea, asana as mudra, I will write a bit more on point number two because it is a decisive stage.



Unification of the Wakeful Mind and the Physical Body



All types of yogic physical practices begin from a simple standing posture, known as tadasana or samasthiti. Same is true in Chinese yogic traditions.


The real meaning of tadasana is to have wakeful mind and physical body unified, to study the connection and relation of the two, and to learn to adjust the muscles and joints in a subtle manner that enables staying in this posture for long durations (up to 30 minutes), if so wanted, without any discomfort.


To those who want to practice asanas purely for physical benefits, standing in stationery posture might sound pointless. However, in this stage one makes a wonderful discovery after the other about how the body becomes unified, in the midst of basic wakefulness. One's whole being becomes full of delightful light and subtlest of blisses (skt. sahajananda) often discussed in the writings of mahamudra masters. This stage of learning is demanding because it takes some time and effort to strengthen the internal muscles of the body and consequentially feel unification that can be described as sense of unified relaxed strength, that feels as if the body was weightless.


All right, I think this is enough for now. Feel free to contact me if you have questions. I'm happy to share my understanding of asanas.


KR, 19.1.2022







tiistai 23. marraskuuta 2021

Emotions of the Enlightened Mind

 

Emotions of the Enlightened Mind



Activities that are graceful, heroic, terrifying,

compassionate, furious, arrogant, possessive and

envious all without exception are perfect

forms of pure, self-illuminated wisdom.”

-Sahajayoginicinta, ancient female master of tantric buddhism


The moment I heard this quote, I jumped at joy! It is so spot on! I had never heard other scriptures or authors express this point like Sahajayoginicinta. The vast majority of authors explain how emotions become neutral. I've never seen any other author say how ”furious, arrogant, possessive and envious” emotions, that on the surface sound very samsaric, are expression of ”pure, self-illuminated wisdom”. This statement is really something else!


I didn't grasp this point until I ended my purification process. Before that point I didn't understand how all emotions, including the ones that used to make me contracted around the notion of self, could be self-illuminated wisdom. It sounded wonky and strange! But I see now how a fully enlightened person is emotionally completely free and actually expresses him/herself perfectly in response to prevailing circumstances or arising situations. After all mind phenomena is seen to be without a solid self, a mahasiddha keeps reacting to external circumstances not based on a notion of self but as an appropriate response. Both before and after enlightenment circumstances might be far from ideal and therefore emotions like depression and frustration keep happening both before and after enlightenment but... the difference between the two is great!


I was never attracted by the idea of becoming an etherically smiling buddha who was always fine with everything and never raised his voice. That sort of buddhahood never made sense to me. Perhaps in the perfect world, where the master in question never needs to worry about anything and only has kind and well-behaving people come to meet him, perhaps then it is fitting to have the expression of a peaceful buddha but to me, and I think to most people, that is an utopia.


In the history of vajrayana we have many accounts of wrathful behaviour of mahasiddhas (and this point has also been purposefully taken advantage of by bad teachers). In my experience, the life of a modern mahasiddha is no different.


23.11.2021



torstai 18. marraskuuta 2021

Buddhas of the Future

 

Buddhas of the Future


Fully enlightened people - mahasiddhas - of the future will be normal laypeople with jobs and families. They won't look any different from other people and their lives look the same as everyone elses, though internally their minds are entirely different from those of other people. But isn't it lovely to realise that finally being fully enlightened, being a buddha, being a mahasiddha, looks exactly like you do. Wow!!!


Kim Thubten Lingpa, 18.11.2021

tiistai 26. lokakuuta 2021

Universal Dharma with Jesus, Padmasambhava and Krishna

Universal Dharma with Jesus,

Padmasambhava and Krishna



The last couple of days have been interesting to say the least.



I've been meditating some and found out that my memory is perfect. I can remember the smallest details of life events and places anywhere from my past, including past lives. For example, yesterday, as I was seeing my past life as a monk on Mt Koya in Japan, I could vividly remember the atmosphere and the scent of the four seasons. I can remember everything from my body and outlook, to the light of lanterns in the evening, to the footpaths, to the splendour of life itself, how it was back then, and how it is now... I looked at my hands and feet and the reflection of my face. They look different and yet I know it's me, the same man, the same person. A different lifetime, different place, but the same purpose. Also, my ability to visualise has become perfect. It is effortless and entirely without flaws or distractions. What a delight... What a stunning perfume arising from the wild strawberries!



From a bit different perspective, recent days have made me come a full circle, in a sense. I remember countless times as a little boy, sitting on the edge of my bed alone, praying for my family, the villagers and for all living beings. I remember when doing this by myself the room became filled with the radiance of pure light and the air became thick with blessings. Countless times Jesus and other masters* came to soothe and support me. I remember being a small boy, in my small body in the middle of people and circumstances where there was immense heartbreak and pain. My eyes become filled with tears knowing how my masters from past lives kept me afloat, above the surface that I wouldn't become heavy and sink into the depths of pain.



*those of the mahasiddha family



A number of Pemako Sangha members have told me about their meaningful experiences with Jesus recently. Few received healings from him, one devoted buddhist friend made a connection so strong with Jesus that it made him a bit startled, and he wasn't sure how to deal with it. To me personally, after hundreds of sessions of guru yoga transmission from him directly, Jesus Christ, is as much a master of dharma as Padmasambhava, Vimalamitra or any other of the mahasiddhas. Historically, Jesus lived in the time when the continent of India, from north to south, to east and west was abound with tantric temples - shakti peethas –, practitioners and masters. And then, after years in India, he brought the gifts of yoga to his home land. The rest is history, unfortunately.



Anyhow, my point was to say that I have made a full circle from my early childhood to this day, understanding the role and importance of Jesus in my personal life as well as in the life of my students, and our dharma work together. As you know I have contemplated Jesus-centered method for several years but it dawned on me now that the solution is not to shift from one master to another. What will be done though is to give JC his own place in the limelight, so to speak, together with Padmasambhava, as well as Krishna, to form a trio who've not only had great impact on me and our sangha but who are also known by the world and who are therefore masters who many can relate and feel close to. Also, as a dharma universalist, I love the fact that having these three masters together – Jesus, Guru Rinpoche and Krishna – who most people regard as ”a christian, buddhist and a hindu”, completely shatters religious dogmatism. And that is what the world needs now.



The history of human spirituality is that no matter how hard they tried to keep the teachings ”original and pure”, they always ended up creating narrow minded dogmatic religions. When our basic nature is that of freedom and free expression, the samsaric mind of men always end up making it a tight cage filled with rules and regulations. It is like the classical saying that the way to hell is paved with good intentions. This is what needs to change because, we, the humanity, can't keep fucking up every given opportunity to bringing true peace and harmony on Earth. We need to learn to distinquish between pragma and dogma, between yoga and religion, between practice and belief, and with the heartmind of clarity and true love, keep shedding unnecessary limitations. The mind of men needs to change from thinking in terms of ”us and them” to ”all of us together”. This is true bodhicitta. This is yoga and only yoga can be a true religion that gives freedom, rather than takes it away! So, I think that our little group, should become an example of this and actively practice guru yoga with Jesus, Padmasambhava and Krishna, all three.



Remember, you are the real deal. You are not less or more than all the buddhas and mahasiddhas of the past, present and future. Potentially, you have the mind, heart and vitality of all the enlightened ones! So, please, for the sake of all beings, crack your coconut, split it in half and let the perfume of natural love spread to your loved ones.



-Kim, 26.10.2021





tiistai 12. lokakuuta 2021

Meeting Amma, the Hugging Saint

 

Meeting Amma, the Hugging Saint


Fb memories reminds me that 12 years ago I lived in a private house in Helsinki where Amma, the Hugging Saint, had stayed several times during her visits to Finland. I remember going to this house the first time and it felt like being imported to a different realm, that of incredible joy, clarity and bliss. I lived in that place for few months before going to India to her ashram.


Ah, I another thing I remember from that trip to Amma's ashram is that she gave a blessing to a method of yogic healing that I had learned from my gurus. I gave those yoga healings to clients as my volunteer work there in the ashram. Folks got rid of chronic pains in a single session and so on. Proper stuff.


I used to teach yoga healing too. I've had forms of healing and massage in my life since I was a little boy so all that is very natural to me but as I have focused solely on teaching and practicing tantric yoga for the past 10 years, I just haven't had time to do that. But I definitely want to transmit this art and set of skills to my students. It is a wonderful way to help others, practice active compassion and earn a living all at once.


So, Ammachi... I've spent hundreds if not thousands of hours in her physical presence, since 2003. I've received direct introductions into the nature of mind - darshans - from her from her through hugging countless times both at events and informal situations such as airports and I've sat next to her, literally 1 meter from her, many times until I could not sit no longer. I've had her bless objects to me that changed in energy in few seconds of her attention. I've received a mantra empowerment from her in 2006 and she has given me a spiritual name in 2009. I've had visions of her and I know perfectly well that she is a living and fully enlightened mahasiddha. Unique to her is her motherliness and embodiments of Devi, the Divine Mother. There is no doubt in my mind that she is one of few authentic masters alive in the world today.


I remember one time at her ashram when I went to get a hug from her. I had a shirt on that had a open collar so that part of my tattoos were visible. She started ripping my shirt off to see them better! For a moment I thought I had gotten into a wrestling match with the divine mother! LOL.


Thank you Amma for your compassion and for being there for me and for countless others. Your presence has been an indispensable source of yogic study for me during all these years.


-Kim Ashwin, 12.10.2021 

 



Meeting Zen-master Harada Tangen Roshi, The Old Buddha

 

Meeting Zen-master

Harada Tangen Roshi,

The Old Buddha


Back in 2005, I spent 10 days in Tangen Roshi's temple. I went to meet him right after my training in Sogenji with Harada Shodo Roshi. I chatted with Tangen Roshi, whose nickname was "The Old Buddha", a few times and one of those times took place in a formal setting called dokusan.


My time with him was short but his transmission, the effect of his presence and energy on me, never left me. I now realise that I met a real attained buddha in him, and therefore he was/is the only living buddhist mahasiddha I ever met in person.


Tangen Roshi was a rare exception. He felt very different to all other roshis - zen masters - who I met before or since. He looked different, like a very relaxed and joyful old cat and when he gave talks, he spoke very differently than the rest (many of his teishos can be found online translated into English). I have a calligraphy collection of about 200 works, including one Tangen Roshi's piece that he gave to me when I left. His energy indeed is different to most others.


In this short video documentary you can see him say that even after he's gone, you all can turn to him for support. Only a mahasiddha has the knowledge to being able to say that.


So... This evening I wanted to say this and express my gratitude to Tangen Roshi and my excellent karma to have met him in person. Like I said he never left me, despite of us meeting only in brief over 15 years ago.


He gave and I received. Still grateful beyond everything else for that <3

https://youtu.be/2Wao1x8gCgc?t=45

Kim



maanantai 11. lokakuuta 2021

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

sunnuntai 26. syyskuuta 2021

Living Buddhas in Amrita Mandala Sangha (updated 1/2024)

 

Living Buddhas in Amrita Mandala Sangha (updated 1/2024)



Dear Amrita Mandala Sangha and Friends,



Today I have the pleasure to tell you that twenty-one (number updated 4th of January 2024) people has finished their purification process (bhumis 1-10). In other words, these people have reached what in buddhism is known as ”exhaustion of all phenomena”. In other words, they have attained buddhahood*.


*buddhahood and mahasiddhahood are used synonymously in this text. This refers of realising the emptiness of all phenomena, i.e. attaining perfect wakefulness for the sake of all beings.

 

Read more from Buddhas Among Us - Accounts From Westerners Who Attained Full Enlightenment, downloadable for free from our website.


Face to Face with Buddhanature-video in youtube





Thank you for reading.


Blessings of clarity and love to all,



-Baba

 

See also: 

 

 

maanantai 12. heinäkuuta 2021

The End and The New Beginning

 

The End and The New Beginning



For all my life I've been a spiritual seeker and for all my adult life I've been a spiritual practitioner. I've meditated and done yogic practices about 30 000 hours and taught professionally since late 2008, for almost 13 years now. This project has been a priority and central focus of my life, always basically, and other things including relationships, financial security, other interests like hobbies and other career choices, and even my own family have come second to this. I knew I was making big sacrifices but I had to because I had no choice due to the constant existential pain that I was in. I was suffering of an illness of sorts. It was a struggle from day until night until day, over and over and over.



There is so much, a whole biography packed in the past 42 years. Those who know me closely, my students and close friends know how all this has been both a struggle and a journey of discovering practices and developing a method that has the power to actually smash the self-based confusion no matter how bad it gets. Oh gosh... Looking at it in retrospect, it was a hell of a struggle, loaded with relentless inner and outer obstacles and difficulties.



I feel the need to express how sorry I am for spreading my pain, frustration and anger on others, my students, ex-students, friends, ex-wives and girlfriends. I was in great pain and I could not prevent myself from spitting my poison on others. It was so hard to so many people that I've sworn to never to do what I've done again, in circumstances such as these. I could go on for the rest of the day just talking about the difficulties but that is not why I started writing this little update. Anyhow, I want to apologize.



So, all my life I've been a seeker and for the past 18 years I've been a full time teacher and practitioner. Then came a day when the whole project collapsed because the small self, in all of its expressions, ceased to be. Suffering, the sense of something being off, out of place or murky, stopped. It has been like this for 4 months to date, since my 42nd birthday. There is so much I have already written and talked about this over the years and of course there are the talks and commentaries from people of history so I'm not going to discuss this in depth here. I actually didn't even mean to write about this publically because I started to write about what I am going to say next but what I'm about to say next wouldn't make sense without saying this.


I've never sat in prison but perhaps I feel now like someone who after a long sentence is taking the first steps in freedom. It seems like a different, foreign and a whole new world, not in a woowoo kind of way but because the meaning of my life has entirely changed. I put my focus and energy into practice for such a long time and now when that is not necessary anymore, suddenly my attention and energy are no longer associated with the search. Therefore it's available for something else. With that comes a discovery of all these other things that life and the world has to offer, many of which I skipped or left without attention before. At 42 years and 4 months of age, it feels like my life has really just started. All the spiritual and existential stuff and meditation I don't need to worry, think or do at all anymore, and bloody hell, the absence of them is like a big empty canvas, suddenly waiting... simply available for something to be expessed.



I think I will continue to teach but I think that the way of it will change. I have established Pemako and taught tantric buddhism for many years but I think I won't teach (much) tantra anymore. I have trained and continue to train teachers who can continue teaching Pemako tantra.



Other than that,I don't know what I'll do... Suddenly my old love, martial arts, have come back into my life but I also feel like I might (finally) go to school and study something. Maybe I'll finally learn fine carpentry or study painting. Maybe I'll do something with animals. I don't know yet but all these options have been in the back of my mind for a long time. I'm just here, eyes and ears open, waiting for the most interesting fish to bite the hook.



I want to wish you all well, and I want to thank you for support and friendship over the years.


Kim, 12.7.2021




torstai 10. kesäkuuta 2021

Claim of Attainment by Yuthok

 

Claim of Attainment by Yuthok


Yuthok: "There’s greater merit in praying to me for one year than in praying to other gurus for a whole lifetime; there’s more merit in praying to me for a month than in praying to others for a whole year. Rather than praying to others for a whole month, by praying to me for just a day, one minute, or a mere instant, blessings will come quickly. If this isn’t true, for having deceived sentient beings, may all the Buddhas and their spiritual offspring of the ten directions smash my skull into pieces like shattered plaster.”*


*Chenagtsang, Nida. Mirror of Light: A Commentary on Yuthok's Ati Yoga (p. 27). 978-1-950153-01-5. Kindle Edition.

perjantai 21. toukokuuta 2021

Sangha - The Next Buddha

 

Sangha - The Next Buddha


Many buddhists think about the coming of Maitreya Buddha in the future. It is said that Maitreya is the next great buddha who will come to revitalise the teaching of reality (dharma) when it has deteriorated too much. Maybe this view is right as there has been great buddhas in the past too. However, I like to play with this thought and interpret the meaning of Maitreya Buddha in a different way.


Buddhism has had many problems with guru worship and how our spiritual masters are seen as super heroes with superior abilities, that common people don't have. It doesn't help that scriptures speak about attainments in such aggrandizing and mystical manner.


Anyhow, I think that the culture should grow beyond hero figures, beyond spiritual idols and the community - sangha - should be the next one to become a buddha. The world needs idols and examples but what is more important is understanding that we all have buddhanature and that it can be realised in a single lifetime. 

 


Photo of Maitreya Buddha's statue


This understanding of our potential as well as the methods that would enable full buddhahood without having to spend decades in intensive full time practice. However, even though such methods are rare, they do exist and because of this fact it is potentially possible for the sangha to be the next buddha.


Imagine the world with not just a handful of mahasiddhas (buddhas), but each sangha, or perhaps every other, or at least every tenth(!) sangha with a number of mahasiddhas. Imagine how different the dharma culture would be... How different the world would be... This is a dream, but it could actually be reality.

 

What I mean by this is normalisation or casualisation of buddhahood. Buddhahood brought near and within the reach of any practitioner who is serious about exhausting all phenomena. I dream of such striking pragmatism in dharma that the ultimate attainment, like the very first shifts and stages that are now openly spoken in more or less traditional circles, among many thousands of people worldwide, would be discussed, approached and attained with the same efficacy. This is not that impossible of a task though there are major challenges. 
 
What I know of ancient India and Tibet, it has been similar but I don't think buddhahood has ever been brought as close to (so many) people as what I mean here.
 
But, you know, I'm just a fellow with big dreams without that much of impact to the world culture of dharma... but I'll do my best. The second edition of my book, that I hope to publish at the end of this year or early 2022, will include first hand accounts of a handful of people from our sangha who have attained exhaustion of all phenomena. It will be precise and down-to-earth, without nonsense. 
 
I pray and hope that this simple act will send ripples throughout the world to start an avalanche of true dharma! But you know the world is what it is... 🙂

 

-Kim, 21.5.2021



lauantai 27. helmikuuta 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

perjantai 26. helmikuuta 2021

To Abide or Not to Abide, That is the Question

 

To Abide or Not to Abide,

That is the Question


Few days ago I heard of this man, Dhammarato, a former theravada monk and teacher in the Thai tradition of hinayana buddhism. I like his style and presentatioin very much but here, (video starts at 59:15) he says something interesting in reference to the four stages or paths leading up to arhathood which is the end point of hinayana buddhism. He says that even arhathood is temporary and that it needs to be kept up or it starts going back. I've heard the same thing from Daniel Ingram, who is also theravadin.


See Dhammarato at Guru Viking interview: https://youtu.be/istI9kK1cAg?t=3561


Technically speaking there are two main types of nirvana or liberation: 1) abiding nirvana that is attained by arhats and 2) nonabiding nirvana that is attained by buddhas/mahasiddhas. Nonabiding nirvana doesn't go backwards and there is no more practice to be kept up because all of selfing from gross to subtle to very subtle are liberated. In terms of the 13 Bhumi Model, the first type of nirvana is the perfection of bhumis 1-6, the second one is 1-10. Here you can directly see the difference between hinayana motivation which is self-liberation and mahayana motivation which is to attain full enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. In short, because of this difference in motivation, mahayana practice accesses layers of the mind/psyche that for hinayana practitioners goes unnoticed and because of this, they say that some sort of effort or vigilance is always needed or that cycling continues endlessly, like Ingram has said after his claims of arhathood.


People should know and have confidence that because all beings have buddhanature, pure ever-wakeful and fresh being within them, it is also possible to become one with it, in other words, to remove all of the self-based dirt of the layers of the mind (bhumis 1-10). We should have faith in the words of the past mahasiddhas and use our intelligence to remove all superstitious, grandiose or anxious ideas related to it. We should not let lesser views of either historical or present sources cloud the meaning of the past and present mahasiddhas. We need to take into our hearts the essential point that anyone has the potential to attain buddhahood, full enlightenment, in this body. No one except ourselves and the views we adopt can take that potential away from us.


I bow to all beings with joy and folded hands. I bow to samsaric beings of all types and forms. I bow to angels, gods, sages and beings of light. I bow to all who are making their journey through the four hinayana paths, and I bow to those who have reached abiding nirvana. I bow to mahasiddhas who abide not in nirvana and who have entirely dissolved their self-based karma, for the sake of all beings in samsara.


May all beings be free,


Kim, 26.2.2021 

 

Trevor: I don't know how hinayana practitioners can be satisfied with arhathood. The cycling is not only unpleasant, but it's literally an experience of confusion. It's also pretty damned obvious when it's happening if you're in the habit of paying attention, which they should be!

Devotion to all beings is so clearly the only permanent way out of the cycling, and feels waaaaay better.


Kim: I heard Bhikkhu Bodhi, a famous hinayana translator, shifted to mahayana some time ago, after a lifetime in theravada or started mahayana while still a theravada monk. So maybe some get it and change for a bigger gear but those who don't...


Well, like I wrote, view is everything. If you think it doesn't go farther than that and think that the cycling just continues even for noble arhats, and you don't have the merit to meet mahayana, well then you're happily and ignorantly stuck there, in the state of liberation/nirvana which remains separate from samsara. That being the case, you have no chance to advance in vipashyana to the end of one taste/same taste, the third stage of mahamudra meditation, which is the sameness of samsara and nirvana. That is the theoretical and practical difference of selflessness (anatman) and emptiness of all phenomena (shunyata). We are talking about extent here.


Abiding nirvana is entirely dualistic because of this but without bodhicitta the fact that both samsara and nirvana are empty will never dawn in the mind of an arhat. In a sense you could say that shravakas, those who pursue hinayana path, are taking a break of mahayana and the cost of this holiday is to not have the full vision of reality. Despite of this, you can sense from those who appear to be arhats that they have lots of confidence in their achievement.


Tantric yoga gives us a major blessing in the form of constantly making us feel like shit. Them wrathful deities keep digging out our painful and blind spots, while bodhicitta keeps stretching the subtle body open, like yoga postures do to the physical body. That's the way to buddhahood, if we practice well.


 

maanantai 10. helmikuuta 2020

Pemako Buddhism: Western Vajrayana Pioneers

Pemako Buddhism:
Western Vajrayana Pioneers


Q: I again come to expectations and concepts, how a buddha should be and behave. Like it would be an automation that fully realized buddha would be teaching, doing charity and so on.

Kim: We, Pemako buddhists, are pioneers and the West is the ground where we have arrived to our pioneering work. There has been mahasiddhas before but not outside the cultures of the East (not known at least). Honestly, I think that, we are the first ones on this hemisphere getting close to buddhahood and eventually becoming mahasiddhas in this life, the first ones within just few years from now, based on divinations and the present stage of a handful of our practitioners.


Already for couple of years, half of our sangha members have achieved stability of rigpa or knowledge of oneself as a buddha. I've spoken about statistics and details on many occasion before so I won't get into that here but people new to this should read What's Next? On Post-Awakening Practice, which gives you a clear and practical sense of this, what to newcomers and outsiders might seem like an outrageous claim. So anyway, it's a completely new thing what we do here in the modern West. Also, Pemako Buddhism is the only non-Eastern lineage of vajrayana to exist. There simply are no others, as all existing lineages of tantra have come from Tibet, in most cases. So we are doing groundbreaking work, like pioneers who roam to new lands, build roads and villages for others to come. In the wider perspective of history this has been done many times before but in our time and culture, it hasn't been done.

There is not a single person existing who grew up in the West and became a mahasiddha. I think we might have to go back 2000 years to find such a person in Jesus Christ but since then there has been nobody, although there has been many monks, nuns and hermits in the Christian tradition.

Looking at the present Western world, there is no one out there who had life experiences like ours because no mahasiddha ever grew up and practiced in the modern West. All available accounts and biographies of yogis and masters are all Eastern and if you start reading them, I at least, always found something to relate to but mostly something I couldn't relate to. I didn't grow up in buddhist culture riding yaks, cooking food on fire, living in tents. I grew up in a modern secular society, watching Sylvester Stallone movies, getting drunk in bars as a teenager, experienced depression, anxiety attacks, wasn't married (twice) by my parents and so on and so on.


To live in 21st century wealthy Western society is very very little like the past cultures of the East. Pretty much the only similarity to Eastern people of the past, is existential confusion, dukkha. So, we just have to do the work ourselves and trailblaze, come up with our own stories of authentic seeking, practice and attainment. It would be nice and supportive for us to already have accounts from perfectly enlightened Western buddhas - people who look, speak and are like us - but as that is not the case we just have to do it ourselves. It's been done before in history many many times so in one sense we are not actually doing something entirely new, it's just new in our present time.


One thing is for sure: Buddhas are not gods, angels, high beings or saints. Buddhas are fully liberated of all form and types of selfing, in other words, they have the insight of emptiness of all phenomena. All texts say this but to me at least it is not so obvious to understand this because at the same time buddhism comes with a lot of cultural baggage and mushroom effect from previous generations of the East that is not helping us Westerners to understand what exactly it is that changes or is transformed with practice, and what isn't.


Our personalities will not change due to attaining perfect enlightenent or mahasiddhahood. We still remain, in my case for example, a heavy metal and electronic dance music loving goof, who plays the blues on guitar. I never was a shiny happy person, smiling that etheric smile of a buddha, so I doubt I will become one when I achieve mahasiddhahood. Actually, that sounds creepy to me and in fact, it looks like the exact opposite.


When the recent layers of self/bhumis have cleaned up for me, I find that I swear as much as I used to prior to dharma practice, when I was around 20 years of age. That's when I think I had the best sense of humour as well, and it's all coming back... I started changing myself, put a lid on my personality when meeting the dharma, like everyone does. So yeah, in my understanding, already quite close to the full attainment, it looks like I am just becoming me, completely and entirely again, except that most of the self-made bs is gone... I certainly have no problem of remaining a fan of 80's heavy metal or whatever cultural traits I have. In fact, that sounds awesome to me. I can be me, without the slightest imposition of a ”spiritual person”, a teacher, bodhisattva, buddha or whatever. Just me! Yay! And you, and we all.


Q: I love this stuff... I have come to this conclusion, too, that it's just about being myself fully. As it can't be any other way. I hate all the hypocrisy and built up "me's".


Kim: You know all these masters have said it that you, me and everything is already liberated and perfect. That we don't need to alter anything is what they mean. And actually changing oneself or imposing a new whatever spiritual-practitioner-bodhisattva-persona on oneself is not only entirely needless but also makes it worse in terms of increasing self-based confusion. But that's how the samsaric mind works and we all can't help reifying it. Also, it doesn't help that a lot of schools and lineages start by having the beginners become followers by carrying external marks and assuming certain ideas, even though they'd have very little or no authentic experience, i.e. insight into nature of mind. This is where our style of practice is different because the first thing we do is to get awakened and then keep going until all 13 bhumis are open and rigpa is stabilised. It is a very different kind of paradigm that the whole world is used to. I personally feel that to do it in any other way is a disservice but that's what people in most walks of life do. Cults of different shapes and forms are everywhere around us, some good, some bad, some harmless, most samsaric.


torstai 21. marraskuuta 2019

Kadag - Immaculate Purity - and Advanced Guru Yoga

Kadag - Immaculate Purity -
and Advanced Guru Yoga

At an advanced stage of tantric guru yoga, there is no guru, no receiver and no blessing. Only immaculate radiance of pureness (skt. suddha, tib. kadag) is there. This pureness is selfless, there is no agent of any kind. For practitioners of guru yoga, it is not hard to get to see the selflessness of both the guru and oneself but when the blessing drops off as well, then the immaculate purity of buddhahood shows up in the open, as if a secret that has been kept for so long becomes suddenly utterly obvious. There are many gifts genuine gurus can give us, namely, growing in emptiness meditation and transmission through blessings, but accompanying the student to reveal her immaculate purity, is something that only mahasiddha gurus do and can do.

Guru Rinpoche Padmasambhava

torstai 10. lokakuuta 2019

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

sunnuntai 2. kesäkuuta 2019

About Psychotherapy, Buddhist Meditation and Tantras

About Psychotherapy,
Buddhist Meditation and Tantras


I've pondered about the marriage of psychotherapy and buddhist meditation lately. It is common for zen and theravada buddhists to think that it is necessary or at least highly beneficial to combine the two. I do not deny the benefits of psychotherapy and certainly encourage those so inclined to get down and dirty with it. However, my message to all those sutrayana practitioners who hold such views, is to look into tantric practices. Based on bhumi analysis, there's a lot sutrayana is not tapping or the common pedagogy is not tapping. So, my statement is that although it is said that there are three ways to liberation: sutra, tantra and dzogchen; there doesn't seem to exist a sutra group that'd really make progress in their practice, which leads them to falsely think that there'd be something lacking in emptiness meditation, which I don't think is the case at all.
My personal experience is that traumas and shadow work is part of the practice. This becomes evident after most of the mind is seen empty because we still keep having thoughts and emotions, that no longer offer material for emptiness meditation. At this point, one has much stability and it is rather easy to see how the hurtful or traumatic patterns still continue. Healing comes with togetherness and acceptance of these patterns, just like insight comes from emptiness meditation (lhaktong). I see no difference between the two, although many do. For this reason, I think it is not the buddhist paradigm but the particular schools that are lacking. I could present a more detailed criticism of zen and theravada that are nowadays often married with Western psychology but will save it for other time.

In the same vein, I've thought of all those bad boys and girls of vajrayana who willingly or being blinded by their confusion hurt and abused others. I used to put the blame on lack of ethics, lack of practice and lack of realisation. Bhumi analysis has well revealed the unfinishedness of their practice and I think that erratic behaviour of vajrayanis is much affected by these factors. But then, I began to think if there is something else to it, as well, perhaps something lacking in vajrayana buddhist training. 
 
What separates tantric buddhism from tantric hinduism?

There is an obvious difference of views between hinduism and buddhism. In practice, in my limited understanding and experience, it seems that long time ago, probably to make more progress in practice, buddhism started to emphasize dharmakaya, transparent-nonsubstantial-selfless-nonlocal and non-dimensional buddhanature, very strongly and de-emphasized the energetical, colourful, lively and expressive part of it (sambhogakaya). If you look at buddhist teachings, they are mostly about vipashyana, emptiness, returning self-charges into the colourless basic space (dharmakaya), with the help of compassionate motivation (bodhicitta). 
 
It is my observation of myself and other buddhists that the over emphasis of dharmakaya makes people emotionally flat, even spiritual bypassers. Spiritual bypassing means that one's mental and emotional habits are bypassed, and not adressed and used for practice, due to too much emphasis on onepointed concentration and calmness (shamatha). Back in my zen days, I was mostly instructed shamatha with the result that after 4 years of full time training I was emotionally pretty much as lost and hurt as I was before. That's why I left zen. As a teacher myself, I would never teach anyone like that, especially those who wish to wake up! 
 
More recently, I witnessed a proper out of proportions tantrum of a senior vajrayana monastic with more than 50 years of practice under the belt. It wasn't the first time I witnessed senior buddhist meditators go haywire but nevertheless from such a heavy weight, it was rather unexpected. In this persons case, this indicates spiritual bypassing, not lack of practice. Anyway. 
 
Most buddhist schools put a lot of emphasis on shamatha which I think is contributing to this problem, giving buddhism and buddhists their distinctive tone (of emotional flatness). I think, this is because buddhism puts so much emphasis on dharmakaya, transparent nature and awareness of all phenomena and all the energetic play is given a secondary place. Compared to hinduism, buddhism is way more succesful in yoga because of the clarification and emphasis of seflessness/emptiness (anatta/sunyata) and its meditative applications in sutra and tantra. One the other hand, this very emphasis has produced many buddhas and bodhisattvas in the history of buddhism but nevertheless it seems to me that no existing system is problem free, i.e. is complete as a system.

Hindus, on the other hand, never made the forced (and artificial) split between clearness of awareness (shiva) and energetics of awareness (shakti). These two always go hand in hand. For this reason they, myself included in my days of hindu tantra, get caught up trances, bliss and exalted states of meditation. For this reason, their recognition of the natural state is entirely false and misleading, at least from the point of view of buddhism. Because hindu yogas do not point out emptiness, is the exact reason for their little success in yoga. 
 
But then, hindu tantric practices of different deities, have a very different tone compared to those of tantric buddhism. I would say that hindu deities are emotionally more mature and elaborate, in other words, for one who has the view of emptiness, hindu deities can tap deeper and faster to the ultimate attainment of full buddhahood, full rainbow body, because they tap the energetic body (sambhogakaya) more efficiently. 
 
There are some sources that say that at one point in time, during the so called mahasiddha era, before buddhist tantra grew out of hindu tantra, yoginis and yogis didn't make such a great distinction between the two, as is common nowadays. Maybe that's why there were so many mahasiddhas, fully realized female and male masters during that era.