Lightbody and the Internal Arts of China and Japan

 

Lightbody and the Internal Arts 

of China and Japan

(email exchange with an indoor student)

Simha: Been making some wonderful personal discoveries lately with regard to Amrita Asana and its relationship to inner martial arts/inner hatha yoga.

A few weeks ago when traveling to Finland I practiced standing meditation at the airport. As I stood past the first minutes, I started naturally applying the principles of Amrita Asana to the standing posture. More specifically, I understood the importance of "expanding" in all directions (up/down, front/back, left/right). At first, I was thinking of it as kinda pushing to fill the whole frame but soon realized I might as well just allow myself to be pulled.

Whichever perspective you take, what I am describing is sort of intentional settling into the whole "frame" of the posture. This very quickly unifies the whole body in the standing posture and thus activates the meridian field.

This week I made the same discovery with regard to various aspects of pranayama. I've always loved breathing techniques, and have regularly practiced Bellows Breath (bhastrika) and Shining Skull (kapalbhati), combined with breath retention and yogic locks (bhandas).

First I connected the actual inhalation and exhalation with the "expanding" in all directions. This wasn't entirely new, of course, as it's how Vajra Breath is taught in RBY, but I felt a deepening in the sense of the whole body breathing 360 degrees regardless of intensity. This feels effortless (and very empowering!) when all muscles are working in unison.

Then, with regards to yogic locks, more specifically root lock (mula bhanda), abdominal lock (uddijayana bhanda), and chin lock (jalandhara bandha), I realized that I have been doing these three locks separately from one another. This has caused unnecessary effort required in holding the locks. When applying the principles of Amrita Asana, on the other hand, the body (and thus the locks) become united, revealing the great lock (mahabhanda), which again instantly forces open the meridian system. It's a subtle point but makes all the difference.

The above discoveries have also led me to experiment deeper with the basic posture in sitting meditation. It seems obvious when I say it, but of course, the very same principles apply to just sitting as well. By intentionally filling the frame of the seated posture, the meridian body is forced open and sitting becomes effortless.

I know Baba has been talking about these things for a long time, and I've had glimpses of it myself too. Nevertheless, the practice of Amrita Asana has propelled the maturation of this understanding like nothing else. It feels like it has naturally opened up a whole nother dimension to the practices I've been doing for years. Very much looking forward to exploring this further. Thank you!

Baba: I remember when I first taught you standing practice (c. zhan zhuang) in Tammisaari in 2016-2017. We've come back to it every now and then at retreats and when hanging out. I've also lead qigong and zhan zhuang sessions at retreats for years and years but I saw a problem there: that it was too hard (unpleasant) and too difficult to people to understand what the practice was about. I've done that work when I began internal martial arts 25 years ago and it took me years to even get the basics right, even with lineage teachers, and it was just uncomfortable to grind all those hours. So seeing this problem with my students I wanted and needed to find a way to make the training much more enjoyable than the grind or die-traditional training style so that you'd even get interested in internal arts and their principles as they are taught in East-Asia, namely China and Japan.

After having learned a wide variety of internal practices it took me a number of years to come up with a sensible structure that my students could learn and start practicing. So I took some bits that I had learned from internal martial arts, such as Yi Jin Jing, Second Course Yiquan of Han Jingyu and hard Shaolin qi gong, Indian yoga postures, basic elements of yoga tantra (prayer and mantra) and subtle centers that have long been forgotten by the yogic culture and put them all together as the first level of Amrita Asana Yoga (abr. AAY). I've gotten so many positive comments about the practice, people really love it but the thing is that if I had taught under the name of "internal martial training", people would have had no interest, I am certain. So I tricked all of you, ha, but as you know the results are great. There is no yoga or qigong style that puts all these elements together but I suspect there might have been in ancient China in the days of the ancient immortals.

What you describe about realizing how to activate the frame (after just 6 months of regular Amrita Asana practice) took me years of traditional internal martial arts practice to understand. I got glimpses of it and of many other things but I didn't really understand it but after a number of years. Through your AAY practice you have now developed a connected physical frame that you can apply your intent (c. yi/意) on, to affect changes and transformation in the meridian field. Adding yi to AAY is taught on level 2 but you already got it.

I have made quite a few posts about yi recently because it is one of the key practices to transform the meridian field which condition as you know is the ground of immortality/lightbody/rainbow body. Yi is physicalized concentration. Being able to focus one's mind mentally is one thing but to focus (yi) with one's whole body mass, the whole skeletal structure, muscles and tissues harnessed behind it, like a pack of horses in reigns, is entirely different thing. The principle of yi is entirely unknown in Indian and Tibetan yogas and their traditions but developed into a key principle in China and Japan, and their many arts and traditions.

From the perspective of hatha yoga, without yi you're just doing a physical workout with moments of mental focus here and there through dristhis, bandhas and so on but what is typical is that even highly regarded professional of hatha yoga never develop a frame as it is understood in China and Japan. If you don't have a connected internal frame, even if you could put yourself into very complex and advanced postures, the effect on the meridians that makes a great part of our psyche will be very limited. With a built frame, yoga asanas will immediately take a different gear because the frame allows one to not only work on the physical field but also the meridian field which is really really important from the common perspectives of health and wellbeing, but also from the point of view of trauma healing and preparation of the lightbody. In Amrita Asana Yoga you start with postures but through the tensing of all muscles at once in each posture, you actually start building that frame effectively from the start and work out the whole meridian field. It makes the body very strong very fast because you're doing a gym workout (without weights) through the tensing and flushing the whole system with prana/chi that is spiritually charged because of the preparation in the beginning of practice and during through mantras or whatever techniques from RBY you might be using. The difference between level 1 and 2 of AAY is that it just becomes subtler and with yi-without yi is given more emphasis.

That phrase "with yi - without yi" is something that I could say a few words. It is written all over the Taoist classics, this thing about "marvellous alive non-doing" or wu wei and it has been extensively written by zen artists of Japan during the past over 1000 years. My master Terayama Roshi dedicated his life to studying and writing about it, as did the masters before him in the lineages. But just like on the side of dharma or spirituality this principle is vastly misinterpreted in various ways. Not having to do anything about it for one to realize or to successfully wu wei just like the immortals or that if you just sat immovably like the Buddha that'd be the same as being a buddha are two of them.

One great gift that mahamudra and dzogchen texts by Tibetan masters such as Gampopa and Longchenpa have to give us is the clear definition about the most fundamental spiritual part of us. It does not matter whether we discuss of the Tao, Christ, God, buddhanature or whatever, it makes sense that regardless of beliefs and opinions we are all built the same way and have the same basic nature of mind. Understanding this was made into science by the master yogis and while I can see many others from other traditions speak about it sometimes identically or similarly, I think it is because of the unreligious pragmatic nature of buddhadharma that makes it more understandable and therefore better accessible than any other system I know about. Poetic, mystical and glorificational sources definitely give as much benefits as they do harm because of the option of (mistaken) interpretation. My point is that without knowing the ground of all beings or the mind common to all beings, it is impossible to understand without yi (c. 無 意) but you know all this already.

So, next in your practice, now that you have grasped all three: the frame, yi and without yi; next step is to play with them. Form doesn't matter. I stand, do yoga, sit, dance, walk, do crossfit and lift weights applying "physicalized intention together with basic awareness" and "basic awareness together with movement but without intention". This strikes the main teaching of Garab Dorje.

Rainbow-light blessings,

-Baba, 30 March 23

Connected Field of Aliveness

 

Connected Field of Aliveness

So, you are this energy and this energy is connected, it is a connected field that moves when your body moves and keeps still as a connected field of energy when your body doesn’t move. When you stay still, this field of energy radiates like a star. It shines light or subtle energy just like a star. There’s countless little processes happening there but the main thing is that it is utterly alive, present and there is no sense of me, as an individual entity there so it is devoid of self. So you just sit there, totally alive, totally present, there is no ”me” having the experience and it feels great because it’s perfectly natural. Because it is natural is why it feels right and because of that it answers so many questions to those who need to get answers. But basically this aliveness happens by itself, is there or here by itself and that’s all. It’s not a big mystery or a thing that only sages on mountain tops have or are able to understand, no, all of us share it but it needs to be discovered though.

When we take this connected field of aliveness without self into movement and start expressing things artistically, oh there is nothing more delightful because it is our true undefiled being or true me expressing itself purely. This is ”zen art”. This is the view of zen art or spiritual art. And you can take it into anything from East Asian arts to sports to painting to writing poems; anything form of expression, any art.

As a unified field you play, move, bounce, draw a line, sing, dance, walk and simply exist without a self or a center. Awake and aware, nothing lacking, enjoying it all, without the notions of win or loss, victory or failure.

- Amrita Baba, Amrita Mandala Sangha

About Lower Belly - Hara

About Lower Belly - Hara

I started to watch a video presentation about buddhist meditation given by a well known American teacher. The presentation was introduced by an American lady who as she described felt very fortunate and quite emotional to have the teacher give the talk. She gave the introduction with a voice that I could describe as weak and windy, rather than clear and settled. Also the composure of her spine wavy and her breathing was up in the shoulders. Watching this I was reminded of the lower belly which is known by the names of hara or tanden in Japanese arts.

Hara is all over Japanese arts from meditation to martial and fine arts. In popular language there are many terms that use the word hara which means belly, such as hara guroi, lit. dirty/black belly, which means dishonesty. That one's posture and inner composure is built on the belly is something very important in Japanese culture.

Living in Japan many years ago I saw how Westerners would share something emotional with Japanese but there was this cultural gap between the two and the latter seemed to feel awkward about emotional sharing. It seemed like they just didn't feel it was right. When one's breath is settled on the belly, one simply doesn't go off the rails emotionally. When one is emotional on the other hand, vital energy (prana/ki) is up in the shoulders and head. We all know about the headache after a big argument.

I didn't spend that long in Japan but it seemed to me that Japanese people couldn't trust or take seriously those who had their vital energy up, even if they were sincere in Western terms. When I think about it, it makes sense too because it is difficult to know and trust people who are over-emotional, whose mind flutters like a leaf in the wind.

There are downsides to lower belly cultivation too. It develops inner power so those who have charisma can end up on ego trips as leaders. I've seen this a lot in zen buddhism and martial arts. For meditators, too much emphasis on the belly can be a cause of spiritual bypassing.

Tibetan or Indian systems of yoga and meditation do not talk about the hara, only Chinese and it's derivatives do. The only lama I've heard talk about it is Tsoknyi Rinpoche who said he learned it from his Chinese qigong teacher. Nevertheless, being physically well composed and being settled is very much part of all systematic paths, and this, even without knowing about the theory of the hara, is what hara means.

In Open Heart and dzogchen-teachings in general, groundedness, which is one of the three characteristics of the natural state, is what refers to "hara".

Secrets of the Marathon Monks and Chain Gangs

Secrets of the

Marathon Monks and Chain Gangs

by Kim Katami, 

Pemako Buddhism, www.pemakobuddhism.com

12/2017, updated 2/2020

See also: Walking Meditation Tutorial at YouTube.

A long time ago, as a youngster in the peak of my vitality, I read about Marathon Monks of Mt. Hiei (Tendai-school of Japanese Buddhism) and was very impressed. Before discussing my own views of this practice, I'd first like to introduce marathon as a form of Tendai Buddhist-training.

For deeper understanding, find this article from Wikipedia or John Stevens' book on marathon monks.

Kaihogyo

The formal name of the practice is called kaihogyo which literally means ”to circle around a mountain”. The name comes from the fact that tendai-monks run or walk marathons on paths around mountains. Monks who are accepted as marathon monks, go through demanding training which on top of the daily chores of a temple monk, includes running or walking marathons at night.

The full training lasts for 7 years. On first, second and third years, the monks run 40 kilometers for 100 days in a row. On fourth and fifth years, they run marathons for 200 days in a row. On sixth year, they go 60 kilometers per day for 100 days in a row and finally on the seventh year they run a double marathon for 100 days in a row. The training is finished with a dry fast of 7 days and nights (used to be 10 and then 9 days but the monks tended to die before finishing it) when the monk is required to sit up in meditation for 23-24 hours a day, guarded by two monitors whose job is to make sure the monk doesn't fall asleep. It is extreme.

It is interesting that some marathon monks are grown men, not youngsters in the peak of their vitality. One of the monks, Yusai Sakai, finished his second 7-year training when he was 60 years old. He is the only one who has done it twice.

My own experiences

I haven't done training as rigorous as the marathon monks but back in 2003 I did half marathons (15-35 km) daily for 3 months in a row, to test the technique. 

I'd like to go through the various aspects of this practice and share my own findings with whoever might be interested. The practices that the marathon monks do are stricly guarded by secrecy but I believe I have figured out the very practices that enable them to keep going.
 

Body and breath

The body is kept straight during walking. Chest and shoulders are relaxed, arms hang and swing freely on the sides. Toes aim forward. Knees are kept close to each other which enables one to keep the center line of the body straight and the posture integrated. The rhythm of stepping should be kept the same throghout the course, regardless of up or downhills. Length of the step varies a bit but rhythm stays the same. The whole body is subtly extended but simultaneously relaxed.
 

Some schools of yoga insist on breathing trough the nose and never through the mouth but I think one can use both: mouth when more oxygen is needed (for example during uphills or after chanting of mantras) and nose when the air is sufficient. What matters more is the settledness of the breath and even calm rhythm of breathing. Breathing moves the belly, doesn't raise the chest or shoulders.

Schools of meditation that are based on the view of mindfulness instruct one to keep the gaze of the eyes straight ahead, while remaining panoramically attentive. Nonmeditation or dzogchen, however, does not rely on effort-based mindfulness so the question of eye posture is irrelevant.

In the West there is no culture how the body is kept upright, yet relaxed at the same time. We do not have culture for carrying the body the way it does in China or Japan. To get the alignment right, one has to know how the structure of the body, bones and joints, are built or aligned in a way that moving becomes natural, flowing and effortless. To understand how to align the body it is beneficial to study inner martial arts such as tai chi, yi quan or chi gong. It will take at least couple of hundred hours to understand what proper alignment means.

Common people do not pay attention to their posture or the flow of the breath. Non-practitioners also walk or run too fast. This results in strain, discomfort, injury and scattering of energy. On the other hand, skillful use of the body, opening of joints, upright alignment, deep breathing and rhythmical movement increases vitality and clarity of the mind, while strengthening the muscles of the body, without any risk of injury.

Mind and Energy

In Tibet, there is a similar tradition of yogic running. The name for it is lung gom which literally means energy contemplation or energy meditation. Tibetan word lung is prana in sanskrit, as in pranayama, for example. Hence, the meaning of lung gom is to work with subtle energy of the breath and channels in the midst of running.

Long distance running is demanding, like a pressure cooker, but energetically is no different than prana practices performed on one's sitting cushion or yoga mat.  The similarities with sitting yogic practices are great but due to the physical stress there are also differences.

At some point there will be physical discomfort and straining. Also the mind will get scattered and perhaps clouded with thought and emotions in various degrees depending on one's stage of practice. In order to do the training in harmonious, comfortable and non-destructive way, the posture needs to be repeatedly re-aligned and relaxed, breath kept deep and mind serene. If this is not done, one's vital energy gets scattered and this single issue will make things difficult, if left unadressed. We only need to watch a running competition from television to see how athletes fail in their performance due to not understanding these basic guidelines. When done as spiritual practice, we always need to make sure that we don't force ourselves. Exercising will power is different from forcing. 

To keep going despite of great obstacles, such as aches and tiredness, the marathon monks carry a knife with them which they are to use to kill themselves if they were to give up. This is again that old ascetic die hard mentality but I think that at the same time there is truth in not giving up too easily. I think that modern people especially need to learn to not give up so easily. It is good to have that same spirit of not giving up unless one absolutely has to. When I did my half marathins as an enthusiastic young man who had very little real understanding, I used to keep a 2€ coin in my pocket. I jokingly called it the ”two of death” that I was to use for buying a bus ticket if I had to give up. Never used it though.

When pushing ones limits, there will be physical and emotional discomfort. This is true with any spiritual practice. 

The Genious of Work Song

We used to have a vibrant culture of work song in the West. From Finland it has completely disappeared but I believe it still exists in some countries and cultures such as Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan. I think work song is a wonderful thing but it is such a pity that this tradition is lost in most cultures.

People used to sing together during physical labour. On fields, at construction, in whatever physical work, even in war, people kept their bodies and minds fresh by singing songs. The most obvious beneficial aspect of work song is that it keeps the spirits high. However, there is another aspect to it which is as important. It is bone vibration.

When one sings or chants, the bones vibrate subtly. Through continuous chanting, this subtle vibration keeps the bones, joints and muscles in constant state of vibration which prevents knots or areas of tension from accumulating. The body is being subtly massaged and because of this one won't get as tired as one would without chanting. In fact, while one can feel the tiredness of muscless one's energybody, that is the mind, can remain completely fresh. 

Pioneers, field slaves and chain gangs had to do hard physical labour for 12 hours a day for 6 or 7 days a week, sometimes for years on end. I think this would have been impossible without work song and it's immense benefits. This is also what marathon monks do.

Prayers

Along the 40 kilometer route, the marathon monks are required to stop at small shrines and other locations for short prayers. According to Stevens, the monks stop up to 200 times along the way. This means that they make brief stops every 200 meters. It is here, in brief breaks of tantric practice, where another secret of their practice lies, in addition to actually giving the muscles of the body repeated moments of rest.

Tendai is a tantric school of buddhism. This means that they have deity empowerments and mantra practices. According to a Tendai buddhist priest that I once discussed with, the marathon monks mainly chant the mantras of their chosen deity (tib. yidam) in their practice. So they don't only get constant relief from physical and emotional stress through bone vibration caused by the use of their voice, but also their minds are flushed by the utterly pure energy of the buddhist deities - embodiments of perfect enlightenment.

To speculate on this a bit, I'd say that while the world champion of marathon running could probably endure days or perhaps even weeks of staying up all day working and running marathons at night, it is quite certain that without specific yogic knowledge and application of energy skills and mantras, event the best sports athletes would fail to accomplish 100 days of marathon, not to even mention the more challening parts of the 7-year training.

My own Experimentation

I am a tantric yogi and a practitioner of dzogchen, so I have used the mantras I have learned from my gurus during walking practice, combining it with the body and breath aspects that were outlined above.

One thing that is very important is to use audible voice because the bones need to vibrate physically. The effect is not the same with silent mantra, although this can also be used.

Tantric charge has the effect of flushing one's bodymind with pure and fresh energy. When this is continued for 1-2 hours in a row, among walking, it has a very profound effect which, I think can be compared to several hours or even a day or two on meditation retreat. The same happens when applying tantric mantras to prostrations and yoga postures.

I mostly use guru mantras: Namo Guru Rinpoche, Namo Yeshe Tsogyal Ye. Sometimes I use the short syllables of Open Heart Yoga, rhythmically intoned, with the rhythm of the feet. Sometimes I chant long syllables, like Ooommmm Aaaa Huummmm, because they get to the really deep tensions.

I greatly enjoy combining all these elements into one. If you like, I recommend you to try. 

Namo Guru Rinpoche,

Support Pemako Buddhism by becoming a PayPal donater.