How Practitioners Become Fully Enlightened Buddhas

How Practitioners Become Fully Enlightened Buddhas

Seeing through the gross sense of me-ness in the form of thoughts and emotions is the foundation of all yoga and dharma. It needs to be the foundation because if we don't see through the gross ignorance, there is no way we are able to see through subtle ignorance.

In terms of buddhist vehicles, to see through gross selfing is the task of the so called hinayana, or small vehicle, where the focus of practice is to remove the most basic delusions about our self-identity. We cease to think in terms of me and you, self and other, to a noticeable degree and it is tremendously liberating. It is like coming to stand under a waterfall of pure fresh water, after you haven't taken a shower for a long time. It changes you.

But it doesn't change everything, and it is because of this why the so called caring and loving heartmind of all sentient beings (skt bodhicitta) is cultivated in the great vehicle (skt mahayana) of buddhism. Here we come to consider the difference of motivation in hinayana and mahayana.

A great vehicle practicioner takes the vow of becoming fully enlightened for the sake of all sentient beings. We take a vow to do all the internal work that is required to uncover ourselves as fully enlightened beings, in order to help, serve and to be an example for others so that they can also find a way out of samsara to liberation. In other words, we commit to complete and thorough death of the ego (jap. taigo tettei), to become buddhas for the sake of others. This death isn't dark or heavy, and it has nothing to do with sacrificing ourselves for others, as it is commonly understood. Realisation is always a very fulfilling and joyful path because you become who you really are, the ground of timeless existence imbued with goodness.

To clarify the difference between small and great vehicle practice, a mahayana practitioner, actually, in practice, takes into one's heart the suffering of all sentient beings. I am talking about the most basic mahayana buddhist practice of taking and giving (tib. tonglen). This practice is not for people who have not built a solid foundation of selflessness realisation because if this is done too early, taking in the suffering of all sentient beings can be overwhelming, too much. It is not dangerous, you just get scared and anxious for some time and if/when you do, it is a sign that you haven't worked on your gross selfing enough. You shouldn't take bodhicitta too seriously too early.

So, when you practice tonglen, you are actually taking in the confusion, anxiety, fear, greediness, jealousy and hatred of all sentient beings, incl. those in your immediate presence, into your own heart. Since you don't have gross selfing of your own anymore, you have developed a capacity to do bodhisattva - or should I say – advanced, practice of the great vehicle. Again, this capacity comes through small vehicle practice which by the way is what is practiced by most practitioners of mahayana meditators in their practice. It depends entirely on one's first hand realisation into selflessness and emptiness (skt anatman, shunyata) whether one is travelling on small or great vehicle. Someone might be chanting Bodhisattva Vows all one's life but without foundational recognition of one's own true nature, it's kind of using mahayana motivation to generate hinayana realisation which is backwards.

An excellent source of study of becoming a buddha are the 48 vows of Amitabha. These vows describe the attitude and motivation of a practicing bodhisattva called Amitabha, who wants to become a buddha for the sake of all beings. In his vows, he repeatedly states that if he after his attainment of buddhahood he failed to bring sentient beings to liberation, then may he not attain buddhahood. He states again and again, that if he fails to become a doorway for other's liberation, then he should never attain it himself. Because of those vows, Amitabha succeeded, and this is the whole point of bodhicitta. A bodhisattva is to put one's whole being, one's life, one's everything on the line for the sake of all sentient beings. This is an attitude that is to be applied in all one's life. A bodhisattva - mahayana practitioners - is to become that attitude, that vow.

Coming back to tonglen – a mahayana meditation exercise – this taking in of the pain of others and giving fresh pure love in return, becomes or should become one's main practice, or actually not merely practice, but a way of living one's daily life. You sit in your home, taking in the pain and giving love. You sit in a cafe, taking in the pain and giving beautiful pure light in return. You do this day and night, among those people, friends and strangers who you're surrounded with. Why? Because that's what buddhas do. Or actually, that's not what buddhas do, it's how they abide. To reach buddhahood, we simple emulate our own buddhahood by mimicking the heartmind of a buddha. This is the meaning of tonglen.

Thank you for reading. May your day be full of light and love,

Kim

Cessation

Cessation

What I always liked about photos taken right after shifts is how people's faces, like Ugi's here, look as if they've just been thrown with a bucket of cold water. There's kind of a shock there. That's how cessation looks like.

If you are not familiar with the word cessation, that is a hot word in buddhist yoga :) Cessation refers to ceasing of notions and impressions, or ceasing of all self-based mind processes. It is discussed and described everywhere in both buddhist and hindu scriptures. In Sanskrit words such as nirvana, nirodha and nirodha samapatti are used to refer to this experience which actually is an opposite of experience because cessation is rather ceasing of all kinds of experiences. 

 

Tibetan word trekcho, that is frequently used in dzogchen is samapatti in sanskrit which means "correct recognition of reality" or "correct recognition of truth". There are different interpretations of its meaning and there are short and extensive commentaries that discuss it. By all means, study those sources.

Long story short, all bhumi openings and perfections are cessations, so you already know its meaning and profundity of it. When selfing ceases, be it for 1 second, for a day or for good, yourself as a buddha shows up. This is what buddhahood means: to be free of selfing (gross and subtle) that happens in time and place. The first stage of buddhahood is a complete cessation, as the whole karmic body (bhumis 1-10) ceases to spin the dualistic notions and conceptions of me, other and all kind of phenomena. 

 

Yup. Have a nice day all and remember that each one of us is the source of blessings. We are already what we seek. 　

Kim

Meaning of Nonduality

Meaning of Nonduality

There is reality and there is fantasy. Nonduality is the absence of fantasy. Hence, one sees, breathes, thinks, lives and embodies the reality. And this reality is full of love... and fresh like wild mint! It is the beating heart, it is radiance of life. It is a word of kindness, it is absence of selfishness. It, nonduality, life without a sense of being a finite entity, is life as it is.

Kim

Sameness of Yogic Practices

Sameness of Yogic Practices

I firmly believe that all yogic traditions like buddhism, hinduism, taoism and christianity have at some stages known and offered paths to full enlightenment. They still do in varying degree. One thing that enchants me is the similarity of practices in different traditions. 
 
For example, in this photo you can see me sitting in meditation, or to be exact nonmeditation (skt abhavana), as it is known in Great Seal of Natural Awareness tradition (skt mahamudra). To be specific, this is a photo of an upward gaze of Leaping Over to the Great Enjoyment (tib thogal long ku, vyutkrantaka sambhogakaya). 

 
In most buddhist meditations separation is made between clarity aspect and energy aspect. For example, vipashyana and metta or cutting through and leaping over (tib trekcho and thogal, samapatti and vyutkrantaka). Same principles are in shaiva tantra as Siva and Shakti where the former is masculine principle and the latter feminine. 
 
In many systems of hindu yoga, incl shaiva tantra that I’m familiar with, this gaze is known as Seal of the Divine Feminine (skt shambhavi mudra), or Seal of the Divine Energy. This mudra or meditation is practiced in both dzogchen of Tibet and tantra of Southern India, to realise the divine energy of enjoyment. To me, it is obvious that both traditions are referring to same principles and using the exact same practices... which I think is really cool. I do believe that there has been and still is, or at least could be, fully enlightened masters or mahasiddhas in all yogic traditions. 
 
However, it is also my experience that a lot of yogic knowledge is scattered and that it is very rare to find everything one needs to know in one place. To gather the foundational knowledge and practices together is something I was told to do many years ago by my masters and I have.

Love and blessings to all,

Kim

Introduction to Awakening and The Two-Part Formula for Awakening by Lama Karl Eikrem

Introduction to Awakening and 

The Two-Part Formula for Awakening

By Lama Karl Eikrem

In this text I will be approaching the topic of awakening from a Buddhist perspective. This is because the Buddhist framework is what I’m most familiar with, and not because Buddhism has any special claim to the phenomena of awakening as such. Awakening as defined below is universal in that can happen to people of any culture, age and spiritual orientation. It can come about by applying specific tools, such as the Two-Part Formula for
Awakening presented in this text, or it can happen by “accident”; where a practitioner is either using a meditative tool not specifically designed to induce awakening, or that they are doing something completely unrelated to spiritual practice and just happen to spontaneously awaken to the true nature of that which is commonly labeled “I” or “me”.

One of the basic tenets of Mahayana Buddhism is that all beings have buddha-nature. This does not mean that all beings carry around something that they can point to and call buddha-nature, but that the very nature of existence, of being itself is Buddha; basic wakefulness. Ironically, this basic wakefulness is so ordinary and obvious that it makes it profoundly difficult to recognise for most beings. But if we look at our surroundings and feel into the very experience we are having right here and right now, the basis of it is always basic wakefulness.

This basic nature of ours has three main qualities: (1) it is self-cognisant; free of any “knower” and “known” and simply aware of itself as timeless presence, (2) it is brilliantly alive; full of richness, positivity and love, and (3) it is perfectly stable; never changing. Furthermore, in being the nature of being itself, basic wakefulness is always-already present. It can never not be, and it can never be different from what is. Thus, recognising and actualising the basic nature of our own being is the purpose of spiritual practice.

The main hinder we have on the spiritual path is what we call the selfing-mechanism. The selfing-mechanism refers to the conceptual filter that confused beings see reality through, and it can be divided into three parts. First of all there is (1) the subject-self; the feeling of being “me”, an entity residing within the body, (2) object-selves; self-based thoughts, emotions and feelings, and (3) substrate consciousness; the subtle veils of existential confusion that give rise to self-based mind states such as depression or gross bliss.

The term “awakening” in the broad sense of the word refers to the process of deconstructing the entire selfing-mechanism and awakening to our true nature. Seen this way awakening is a gradual process that moves through several distinct phases until the ultimate freedom from “self-identification” is completely actualised. However, when it comes to the topic of this text “awakening” refers only to the inner shift that takes place in the mind of practitioners as the core of the selfing-mechanism, the “subject-I” is permanently deconstructed. This can be said to be to starting point of the Buddhist Path.

The Buddhist way of deconstructing the selfing-mechanism is through direct exploration of its constitution (Skt. Vipashyana). The basic principle of this approach is to recognise the basic clarity of mind and then bring that clarity to the confusion, i.e. “selfing-mechanism”.

The Two-Part Formula for Awakening, as taught in Pemako Buddhism, embodies this principle by first instructing the practitioner to release tensions in the physical body and recognise the basic openness that reveals itself when doing so. When we keep releasing tension this way, eventually we arrive at the recognition of the basic open space that permeates all of experience. But we cannot stop here. It is equally important that we use this basic clarity as a baseline for further investigation into the existential confusion in question.

Therefore, the Two-Part Forumla for Awakening guides us to mentally reaffirm “I, I, I!” or “Me, me, me!” and then study the sensations that arise within the body. These sensations include gross and subtle contractions, uncomfortable feelings, buzzing sensations, movement of energy and so on. Whatever arise within the body-space we simply study the strongest sensation from the perspective of basic wakefulness. This way, we can naturally dis-identify from the sensations of the “I” and study it like just another object of mind.

By alternating between the two modes; (1) relaxing into basic openness, and (2) reaffirming the sense of subject-self, we are able to dig deeper into both modes, seeing the two modes with greater and greater clarity. Eventually we come to a point where the distinction collapses and the “I” is seen to have not substance, no basis in reality. This is what we call (initial) awakening.

While awakening doesn’t offer anything new in terms of fancy experiences or abilities, it is absolutely crucial for spiritual practitioners to awaken as soon as possible. Without awakening to the emptiness of the subject-I there is no hope of progressing effectively on the path of deconstructing the whole self-based psyche. Rather, it is likely that the practitioner will unconsciously use spiritual practice to strengthen the sense of self – the complete opposite of what the practice is designed for! - as the “I” attaches itself to every aspect of a life spent in full identification with “me”.

As the great Zen master Hakuin Ekaku said,

Anyone who would call himself a member of the Zen family must first of all achieve kenshō — realization of the Buddha's Way. If a person who has not achieved kensho says he is a follower of Zen, he is an outrageous fraud. A swindler pure and simple.

Therefore, do not postpone awakening to the way of basic wakefulness!

May all beings be free!

Further reading:
How to Become Awakened:

https://www.pemakobuddhism.com/113

Awake! Handbook of Awakening:
https://www.pemakobuddhism.com/114

Generosity - The Foundation of Mahayana Buddhism by Kim Katami

Generosity - The Foundation of Mahayana Buddhism

I was just talking with my teacher about money and generosity. To me and her, money was always means to do something, not something to accumulate or to hoard because there'd be no point in that for us. I give away money all the time for good purposes, like animal shelters, and people who need it. I am generous because that's who I am and that's who I want to be. I am not rich though and here's the thing: Why are people who have lots of money, so attached to it? It is always people who have lot of money, who are the most stingy. Vice versa, people who don't have so much money, give it away easily without reservations. There are of course exceptions to the rule but in general wealthy people seem to be attached to their money. From the point of view of humanity, this is embarrassing. From the point of view of dharma, this is a major pitfall.

Mahayana & Generosity

The first foundational guideline (paramita) of mahayana buddhism is generosity or dana. Why did the masters who constructed the mahayana buddhist doctrine, set generosity as the basis of mahayana buddhist practice? This clearly suggests that this is something important, though I always find it surprising how little dharma practitioners give thought to it.

Mahayana buddhism teaches that all beings have buddhanature and that it is possible to attain it. In this way mahayana buddhism empowers us by telling and giving us the tools how full enlightenment or buddhahood can be attained and actualised. Mahayana teaches wisdom (prajna) and compassion (karuna) as means to realise our innate wakefulness. Simultaneosly both wisdom and compassion are the two main characteristics of our buddhanature which means that someone who has some or complete first hand experience, is both wise and compassionate in terms of existencial matters. Wisdom means absence or lessening of self-based ignorance and compassion is the lively flowering of that wisdom that cares for others, I would say primarily from the perspective of mind-based suffering (dukkha) but also from the perspective of common suffering, such as poverty and illness.

The opposite of wisdom and compassion is self-based ignorance that only thinks for itself. In ignorant mind there is a lot of energy or power in the "I" thought. This is samsaric mind, which repeats the same thoughts and confusions again and again based on the deeply ingrained belief that there is "I" or "me" and "others". According to buddhism, this is the root of existential confusion that makes life a confusing and unsatisfactory experiece. Thinking in terms of me and other also creates separation and inequality between people. That is not normal or healthy in any way. This is duality and duality is pain.

So, ignorant mind thinks, talks and acts in ways that are selfish and narrow minded, and it is this deeply rooted habit of self-based ignorance that generosity is designed to break. Imagine what happens in a mind that begins to think, talk and act for the welfare of others, rather than oneself. This is the medicine of dharma that uproots our self-belief and removes the gap between me and others, lettin the buddha within to shine through as understanding and love.

Generosity is actually a geniously designed practice because money is related to our basic safety which in turn relates to our root chakra. A wise man knows the difference between real safety and illusory safety. That is really the only difference between someone who is caught up by samsara and who is liberated. Giving money away can change your life. It literally has the power to liberate you.

Vehicles

Vajrayana is the tantric interpretation of mahayana buddhism. Tantra that involves gurus, empowerments, deities, mantras and such, is or should be built on solid understanding of both mahayana and hinayana teaching. In the context of this article - generosity - this means that one cannot reap the promise of vajrayana, which is to attain buddhahood in this life, without the foundation of mahayana. Without genuine care for others - bodhicitta/compassion - one cannot reap the benefits of either mahayana or vajrayana. This downgrades vajrayana into a hinayana practice. It is not bad but it is not how it should be because tantra is not designed for that.

The three vehicles of buddhism: hinayana or small vehicle, mahayana or big vehicle and vajrayana or tantric vehicle, can be compared to woodwork. A carpenter takes a piece of wood that has the potential to be made into a fine work of art. In the beginning it's just a block of wood with bark on it. First, the carpenter makes a sketch of his sculpture on the wood, and begins to work on it with rough tools, like axe and chainsaw. After applying some skill and effort, he manages to make a rough outline of the design that already looks a lot like what the design is about. It is like a Lego-man compared to a fine work done by an Italian master sculptor. This is hinayana. Then the carpenter takes finer tools, like big and small chisels and continues to work with those. After some more applied effort, we really begin to see many details. We can also see a great difference between the former stage and present stage. This is mahayana. Then finally, the carpenter takes out a collection of sandpapers of various roughnesses and continues the work. He keeps working and finally... the finished sculpture looks so beautiful that we are amazed! This is vajrayana. We cannot expect to understand the fineness of vajrayana if we never even tried the foundational practices of mahayana, such as generosity.

The point with this analogy is that all three stages – vehicles – follow each other. Gross, middle and fine are all part of the same process and if any of them is missing the sculpture cannot be finished. This explains perfectly the progression from hinayana to mahayana to vajrayana teaching, and their corresponding practices and levels of insight. Not understanding this progression also explains why practitioners of the higher vehicles sometimes have lesser insight and understanding than those of lower vehicles. If vajrayanis don't have a solid foundation from gross and medium level insight, they cannot possibly understand the subtlety and fineness of vajrayana.

Jesus by Gian Bernini

Readiness

The sole purpose of dharma is removing our self-based views from our subtle nervous system or mind. The meaning of dharma is not in making our lives better, happier or more pleasurable while remaining arrogant and selfish. Committing to a dharma practice necessarily stings a bit but for someone who is fed up with self-created nonsense, this is both necessary and unavoidable. To such a practitioner, the process that gets lighter and easier with every insight and moment of practice. For someone who doesn't understand this and is in it only to make ones self-based life better, dharma is like ripping one's hair off one by one, that is, highly unpleasant. Such practitioners should look into the teachings of hinayana and mahayana because they are not ready or prepared for vajrayana.

Beginning to think about the welfare of those around us is a good place to start.

May you come in contact with the Buddha within,

-Kim Katami, 30.7.2020

*

Pemako Buddhism

www.pemakobuddhism.com

Physical Dynamic Concentration in Other Traditions

Physical Dynamic Concentration

in Other Traditions

Dynamic Concentration

The idea of Dynamic Concentration (DC), as has been explained in the previous chapter of this book, is to cut through all layers of the self-based mind and in consequence access one's pure wakeful nature. This type of yogic exercise is done with sudden explosive yet purposeful and controlled force. It can be done solely on the level of the mind but easiest way to apply it is through shout, often as repeated shouts.

Physical Dynamic Concentration

Dynamic Concentration can also be done physically. In Pemako Buddhism this is known as Physical Dynamic Concentration (PDC). Find Physical Dynamic Concentration with simple tantric mantra of Guru Rinpoche and Yeshe Tsogyal taught in this video, under the name of Vajra Body-exercise.

The idea of Physical Dynamic Concentration is to tense all muscles of the body at once in a controlled yet forceful manner while being fully aware of it. Because tensing of the muscles is so engaging, during this type of concentration it is very difficult for the mind to start drifting and therefore PDC also accomplishes very well what the practitioner intends to do, which is to access and establish one's wakeful nature. Flexing is kept for few seconds, usually while holding the breath, with tantric elements such as mantras and visualisations, and then relaxed. As in the above video instruction, PDC should be done at least few times before a brief pause (half a minute or a minute) before second (-third-fourth) series of repetitions. Same idea of several repetitions (up to 100 in one series) and few sets (usually 2-4) is used with both DC and PDC in Pemako Buddhist practice. This is because many repetitions and sets works more effectively and accomplishes the task splendidly in comparison to just few repetitions.

Physical Dynamic Concentration in Other Traditions

Yogananda

Probably the most widely practiced form of PDC, is Paramahamsa Yogananda's Energisation Exercises. Yogananda is famous through his Autobiography of A Yogi. He is one of those who brought a type of hindu tantra called Kriya Yoga to the West beginning in 1920's. See from this video how he formulated PDC, together with prayer and breathing practices.

According to Swami Satyananda, Yogananda's childhood friend and dharma brother, Yogananda got the idea of PDC from a book on gymnastics by a German physical educator in the early 1900's. According to Swami Kriyananda, Yogananda's close disciple, Yogananda practiced Energisation Exercises twice every day of his life until his passing. See a photo of Yogananda taken just an hour before his passing in 1952, at the age of 59. I find his energy and appearance quite impressive.

Goswami

Another, though much less known, tradition of hindu yoga that uses PDC is the lineage of Shyam Sunder Goswami. Goswami published few books and was the founder of the Sweden-based Goswami Yoga Institute. His Advanced Hatha Yoga introduces PDC as ”Carana Yoga”. See these pictures of Goswami students practicing ”yogic bodybuilding”.

Shaolin

The only buddhist tradition that uses PDC exactly in the same way as Pemako Buddhism and the other examples is the Shaolin-tradition from China. Shaolin monastery is considered to have been founded by Bodhidharma, the yogi who brought Zen from India to China.

Over the past 1500 years, the training system of Shaolin temple has developed into a three-way system: 1. kung fu, 2. chi gong and 3. meditation (c. chan). Roughly speaking, kung fu refers to martial arts training, chi gong refers to conditioning of the body, focusing of the mind and cultivation of breath energy (c. qi) and meditation refers to cultivation of mindfulness. These three can also be explained as physical cultivation (c. jing), cultivation of breath energy through intention (c. yi) and cultivation of wakeful nature (c. shen). 

https://www.shaolinshixingmi.com/

The Gift of Physical Dynamic Concentration

People arrive and have glimpses of the natural state accidentally, as a side-effect and purposefully. The point of DC and PDC is to have a reliable and mechanical tool that enables recognition of one's wakeful nature anywhere and anytime to anyone, with or without a tantric empowerment.

Thank you for reading and many blessings,

-Kim Rinpoche, 16 of July 2020

Pemako Buddhism, www.pemakobuddhism.com

* This text is additional material to What's Next? On Post-Awakening Practice

* See also this video playlist of Dynamic Concentration and Physical Dynamic Concentration