Spiritual Athletics

 

Spiritual Athletics

I find videos like this incredibly inspirational and thought provoking. This gent, born in 1942 (!) does things at 80 years of age that myself and many of my 40 year old friends are not able to do. At 80, his skin and energy looks as fresh as someone who's 30 years old. It's the fountain of youth! This is so important!

I keep posting these videos to bring people's awareness to, as the gent says, "If you don't use it (the body), you might lose it".

I lost my walking ability so dramatically last year that it really shocked me. I fought an arduous battle to be able to walk and move again. It was an eye opener that something like that could happen to a 42 year old!

My long athletic background, knowledge of spirituality and this shocking experience made me inspired to start a new project that I'll make public later this year. It's about spiritual athletics. I'm writing a book about it as we speak and will open a new website with online courses and all.

Stay tuned and meanwhile enjoy these vids. And get your body moving! :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmzdUChrLDY

Refuge: Before and After

 

Refuge: Before and After

Refuge prayers typically say, "Until full enlightenment I take refuge in buddha, dharma and sangha..." It says that you take refuge until you reach full enlightenment or buddhahood. It means that you commit yourself to the discovery of the wakeful mind, or buddha, commit yourself to teachings of reality, or dharma and commit to the spiritual community or sangha. Also, in tantra you take refuge and commit yourself to the guru because it is guru who makes the whole path available and possible to travel. You willingly take refuge or commit to these three or four principles, or "jewels" because they are the way... that's how full enlightenment comes about.

And at some point it does. You become a buddha, a person whose mind is no different from Padmasambhava's or Jesus's. At this point you become a holder of timeless wisdom, a vidyadhara, a master. Then you no longer have a subconscious mind, and no samsaric surprises in terms of functioning of the mind. Your mind remains empty (skt. sunyata) day and night. If you're happy or in a joyful mood, empty of self. If you're pissed off about something, lustful or have heartbreak, empty of self. When in the minds of samsaric beings there is contraction in the form of self-based greed, hate and desire, in the mind of a mahasiddha there is none of that. However, even mahasiddhas, who obviously inhabit human bodies and live with other people, keep having emotions and reactions, they just aren't centered and contracted around the notion of self.

In this emptiness of all mind phenomena and states, there is no abiding in some or any state that would be opposed to some other state. That's why this state is the royal of all states or samadhis. In emptiness all states and forms of selfing have collapsed and permanently ceased. That how the mind of a buddha or a mahasiddha - a fully enlightened master - is. So, when you finish your purification of the 10 bhumis or grounds, your mind will be like this. You will become free! And you will become a guru, a mahasiddha, whose knowledge about dharma and the path is complete. Such a person can be taken as an object of devotion and blessings - guru yoga - by followers and students, and there will be no problems. Problems come when lesser practitioners are taken as gurus when they in fact don't have the capacity to guide samsaric minds out of the loop (samsara).

Titles like buddha, mahasiddha or vidyadhara sound so big, scary and romantic that everyone thinks it's not possible to reach or maybe in 100 lives from now or something like that but don't let terms of other languages scare or turn you off for these are just terms. All these teachings are meant to help and serve you so that you can outgrow them.

It all starts with the first awakening eperience where your selfing mechanism ceases for a moment and leaves a permanent impact. If you've had that first opening you know how your mind is different before and after. Already in that little experience buddhanature is glimpsed and you just keep glimpsing and awakening to it more and more until all of the samsaric load - selfing in all of its forms - dies completely and permanently. Millions of individuals in history have accomplished this. Millions! In our sangha we have 9 such people and I know few others who've become mahasiddhas, so in a sense it is nothing special, although very rare in the world of dharma today due to various reasons.

You take refuge and do the hard work of slaying the demons that you carry inside. For some time you keep taking refuge and work your ass off. No doubt you will have hard times that will make you cry and feel like shit but my friend, if you wish to see through with this, that's what you have to do. I'm not going to encourage you to tun your back to samsara and focus on dharma because if you are not done with samsara already and ready to put all in with your dharma practice, you are better off enjoying the moments of delight and getting your heart broken in samsara. Until you become completely disillusioned about samsara and what it can offer you, please don't fool yourself that you are ready for real dharma practice.

But at some point when you're done with taking refuge in samsara, then you're ready to take refuge in the Three Jewels and your guru. Then you have finished your preliminaries and are ready to practice, and you will advance quickly. This is proper. That's how your path of dharma begins. Then comes taking refuge, bodhisattva vows and practice learned from one's guru that you should follow to the letter. If you haven't finished your preliminaries, you'll still play around, even if you have received the highest teachings. Anyway, in this way, you start having cessations of the self-based mind (nirodha) and it is like the bottom falls off... together with all other boundaries... and the center. In this way you get more and more familiar with the groundless ground that is pure and full of pleasure.

Eventually you graduate and like I said then your mind remains in natural clarity and if you talk about the dharma, whether in casual or formal setting, blessings will radiate from your body and fills the room.

In fact, when a mahasiddha shares the dharma the subtle nonphysical space around that person becomes full of mahasiddhas, buddhas, bodhisattvas, deities, dakinis and adepts who come to rejoice the event of turning of the wheel of dharma. True (human) practitioners are able to perceive such things.

KR, 28.3.2022

About Hardships in Life

 

About Hardships in Life

Sometimes people tell me something very worrying or troubling of their personal lives. They tell me about problems with their spouses or companions, or relatives, financial problems, court cases or something like that. Sometimes I am shocked about what they share with me and deeply sad and sorry what they have to go through because I have a sense how excruciating and heartbreaking it is. I try to be present for their worries and offer whatever appropriate advice I can but the thing is that I cannot and do not tell people what to do with their lives. Not that I am asked to either, fortunately.

Everyone needs to make their own choices and take responsibility for them. In this way we learn about life and people, sometimes the hard way. It is emotionally and psychologically challenging and draining but because this is a samsaric world, we can't avoid it and therefore we just have to deal with whatever hardships come our way. Whoever you are, sooner or later, they will find you. Have no doubt about that.

In my position as a dharma teacher I have to be careful about boundaries. Even if people come to me with their worries and problems, I am not in the position of giving them advice about their life because I am just a dharma teacher. Having said that, sometimes I feel very strongly and clearly about what people should or shouldn't do. She should quit that job, he should find another woman, she should divorce him and so on. But I keep all that to myself because it is none of my business. Anyhow, it is painful to see people get hurt and struggle so much in their lives when it basically needn't be so hard but then again, I say that as a person whose had many hardships.

One is kind to pray and wish happiness to all beings but the reality of it is that in the case of all individuals, true happiness comes only through removing self-based ignorance, i.e. through realisation of emptiness. Deluded beings cannot be happy nor wise and the only way out of ignorance is by first hand discoveries. To show support and pray on behalf of those who have hard times in their lives is a sign of having a heart but this also has limitations and we should be aware of that. We shouldn't rely too much on prayers when dealing with samsaric problems in the midst of samsaric world.

What I am saying is that problems need to be solved by sufficient and fitting actions. For example, if you try to solve your divorce negotiations by fervently praying to God or Buddha, you'll likely be disappointed. On the other hand you'll be better prepared for such negotiations by learning about the divorce process and by talking to social authorities and a lawyer. True, sometimes spiritual practices have an effect on worldly things but we shouldn't be naive.

Much love,

KR 17.3.2022

Finding My Way Again

 

Finding My Way Again

”Be yourself, find your own way” 

- Babaji

I've focused 100% on dharma for the past 20 years, for my entire adulthood. I had little room for anything else in my mind and daily life because I felt everything in life was so off due to the self-centered poison in my system, that I had no other choice except to focus on dharma. Then, for the past year that's been suddenly, though not unexpectedly, gone...

During this time I've gone through a process asking myself what to do next, what to do with my life and how to express who I am. I've been so focused on my training and finishing it that I never thought of what I'd do after it... So I needed some time and let whatever inspiration was coming find me. It took its time but finally it arrived.

Some might expect me to present some spiritually enlightened plans and visions about what I'm planning to do next but sorry, I don't have anything like that to say. Of course, I keep on teaching the dharma and hope to further the teachings of the buddhas in this world in all and any ways available to me but this is not all there is to my personal life. My personal inspirations are very worldly and ordinary, even materialistic. So I'm glad that materialism and tantra fit well together! :)

So, here are my plans.

I want to get a driver's license and buy a car. I've been drooling at Dodge Challengers driving past me the last 10 years so I will buy one, a red one, and learn to drive it well. I'll stop at gas stations to fill it up and listen to loud rock music driving it. I'll take the people I love out for drives, maybe drive to Lapland in the Summer. I've never experienced these things before! It will be a perfect expression of buddhanature, radiation of immaculate purity. The buddhas of the three times will rejoice driving with me!

 

I also want to get a motorcycle, a black Harley Davidson Sportster with a dharma scorpion painted on its tank. I will learn the basics of fixing the engine and all that, that I am completely and happily clueless about at present. I've driven bikes as a kid but never as an adult. It will be a new thing, something new and fresh! I'll drive that thing and no doubt it will be a perfect expression of buddhanature, dance of the buddha spirits - dakas and dakinis – that will make my guru proud of his son.

Thirdly, I'll get my eyes fixed and start brazilian jujutsu. I've wanted to learn bjj for a long time but couldn't due to various reasons. I'll start bjj as a white belt and unavoidably get humbled a lot. But I want to become good at it, like I have in dharma and other arts that I've studied. A new art to learn, new things to experience! Laughter of million peaceful and wrathful buddhas in a single breath, in a sneer, in joy, in pain, in dread!

Finally, I want to start shooting guns. Handguns, shotguns, rifles, precision shooting... All these things, driving cars, motorcycles, martial arts and shooting guns I've done as a kid. They are common things that people do, yet new to me.

I never thought of doing these things before but now that I've been faced with the question of how to live my life, these are the things that I feel drawn to.

And so I have found my way again.

Dudjom Kim, 10.3.2022

Lotus Throne of Natural Purity

 

Lotus Throne of Natural Purity

I am awake, you are awake, all beings and things are awake. Together we rejoice in the pure lands of all existence, radiating rainbows, dancing on the lotus throne of natural purity.

Realization of Emptiness Vs. Being Skillful with People

 

Realization of Emptiness Vs. Being Skillful with People

Whatever experiences one hasn't had in life, realization of empty nature of phenomena does not change that. Realizing empty nature of phenomena does not and can not replace experiences in life, nor is it meant to do so. How skillful, smart and sensitive one is towards people and their matters is based on one's previous interactions with people, rather than insights or attainments through meditation. We won't become a psychologically skillful human beings without other people and the challenges they bring to us. This is why, mahasiddhas, myself included, can at times be clumsy and limited in human interactions. 

Q: What about relative bodhicitta? How does that come into play? I would have thought that mahasiddhahood would entail a certain baseline level of kindness and compassion.

A: Ethics is like having and using a compass and compassion towards others (relative bodhicitta) is like keeping warm along the way. Buddhanature is pure and perfect in terms of ethics and naturally kind and compassionate. Because of this a mahasiddha cannot create harmful schemes or say hurtful things *with the intention to hurt others*. But if one is a stranger to the interaction between other people, even if you are a kind-hearted mahasiddha with perfect knowledge about wisdom and compassion, unavoidably one's actions will be foolish or clumsy, or even insulting... but this is due to being foreign to customs and not due to samsaric self-centeredness. Mahasiddhas have no intention to hurt others but nevertheless one can say idiotic things out of not knowing how to interact with others, or due to any kind of views about the world and its fields of special knowledge.

 

KR, 8.3.2022 

Express Yourself Openly

 

Express Yourself Openly

I speak openly about things that are positive and I speak as openly about things that are negative. I don't shy from saying positive things nor save it for later time. I say it now when I feel it. As human being I wish that my loved ones know that I love them, so whenever I feel love for them, I tell them I love them. As a human being I want my friends to know that I value my friendship with them so I tell them that. As a parent I shower my children with love, encourage them and teach them whatever I have learned in my life through the positive. All in all, when things can be expressed positively, I express it so because it is the only authentic way to express who I am. This makes everybody's lives joyful and meaningful. They feel loved, appreciated, stronger and more confident. This has nothing to do with spirituality or anything like that. This is who I am as a human being and how I want to live my life. In good or bad, I express myself and we all have the right to do so.

KR 3.3.2022