About karma and good manners

 

About karma and good manners

Over the years this sangha has seen a dozen people who had many bhumi openings quickly but didn't pay attention to their (bad) attitude, ethics, bodhicitta or didn't appreciate their teacher. They came into the sangha, learned and did the practice for a year or two, burned on a flame too big, not listening and came up with some problems that were really in their own minds, to end up burning bridges to me for good.

It has always felt strange to me how casually people take these things and I have always warned people not to make dumb decisions, especially in this context, because you really don't want the kind of karma that comes from breaking the dynamic with a tantric teacher and their lineage. It is never a problem to leave a teacher and find a new one but to treat the teacher who has enabled one's advancement poorly, badly or in nasty way, creates karma that keeps lineages away of you for long periods of time. The dynamic is a bit different if the teacher in question has done something bad and hurt someone but to burn bridges with a teacher who hasn't done any of that, is one of the biggest mistakes one can do. Once again, we are talking about tantra which is all about energy and energetic connections.

You know about the mahasiddha family, these masters hovering in the atmosphere, observing the mankind and ready to give their blessings if someone asks them. There are of course countless other masters than the ones in ms family, though these masters really represent the creme de la creme of all major yogic and dharmic lineages and traditions. The point is that they aren't somewhere far away from us or from the mankind but very close and like us, they are intelligent. They think and observe, make conclusions and decisions, and of course lots of those decisions have to do with individuals they work with, i.e. the individuals who turn to them for blessings and support.

So if we think about the above described situation that a student comes into a lineage, is fortunate to learn the practices right away, gets the process going and keeps at it for a short period of time, makes a bold conclusion that she/he has advanced and begins to critisize and say bad things about one's teacher (no elements of harm or abuse involved) to then end up in a conflict with the teacher and possible other sangha members, in such a hassle these people usually fail to hit the breaks before saying or doing things that can't be undone. Once or twice some of my students have been gaining momentum, speeding up towards a clash but then managed to hit the breaks, fortunately. Usually, however, because these people haven't developed discrimination and necessary skills to keep one's reactions in control to not let them interfere with one's dharmic relationships, what happens is that these people keep speeding up, jumping into false conclusions, saying things that they will later regret, burn the bridges and end up not having a teacher, practice or a sangha anymore. Unless the students has done something really bad that requires instantly kicking them out (have had those as well) I always try to cool down the situation before their emotional impulses and delusions get the best (or worse) of them but I've seen people disregard those attempts of mine, to keep pouring gas in the fire. At some point, the teacher has to let go and in those instances I always politely ask the person not to practice my tantric teachings anymore. I remember couple of people who replied that it is not my business to ask them that and said they'll do whatever they wish with the practices. It is indeed strange how someone can be completely against the guru and yet wish to practice his teachings but in those cases I've taken the empowerment back. I've had to do that a number of times.

Sometimes, after some time passes, these people come to their senses, apologize and some of them would like to come back. I have received a bunch of apolology letters over the years and it has always been nice to see that they didn't remain in their delusions and compulsive opinions for longer than they did. I always forgive but might not take them back, nor give them another chance in the sangha, depending how bad their crash got.

So, the karma one gets from such blunders... Well, karma is real... but if you haven't yet discovered that it is, then you don't take things that seriously and do whatever you want or whatever your self-based reactions dictate you to do, without thinking about the consequences. Not understanding karma is a sign of immaturity as a practitioner but can't be used as an excuse for deluded behaviour.

So, if one does these things and insults the sources of refuge, the karma that one accumulates from it keeps the refuges away. Mahasiddhas who govern the lineages see this but remain at distance if these karmic causes are there. Person with such a karma simply can't access certain teachings anymore. Then one is left with lesser teachings or some hodgepodge that has no teaching of reality. Basically, what this means is that one's karma sends one back to samsara for a long and hard learning of suffering.

So, I'd like to make a request in case you leave this sangha some time in future. Go in peace and with manners. If I haven't turned into an abusive monster and done all the bad things that many teachers do, leave well-mannered and in peace. If you don't feel satisfied about something keep it to yourself, I don't need to know why you didn't like the buffet. When you want to leave, it makes sense that you stop practicing my tantric teachings. When you wish to leave, talk to me, shake my hand and go. If some day you wish to leave my sangha, please do it like this. Then we'll both feel good after years pass and you won't have to regret about something you said or did, and you didn't create this awful karma. If you leave like this, it is easy for me to take you back should you want to come back.

What I ask here isn't "dharmic". It's just good manners but because I have seen how the most civilized and educated people can turn into the dumbest samsaric fools, is why I felt like clarifying this for you..

Blessings,

Baba, 8.12.2022

Yogis on display-project has started!

Yogis on display-project has started!

It has been my concern for many years that in the West dharma is hidden. There are no temples to tell people about dharma and no nuns, monks, yoginis or yogis in public places to show people that this kind of lifestyle exists. In the West dharma is kept hidden even though there are millions of practitioners worldwide. If dharma is kept hidden it will never be integrated with the culture. Most worrying is the thought that westerners don't get to know that such a thing like dharma even exists.

The reason why we can discuss about dharmic traditions of many Asian countries is because since the teachings were brought to each country on the Asian continent, they were actively brought to people's awareness. To bring dharma - teachings of health and enlightenment - and any of its practices into the awareness of those who don't know about them is a genuine action of compassion that accumulates lots of merit and good karma. This is the reason why it is necessary to bring all and any forms of dharma out in the open and put it on display so that people can see it.

I have generated an idea by the title "Yogis on display" that adresses this problem by encouraging practitioners of any type of yoga, meditation or dharma to practice in public places where they can be seen. Anyone who wishes to partake in this project can take her/his meditation cushion or yoga mat to any public place and simply practice where others can see it. One can do yoga postures, chant prayers, sing mantras or simply sit silently doing an internal practice. Do your own practice in the open and if people approach you and ask you what you're doing, tell them. That's all.

You are welcome to have a photo taken of yourself or take a photo of yourself and publish it with hashtag #yogisondisplay

Follow @yogisondisplay at Instagram.

Let's bring dharma into the awareness of people together.

Monsoon blessings,

-Amrita Baba, 5.12.22

About arts and pristine being

 

About arts and pristine being

I love arts and have spent large part of my life learning them. I've studied music, calligraphy, painting and different physical modalities for decades. I love it and it is one of my greatest joys to discuss art in depth with fellow artists. However there is one limitation that arts can never overcome.

Art, in any shape or form, is dependent on itself and an artist is always bound by her chosen artform. Musician plays music, poet writes poems, painter paints paintings. There is no musician without music, no a poet without poems, nor a painter without paintings. In this way, artists are bound by their artforms and their expressions.

To me as an artist, this was a fundamental dilemma as it has been to some artists throughout history. This dilemma lead me to discover what necessarily has to preceed an artform for it to increase the artists freedom, instead of decreasing it. The limitations set by artistic expression lead me to a state of mind where pristine being is the most profound form of art and the rest follows after that.

This is the basic setting what in my teacher's tradition is called ”zen art”.

Without reservations

 

Without reservations

Robert: You've mentioned saints and sages 'chillin in the pure lands' and not necessarily working to liberate samsara, that it's quite common. I have a problem with this, like I can see that one would take a break one or two kalpas to gather knowledge or skills elsewhere to serve the cause, but to sit around or play cards or whatever, I don't get it. Everyone wants to get back to dharmakaya, that seems the highest purpose available in all of existence, and we are cells in the same organism, we are all the trikaya just with differentiated points of view. In the analogy mahasiddhas are like the white blood cells. But you don't see white blood cells loitering about when there's an ongoing infection.

Yes all will be healed in time, that seems a natural fact, everything sooner or later returns to its natural state, why would minds be any different. But we can spare so much needless pain and shorten the process exponentially with the aid of mahasiddhas and the holy dharma. All mahasiddhas have my reverence and I wouldn't speak I'll about someone, ever, this phenomenon can however be discussed in general terms I think, shall it hurt to talk about then so be it. Have been meaning to ask your view on this and the OP kind of goes in line with this question. Thank you, it is my wish is that this will help with deepening my devotion and subsequent service to the jewels. May all beings be free!

Baba: Laziness is common, as is lack of commitment and effort due to insufficient understanding of compassion. If you take a look around at all the dharma activities of teachers and their sanghas, what do you see? I don't see that many compassionate individuals who really take it as their bodhisattvic duty to bring dharma to others. I don't see that many dharma heroes around. Do you?

However, all dharma teachers and practitioners create fortunate karmic connections for themselves, and in dependance to their chosen vehicles and merits, access the chillin' in pure lands, like you say. In one sense this is merely cause and effect because it is as promised: practitioners are saved from the endless transmigration in the six realms or at least committed practice alters it greatly.

Having said that, just like there aren't dharma heroes here walking around, there is no place in common pure lands where heroes gather, except in places like Guru Rinpoche's Pure Land. Most pure lands, like most ashrams and training centers, are easily accessed. But in Guru Padma's Zangdok Palri, there are no unprepared or lazy individuals because they are not granted access there. But even then, master's pure land is there only to offer a place for karmically connected individuals to finish their practice of two stages: emptiness and light body. Pure lands are not more special in that sense. Guru Padma's pure land isn't any different in terms of purpose than our sangha is.

If individuals want to take it easy and relax, and not worry too much about furthering dharma whether in this or other worlds, it is their own choice. They have the freedom to do so but if you ask me, I think this does not indicate true understanding of the nature of mind and the nature of samsara. Like you say, white cells don't chill and take it easy when there is an infection in the body.

Many take dharma too lightly, as a hobby or something like that but it boils down to being a matter of life and death. It is not a game or a play, or to make one's life 5% happier because for those who suffer, the suffering is real. This is where Shakyamuni Buddha's teaching starts, from suffering and without it, there is no becoming free from it. Only those who start from suffering, having understood that self-based existence is actually a hell, can truly understand what dharma is because to them it is not a game or a small bonus on top of everything else but like a lifeline that keeps them alive. Are you such a person? I think it is from this real, felt suffering where the true understanding of reality and development of human character grows from.

Having found dharma, the medicine that heals our existential illness and pain, we are fortunate to keep paining. That might sound a bit strange but you see, many start dharma because they recognise their suffering and the medicinal benefits of dharma but then, somewhere along the way, their pains are alleviated enough and as they are unable to see how much more causes of pain are still yet to be liberated, they lax their efforts and commitments, and start taking it easy. I can't tell you how many people like this I've seen along the way but it is OK too.

It is a blessing to keen paining all the way until light body because it keeps you in the move and you don't start chillin' too early. Like I have explained many times, this is the gift of tantra because it doesn't allow you to bypass your blindspots. At the same time, if one doesn't have the need or resolve to go all the way, tantra can add to one's pain by revealing the darkness within too much. I've seen people like this too, even asking my permission to not practice. Silly! Whether you practice or not is nobody elses business than yours, so don't ask me and please don't bother me with your reasonings about such matters. My job is to help, instruct and lift those who want to commit to practice.

Even those who have realized the full scope of emptiness and have become first stage buddhas, according to the mahayana buddhist model, can be very ignorant. From one perspective, this is an outrageous statement but it is true. Buddhism emphasizes and relies on emptiness so much that it is both its strong and weak point. Fact is that emptiness is only one stop on the way to the real, full enlightenment, also known as light body or rainbow body. How many buddhist traditions teaches about both emptiness and light body? Only few. How many other religions?

Part of the reason why we see so few adepts attain small or full rainbow bodies is because of the above mentioned reasons. Also, methods vary greatly.

In principle, dukkha - existential pain and suffering - is optional but not all people of the world are karmically ready to attain full enlightenment or even much lesser attainments in this life, even if there were conditions to make it happen. Most people, incl. most of those who are already associated with dharma or practice it, are taking mini-steps to create karmic causes for their liberation some time in the distant future. Such people are like amateur athletes, they don't need professional coaches or high training methods.

If you ask my opinion, based on my own life experience, I can say loud and clear that suffering is real and that life can be hell. Mine was and still is a little bit. Having had the fortune to meet the dharma, to learn and practice it extensively, I feel it is my duty to spread the dharma. I don't chill. I can't because I know there are thousands and thousands of people out there who live in hell when they needn't to. If you think of the history of dharma, buddhist or otherwise, can you say that the past generations of teachers have been succesful in bringing the dharma medicine for those who need it? No, they have utterly failed. I know there are countless people out there just like the younger me who was eaten alive by one's self-delusion. I can't ignore the suffering in the world. I am requiring for my students who teach because this is my realization of bodhicitta and the dharma of Amrita Mandala. To me this alone is dharma and if genuine dharma is to have a future, this is the spirit it needs to have.

I work in dharma because I have to, because that's what the natural state is to me. I feel the pain of the world, so I act on it. Because of that I got to do my best and find ways to reach those people. I don't take a second for granted.

I have to admit though, that I rarely have enjoyable days at work. I am a lone wolf, without support from lineage, without support of anyone else in a culture where people don't know what dharma is. The past 15 years of teaching the way I do, has been another form of hell but this time I've had the support of my gurus and the buddha within, so it hasn't killed me, though it came close few years ago. I have thought of quitting for thousand times but never once I lost bodhicitta and it has kept me going. If I die doing what I have sworn to do, I will leave without regrets.

To me, there is no other way to sow the seeds of dharma into this soil, so I do it without reservations.

If you do the same, the buddhas will come before you and bow their heads at your feet. Many take Bodhisattva Vows but bodhisattvas are hard to find.

15.11.22

Remembering death

 

Remembering death

(unedited excerpt from my yet to be published "Manual for Seekers, Students and Teachers of Spirituality")

Some people talk about their near-death-experiences, like of some special event that could have got them killed. I don't mean to belittle such experiences because they can be both shocking or healing, as well as spiritually reorienting often leading people out of the grip of the ordinary. However, to practitioners of dharma, every day life should be a near death experience.

One of the fundamental practices for students of reality (skt. dharma) is to remember one's mortality. To do this practice means to live with death and the fact that this moment could be our last. Doing this makes us see ourselves and the surrounding world in a clearer light.

Remembering one's mortality is a deeply sobering practice because it cuts right through our everyday fantasies, worries and whatever petty things we entertain ourselves with. Accepting the fact that we will all die and leave these bodies, is a forceful wake up call to many. Even thinking about death can be shocking to the uninitiated who happily sleep in their worlds beliefs and dreams but after some familiarization with death, it becomes like a therapist or a healer to oneself. Remembering death, that in our modern culture lacks true understanding, can make our lives matter, and that in turn makes our lives better, in terms of quality. It ignites genuine love and care in us.

What do I mean by living with death?

It simply means reminding ourselves that wherever we are or whatever we do, this might be our last moment in this body. It is to remember among our every day situations, that it might be the last.

This might be my last time tasting a meal, my last time seeing a friend or a loved one; my last time taking a walk, my last time making love or my last time drawing a breath. If we live this way, have a continuous near-death-experience, would it make us see our lives, our decisions, our way of life, our relationships and our use of time in a different light? Absolutely, and that's the whole point. Remembering our mortality makes us alive. That is the waking up that comes from doing this exercise. You sober up and stop wasting your time in meaningless things.

Remembering death is one of the so called preliminary practices that all practitioners should do but many skip it and don't take it seriously. They think it is something for the low-level practitioners, like an ABC for the kids or something like that. If you think so, please allow me to suggest a simple test to see if you have graduated this preliminary or not.

There is only one thing that leads out of suffering and that is dharma, or the teaching of reality that gives us self-knowledge. To practice the dharma, means to recognize one's enlightened nature for the benefit of all beings.

Someone who has mastered the basics or preliminaries of dharma-teachings, uses one's time and energy more wisely than those who live their lives invested and absorbed in their own beliefs, opinions and dreams. Someone who understands what is truly important in life, lives one's life with the intention of being of service and helping others in their existential nightmares. This can take myriad expressions but that is the basic idea.

If we are honest to ourselves, it is easy to see whether or not we live like angels, bodhisattvas or masters who have mastered the dharma of death and impermanence by never forgetting that our time is running out at every instant.

-Amrita Baba, 13.11.22

After I attain full enlightenment

After I attain full enlightenment

If, after I attain full enlightenment, I fail to bring sentient beings to full enlightenment, may I not attain full enlightenment.

If, after I attain full enlightenment, I fail to teach liberation to sentient beings, may I not attain full enlightenment.

If, after I attain full enlightenment, I fail to bring sentient beings from confusion to freedom, may I not attain full enlightenment.

If, after I attain full enlightenment, I fail to offer a place of rest to sentient beings, may I not attain full enlightenment.

If, after I attain full enlightenment, I fail to be like a mother to all sentient beings, may I not attain full enlightenment.

*

This is a re-rendering of vows that I wrote two years ago.

-Baba, 10.11.22

How does awakening, and even full enlightenment, relate to the subtle body?

 

How does awakening, and even full enlightenment, relate to the subtle body?

(from Rainbow Body Yoga Manual, written by Amrita Baba)

In Amrita Mandala, bhumis are very important because they relate to awakening experiences and different stages of purification. There are 13 bhumis, that directly correspond to thirteen bhumi chakras that are used in practice with the purpose of establishing the natural state but also as a map to understand where we are on the map, in relation to the final attainment of full and perfect enlightenment. The thirteen bhumis is a path map, an actual map that gives us the direction where to go when we aim to reach enlightenment. The map is used and read through placing one's attention to different locations in the subtle body and then sensing the felt energy.

Theoretically, the chakra pillars below and above the body are not two separate pillars but one single whole that makes our subtle body. Our subtle body is made of many chakras inside the physical body and outside it. In bhumi pillars, we have seven centers below the body and seven above. At the far ends of both pillars, there are the so called mahasiddha bhumi chakras that relate to, as the name suggests, to the mind state of the mahasiddhas or fully enlightened masters. These mahasiddha bhumis are the three farthest centers away from the body, relating to bhumis 11-13. The direct reason why all human beings can recognise, cultivate and realize the natural state is in the fact that we have natural state within us, in the form of mahasiddha bhumi chakras of our subtle body. The basic state, i.e. the ground of the masters (skt. mahasiddha bhumi) is also represented by other centers and channels in the body and aura. These are areas that never get dirtied by self-based habits and negative patterns, and the actual principle why our innate purity and loving-kindness is never taken away from us, except by being strangers to our own true being. It is because of mahasiddha bhumis, i.e. pure channels and centers, why we can recognize and re-establish ourselves as enlightened beings.

When you connect the bhumi pillars, you will notice that your mind becomes utterly clear and pure. It feels as if you enter a realm of delightful purity.