perjantai 30. lokakuuta 2020

About Bhumis and Prejudice

 

About Bhumis and Prejudice



I've taken a long break of bhumi work. I haven't done bhumi analyses for... at least a year. I did so many of them, literally around 5000 during the past several years, so I got fed up and needed a break. Then, this past week I've noticed myself thinking of doing bhumi analyses again and today I thought of publishing a series of bhumi analyses of well known teachers. That didn't go well back in 2016... at all... For those who don't know what happened back then, I'll tell you.


In late Summer of 2016 I published couple of dozen photographs of well known buddhist and other spiritual teachers, all very public figures, with my bhumi analyses according to the Open Heart Bhumi Model. I've discussed this model with great detail in my freely available book What's Next? On Post-Awakening Practice.


I published the photos in my blog each with a bhumi measurement. The series included for example, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, other leaders and Tibetan buddhist teachers, Thich Nhat Hanh, Ramana Maharishi, bunch of zen teachers, theravadans and so on. I'm trying to come up with the most fitting description how my "Bhumi Study Series" was received by the internet. The word that best describes it, is: shitstorm.


I had never witnessed aggressive religious fundamentalism before but I sure witnessed it back then. It came to me as a total surprise. My point of view was that I felt I was trying to make sense of the path and stages of the spiritual path from unawakened state to fully enlightened state, also known as buddhahood. Even though buddhism offers a number of path maps with stages, these are not used by anyone so the whole discussion about shifts or awakening experiences is a completely grey area. Out of many millions of meditators in buddhism, not to mention other systems, few know where they are on the map or whether they even are on the map. I had received this bhumi mapping system (that I've explained in my book) from my gurus, so I knew I had a solution. I was simply trying to help and offer a solution that worked for anyone, regardless of their chosen methods or paths. I really thought I was doing everyone a big favour. Fundamentalists didn't see it that way and a massive shitstorm broke. They hated it and instantly rejected it. In their mind, I had crossed a sacred line and discussed the levels of attainment of their precious gurus. That was something they weren't going to tolerate. It was too much for them so they instantly called it bogus, branded me crazy and banned me from their discussions.


I'm not going to lie and say that it didn't hurt. It hurt a lot. That was real aggression and I got lots of it. Had I been on sight, I'm pretty sure I would have been chased and attacked. At the same time these emotionally charged reactions confirmed to me what I had analysed in my thousands of analyses. Bhumi openings or their closedness, and the degree of purification of mind (i.e. bhumi perfection), is reflected in the actions of men, and since I was treated very meanly, it was and still is an indication that my analyses not only about the various spiritual leaders but also their students, were correct. For some time I tried to have a dialogue with these people, explaining how it worked etc. But as they weren't capable of it, I decided to remove the analyses from my blog and find a hole to lick my wounds.


I still find it hard to believe how and why(!) would anyone be so offended about 1. differences in view which in this case meant that even if attainments are not traditionally openly discussed, they still can be discussed, and 2. things that could be empirically tested, tried and learned. To me, who am a bit of an engineer, it was mind boggling why would anyone get mad about a thorough explanation how it all works... But that was exactly what I didn't understand about the samsaric mind before, at least not well enough, so I stepped right into it...


See, when you've invested all your life into any form of religion or spirituality that you think is going to take you ”all the way”, even if you don't know exactly how and when, and then comes in some bastard who maps your favourite religious leader very low on the spectrum, it can piss people off!!! Because of the time-money-energy-investment and religious belief, very few people who have been following this or that method for many years, are willing to admit that they've wasted their time-money and energy. Samsaric mind, even that of ”practitioners”, gets attached and attachment as dharma teaches us, makes people angry.


I can and do symphatize with that, as I feel I wasted most of my 8½ years of continuous retreat doing practices that were only distantly relevent, or actually not very relevant at all with my wish to get awakened. I wasted my best years because I believed as blindly as so many out there. I thought I was open minded the whole time but really, I was fixated, I was attached, I was a believer... I trusted without the slightest doubt training systems that ”had been passed down in an unbroken lineage since the founder of buddhism to our generation” and taught ”practices that were time tested” and therefore offered very reliable tools. I heard that sales pitch so many times and bought it without questioning... until several years and literally twenty-four-thousand hours of practice later... No, it didn't work as promised... My time-energy-and money was mostly wasted. I was pissed off about that for years myself!


Later when I started to talk about this with others, I met many people who had been disillusioned about the ”tradition” like myself. It was clear that there was something very wrong with how the basics were or weren't taught by the traditions. I say traditions in plural because the same problems exist everywhere. I base this not only on my own bhumi analyses but also in discussions with hundreds of practicioners and many teachers of various incl. Tibetan buddhism, zen, theravada, advaita and so on. It is actually interesting how some come to see the issues or problems in training methods, their teachers, their communities and their culture, while others don't. I think this has a lot to do with readiness or merit as it is commonly known. If you really want the truth, you can't settle for poor answers. A lot of people start with that pure need for knowing the reality but get distracted along the way, usually with all the externals such as forms and rituals, authorisations, hierarchiesand stuff like that, and end up fundamentalists, usually subtly.


So, anyway, that is what happened back in 2016 and that's behind me now. However, now that I've taken a break of bhumi work and feel refreshed about it, I cannot help thinking about the benefits of the 13 Bhumi Model. It is not particular to Pemako Buddhism or me. It is universal. We all have bhumis because we all have the same energy body with channels and centers. We all have bhumi centers that can be perceived. We all have bhumi centers that are either closed or open, and if they are open, they are on their way to be entirely purified, or perfected. Open Heart Bhumi Model is an excellent model, an excellent path map. It matters not what people think about it because it works... And it applies to everyone out there...


I wouldn't want to start another shitstorm but I do wonder how could I represent the bhumi model in a way that is attractive and interesting to people.


Much love and blessings. You are the real deal.


Kim Katami, 23.10.2020



maanantai 26. lokakuuta 2020

Ramana, Eckhart Tolle and Bhumis

 

Ramana, Eckhart Tolle and Bhumis


Q: Ramana and Eckhart Tolle have such a "enlightenened" way about them and still I am supposed to be more enlightened than they are


Kim: Both Tolle an Ramana have had decades to mature within their few opened bhumis, and decades to talk about it. You've opened a bunch of bhumis literally this and last year, and haven't had any time to soak in it, so you don't know what hit you... and you're still going ahead with openings. Eventually, if you haven't already, you'll open all of them and start perfecting them, if not this year, then next year. Can you see how different is your situation to theirs? You also as a young man don't have the life experiences Tolle has and that gives him confidence. 

 



-Let's think about bhumis in a different way. Is it better or more advanced to have 3 open or 8 open? 8 of course. Is there difference between someone who opened 3 bhumis 10 years ago and has kept practicing, is maybe close or has perfected them 3, compared to the person who opened 8 bhumis this year? Probably the one with 3 (close to perfected) is more settled. If both had same time to mature, then it would be the other way around. How about if we compare that same person with 3 close to perfection to someone who opened all 13 bhumis just recently? On 99% of cases I'd go with the person who opened mahasiddha bhumis because that person has stable natural state. The reason why I say 99% is because even if all bhumis are open, one can be too traumatised so that the subconscious tension just doesn't allow proper recognition. When the guard caused by trauma goes down however there is instantly a recognition, not of calmness but of the natural state. So I'd actually top it up to 100%.


-Then how about if we compared someone who has 6 bhumis perfected (arhat) to someone who has all bhumis open but none perfected, both's attainments this year. It gets a bit tricky here but I'd still go for all open. Six bhumis perfected gives a firm base but if the consecutive bhumis are closed, the whole feel and taste of it is entirely partial. Having mahasiddha bhumis open on the other hand, even in a bodymind that has none perfected, is like a continuous breeze of fresh air, and from there it is very easy, in relative terms, to integrate the rest into it. We are talking about few short years here, not decades, not even a decade. To sum it up, methods vary greatly. Hugely, in fact. Confidence comes by itself.


Kim

Pemako Buddhism

www.pemakobuddhism.com



sunnuntai 25. lokakuuta 2020

About Emptiness and Dzogchen

 

About Emptiness and Dzogchen


I think anyone who is familiar with buddhist vehicles agrees that dzogchen is based on emptiness and there is no dzogchen without the basis of emptiness. In fact, the first stage of buddhahood, also known as trekcho in trad dzogchen, is the realisation of complete emptiness. Realisation of emptiness means "all phenomena", mind as a whole. This is why it is said that sutra, tantra and dzogchen have the same goal. 

 

 



Mix ups in teachings are not uncommon with dzogchen practitioners or teachers and I think this is because of the fact that dzogchen emphasizes recognition of "spacious awareness" that can be found "in between thoughts". However, this instruction or understanding alone inevitably ends up in dualistic positioning between awareness and mind as separate things. Actually I remember from retreat with Tsoknyi Rinpoche, him talking about dzogchen practitioners in Tibet and Nepal who have this problem. This indicates that there is further to go in emptiness meditation because according to tradition these are not separate but same. There is no mind "and" awareness. There is only mind that is empty or advancing insight into the emptiness of mind. When mind ceases altogether, when the five skandhas are seen to be empty of solid self, then clarity, wisdom and love of buddhanature shines out perfectly, without obstruction. Stage called One taste/Same taste is all about the sameness of "samsara" and "nirvana", or "mind" and "awareness", or "problem" and "solution". And it is from that entry where the last stage of Nonmeditation or dzogchen atiyoga reveals itself. 

 

- Kim, 25.10.2020 

 

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torstai 15. lokakuuta 2020

Relationships Based on Trust and Respect

 

Relationships Based on

Trust and Respect


Buddhists talk about samaya which means a relationship based on trust and respect. We need to treat all aspects of our lives with respect and kindness, so that things won't turn against us and cause us problems.


Samaya is important in all kinds of relationships, between friends, companions, parents and children, people and their pets, people and their surroundings and people and nature. If we don't treat our friends respectfully, friendship will come to an end. If we behave hatefully towards our companions, distrust is created and that will inevitably pull the couple apart. Children who have been treated badly by their parents, don't want to hear of their parents because there is no trust. Dogs that have been yelled at or kicked, are nervous and bite their owners. Mother Earth, that together with the Sun, provides everything we need to live, but when treated with disrespect, it creates mass fires, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods and hurricanes to indicate that such disrespectful treatment will not be tolerated. Respectful treatment is crucial even between our minds and bodies. If we treat our bodies badly, it creates illness. If we behave selfishly, everything that is good turns against us. We turn our Pure Land, our paradise, into a living hell. This is the consequence of self-based ignorance.

 


All life is good. All humans are basically good. All life is basically good. All life is imbued with immense kindness and radiates happiness. We are nurtured, protected and taken care of from the beginning. We have the power to change things for the good. We have the power to heal ourselves and others. We have the power to stop things from getting worse. We have the power to heal. We can re-establish trust and respect because all beings have the nature of perfect enlightenment.


Kim, 15.10.2020

Pemako Buddhism,

www.pemakobuddhism.com


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sunnuntai 11. lokakuuta 2020

Birgit's Awakening

 


Birgit's Awakening



I am sharing here a bit and photographs from Birgit's guidance to awakening that she did with Ugi.



-Kim



Birgit from Germany awakened!

Here's her final two reports:

"Dear Ugi,
Today I felt very supported in the selfless space. I called the ego and got light pressure on my head. Not quite as helmet-like as before, but rather individual pressure points. I felt into it, but there is nothing behind it. These points dissolve when I feel them. And then I had a tingling and buzzing in and around my whole body, as if I was dissolving. As if the body was dissolving.
When I think about the I, I think about my body and my appearance at the same time. But this is not the I, because this is somehow changeable.
I think the I exists only as a thought. But what is it that reacts flattered or happy or angry?"



And the final one:



"Dear Ugi,
yesterday it was very quiet inside me, I felt carried, and the noise, which usually prevails in my head, was no longer there. The volume control was probably turned to "quiet". And I had the subtle knowledge that I had unmasked it:
There's no one there inside of me. There is no I. There is no "control center" in me from which everything emanates. It is empty within me.
When I called the 'I' this time, it sounded different in me. No longer meaningful, rather meaningless. It had no effect on my feelings, because I knew that there was nothing there.
A slight, barely perceptible head pressure, perhaps, but even that had no meaning. I never left the selfless room.
I felt very calm and carried all day long. And practiced to perceive myself in the selfless space.
Even today everything feels very light. Unconcerned I watch the newsfeed on FB, which usually takes me quite emotionally. It all feels very wide inside me. Like I said, rather uninvolved in terms of the outer life.
I feel comfortable inside me. The topic, which has been on my mind and emotions for the last year, has retreated into the background. I feel freer and can enjoy life very much.
The tightness in my body is no longer there and in my head it is perhaps still minimal. But that has no relevance either.
Thoughts and feelings just come. They arise as naturally as my heartbeat or breathing or the functions of my organs. They also leave again when I let them.
Many greetings and a happy Sunday,
Birgit"

Before awakening (left) and after awakening (right)

Guidance to Awakening:

https://www.pemakobuddhism.com/34533


tiistai 6. lokakuuta 2020

May Women Thrive as Tantrics!

May Women Thrive as Tantrics!



The past of buddhism is maledominated. All major religions that have emerged during the past roughly 2000 years have been maledominated, and still remain so. Maybe this is because this has been necessary in the past. Maybe this is because otherwise teachings – dharma – wouldn't have taken ground. If we started talking about the many problems of maledominated religions, that would be a long conversation. Without doubt we would feel bad about many issues, wrongdoings and mispresentations done and imposed by religious men. That is highly unfortunate. Personally, I feel sorry for the fact that equality between sexes didn't exist in the past and in many ways still doesn't exist today. However, I also see some positive light coming up in the horizon.


Over the last roughly 100 years, dharma has been brought to the West. Here in the West, we have a very different kind of history and traditions, also in regards to gender equality. I think that in this setting women can begin to flourish as dharma practitioners and realized masters. According to my father,


The basis for realizing enlightenment is a human body. Male or female–there is no great difference. But if she develops the mind bent on enlightenment, to be a woman is better.” -Guru Padmasambhava

 

I think that women have an ability to understand tantra better than men. In general, women are more intuitive in their use of the body and mind. They also might have more sensitivity than men. Also, the fact that they are embodiments of the feminine principle, puts women closer to full buddhahood known as rainbow body, if we look at female constitution alone, and I think this is what Guru Rinpoche is referring to in his quote. This is a somewhat artificial categorisation but I think these things are true. 

 


I hope that dharma takes root and becomes authentic in the West. I hope that women empower themselves through the practices available to them which wasn't at all the case in the history of buddhism. I hope that Western women especially take up the practice of tantra because vajrayana suits them better than sutrayana. That is the way to truly empower women.


Personally I hope that I can give many of my female students dharma transmission so that they can become representatives and embody the teachings of Pemako Buddhism for the benefit of all sentient beings. I wish that these authorized female teachers, can show an example and encourage other women to become true practitioners who aim for full enlightenment. Looking at our sangha and sensing into the future, I feel that the future is bright in this regard.


May women thrive as tantric yoginis!

May women fully embody our original state free of confusion, full of love!

May women of this world become buddhas!

May women become fully realised masters who lead sentient beings out of samsara!

Ho! May true dharma spread in all directions!


I bow to my guru father, Guru Rinpoche,

and join the smile of my guru mother, Yeshe Tsogyal,


Kim Katami, 6.10.2020

Pemako Buddhism

www.pemakobuddhism.com

 

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Open Secrets of Tantric Yoga

 

Open Secrets of Tantric Yoga



This is a short note about tantric yoga.


In tantric yoga, there are three aspects of practice: external, internal and secret.



External



External aspect refers to techniques used, such as singing of mantras or prayers, doing visualisations and mudras, or performing breathing exercises. These are all ”ways to come in contact with” but with what? With the internal and secret. External, as the name suggests, is the most external aspect of tantric yoga. Without internal and secret, tantric practice is entirely insufficient. External practice should always be understood as a way to come in contact with the internal and secret because then and then only it serves a purpose.


This can be compared to learning how to use a machine or a gadget, like a smart phone, for example. To be able to make calls with it, send messages or use the social media, we first need to learn what to do, where to go, what to press and what not to press. To use a phone, we need to know the basics to be able to use it. When we know the basics, we no longer need to keep studying the basics. We can make phone calls, send messages and do whatever we like with this simple knowledge. Knowing the technical basics allows us to use our phones in a way that meets with our needs. We might see how our friend uses his phone in a much more technically elaborate way, knows shortcuts and whatnot. Fancy and more evolved tricks can be done but learning of the basics meets with our needs perfectly.

This is a perfect analogy of tantric yoga. In a similar way, we should know from the beginning what is the primary purpose of tantric yoga. That purpose always is to know ourselves without dualistic confusion. This very point, by the way, always without exception, makes the nonphysical bodies of ours, namely awareness and mind, more important than the physical body, in the context of removing self-based delusion.


The way how tantric yoga accomplishes this is through various tantric exercises that are always learned from a valid teacher, often with empowerment. We learn how to pronounce the mantra, the meaning of the mantra, mudras for different mantras, different visualisations, how to use our breath and so on. Some tantric methods, such as Pemako Buddhism, use relatively simple techniques. Our mantras, visualisations, mudras and breathing exercises are all very simple. However, these practices meet with our demand of clarifying the natural state and becoming fully enlightened buddha in this life, perfectly. Some other styles of tantra might use much more elaborate techniques. Simple or elaborate, the main purpose is the same.


For a beginner, who is still learning the basics, lots of repetition is the way. Repeate the mantra a lot so that little by little you become to know or to feel the guru or the deity behind the mantra (without repetition). Through repetition, we learn the basics of tantric yoga. We come to understand the principles, how it all works. It is important to do as many repetitions that is necessary but mere repetition as pastime has no purpose.


External technique should always lead out of the technique, to felt sensation which is the internal aspect of practice. If we keep repeating when there is no need for it, we'll postpone undrstanding and relief coming to us.



Internal



Internal aspect of tantric yoga means to become aware and work with energy and the energy body. External technique is like using a telephone and typing in the number. After typing of the number, you wait for the phone call to be answered. You don't keep typing the number over and over, endlessly and pointlessly. So, after you type the number, guru in guru yoga or deity in deity yoga, picks up the phone. You might have been doing the external practice anything from one second to an hour but eventually you are to stop making the call and shift into receptive and attentive mode. You shift from talking and doing, to being, feeling and receiving. At this point you drop the mantra, the visualisation and so on. You begin to feel the energy of the guru or deity. You feel it with your whole being and take it in. In this way, you unify your whole mind and body that is marked with samsaric traits with the energy or blessing of the tantric practice. Then you simply keep feeling it, you ride the waves of blessings that come to your samsaric body from the perfectly enlightened archetypes of the mind, deities or nonphysical gurus. You take it all in, you feel it in muscles and bones, in your whole body and aura.


When practicing internal tantra, you mingle and blend with the guru or the deity. You unify with it, so that not a trace of your habital self remains. In order to accomplish this, you need to surrender. At least, you need to relax. If you don't relax or are not in receptive mode, you won't notice anything because the blessings stay outside of yourself. Guru yoga is practiced in all major religions by hundreds of millions of people everyday, so you don't need to worry or be afraid. If you can't relax because you're scared or are traumatized by bad human relationships, understand that the guru is not someone who has bad intentions. The sole purpose of gurus is to offer their assistance and help us out from existential pain and trauma. They are healers and liberators, so don't worry. You can take all the time you need to relaxing and opening up, no one forces you. If you have this problem or are simply sceptic, you can simply be curious about it and you'll feel something. If you stay shut, however, the guru cannot and will not force in.


In a way, you could say that you let yourself be embraced and held in the presence of the guru or deity. When you do this it feels magnificient. It is like you're healed and liberated on cellular level. It feels like that because your usual sense of self that is filled with dualistic distortions and habitual mistakes, becomes illuminated and removed, and your true being comes forth.


That is a crucial point to understand, that in tantra, the guru and deities are practiced and worshipped, not for their sake but our own. The meaning is always to know oneself but in tantra because there are seemingly external beings involved, one can be confused if one doesn't understand that it's all done to know oneself, to become fully enlightened, for the sake of all sentient beings.


Guru or deity yoga is a type of transmission or re-establisment of your own completely wakeful being, in the place of your self-based confusions with myriad expressions. Mingling or unifying with guru or deity, reveals our true being and purifies the self-based notions from our subtle body. Mingling with the object of the tantric practice, removes dirt from our system, from the organs (chakras) and channels (nadis) of our subtle body. This takes time and repetition but each session brings a relief because it is so healing, supportive, loving and liberating. Tantric practice is pleasant and joyful by nature.



To be succesful in this, one really needs to understand that tantra is a lot about internal yoga, feeling the guru or deity. External technique is just a way to generate and to come in contact with the internal. For an advanced practitioner, external technique can last only a second and then in an instant she or he shifts to internal.


Depending on one's stage of purification or bhumi perfections in our 13 Bhumi Model, one either,


  1. only generates the guru or deity without realising that the guru and deity is oneself as fully liberated being, or

  2. generates the guru or deity, while recognising partially that the guru and deity is oneself as fully liberated being, or

  3. recognises entirely that the guru and deity is oneself as fully liberated being.


From internal, the domain of the secret is entered.



Secret



Secret aspect of tantra is one's basic nature. This basic nature is lucid and aware in effortless manner. This basic nature that is also the secret aspect of tantra, is effortless natural presence, clear mindedness, sober, fresh and selfless existence. It is without contraction or duality because it is not a thing, or a self. This basic nature is the foundation of all existence. It is the bedrock of goodness and only good things grow out of it, in the form of thoughts, emotions and actions. Because it is entirely good and without contracted selfing, it is a very different kind of existence than samsaric existence. There is no contraction and thinking processes in terms of me and other. Simultaneously it cannot express itself in ways that hurt others. Our basic nature is liberating and the very reason why existential liberation is possible in the first place. Us humans and some other kinds of beings have the opportunity to recognise this basic nature of ours and through doing so, we can change. In this way we can become enlightened, through the process of transformation.


The purpose of yoga is to offer a way, techniques and methods, how self-based contraction can be removed and natural condition of peace, freedom and true selfless joy is re-established. The easiest way this can be accomplished is through tantric yoga, whether in the form of guru yoga or deity yoga. Again, guru or deity is not exercised for any other purpose than our own knowledge.

So, after external and internal comes secret, this basic nature, and in that there is no duality. All dualities such as self and other, or doing and being cease. We enter a world within us where there is no self-based views at all. There is only equalness, that is seen to be the same in everything. There is joy of deepest kind where there is no me claiming or attaching to it. Neither in this natural condition, there is pain or confusion. The whole samsaric engine that spits out sorrow, envy, jealousy, anxiety, depression, hate, panic, nervousness, dullness, fogginess, fear and distortion ceases to exist. In tantric yoga, there is no guru, because you have become the guru and there is no deity because you have become the deity. There is no contracted self or subtle distortions because the samsaric mind no longer exists, it has been released. Tantric practices enable this momentarily and over a long period of time, self-based notions are ground to disappearing dust.


In this way tantric yogas make the natural state or ourselves as buddhas appear. Our mind becomes clear like the sky, fresh like wild mint, joyous like children playing, strong like a lion and caring like a grandmother. This is who we are.


Kim Katami, 1st October 2020

Pemako Buddhism,

www.pemakobuddhism.com

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maanantai 5. lokakuuta 2020

Open Secrets of the Rainbow Body

 

Open Secrets of the Rainbow Body


To practice atiyoga means to recognise the utterly obvious and simple freedom and peace that is already present in the body and in the mind. The so called great perfection isn't anything else but this simple, naked, joyful, playful and restful reality that already permeates our being and our day to day life. Simple presence is here, and here, and here... All life rests in this great perfection and is an embodiment of it. This is not advanced spirituality or "advanced dharma", it is the reality right now. Free of drama... Simple... Clear... In this presence all beings are equal.
To remind about this simplicity here is a picture of Dilgo Rinpoche, a fully enlightened man.


Receiving and giving a loving hug,

Smiling and laughing together with friends and strangers,

Dancing with joy, enjoying a drink,

Surrendering to love, offering a helping hand

Feeling and sharing ways of happiness, and

Healing those who are ill,

-Are all methods of thogal,

Ways to attain the great perfection of love and light.


- Kim Katami 

Pemako Buddhism, 

www.pemakobuddhism.com


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