If You Learn Them Well,
Basics Will Take You to Buddhahood
From email exchange.
>I guess my start with Pemako practices was too advanced for me. So I will turn around and stick to the basics for a while and will do the tantric trauma therapy sessions. And as far as I understood the basics are sitting and observing, correct?
I will follow your advice and observe my mind as much as possible. Your answer makes completely sense to me. That’s the thing. When you explain something, e.g. in a mail or during the retreat, it does make sense and I get it. But when I have to transfer it do different situations such as the exam situation, I don’t seem to remember of the things you ever said. Thanks again! And hopefully I won’t have to bother you anymore with basic stuff in the future.
-I think that beginning dharma practice is very much like any other art, though dharma is the art of arts because it is about the mind, nevertheless the same principles apply.
When I was a kid I fell in love with jazz music and started practicing jazz guitar. You know, jazz is one of the most complex kinds of music there is but the thing is that in the beginning one is required to establish a foundation by practicing the basics a lot. One learns scales, chords, harmony, melody and basic skills of one's instrument. It is all so simple but can be very boring and frustrating because it all seems a mystery how one is supposed to create jazz music from C major scale, C D E F G and so on. A beginner doesn't understand because she/he hasn't built the foundation, and yet if you listen to a record such as Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, which is the most sold jazz record of all times, the music in it is extremely simple, basic stuff really. Yet, if a beginner just copied the notes played by musicians on the album it doesn't sound even nearly the same.
So how is it possible that a master of jazz is able to create amazing mindblowing heart touching life changing music from the basic scales? This question burned in my mind as a youngster that it kept me up all night practicing endlessly. I would sit and practice up to 14 hours a day, until my fingers didn't move.
All dharma practice starts with genuine heartfelt motivation, you want to attain buddhahood in order to help all sentient beings. Aligning one's energies with this motivation is preceded by acknowledging that the core of our problems is self-delusion. When these two are had and felt you will not have problems in your dharma practice and the path opens up before you like an open highway. On the other hand without these two to inspire and motivate your practice, one will come up with all kinds of self-created obstacles and problems. Not even mahasiddhas can help in that situation.
I don't think you came to Pemako too early or that Pemako is too “advanced” for you. Rather, I think that you need to realise that like learning to play jazz or for one to become a professional yogi (which is what you need to be if you aim for buddhahood in this life), you need time, effort and patience. Like I explained, the path of yoga is about ongoing learning of one's own mind.
So my advice to you, since you study with me, is to pay attention to what I say, think about what I say and apply.
Like
Miles's music, what I teach is the basics. It just doesn't
seem that way to you because you haven't assimilated the basics yet.
However, if you stick to it, you will.
KR, 17.1.2022
