Practices of Emptiness and the Lightbody

 

Practice of Emptiness, Practice of the Lightbody

(from a facebook post)

Dealing with trauma ain't no funny business. That's what you're left with after purifying bhumis, (if one has proper trauma). It can make one feel infested with strong negativity, just very negative world view. And the difficulty is not that you can't "purify" it but because the whole way of seeing the world is distorted. This means that the energy system where the trauma is stored is broken. That's psychic injury or trauma.

I am not sure if the past generations of masters understood trauma the way our generation experiences it. It is logical that they did and there are many central practices like smiling meditation, shamatha, loving-kindness or jhanas (skt. dhyana) that are excellent for healing trauma and have been practiced for millennia but I'm still not sure. I've met a few lineage holders who had no clue about trauma though. They just thought it was a form of compelling self-delusion.

In Amrita Mandala we dive deep into the world of emptiness insight (skt shunyata) from the beginning. We do this because our primary concern is to remove self-delusion that gives brth to existential confusion (skt duhkha). Our method is built to get one from ignorance to wisdom (skt prajna) very quickly because the priority of dharma is to awaken. We don't have a period of shamatha/calm abiding meditation to prepare and no mandatory preliminaries, apart from doing 1 year of Rainbow Body Yoga Lite before taking up the full version of Rainbow Body Yoga. In traditional systems, new students would practice simple calm abiding or do preliminaries at least for one year before even giving them empowerments and practices like RBYL/RBY.

Amrita Sundari

I have built the method in this way purposefully because removing of dukkha needs to be a priority. You can't get true relief from shamatha if you're very much troubled by the sense of self. I know that from experience, having started with lots of shamatha practice leading to a dead end of sorts where I was existentially as miserable as I was before I started practicing. Same happened to Shakyamuni who practiced jhanas for 6 years. My point is that from the purely dharmic perspective the sense of self with all its friends and buddies needs to go first, i.e. emptiness or wisdom needs to be established first.

Traditional methods start differently. They start with calm abiding (skt shamatha), preliminaries, jhanas or such and usually don't give instructions of emptiness insight from the start. There are exceptions but this is how it usually is. The reason why these kind of practices can be extremely frustrating to someone whose hair is on fire due to existential discomfort is because shamatha and jhana meditations work on the subtle body made of meridians which is not where self-delusion is even located. The good side of these practices is that one purifies the meridian system but the bad side is that one's existential issues remain intact.

I think that most lineages and traditions don't even know that there are two different types of subtle bodies: 1. one made of nadis and 2. other made of meridians. These two systems are closely related but are different and have different laws.

If we practice shamatha or jhanas, the cultivation happens in the body or field of meridians which is the subtle system closest to the physical body and its organs. The sense of self as defined in buddhadharma and doctrines of awakening is not there so from the perspective of wisdom awakening these practices are utterly pointless and useless. They just prolong one's existential pain. But, and this is very important, from the perspective of healing of trauma these practices can be golden. I say can be because I also know many people who practiced shamatha for years and still had huge traumas. 

 

Something that I do not understand and do not agree is when shamatha or jhanas are marketed as techniques that develop concentration. I don't think developing concentration is that important when compared to healing. In my zen days I developed concentration to very high degree that I could burn holes into sheets of paper, figuratively speaking, but that skill is quite useless. I wish shamatha had been presented to me as a way to heal but because it wasn't I missed a huge opportunity to heal my traumas because my teachers didn't even know that sphere of human issues and I also didn't even get awakened which is what I had come for. What a miserable sorry ass pancake. 

 

If we look at the human subtle bodies from a different perspective after one has purified the body of nadis (bhumis), which is where the self-delusion is stored, one can be fully and completely awake and yet still have lots of trauma stored in the body of meridians. In traditional systems this doesn't happen, or ideally shouldn't happen because the meridian system should by that time be already purified. But in our system it is the opposite way, the traumas and echoes of the former samsaric mind are still there because the body of meridians hasn't yet been adressed.

During the past few years I have given empowerments and teachings of the Ten Wisdom Goddesses (skt Dasha Mahavidya) and various hingu guru yogas that adress the meridian system but I am just now about to really get the engines started regarding this matter.

I have been working on this question in my lab day and night for over a year now and I am glad to say that my work has produced results. I have given trauma healing teachings before but the best is yet to come. I found that an excellently effective way to adress the meridian system and get the traumas washed out from there is in my old old friend - kriya yoga. For those who don't know I used to teach a form of kriya yoga called Sundara Kriya Yoga until about 10 years ago before switching over to buddhist tantra.

These years and the constant experimenting with various tantric practices have been both very fruitful but to me also very frustrating at times because I haven't been given ready-made answers by my gurus. I had to dive deep into my system and contemplate my butt off to come with solutions and results. An example of this is figuring out whatboth myself and my students were experiencing after bhumi perfection stage when they started feeling distant echoes of the former samsaric mind or still had the same psychic injury they had before. It took me a while to figure out that they are coming from a *different energy system*. Then I had to find out *how to adress* them effectively. This investigation has been a massive undertaking but I am finished with the processing now and have everything my students need. 

 

So just to be clear when it comes to wisdom we have RBYL and RBY, guru yoga with Yeshe Tsogyal and Guru Rinpoche, vipashyana instructions, bodhicitta, basic prayers and so on. No change there. I will, however, introduce a different set of hindu tantric exercises side of these buddhist tantric exercises. The name for this set of exercises of Amrita Kriya Yoga.

Our sangha members have seen glimpses of this already. Few weeks ago I posted an image of Amrita Sundari, which is a form of Tripura Sundari given by mahasiddha Agastya. Amrita Sundari is the main deity of Amrita Kriya Yoga. There are other supplementary practices such as Amrita Sundari Astottara Shata Namavali or 108 names of Amrita Sundari. Like Rainbow Body Yoga, Amrita Kriya Yoga is a program that consists of different yogic exercises.

When Rainbow Body Yoga results in realization of emptiness of all phenomena, Amrita Kriya Yoga results in lightbody, healing traumas and removing old samsaric imprints from the meridians along the way.

Monsoon blessings your way,

Baba, 23 Jan 23

Night Sitting and Opening of Meridians

 

Night Sitting and Opening of Meridians

About the opening of meridians. You know that feeling of tiredness after you've been active? You feel like you want to lie down and maybe take a nap. It almost feels as if the energy of tiredness forces you to lie down. That's one type of sensation coming from clogged meridians. I am not recommending anyone to harm one's body and practice should always be nonviolent and nonharming but one very efficient way to get through the stuffyness is to sit through it.

You sit upright and remain aware through the motions. This is much easier to someone who has established the basic state in comparison to someone who hasn't. For the latter type of practitioners it will be difficult to remain aware through the four phases of falling into sleep, remaining asleep and coming out of sleep. If your body starts falling over soon after the sleepiness comes over you then you're probably not ready to sit through sleep and be able to use this practice as a way to open the meridians (that eventually leads to lightbody).

If you have the needed stability though, sitting through sleep is not a problem. Maybe your body nods once or twice but mostly you're able to remain perfectly aware and do not get affected by sleep and sleep hormone, even if your system is completely under its influence. You sit with dream images and dreamless sleep and it feels like enjoying the bright night sky over mountains. And you come out of the session feeling very light and refreshed. You don't come out feeling tired or exhausted but the opposite.

This "night sitting" or sleep sitting is one way to unclog the meridians by bringing basic awareness into the midst of samsaric sleep which is one, if not the main samsaric refuge.

Again, to be able to do this one's mind needs to be firmly rooted in recognition. If it isn't, being excited and enchanted by the romantic idea of replacing sleep with meditation, can really do damage to your body. I know many examples of this from my zen days. We need to know where our limits are and not be dumb to pretend that they're not there. If you're a samsaric being it is foolish to try to do the same things as fully enlightened buddhas are capable of. If samsaric beings don't get enough sleep it can lead to severe health problems and even death. So this kind of practice is not for beginners but it is for practitioners with some experience.

Try sitting through your daily nap. Perhaps sit in the night before you go to bedor in the middle of the night when you wake up for toilet. Try, experiment and see how it goes.

Baba, 22 Jan 23

The Gift of Mahayana

 

The Gift of Mahayana

To me the Bodhisattva Vows are really the dividing line between complete and incomplete dharma. We all need a firm basis* but there is so much more** to our minds and what is possible for us. On the level of words the teachings of the small and great vehicles sound the same but in energy the difference is vast. It is plain wrong when theravadins equate the way they see the buddhanature with the way mahayanis see it. Sometimes even mahayanis say the same thing but saying so they only reveal their lack of understanding.

*1-6 bhumis, hinayana/theravada terrain

**7-13 bhumis, mahayana and vajrayana terrain

The vow to be voluntarily reborn endlessly and to continue bodhisattvic activities life after life to help beings out of samsara, is not an artificial vow, something artificially imposed or a peculiar metaphysical belief. Not at all. The Bodhisattva Vows are based on how the greater subtle body that connects all life is built.

All beings are connected via the subtle system of countless subtle channels. You can see it if you meditate a lot and take a look. You can actually see countless thin threads made of light that connect all the people you know and have met, as well as animals and places. You have such connections from this life and countless past lives. You alone have millions of connections and each individual has the same. That's how the greater subtle body is built and where vowing to save all beings comes from. But if one's knowledge of the greater subtle body is insufficient and one doesn't see the point of making a commitment to that vow, is to ignore large part what is possible to us.

To focus on one's own liberation, to merely wish well, to pass blessings and to teach people how to practice shamatha and vipashyana of course accumulates good karma and merit but without the willingness to go to hells and awful places to help and liberate beings, to do whatever is needed, it's still basically a self-centered endeavor, a holiday of sorts. The heart and energy of a bodhisattva cannot be replaced with anything else.

There is a reason why masters of the past spoke of two (or three) different vehicles. They didn't do so to make themselves look better or wiser than those of the lesser vehicle but out of compassion because they actually cared. I also speak of this because I care but people don't see it that way. To point out that there is much more to go is a massive favour but people take it the wrong way, missing the fact that mahayana and vajrayana masters speak about the potential of all people, not just the potential they or people of their sect have.

My advice to hinayanis is to test the energy of the Bodhisattva Vows. Sit and calm down, and then recite the four great vows. See what happens in your subtle body, especially in the aura outside your body. That's where the higher bhumis, 7-10 are, that are not accessed at all with hinayana practice.

To mahayanis I suggest the opposite. You're used to opening and stretching the aura open, so do the opposite: just focus on our own liberation and express it through a prayer. "I want to attain liberation". For this experiment, forget your Bodhisattva Vows and just focus on your own freedom. Do it a number of times and feel the energy of that. It feels like being locked inside a cage. It feels like that because the subtle body is split in half and you only feel the insides of the body*.

*bhumis 1-6

What I have said here might be unpleasant for many to hear but I have given instructions for you to test and verify the underlying principles yourself so that your knowledge will be based on direct experience, rather than books, sayings or dictated by your own karma from past lives. If you hate me and say that this guy is a fraud who teaches outrageous nonsense against the true dharma, that's OK with me. By speaking out I have merely delivered the message that the buddha within you wants you to hear. If you wish to fight it, go ahead but sooner or later there will be a time when you become disillusioned by lesser paths and realize the gift of mahayana which is the gift of your own true being. In the end, we both win.

Bodhisattva Vows

I vow to liberate all sentient beings.

I vow to end all self-based confusion.

I vow to exercise the dharma that frees.

I vow to attain the great perfection.

Many blessings,

-Amrita Baba, 22 Jan 23

Full healing of trauma

 

Full healing of trauma

(unedited excerpt from my upcoming article Immortality and Internal Arts of China and Japan)

The second category of psychic injury or trauma requires specific tools, specific instructions and endless of patience. If one has been traumatized in childhood and lived with the trauma for decades for it to become embedded with one's moment to moment psyche, it is logical that one can't just pull it out and be done with it just like that. However, I am certain it is possible to heal all and any traumas when the above needs are met.


As a side remark, I have always found it puzzling from the professionals of psychology and psychotherapy that one could learn to live with one's traumas but not heal them or get rid of them entirely. This is understandable from the point of view of their methods but makes no sense in the context of tantric yoga according to which anyone with perfect inner nature can reach and tap that potential in full in a single lifetime. In my ears it sounds exactly like dharma teachers stating that there wouldn't be practices to directly generate awakenings. It might be true from the perspective of the systems and traditions known to them personally but it is mistaken and misleading from the perspective of dharma universally. There are practices to generate awakenings, one after the next and there are practices to heal traumas completely and perfectly. I know this from firsthand experience. In the light of the traumatic history of the mankind it is logical to assume that people of the ancient times, many of who attained lightbody, were traumatized prior to their yogic training and attainments. Returning to the basic state actually heals both the mind and the body. It is real. 

 

Baba, 13 Jan 23 

Kindness and Softness: The Highest Level of All Arts

 

Kindness and Softness: The Highest Level of All Arts

The way I see it, all arts have three levels of learning. These are: 1. technical learning, 2. technical mastery together with basic training of the mind, and 3. mastery of both the art and the mind.

In the history of East-Asian arts and (zen) artists there are instances of stage 3 that transcends both technique and the self-based mind, and there are lineages that have particularly focused on getting to stage 3 and developed views and ways to get there. This is the realm of zen art or true spiritual art that developed into its own thing in Japan.

It has been made clear by many great masters of martial and fine arts, such as Miyamoto Musashi (17^th century) and Yamaoka Tesshu (19^th century) that after the initial stages of learning all arts boil down to the mind of the practitioner and that mastery of the art cannot be attained through technique alone. You could say that the art of the mind is the foundational art of all arts which is true because when an artist stops practicing or performing one's art, be it taichi, tea ceremony, running or basketball, one is left with one's body and mind. The art of zen, the art of being is definitely the heart and soul of all arts, even if most artists and athletes are unaware of it.

 

Wang Xizhi

But most artists, including practitioners of traditional arts in East-Asian countries do not know this and have the view that mastery has to do with perfecting particular techniques and forms of one's art. That the whole dimension of mind and its effect on one's artistic performance is so poorly known is quite weird for the fact that we all have minds that affect everything in our lives, including the arts. Interestingly, the past two decades secular mindfulness practices have become popular in the field of professional athletic training but with its practices of attentiveness and relaxation, secular mindfulness is still far from what awakening/s (zen) makes possible and lacks the character development that comes with recognition of oneself as a perfectly wakeful being, or buddha.

The lineage I belong to through Terayama Roshi, originated from the calligrapher saint Wang Xizhi who lived in 4^th century China but roshi was a representative of other arts and lineages too, namely rinzai zen-lineage and jikishinkage ryu kenjutsu-lineage of Omori Sogen Roshi. Throughout his life he studied many disciplines of Japan, China and Tibet, and many teachers of various arts came to study with him. Terayama Roshi was a very highly regarded specialist of zen arts in all of Japan. I remember studying calligraphy with Imao Toshio Shihan (8. dan) in a small village in Nagano prefecture who was astounded to learn that I was a student of Terayama Roshi, just to give you an example how famous he was.

Terayama Roshi, despite of him being a high level master and a teacher of masters of their own arts, was a very kind, humble and simple man. I knew him for the last 3 years of his life (when he was 66-69 years old) so I didn't know him when he was younger but I've been told by other students of Omori Roshi that despite of him being somewhat serious and fiery like martial artists usually are when they're less than 40 years of age, he was also very kind and considerate towards others. I have never heard a word of him being rude. He started practicing zen – zen buddhist meditation - when he was a teenager and did so for many decades. Practicing being present tends to mold a person's character but it also refines one's ethics and manners.

I remember once training at Budokan in Tokyo where he demonstrated a particular section of a kenjutsu kata, sword form, to me. I have seen dozens of other aged high ranking martial artists do similar demonstrations to really feel their self-importance in the air. I've seen people's, some of who are very well known teachers, egos getting triggered in similar situations. I never felt that from him which I am sure is because of his training in the art of awakening. He was soft and kind, and also a very realistic person.

Getting triggered is based on insecurity, uncertainty and fear that most often comes from trauma but this whole field, the way how one's mind affects one's level and mastery in the arts, is almost never discussed or if it is, it is superficial and incomplete.

To become a master in any art, one needs to master one's mind or at least have significant degree of clarity in terms of nonduality. One may be physically or artistically talented to be able to run faster, jump higher, punch harder or paint better than others but if the small self is in the mix, from the perspective of zen arts, this is still low quality art.

-Amrita Baba, 11 Jan 23

Lightbody is not an accident anymore

 

Lightbody is not an accident anymore

I have studied many arts with many teachers over the years, and in the process of revising the method we have now, I have sometimes wondered where this or that, some skill that I have learned over the years, belongs to or if some of these bits and pieces from my skill bank are useless in Amrita Mandala. Skills that I've acquired from shiatsu and yiquan, that have been collecting dust on the shelf are examples of this... But they were exactly that filled the remaining blanks of lightbody cultivation. Now I am certain I have everything down and gladly have solid instructions for you, my students when you are ready for them.

8 years ago I wrote a text entitled "awakening is not an accident anymore", that years later was followed by "emptiness is not an accident anymore". The third part of the opus, the finale, "lightbody is not an accident anymore" shall be out in due time.

May blessings fall.

Baba, 4.1.2023

Two different energy systems relating to wisdom and lightbody

 

Two different energy systems relating to wisdom and lightbody

One can cultivate energies and energetic states all day long but without wisdom insight one unavoidably falls prey to self-delusion and one-sided energetic development. Practically, that one-sidedness is to work on the meridian system that is closest to the body and leave the subtler channels in- and outside the body without attention but the fact is that we have both systems. Subtler system for wisdom/emptiness, meridian system for lightbody. 

It depends what you visualize and if there is empowerment to back it up and to connect it with buddhanature. I agree that lots of visualizations are nothing but waste of time but if we are talking about genuine tantra, visualizations together with the other two main tools of tantra, are "real", i.e. are very effective. But again, most tantra is rubbish.

I get the criticism about visualization and the praise about "bodily" methods and "real" results. I get it completely but we shouldn't confuse the two different energy bodies of cultivation, that made of channels and chakras and the other made of meridians. Awakenings or path attainments that Adam Mizner was talking about in the interview happen mostly in the first type of subtle body which is also the terrain of most tantric methods. All the methods that emphasize "embodiment", physicality, sitting with one's body, working with one's body, standing, tai chi and so on, work mostly with the meridian system that is closer to the physical body than the nadi-channel system. Also, path attainments or awakenings do not come about with emphasis on physicality, except rarely. It is because of the different in frequencies why work with meridians feels more concretic and physical.

 

Baba, 1.1.23

Wisdom and jhana?

 

Wisdom and jhana?

There’s no jhāna for one without wisdom;

No wisdom for one without jhāna.

But for one with both jhāna and wisdom,

Nibbana truly is near.

— The Buddha, Dhammapada 372

Baba: When seeing quotes like this, I wonder about how wide (or narrow) the technical understanding of mind the author has/had because in ancient times, in this case 2500 years ago, people didn't have access to that many teachings and traditions, and many approaches and interpretations that have existed since hadn't yet developed or hadn't spread. It's a free world for people to do whatever they like but I think that it is good to healthily question all, both ancient and modern teachings, ways and views.

Based on having practiced jhanas, meditative absorptions, for few thousand hours I disagree with the Buddha if the context is wisdom. Existential ignorance is due to self-based views and beliefs and existential wisdom comes from seeing through those views but jhanas are not for this purpose. Jhanas are pleasant states of mind that are an unsuitable ground for wisdom insight for the simple reason that in jhanic states there is no material to look and see through, other than the state itself, so why spend so much time and effort in finding such states in the first place?

From the perspective of ignorance and wisdom (prajna) this is like trying to remove a stone from one's show by putting another one, perhaps a smoother one in there. In the context of wisdom this is purely misleading.

In the context of healing, though, it is a different matter. Taking vacations at the beach side and hiking up in the mountains in high altitudes are known to have healing effects.

With respect.