Secret Chakras or 4th Dantien

 

Secret Chakras or 4th Dantien

I have been extremely fortunate to learn about certain chakras that most methods and traditions do not know about. I am talking about the chakras below and above the physical body, as you can see from the pictures attached.

I remember my beloved teacher Sivakami saying that there is a push from the masters in inner realms trying to bring knowledge and practices relating to these centers back to humanity because they have so much positive impact, i.e. because they are spiritually so powerful. I am certain that these centers have been known much more widely in ancient times than they are now.

In buddhism there are "bhumis" or grounds, written in old sutras such as the Avatamsaka and yet there is not a single buddhist lineage that uses them or knows how to use them and it is rare to find a buddhist master ever even mention them. Even though most buddhists don't know about bhumi chakras, just recently the wonderful Garchen Rinpoche clarified their meaning by saying,

"As Milarepa has said: the empty clear mind just becomes increasingly clear as you keep meditating. That's what we call the Bhumis and the paths, the different stages. Even though they're given different names, it's just an increasing becoming clear of your natural state... So this is how the four yogas really are a gradual development of the realization of the mind. So even though we count and list different Bhumis and different paths and there's different teachings on that, this is really how we should see it.

This is also a very important teaching, the most important teaching by Milarepa where he said that the so-called Bhumis and the paths are the progressive realization or recognition of the clear and empty nature of the mind. The Bhumis and the paths are nothing but signs or road signs so you know where to go. You know where you're at. So practitioners need some kind of signs so they know they're on the right track.”

from Garchen Rinpoche's introduction to the Four Yogas of Mahamudra (May 13th 2021), translated by Ina Bieler

In a bit more cryptic manner but still clearly the Secret of the Golden Flower, a taoist-buddhist text from few hundred years ago says,

"The ancients' method of transcending the world, refining away the dregs of darkness to restore pure light, is just a matter of dissolving the lower soul and making the higher soul whole". (2:14)

In taoist terms, the mentioned higher bhumis (that relate directly to the chakras below and above the body) would be called the fourth dantien. I am not that learned about the variety of taoist methods but if I remember correctly the fourth dantien is mentioned and taught by Mantak Chia, famous taoist teacher, although I have not seen it mentioned by others. It is worthy to mention that the formerly buddhist esoteric practitioner Mikao Usui (1865-1926), who discovered and taught reiki, a form of spiritual cultivation and healing included fourth dantien, i.e. the body's external centers in his system. In kriya yoga, a form of internal yoga taught by Mahasiddha Babaji to his Indian student/s that is widely spoken in Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahamsa Yogananda, the heart and soul of the method are these centers. My zen art master Terayama Roshi from Tokyo practiced the 4th dantien daily, both through chi gong and zen calligraphy.

So, from what I have seen over the past decades there are bits and pieces of the fourth dantien or bhumi chakras as we call them in Amrita Mandala method, here and there...

But people should really learn about them because connecting the bodymind with them is like hooking into a source of pure love and pure energetical power that to borrow the words from the Secret of the Golden Flower, "dissolves the lower soul and makes the higher soul whole", i.e. dispels self-centered confusion and habits, and makes the human energy system or psyche whole.

There are all kinds of little secrets and things that would make the path so much easier to lot of people if they only knew about them.

Monsoon blessings,

-Baba, 19 March 23, Amrita Mandala Sangha

Connected Field of Aliveness

 

Connected Field of Aliveness

So, you are this energy and this energy is connected, it is a connected field that moves when your body moves and keeps still as a connected field of energy when your body doesn’t move. When you stay still, this field of energy radiates like a star. It shines light or subtle energy just like a star. There’s countless little processes happening there but the main thing is that it is utterly alive, present and there is no sense of me, as an individual entity there so it is devoid of self. So you just sit there, totally alive, totally present, there is no ”me” having the experience and it feels great because it’s perfectly natural. Because it is natural is why it feels right and because of that it answers so many questions to those who need to get answers. But basically this aliveness happens by itself, is there or here by itself and that’s all. It’s not a big mystery or a thing that only sages on mountain tops have or are able to understand, no, all of us share it but it needs to be discovered though.

When we take this connected field of aliveness without self into movement and start expressing things artistically, oh there is nothing more delightful because it is our true undefiled being or true me expressing itself purely. This is ”zen art”. This is the view of zen art or spiritual art. And you can take it into anything from East Asian arts to sports to painting to writing poems; anything form of expression, any art.

As a unified field you play, move, bounce, draw a line, sing, dance, walk and simply exist without a self or a center. Awake and aware, nothing lacking, enjoying it all, without the notions of win or loss, victory or failure.

- Amrita Baba, Amrita Mandala Sangha

Dynamic Concentration in Pure Land Buddhism

 

Dynamic Concentration

in Pure Land Buddhism

See video first: https://youtu.be/l4IDayXV6r0

Yuki's comment: I did a bit of searching online and was surprised to find that this practice at Ichikukai was originally practiced with the name of Amitabha, e.g. was a form of nembutsu, just as described in your What’s Next book and just like we practice with our Gurus' name in Amrita Mandala!!! Story goes that the founder of this method, Inoue Masakane (b. 1790) learned this from a woman who was a practitioner of an esoteric Pureland Buddhism called “hidden nembutsu”. He had an awakening with this method, but due to his father’s dying will to penetrate into the meaning of Shinto prayer, and his later having a vision of a Shinto deity, adopted his awakening experience and the method for it into a Shinto practice, that has been passed on to this day at a place like Ichikukai. Some of his disciples actually continued practicing it in its original form of rhythmic shouting of Amitabha’s name, which they called “kosho nembutsu” (loud voice nenbutsu), and apparently was practiced as recently as 1990s and may still be practiced somewhere in Japan. I thought this to be a compelling story as I have heard of your strong connection to Pureland Buddhism and so is your teacher Terayama-Roshi”.

How emotional trauma dislocated my spine and joints for decades

 

How emotional trauma dislocated my spine and joints for decades

Over the past few days I've realized that the effect of trauma on the body is much more physical than I ever thought it could be. I've gone to bone setters for over 10 years to have my facet locks cracked open. Over the last several years Karl and Kaisa have done that to me on regular basis, last time yesterday. All of you have seen me crack the locks open from my chest when I am teaching by applying pressure on my sternum with my both hands. I just feel that the plates are no longer in place, it feels off and I have to crack it back into its right place. I've had to do this few times a day for many years and get my back cracked about few times per week. Exercise or the lack of it affects it but it has never completely gone away. I have assumed that it is just something that happens in my body, that for no real reason these areas/bones/joints get dislocated. What I realized is that it is the tailbone trauma that via the meridians pulls the small spinal facets as well as the chest plates out from their place.

This realization came to me after I figured out how completely without a physical cause (injury or movement) my right shoulder got partially dislocated last September by the trauma. I've had numbness of fingers on my right hand that tingles like migraine aura in the head does (which I've had since 2011). It took mea long time and many dead end experiments with foods, drinks like coffee, sleep, exercise etc. until last year I saw directly that the root cause of my migraines are in developmental trauma that has been a large energetic knot in my tailbone for four decades now. Since I was a teenager I remember having cracked or popped the finger joints of my right index, middle and sometimes ring fingers. 

It blew my mind to directly see that my psychological trauma is actually dislocating the joints in my fingers, recently in my shoulder and subtly dislocates the whole spine. The meridians have such an energy in them that it simply pulls the physical parts out of from their places. 

It is common sensical that psychological trauma has an effect on one's mind, emotions and perceptions that leads to coping strategies, difficulties in living a normal life or difficulties with work but that nonphysical trauma and fear has such a power that it dislocates bones... is mindblowing.

Baba, 13 March 23

How devastating samsara can be

 

How devastating samsara can be

You might save somebody’s life so that with open arms they thank you for it but they still have so low values that they’ll stab you in the back. You might save the lives of person’s parents and they still have so low values that they stab you in the back when it suits their reasoning. You might save the lives of person’s friends and yet when they stab you in the back they don’t even flinch. Imagine that.

I’ve seen it with my own eyes the past year that it is incredibly easy to find such individuals, people who’ve ”practiced” the dharma for decades, who get close to you but scheme against the very person who saved their lives, their parents and/or their friends. So dark is the mind possessed by the demon of self that with smile on his face, the Judas keeps betraying Jesus, from one era to the next.

I never thought highly of men having seen since my childhood how bad and violent the samsaric nature of man is. I’ve been reminded of this throughout my 15 years as a teacher but especially the past 1.5 years. I still cannot understand such deception, lies told straight to my face and sheer ill will coming my way. I have never and will never scheme, slander or abuse against anyone because I know and trust the flawless law of karma… Having said that having been taken advantage of and having been slandered myself, I do rejoice about the fact that the Lord of Karma sees everything, forgets nothing and delivers the lessons in due time. How poor is the situation for samsaric entities whose destinies are decided by karma? It is just but ruthless… bone breaking ruthless, like being eaten alive over and over again.

I shake my head about the dumb and bad actions of my past students and dharma friends because they do not know what kind of awful events and circumstances they’re inviting to them. Poor people… this is how you get into such bad shape that even the bodhisattvas of infinite grace and mercy keep their distance to you. No, you cannot commit bad actions and receive pure blessings, or recognize your own pure nature at the same time. How many reminders of attentiveness and karma do you need!? Will you ever listen!?

I am sad for all this because it would be better to stay sober and kind! I cannot have anything to do with these individuals anymore for some things have be sorted out by karma over a long period of time.

And yet all beings shall always be included in my prayers. One by one, over vast periods of time, individuals realize that they are buddhas… but not sooner.

-Baba, 4 March 23

Wisdom Emptiness and Lightbody: Two Lanes of Amrita Mandala Practice

 

Wisdom Emptiness and Lightbody:

Two Lanes of Amrita Mandala Practice

(from email)

 

Q: I wanted to ask you about Amrita Sundari practice. Can it be practiced in the beginning stages of Amrita practice when one doesn't have many bhumis open/perfected? Would it be beneficial if practice alongside Rainbow Body Yoga (RBY)? I have a lot of tension/emotional numbness going on and looking for a remedy. RBY kind of helps, but in a way of detaching me from it.

-The info on the website is waiting to be updated about this. As you probably have heard from my presentations, in Amrita Mandala we have two "lanes" of practice that correspond to two different subtle bodies, one made of (1) nadis and chakras and the other made of (2) meridians. The first one is the ground of realization for wisdom emptiness and is accomplished with Rainbow Body Yoga. Along the way, one's progress is/can be measured with the 13 Bhumi Model. The second lane is the practice that heals traumas or like you say tension and emotional numbness, that along with other practices is made to happen by Amrita Sundari practice. In the bigger picture, the second lane practice not only heals traumas but causes the lightbody, also known as rainbow body, to come about. So we have different practices for each of the subtle bodies that both are needed for full and complete enlightenment where wisdom emptiness and purified meridian system that connects the mind with the physical body join as one.

These two lanes and their practices are not mutually exclusive and can therefoe be practiced at the same time, i.e. on daily/regular basis. There is no problem with this but of course how one goes about it in practical terms depends on the time available for practice and rest. f you feel like you'd like/need to work on your emotional numbness and you already have received Amrita Sundari empowerment and instructions, by all means focus on that until you feel like it's time to give more attention to birthing wisdom emptiness through the process of opening and perfecting the bhumis.

Baba, 6 March 23

Bodhicitta is truly amazing

 

Bodhicitta is truly amazing

Suffering of all beings is direct means to attain full enlightenment. First, all that pain and confusion opens up the subtle body made of nadis and chakras, and establishes one’s mind in the wisdom of the buddhas. At this stage all uncertainty about existential matters is gone for good. Then, through taking the suffering of all beings into one’s body, the meridian system opens and lights up, and connects the basic state with the physical body and its cells and organs. We are indeed connected to all surrounding life through our vast number of nadi-channels as well as the innumerable cells of the body. The true enlightened body of all beings, with its clarity and love, covers everything without exception. Bodhicitta is truly amazing.

-Baba, 1 March 23

How can a Guru be this excited and honored to make connection with me?

 

How can a Guru be this excited and honored to make connection with me?

Q: Yeshe Tsogyal is the guru calling to me the strongest at this time. I have been chanting her mantra a little bit every day this week. She rushes into me, and feeling her enthusiasm and gratitude for connecting with me is actually greater than my enthusiasm and gratitude for connecting with her. This was astounding to me in the beginning. How can such a powerful being be this excited and honored to make connection with me?

Baba: Yeah, isn't that astounding... For centuries, the masters have been telling the humanity to turn to them but they don't do that. I've been saying for 15 years that they're just waiting for people to call for their help. Literally, just waiting (tick tock tick tock) for people to do that. Their presence is literally hanging in the atmosphere right outside the aura of each individual and they won't come in unless they're invited. The personal blessings of all the great masters of all religions and contemplative traditions are available to anyone anywhere. All we need to do is ask. This single thing is one of the most basic building blocks in Amrita Mandala that to a large degree defines whether the practice develops or not. 

 

Yeshe Tsogyal