Guru Rinpoche's Pure Land

Guru Rinpoche's Pure Land

Once, in meditation, I had a vision. It was a particular kind of vision and as soon as I saw it, I knew it was a past life memory.

In that life, several hundred years ago, I was a very devoted christian contemplative monk in Western Europe. We would pray to Jesus day and night in our monastery. Very deep practice. It was pure devotion, nothing like I've seen in christianity today.

One day, when there was a resting day at the monastery, all monks were out in the woods, on the hills and other places to have a bit leisure, but I decided to continue working on the roof of the church in our monastery. I was working just above the main door, perhaps 25 meters from the ground, when my foot slipped and I fell directly in front of the main entrance. I could vividly remember how the falling felt like and how the ground kept coming closer until my body hit against it. My body was crushed and died in an instant, there was nothing to be done.

But the moment when my body hit the floor and my mind, or soul ejected out from the body, an immense space opened in front of me, and Jesus Christ himself was standing in front of me, with a joyoys smile inviting me to go with him. There was nothing ”holy” or ”exalted” in this moment, though immense love and closeness between me and him. He appeared on the very instant I died, to come get me and to guide me on.

Painting of Zangdok Palri, Guru Rinpoche's Pure Land.

Now, Open Heart, is a form of Pure Land Buddhism where our main ”deity” is Guru Rinpoche Padmasambhava and the pure land is his pure land, Zangdok Palri. Remembering again this past life experience of mine, I felt like tying lifelong devotion and practice to the fact that when we, as Guru Rinpoche's Pure Land practitioners pass away, he will come to get us to his pure land, where we can continue our practice, in the most excellent guidance, in case if we haven't yet attained buddhahood in this body.

Please, don't take this as a matter of belief, for yogis are not believers. Take it as a hypothesis and deepen your devotion and practice. There is no reason, other than rejection, why you couldn't visit Zangdok Palri already in your meditations in this body.

Namo Guru Rinpoche.

-Kim Orgyen Pema, 18.3.2019

Padmasambhava's Pure Land Buddhism

Padmasambhava's Pure Land Buddhism

Pure Land Buddhism exists in various areas and forms. The main idea of Pure Land Buddhism is relying on other power (jap. tariki), usually that of Amitabha Buddha. Relying, being devoted or lovingly surrendering to other power is a cornerstone of tantric buddhism as well, where a samsaric being puts his or her faith to the Guru, his teachings and the Three Jewels: Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.

The core of Pemako Buddhism or Padmasambhava's Pure Land Buddhism is the trust that us samsaric beings, practitioners, have for Guru Padmasambhava and his teachings because we can trust that he will help us to realise our own buddhahood. In Pemako Buddhism we combine relying on other power and using self-power (jap. joriki) through extensive tantric practice, meditation and contemplation. Because of this point Pemako Buddhism differs from other schools of Pure Land Buddhism. Pemako Buddhism combines the two principles, wisdom and understanding of the head and devotion of the heart together to make a whole. As ignorant and self-delusional beings we rely on the Guru to receive his guidance and blessings as well as through practice and analysis help ourselves.

Pemako Buddhism and it's different practices can be taken up by anyone who recognises that these teachings carry an important meaning for a samsaric being. Even though we speak of surrender and devotion, the foundation of our practice is our own first hand experience, never belief or blind faith.

As sincere practitioners we commit in our daily practice and Guru devotion, to eradicate our deeply ingrained sense of self. Through thorough mind purification and insights into the selfless nature of our minds, we come to understand who we really are, both existentially as well as human beings.

The real goal of Pemako Buddhism is for us to become fully aware beings, living buddhas. We see the possibility of becoming living buddhas as a realistic option in this body and life because through diligent practice and blessings of the Guru we can see that it actually is not far away. Guru Rinpoche does not have any other wish than for us to attain, what he himself has attained.

May Guru Rinpoche's invitation be heard by those who are willing.

May Pemako Buddhism be received by all those who seek for it.

May all beings be free.

Namo Guru Rinpoche. 

Namo Guru Rinpoche. 

Namo Guru Rinpoche.

- Orgyen Pema, 11.8.2017

Open Heart, www.openheart.fi

Good and bad devotion

Good and bad devotion

Devotion is important. Devotion can be understood in several ways. I like to think of devotion as something that has to do with the opening of the heart, like loving devotion. Devotion is essential in many kinds of spiritual approaches, both buddhist and otherwise.

We can use loving devotion, in the form of feeling love in our hearts or by praying to God, guru or our own essence, both in good and bad ways. A good or spiritually valid way is to use that emotional surrender as a stepping stone, use it and then discard it, not dragging it along. Just say the prayer, feel it having the effect of your biased mind opening up from the heart-region and then forgetting it. A bad way to use the same technique would be to keep the attitude of surrendering our egos, limited minds or dualistic problems and never let go of it. The point is not to remain inferior to whatever it is that you are praying or surrendering towards. The point is not to stay below or separate of your spiritual ideal. If you do, you end up being caught in the dichotomy of self and other, ”me” and the chosen ideal. Were you to keep this view, you only end up being as miserable as before.

When we pray, ”Heart, heart, heart... Love, love, love... Master, master, master...” or however it is that you pray, it is done because loving surrender is perhaps the most powerful way to bypass the self-based mind and with the help of that mechanism to go beyond the dualistic mind and enter rigpa. Now, if we insist and stubbornly stick with the idea, with the conceptual thought of ”heart”, ”Love”, ”guru” or ”God”, this will not happen. The point is to use a concept to go beyond it by applying loving surrender which is emotion. For a beginner, it is possible to experience bliss and overwhelming love, and this can be good because this can heal a lot of hurts, but from the point of view of our true self, rigpa or home awareness, this is not really the point. The point is, by applying the emotion of loving surrender, to reveal our true nature and become it, instead of becoming a self-biased fool. Rigpa is subtle, transparent, and there is no one there. There is no God or buddha there. You are not there either. Home or rigpa is nonspatial, non-dimensional and entityless. Just the openness, brimming with subtle power and life. You don't ”feel” rigpa. You don't and cannot ”recognise” it. Our home is beyond our self, beyond our minds. Home knows itself, it is self-cognisant. So, I feel, that loving surrender is correctly applied when it transcends itself and our knowing awareness (rigpa) is recognised. This is not rocket science. This is not ”highly spiritual” or something ”very evolved meant only for experienced meditators”. No, no. You don't have to create this barrier of difficulty and then pursue to go beyond it. Anyway, loving surrender or devotion can be useful.

Something important. The thing is that if you have never tried this, it is likely that you aren't aware of the emotional aspect of yourself, i.e. you can have a great of territory in your bodymind that you've never even become aware of. One can become a very skilled meditator, like a surgeon's scalpel, that can follow the breath for hours on end and perform analytical meditation like a machine but this doesn't mean that one has recognised one's truen nature, or arrived home even for a moment. Don't become a ”skilled meditator”. Open up. Lighten up!

What can be discovered with this application is that as our minds become clear and transparent, and we really see with the eyes, hear with the ears, feel with the bodymind, is that our problem is self-caused and the solution is never away. The solution is sort of ”here and now” but if you look for something that is ”here” or something that is in the ”now”, you are again playing with concepts and getting caught by them. Our home is beyond concepts. That's the thing. Pray and open your heart and see for yourself.

Loving devotion is as handy a technique as the diamond cutter mantra phet is. The first uses our emotional aspect to access rigpa and the latter applies our power of concentration brought to a momentary maximum combined with energetic power to access rigpa. It would be idiotic to keep shouting ”Phet! Phet! Phet!” on the top of your lungs all the time. You'd only end up exhausted. A few phets will do to cut through. It's the same thing with prayer. And ultimately it's the same thing with all techniques. Praying is enough when the heart and our whole being opens up. Opening up means becoming subsumed by rigpa. That is our home, our true nature, us as buddhas. This is not radical. This is how it actually is. Be practical. Don't romantisize. Try.

- Kim Katami, 10.9.2016

Open Heart,

www.openheart.fi