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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Bringing light to the darkest pit

Bringing light to the darkest pit

This is actually a very interesting and profound thing, the matter of meeting and blending with things and situations.

When we are in self-mode, our being becomes contracted in time and place, that is becomes localised. When we are in selfless mode, our natural state, we are not localised in the same way even though our physical body of course has a concretic form and exists in time and space. So, when we are in our natural state with open mind and receiving heart, we can meet things as they come and blend with them. I am not saying that we can "accept" everything because not every thing we meet can be accepted due to common morals but still things can be met with and be blended with skillfully, with warmth and clarity of our true being.

This skill of meeting and blending is subtle thing, or actually not really a thing because it is based in natural awareness itself. When we are or true beings, we can feel it and know it through our bodies. When someone investigatingly touches you when you are in selfless mode, it can be felt concretically that the body feels different. This is a reference to Testing the Mind of Meditation, find a blog text and Tube video with that title.

So, meeting and blesing is subtle happening and if we are encased to a self, we cannot meet people, things and situations naturally. Unconditional compassion means that by relaxing we insist being in the natural mode. It is such a relief. Whatever comes to us then is not a problem be it praise that would make us feel egoistically elevated or hatred and aggression that we would ordinarily meeth with fight or flight reaction or "spiritually by trying to accept it". In our natural mode, we don't need to accept because everything is already accepted and blended with. But as said, this doesn't mean that everything is OK all the time. If that would be the case it would be dark as in the midnight during midday but this is not the case, isn't it. On a relative level we do have high and low, good and bad, stupidity and wisdom.

So, next time when you notice that oh-ou that ego of yours rears it's ugly head with some nasty thoughts and emotions, give it full freedom to do so. Pain may come, ache may be, the emotion of being pissed off can come completely freely. Give it some understanding, give it a blanket to keep warm and some warm soup, instead of trying to fix it or remove it. "Here, Blind Rage, my old buddy, have a seat and take comfort in this body. Stay as long as you want, no hurry. Enjoy the muscles and bones of this body. Create pain as much as you want. It's totally fine."

As Mother Machig Labdron famously said:

"Confess your hidden faults.

Approach what you find repulsive.

Help those you think you cannot help.

Anything you are attached to, give that.

Go to the places that scare you."

It is a pitfall to want to have happiness and joy. It's an egotrip. By meeting and blending with whatever causes discomfort, pain and suffering, that is the rocketship that all mahasiddhas have taken to reach the full moon that never waxes or wanes.

R's Testimony

R's Testimony

This testimony is written by ”R”, an Open Heart-practitioner. It has been published to provide information about the relevance of further training for those who have attained the so called arhat-stage. More info about stages and bhumis can be found here.

R's bhumi documentation on video can be found here:

1. R's 6^th bhumi/4^th path, filmed 6/2016
   
2. R's 7^th bhumi, filmed 7/2016
   
3. R's 8^th bhumi, filmed 8/2016
4. R's 9th bhumi, filmed 9/2016
   

R: Gratitude to all who have taught, helped, supported me. 
 
I first meditated in my late teens for 2 years daily. I stopped due to experiences such as lucid dreams, and sleep paralysis, which at the time I didn’t understand. No-one around me knew about it, they thought I was being attacked by demons! So I stopped. Over the next 25 years, I regularly read Buddhist books and was fascinated with the ‘big questions’ of life. 
 
In 2012 my father died, I started a daily meditation and spiritual practice and came across Daniel Ingram’s book, MCTB which I read 3 times in a week. My practice became Theravada Buddhist based. Not long after I started meditating I felt drawn to shamata Jhanas and found that I could attain first Jhana. So I incorporated this into my meditation practice and opened up the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Jhanas. I read that the Buddha recommended a balanced practice of insight and concentration so I adopted this using Jhanas for concentration and noting, noticing, contemplation and awareness of awareness as insight practices. I had some online sessions with a well-known pragmatic dharma teacher, which was helpful for guidance. I had my first cessation in mid 2013 and was delighted to have attained stream entry, or so I thought. At a Buddhist conference in the US I met my next teacher who quickly determined that I had actually attained 2nd path. So stream entry probably occurred early in my meditation included in a number of experiences I had whilst developing jhanas. I continued to practice with this teacher’s expert guidance and support from an online community, attaining 3rd path 3 months later and by 29th October attained 4th path, verified by my teacher. This seemed a fast path but 2 years of daily meditation in my teens and 25 years of reading, contemplating, searching probably prepared me somewhat. 
 
The next two and half years were spent integrating and embodying this significant and fast transformation. During that time, my practice was meditating in open awareness, and letting go of residual mental patterns that I could see playing out. The previous practice techniques I had used all held no interest for me and I relaxed in equanimity/contentment acceptance. Significant external life changes also occurred during this time as part of this integration. 
 
However, by early 2016 I became aware of something very, very subtle still remaining to be done. I felt drawn to Tibetan Tantric traditions of Mahamudra and Dzogchen because they mentioned similar things to what I was practicing – open awareness, ‘non-meditation’. I tried returning to Theravada techniques but found they no longer resonated. As a ‘Westerner’ I found the Tibetan cultural context difficult to relate to but I came across Tibetan Heart Yoga and Open Heart-method taught by Kim Katami. He had stripped away a lot of the cultural context to the core teachings, similar to what Daniel Ingram had done with his book making it more accessible and direct. I started the practices (Guru Yoga of Machig Labdron, Deity Yoga - Mantra and Ati-meditation/ati yoga) and found that more expansion was occurring. Whilst the Theravada practices were perfect for opening the wisdom eye, the tantra teachings were perfect for opening the heart and body. So I continue with these teachings and practices and continue to have openings/shifts leading to greater expansion of awareness. 

- R, 13.8.2016