Jesus, Easter, Pharisees

 

Jesus, Easter, Pharisees

It’s been a long day of work today but I still wanted to say something about Jesus, as it is Easter Friday.

Long time ago today, Jesus was crucified and killed by the ruling religious authorities, the pharisees, carried out by the Romans. I have often thought about this and the way how ruling authorities use their power when they are challenged or if they feel threatened. That very same clash of mentalities, one dogmatic and the other pragmatic keeps happening today, even though in most countries of the modern world forms of physical punishment are no longer. It wasn’t long ago though that Tibetan spiritual authorities would order whippings and in some islamic countries they still punish people with physical violence. Anyway, in most areas of the world such practices are long gone.

I don’t think there ever was an enlightened master who wasn’t passionate about what they had and needed to share. Some stories of Jesus paint an image of a passionate character with a radically different spiritual message than what was known at the time, and it is because of the compelling internal energy of compassion that made him do what he did and say what he said, that lead to the clash that got him murdered. I don’t think we could find a single person alive today who knowing of the story agreed with the pharisees that Jesus got exactly what he deserved. That’s an interesting angle, isn’t it? So I think most people today think he was unjustly murdered but I wonder what the popular opinion back in the day might have been. After all the pharisees were the ruling religious authority with lots of power and influence.

Even today, dogmatism is widely practiced. In all walks of life including anything from science, politics and art it is still the same. People are very passionate about their beliefs, blinded by their investments that we are lucky to find one person out of hundred who can keep an open mind for new ideas. It seems that it is hard to find open mindedness and fearless objectivity from areas where one would expect to find it easily but it is not so.

I know from personal experience how the world of dharma is full of fundamentalists who get as brutal as the pharisees the very moment their ways and views are challenged. I wasn’t killed like Jesus but I have wondered if it had been easier for me if I had because I’ve had to deal with the crucifixion of my name and reputation that the internet pharisees of buddhism did. Because of this I have stopped using my given name, had to change the name of my sangha, stopped being a ”buddhist” and was verbally abused countless times during the past years . I am not comparing myself to Jesus but I think I know how he felt hanging on that cross. All he tried to do is to help people. All I can say of both his and mine cases that apparently there is no way avoiding these kind of situations.

Anyway, it all happened and Jesus died. As we know his remains were put inside a sealed tomb, and three days later his corpse was nowhere to be found. But I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ll continue about resurrection in three days.

May all beings be free and happy.

Many Easter blessings,

Baba, 7 April 23

Put your faith in spiritual masters, while studying with teachers

 

Put your faith in spiritual masters, while studying with teachers

I understand that faith towards one's/your teacher because I was once there myself. In my case blind faith which is the wrong kind of faith shattered because the practice just didn't give the sought results.

I've seen so many people turn solely to their living physical teachers and turn away from nonphysical masters such as Jesus, Babaji or Padmasambhava, even when they never needed to choose either or. Well, in some cases like yours your religion prohibits you from turning to other masters but even if it didn't, people still make that choice. It's been said over and over by past masters that their help and blessings (that are immensely powerful) are available to anyone at anytime and yet people keep missing that precious opportunity and stick to their partially awakened teachers and lineage holders instead with very limited results. It is one kind of dharmic stoopidity. What is mindboggling to me how most people get stuck and agreeably fixated with their less than enlightened teachers like little babies to their mothers without the slightest ability of common sensical thinking. Even committed practitioners get attached to teachers of this world just because they think it is automatically a better option but that is completely wrong. 

There are all the samsaric realms inhabited by countless sentient beings. The only ones who are free from samsaric mind and samsaric rebirths are the mahasiddhas, the genuine gurus and attained master yoginis and yogis. So, you have all categories of samsaric beings who are bound by their karma and their self-centered delusions and then you have mahasiddhas who are free and fly in and out the realms like majestic eagles. To yogis, to people who study and validate dharma through their own experience rather than dogma, all of this is play.

The mistake many practitioners make that it would be better to put one's faith on the guy or gal who is little or partially awakened rather than to turn to masters who've already left this plane and no longer inhabit a physical body. It's such a rookie mistake because what people are left with is a teacher who is categorically a samsaric being and not a mahasiddha with perfect knowledge and pure energy. Your teacher might be just a little bit farther in your practice than yourself. Such a teacher should be very careful about making rules to her/his students because such limiting actions have serious consequences, plus keeps the progress of the students bound. I am saying that you can have both.

You have a very good connection with Jesus. Cherish it! Make him your compass and you will never regret it.

-Baba, 22 Feb 23

Fear, Mortality and Coronavirus

Fear, Mortality and Coronavirus

I don’t think I have that many friends who don’t do somekind of spiritual practice but I would like to post this short instruction to be shared by my friends as an attempt to help anyone who might found her- or himself overwhelmed by strong emotions due to fear of illness and death caused by coronavirus. Please share this on your wall.

I am a teacher of buddhist meditation. Some might think that ”buddhism” is something religious but I personally view buddhism as a practical philisophy that through different kinds of exercises can help us with our existential and emotional issues. You can think yourself, use your own reason and try the exercises I am about to suggest to you.

So. Coronavirus triggers fear and anxiety in the minds and hearts of many. We can feel this anxious energy that fills the air, even if we are not in the immediate presence of other people. It is kind of natural to be afraid in this life threatening situation. It is kind of natural for us to react to this impending danger by becoming fearful. However, we do not necessarily need to be bound by fear.

It is a simple fact of life that what is born will also die. There is not a single lifeform on Earth that is born and keeps on living. All kinds of beings are born, live for some time and then pass away. This includes everyone, you and I included. This simple fact is something that people forget, even though it is inevitable. Think about it.

Our Western culture does not discuss death openly so when something unexpected happens in life, like we get into some accident or get badly ill, we get very scared because we have forgotten our mortality and are therefore in shock. Then in shock, not understanding the situation, we are gripped by the fear of death or illness and we try to grab onto something that could keep us safe. This is what hoarding is, a primitive subconscious reaction to try get to a safe place. Sure we need food and toilet paper but if you think it through nothing in life can make us perfectly safe.

We can have relative safety through family, friends, insurance and wealth but if you think it through when the moment of death dawns or we get a fatal illness these things are unable to quarantee our safety. This is common logic.

Buddhist meditation teaches you to know yourself. Knowing oneself means becoming aware of what goes on in our mind. Instead of becoming gripped by fear and anxiety, we can learn to notice how the emotion of fear arises, comes into being. We can be aware of it rather than dictated by it. This becoming aware of emotions makes us become free from their negative power. This changes the way how we react and experience things. Learning this is more precious than gold because it helps us to find our true fearless and non-anxious being that cannot be pushed by emotions and reactions. We all have that fearless, peaceful and grounded potential, it just needs to be recognised.

Through this simple exercise we can find safety that does not depend on external factors or other people.

If we contemplate our mortality and become aware of our arising emotions, we will not try to find safety and happiness from things that can’t provide it. This doesn’t mean we need to get rid of any of these things. Actually to have a loving family, trustworthy friends and money is a great blessing. It’s just that through basic life contemplation our way of being and our way of seeing things changes.

Even in difficult circumstances we can remain calm, clear minded and sincerely joyful. Even at the moment of death we can smile and enjoy, and not be scared. Many people are terrified by death because they have not prepared and acquired understanding. This is merely a matter of knowing who we are and what is going on in our mind.

There are many forms and traditions of buddhism, meditation, mindfulness and meditative yoga out there. Please help yourself and seek instructions and guidance from proficient teachers and organisations.

The point is not to join a religion or a group. The point is to acquire first hand knowledge of ourselves. The point is to make sense of life, to reduce and eradicate unstudied confusions, fears and psychological contraction in our minds.

Thank you for reading and sharing this message. Let’s put an end to the pandemic of fear.

Kim Katami

Pemako Buddhist teacher,

www.pemakobuddhism.com

Sex and Sexual Art

Sex and Sexual Art

Q: I write this partly as a response to your recent sexual art works but also it’s been something that’s been on my mind for ages and actually something I have been meaning to write to you about.

When you posted about your sexual art I read it at work and only the night before I had been very consumed by sexual desire. Hence sex was strongly on my mind when I read your email. Basically my sexual desire has nowhere to go. I know understand how frustrated and blocked this aspect of myself is.

Any advice in this area would be appreciated as I have experienced first hand the pain of cutting off the sex drive. I want to be a normal human being and not some spiritual seeker who cuts off the sex drive in an attempt to be holy.

Kim: Do what you can to help yourself. Suppression and ignoring sexuality makes people strange, if not batshit crazy. Once Babaji told me, ”Be yourself. Find your own way”. You got to find your own way. It is important not to pretend saintliness. Besides, saints are often psychopaths. Tantrics don’t play with fire, we use it as wisely as we can. 

 

Close up from one of Kim's works.

Q: That was a lovely reply thank you I really needed to hear that. Yes there is no post office form for how it should work out. I hadn’t really clocked how important sexual relationships are because it’s just not really spoken about in the Buddhist circles. My previous teacher didn’t go there that’s for sure. People don’t talk about it openly and I didn’t get any advice from my parents at all which I think is neglectful parenting, but that’s just my opinion.

Kim: Few traditions speak openly about sex and sexuality. I have the impression that Taoists from China, at least some lineages, have been most openminded about it. In buddhism and hinduism that I am most familiar with, it's like people had an empty hole in the place of their sexual organs. They don't exist and they never go there. Even the chakra, subtle energy center close to the genitals is called ”secret center”.

Looking at the record of sexual harrassment and abuse in buddhism tells me that whatever the tradition says or doesn't say about sexuality, needs to change because it is such a big part of being a human. If you ignore it or don't understand it, how could you ever truly know yourself?

People should not feel more uncomfortable about their genitals and sex than they are about their hands and feet. Shame and guilt that religions have connected with sexuality is completely unnatural, crazy really, and we see constantly how it affects people's lives in negative manner. If I can do something about it through my art and simply by talking about it openly, I feel I should.

I have received only few positive feedbacks about my art works but much more clicks than any of my other posts. Thanks.

See Kim's art work here: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=683282842173444&id=621644005003995