Heartmind of a Buddha

 

Heartmind of a Buddha

Removal of self-based ignorance and discovering the natural radiance of all good qualities, are the main tasks of meditation.

First, the sense of limited self is removed from all mind phenomena through emptiness meditation.

Then, all good qualities, like immaculate purity, kindness and sweetness, radiate freely, as the enlightened nature of the buddha within is openly expressed.

Heartmind of a buddha, nature of wakefulness, has no stain in it.

Those who seize it, have not the palest of shadows in their minds, not during the day, not during the night.

When delusion caused by the self dies, it doesn't suffer pain. When the self has died, it is dead for good and does not resurrect.

When the self is dead, actions do not leave a trail like a flying bird doesn't leave footprints.

 

In the heartmind of a buddha, thoughts come only to express pureness and goodness. Pureness and goodness is what our wakeful nature is. Our foundation is entirely good and pure, and in the life of a buddha only good actions take place. This is like a meadow of beautiful flowers entirely devoid of weeds. Thoughts are expressions of buddhanature. There is no one who doesn't have this potential.

In the heartmind of a buddha, there is no thought of harm or doubt. In the heartmind of a buddha, there is no sneakiness or darkness. In the heartmind of a buddha there are no hidden currents or unpleasant secrets. Subconscious mind has turned into a body of awakening without blind spots or sudden impulses.

The heartmind of a buddha is awake and clear, positive and understanding, loves and cares, is pure and good, is simple and joyful without any reason. The is no one who doesn't have such innate sincerity and love as their ground. There is no one who doesn't have this mind of perfect loving wakefulness. You have it, I have it, everyone you ever met, has the heartmind of a buddha.

Have trust in the teaching of the past greats and like them make dharma your own. There is no reason to be a beggar, no reason to feel all the turmoil and confusion, other than your own habits and beliefs. Know yourself as love! Know yourself as goodness! Know that only the sense of me-ness prevents you from being a wakeful buddha.

-Kim Katami, 25.9.2020

Become a monthly supporter or make a single donation here: https://www.pemakobuddhism.com/34566

*

Pemako Buddhism www.pemakobudhism.com

No Reifications of a Metaphysical God by John Tan

No Reifications of a Metaphysical God

by John Tan, Buddhist philosopher and practitioner.

See Awakening to Reality-blog.

”What is presence now? Everything... Taste saliva, smell, think, what is that? Snap of a finger, sing. All ordinary activity, zero effort therefore nothing attained. Yet is full accomplishment. In esoteric terms, eat God, taste God, see God, hear God...lol. That is the first thing I told Mr. Jax few years back when he first messaged me If a mirror is there, this is not possible. If clarity isn't empty, this isn't possible. Not even slightest effort is needed. Do you feel it? Grabbing of my legs as if I am grabbing presence! Do you have this experience already? When there is no mirror, then entire existence is just lights-sounds-sensations as single presence. Presence is grabbing presence. The movement to grab legs is Presence.. the sensation of grabbing legs is Presence.. For me even typing or blinking my eyes. For fear that it is misunderstood, don't talk about it. Right understanding is no presence, for every single sense of knowingness is different. Otherwise Mr. Jax will say nonsense... lol. When there is a mirror, this is not possible. Think I wrote to Longchen (Sim Pern Chong) about 10 years ago.”

“After realization… Just eat God, breathe God, smell God and see God… Lastly be fully unestablished and liberate God.”

Soh Wei Yu: "Lest readers misinterpret that John is affirming a substantialist notion of a ‘God’, it should be noted that by the phase of Anatta realization, there is simply no more reifications or conceivings of a metaphysical ‘God’ or ‘Creator’ of any kind, and John was simply using the lingo of Mr. Jax to convey the complete absence of a background substratum of Presence and the total luminosity of Presencing-as-manifestation to Mr. Jax using his ‘esoteric lingo’. Even the word ‘Presence’ is not referring to some static entity here - ‘Presencing’ is perhaps a better term, for as James M. Corrigan wrote, “...Awareness is not something other than the “presencing” (i.e. naturing) of appearances. It is not a thing. It is not part of a thing. It is not an “aspect” of a process… ...it is the process—not some aspect of it”

Solidifying Bodhicitta

Solidifying Bodhicitta

Cultivation of bodhicitta, or the heartmind of enlightenment, happens in stages. In the beginning it might be completely artificial, just saying the prayers without meaning them because one doesn't yet feel it. One doesn't get it in the beginning because one does not have much understanding of reality but it changes with practice, like everything does. Through efforts towards greater clarity and peace of mind within oneself, even doing lip service of prayers of compassion leads to accumulation of experiences which in turn brings about transformation. Then we begin to say those prayers and thinking all sentient beings with some care and concern, with some personal involvement. Through reflection of one's and others' inner state*, our world view begins to change and we actually begin to care for others. It doesn't necessarily mean that we come to like people, because people are not easy to like, but we become concerned where the whole human operation is heading towards. We realize the value of dharma for humans and all sentient beings and understand how deeply screwed we all are. From there arises compassion and it is curious that it does. It does because under all the bullshit and deceit, shines basic goodness, (tib. kuntuzangpo). The truth of our being is positive and life-affirming, not negative and life-denying. So, after some time, we start feeling something, a bit compassionate. Bodhicitta keeps growing like a sapling, getting bigger and bigger year by year.

*See Four Thoughts That Turn The Mind from Open Heart Preliminary Practices-book

Something that I have observed in my students who have opened all their bhumis, who therefore have no need to search for knowing awareness or rigpa, is that for many of them it takes a while after the shifts to display compassion. Even when one has a direct and constant connection to the buddha within, it apparently takes time for the dynamic aspect of it, bodhicitta, to grow on the person. At one point I was actually very worried about this because many students had opened their bhumis but I wasn't seeing any initiative and action for the existential wellfare of others. They just bathed in their own clarity and bliss. I spent sleepless nights over this. I was stressed whether I had created some sort of a perverted path that lead to clear awareness but is not compassionate, for that'd be awful. Without compassion, Open Heart would not be a path to great accomplishment, that is, mahasiddhi or buddhahood. But then, to my great relief, they became more active and started showing their concern. Colour returned on my face! 
 

Avalokiteshvara - Bodhisattva of Compassion. The name literally means "The Lord who hears the cries from below".

When I started practicing I didn't have all the toys and know-how my students have, so my path was largely just relying on bodhicitta and letting that lead me. Nevertheless, it appears that with or without shifts in perception (bhumi openings), bodhicitta takes time to develop. Stabilizing rigpa is one thing, something very meaningful to any sentient being and on top of that, becoming one with bodhicitta is another. It ensures correct direction of one's practice until full enlightenment is attained. What does becoming one with bodhicitta mean?

As sentient beings we are tied to our self-centered views and thoughts. From there we start loosening the knots of me, me, me and begin to think in terms of us all, us all, us all. That can be scary in the beginning. ”What do you mean 'taking the suffering of others into my heart'!? Fuck that! No! I don't want that!” Despite of initial self-based reactions such as panic, we come to see that it works, if we have had enough of confusion. Those who are ready, i.e. have merit, take their practice like ancient masters have, very seriously. This puts us inside a machine of sorts that takes us beyond duration and location. By going through our pain tirelessly like a warrior, we reach the other shore that is beyond and better than all states and achievements. Para sam gate bodhi svaha - gone completely beyond to reach natural perfection.

In this process, we become unified with compassion. Our mind starts thinking in ways that are aligned with the very message of ”may all beings be free” and ”I vow to liberate all sentient beings”. Our mind becomes united with bodhicitta, which means that it becomes the heartmind of enlightenment. We become that and when we do, we embody the fully enlightened potential we all have.

When we take the Bodhisattva Vow, it puts us into this engine that peels off the layers of self-confusion bit by bit. This can be scary and unpleasant at times. When the samsaric pus comes out, it hurts and stinks for a moment but in the long run gets better.

That we can exercise, contemplate, pray, chant, act and meditate on bodhisattvic compassion is the greatest gift given by the buddha within. I highly recommend receiving it. I am not aware of a better way of solving internal and external conflicts, and since the world is burning, this is the time when it is needed the most.

-Kim Katami, 8^th of August 2019

Open Heart Sangha

www.en.openheart.fi

See also Playlist of Bodhicitta workshops at YouTube.

Pointing out to Selfless Awareness

Pointing out to Selfless Awareness




A bit from a Guidance to Awakening-dialogue:

- You know, people assume that there is this "me" here, sitting at it's throne inside the head. All people assume that and when they describe themselves to other people, they describe the history of their life as relative beings, basing their story to the false assumption that there is a "me" here, inside this body, who really has experienced all these ups and downs. Right? The notion of "me" is the foundation of our life story. It's always, "me this or me that, me totally this or me totally not that", it goes on and on. There is a life story of happenings and experiences that each of us have. Sure. There is no denying of these happenings in this relative life. But what happens is that as we take this relative story and the notion of "me" so seriously, by doing so, we lose a larger context how it actually is. By believing in a magic trick, in illusion, we lose the actual reality of ourselves... And hence, we get lost. This is existential ignorance, the root of confusion and suffering.

- Our "true being" is not the "me", some sort of entity identified with the name "Kim" who is "37 years old", a Finnish citizen and so on and so on. All these defitions are our relative conditions that we as embodied beings have but that is not our true being, our true nature. Our true being, our true face, is beyond that. Our true being is the selfless awareness which cannot be measured and has no attributes. This awareness is always there in our minds, both when it is recognised consciously and when it is not recognised consciously. We may go through our whole life being completely identified with a limited sense of self, but this selfless awareness that is always awake and clear, never goes away. It is these also between thoughts and emotions. And in fact, thoughts and emotions are just a body how it manifests itself. So. Be smart. Don't ask me questions and assume things. You are in this trouble of being deluded and defined as "self", because you made an assumption of yourself as an entity in the first place.

- I'll end this with a variation of mine on zen-master Dogen's famous quote: To find our awakened nature, one has to study the self. To study the self, is to look at the self in order to see through it. By seeing through it, the selfless nature of all things is revealed. When the realisation of the selfless nature extends and becomes encompassing, only selfless awareness of clarity exists, without existing, or non-existing. Then enlightenment is forgotten, as it is the way how things naturally rest in clarity.
 
Baba Kim Katami

Open Heart,
www.openheart.fi