Contemplating
A Shift
Kim:
If your deceased relative was a religious person, you should ask the
founder or highest ideal of that religion to take the deceased
person. In the case of baptised christians, for example, practicing
or non-practicing, you should say a sincere prayer to Jesus, Holy
Spirit or God. Then observe what happens or doesn't happen. As yogis
we should make sure that the prayers work. Lip service is never good
enough.
As
buddhists, we are often given the advice to ask Amitabha, the buddha
of light, to bless and help deceased people, and it is a good
advice. However, I recently made an observation that it is best to
pray and ask blessings from the figures of the religion that the
person in question is familiar with. As christians, for example, are
familiar with the face of Jesus their subconscious mind accepts and
receives the blessings of Jesus easily, without any problems, while
the face and energy of Guru Rinpoche or any other guru or archetype,
such as Amitabha, that the person is not familiar with is rejected.
This happens simply because the face is foreign, in other words,
there is no karmic connection. We can speculate about this and say
that Amitabha is not an archetype but our own true nature but this
isn't exactly true because Amitabha is both an archetype and the
nature of our minds. When we talk how we can help people who are
dead or who are ill, for example, we need to understand that it
matters who we pray to even if all gurus and deities are expressions
of the same nature of mind. Meditators know this but non-meditators
don't.
Recently
I was in the following situation after I moved to a new building.
The building where I live is mostly for senior citizens and as one
might imagine there is lots of illness and even the energy of death
in the building. I sensed this during the first couple of days after
my move and like I always do to clarify stale energy, I chanted some
Guru Rinpoche mantras into the building and the habitants to do some
cleaning. I could sense that the building was affected by my prayers
but the habitants weren't so I took a moment to observe why that was
the case and I realised that the subconscious minds of the habitants
are unfamiliar with who GR is. Once I realised that I turned to
Jesus and asked his blessings which worked instantly. It blew
through the house and everyone in it like a fresh Autumn breeze.
This made me realise how precious the christian baptism actually is
because it creates a fortunate karmic connection between the one who
is baptized and Jesus, who is a fully attained mahasiddha. As I've
long contemplated the suitability of tantric buddhism or the lack of
it for the Western audience, this experience again spoke in favour
for presenting yogic teachings in the West with Jesus as the head
figure, rather than any foreign figure who the vast majority of
locals have never heard of. Anyway.
I
wish much love, light and blessings to your deceased relative and
pray that his journey continues lightly and pleasantly in the
guidance of great masters who he knows. Much blessings to him.
Karl:
Lately I’ve been thinking about whether the
establishing of Budehism or a Christian renaissance would be the most
effective answer to the general degeneration of the West.
I
used to think that Buddhism would gain a solid foothold here, but
I’ve come to doubt that. Perhaps secular Buddhist practices, but
they don’t seem to work very well in realising the actual purpose
of Buddhism, to say it the least.
Also,
if the law of action and reaction holds true in a conventional manner
in society, we should soon see a mass reaction to the secularisation
and subsequent deconstruction of traditional Western values. I’ve
come to believe over the past few weeks that a revitilisation of a
living Christian faith will be at the centre of that.
Anyways,
just sharing recent thoughts regarding this topic, as your post was
well timed with my own musings.
Ben
K: Very interested in this conversation. My
question is, though, ok pretend we want a new revitalized
Christianity: how do you fit all of these effective tantric practices
into that system? I just don't see how to do it without the rich
lineage of mahasiddhas that all contribute to buddhist tantra being
so effective. I mean look at how weak hindu tantra is today, because
most of the lineages are dead now, even though they had all the same
techniques (and more probably) that the buddhists have. But they lack
the living lineage...
Karl:
I guess it must be possible seeing that there are
(seeming) accounts of rainbow body attainments in Christianity too
(as well as in Hinduism and Daoism).
Also,
a tantric system essentially only needs one mahasiddha to bring the
juice into the practices, whatever form they would take.
And
if, hypothetically, a Christian tantric lineage would manifest , I
don’t see why other mahasiddhas wouldn’t support it, as long as
it works.
That
being said, I have no idea how it would look other than having Jesus
at its centre, so I am just thinking out loud here.
Ben
E: My own two cents is that anything too rooted
in religions of the past will bring too much associated baggage into
the future.
Something
that avoids being boxed in as a religion would be ideal. The way a
martial art is not a religion but a way of living.
Robert:
Would you say a secular, more "sciency"
approach to end our existential suffering could serve that rebound in
the future too? What I mean is that I'm seeing a general belief in
scientific methods to solve all our problems as rising in the
collective mind. Which for all intents and purposes I think is a good
development, but I'm curious whether those methodologies could ever
serve for our existential liberation as well. I know the positivistic
discipline of modern psychology already hosts terms for Atiyoga, Open
Monitoring and Shamatha, Focused Attention (perhaps there are more),
and studies are made upon these; what are their effects and so on.
There's nothing to say tantra couldn't be observed and documented in
a similar fashion, not to say the entire path through the bhumis
could be studied scientifically. So the question is if repackaged
ancient methods, stripped of their history and cultural context, if
the data is significant, could gain momentum as a vehicle for mental
health in the modern world, or are we also thirsting for the air of
mystery that classical spirituality and religion offers when push
comes to shove? So this post turned out way more complex than when I
thunk it, but I hope the thought comes across
Karl:
Perhaps, but I don’t necessarily see cultural
baggage as all bad. It can, as illustrated in the OP, also bring
familiarity into the picture.
Christianity
is, whether we like it or not, very much a part of the Western
psyche. In most descripitions I’ve come across of near-death
experiences of Western people, for example, some form of Christian
narrative is presented. Though, not in a dogmatic or narrow-minded
way. And these are not from people who perceived themselves as
Christian prior to the NDE, but mostly atheist.
While
that is anecdotal of course, it does suggest (to me atleast) the
importance of tradition and familiarity with regards to spirituality.
Ben
E: I see your point. Although there are plenty of
religions in the US besides christianity, such as judaism (where I
come from), islam, and hinduism. I think the people who will take up
spiritual practice in earnest don’t necessarily need something
familiar to appeal to them.
Karl:
Yes, I am overgeneralising when using the term «the West», but
still, according to The 2020 Census of American Religion, 70 % of
Americans identify as Christians. The numbers are very similar in
Europe.
As
for the latter point, I’m not so sure if categories sparking karmic
affinitity are not necessary. Perhaps for some some people it is not
so important. For myself, however, the familiarity with (originally
Machig Labdron, and later) Guru Rinpoche and Yeshe Tsogyal,
definitely helped propel my practice forward and past the initial
doubts.
I’m
not rejecting the idea that a non-traditional, non-religious approach
would work well, I just don’t presently see how it would deal with
these issues.
Kim:
Here's my further thoughts about this.
First of all, Jesus
was not and is not a christian, i.e. a follower of christian
religion. If I think about a method leading to full enlightenment,
centered around Jesus as the master, (like I've done countless times
by now) I don't associate it with christianity at all and therefore
would not present this method as a revitalised form of christianity.
My personal experience of Jesus is what matters the most and this I
would like to give to all those who know about Jesus but don't know
him due to various reasons. The biggest one of those reasons is
christian dogma and lack of contemplative know-how within that
tradition.
Having said that even the most basic christian
practice of prayer is in the style of call and response. If you call
for Jesus's blessings, it is there instantly to be felt and received.
This is what in yoga and tantra is known as tantric guru yoga.
Contemplative christians, who are a minority among christians,
practice tantric guru yoga with Jesus and other saints, and have done
for ages.
It is true that there has been many christian
contemplatives from the desert and orthodox traditions who attained
what in tantric buddhism is called rainbow body. This is known as
resurrection in christianity. View and practices to attain what Jesus
is said to have attained has been kept secret but what I'd like to do
is to explain Jesus as a master yogi and his attainment, and his
example that all us can follow, to others.
Many years ago I
was asked by my master to collect bits and pieces of wisdom practices
and put them together in a system that people could practice. Now, we
have it all figured out, the whole path from unawakened state to full
enlightenment, but the problem is like I stated above that this
teaching, now known under the buddhist banner of Pemako Buddhism,
doesn't reach people effectively enough, and it is yet to be seen who
any type of buddhism takes foothold in the West. I took this rebirth
voluntarily to try to make a difference but even after 13 years of
teaching full time, I spend most of my time alone when I would want
to connect with many people and instruct them how they can become
free. That is really the only thing I want to do but it is clear that
if I remain under the banner of tantric buddhism, completely foreign
to the vast majority of Westerners, this will keep imposing limits on
my work and consequentially at the end of the day benefits will also
be limited, when they needn't and shouldn't be. It actually feels
against me to stay in this situation. I feel that it is my own true
nature that is pushing me for change.
Secular teaching is not
my thing but I think that the spirit of pragmatic dharma would go a
long way with a method where Jesus was the main master. There is so
much misinformation and sheer absence of knowledge of views and
practices, results and attainments in christianity that it is a mess,
so many people don't have even basic view and knowledge that
something could be done about our sense of being lost or having no
purpose in the world. In Pemako method we have pragmatised both the
view and the practices, results and attainments and the effectiveness
speaks for itself. It would not be much different with Jesus as the
captain.
Jesus was a yogi who practiced with masters,
received many transmissions and as a result had great compassion
(bodhicitta) and attained full rainbow body. It is not possible to
attain rainbow body without (tantric) transmissions, including
atiyoga, which is why he must have had (tantric) masters. There you
have it. Explaining this in pragmatic way and offering a method that
would empower one to achieve the same as Jesus would have great
potential in this world. There is not a single person here who
doesn't know who Jesus is.
