Lama Karl Eikrem: Alternative Approach to a Healthy Mind, Body and Spirit

Alternative Approach to a

Healthy Mind, Body and Spirit

By: Lama Karl Eikrem 

In today's society, there is no shortage of approaches to improve the health of one's mind, body and spirit. Regularly, we are presented with techniques and programs to reach our full potential; special diets, health programs, psychological tools, motivational exercises, the list goes on. Many of these tools have great benefit, but looking at the present condition of our society, the question remains: do they address the core issue of human dis-ease? 

Authentic spiritual practice aims not so much at improving our relative condition, but takes a step back and invites us to study ourselves as we truly are. This is because the root problem of our discontentment is not that we are unhealthy or stressed, that we don't work out enough, or eat a healthy diet, it is not that are unhappy or dissatisfied with our lives. Rather, the reason is that we do not know the nature of ourselves, the nature of being. How can we possibly find true contentment if we do not know ourselves? 

At the centre of this existential confusion lies the belief in a separate sense of self, in an entity cut off from the external world. If you ask somebody where their sense of self is located, they will probably point to their body, more specifically their head. But is there anything solid in there? Is there some unchanging entity within ourselves, to which we can attach the label "me"? 

This question is the starting point on the path to a truly healthy body, mind and spirit. 

If we start looking closely into this matter, we'll soon come to the realisation that there is no such thing as an "I" to be experienced anywhere. Nevertheless, if left uninvestigated, this basic sense of “me” will continue to attach itself to thoughts and emotions, reinforcing itself through a network of self-based beliefs and opinions; political views, occupation, status, wealth, achievements and so on, all labelled as "mine". 

Because the illusory nature of "I" is dependent on more and more things to identify with, merely trying to improve ourselves, without getting to know ourselves, will not lead to lasting contentment. 

Pemako Buddhism offers high-precision meditative tools to investigate both the notion of "me", leading to what is labelled "awakening"; the permanent dropping off of the notion of self, as well for purifying the reaction patterns, emotional traumas and mental filters that hinder us in experiencing the world directly, as it really is. 

By deconstructing the conceptual beliefs about ourselves, others and the world in general, certain qualities start revealing themselves to us. Equanimity, joy, love and compassion start becoming a part of our everyday lives. Indeed, as we progress on the path of releasing mental and physical tensions, we come to realise that these qualities were never separate from us in the first place. Instead of confining ourselves to "I", "me" and "mine", we realise that we are in fact the brilliant clarity of selfless awareness itself. Thus knowing ourselves is indeed the true meaning of a healthy mind, body and spirit. 

May all beings be free! 

Pemako Buddhism Website: www.pemakobuddhism.com

Awakening and the end of suffering

Awakening and the end of suffering

JP wrote:
How does your version of awakening/stream entry relate to suffering? How much suffering is released upon awakening? How much craving/desire?
The Buddha apparently said that upon stream entry the amount of suffering that goes away is comparable to a large mountain. While the amount of suffering that remains is only a few pebbles. From what I've seen of LU, and other direct pointing methods their awakening does not come anywhere near (nor even here and the MTCB, this kind of dramatic reduction in suffering. Why do you think that is? Are the direct pointers really talking about the same thing when they say 'awakening' as the old buddhists?

Baba wrote:
Hello JP,
Yes. I often compare the delusional psychology of our's to a cart wheel where the center of it would be "me", the spokes whatever mental and emotional content and the outer rim the subconscious mind. If you take the center out and the wheel keeps turning, it cannot help but collapse under weight. That's how I've experienced it and heard my friends tell about it. So if I would have to choose between a mountain or pebbles, awakening as defined and experienced here removes a mountain of suffering, for sure, no doubt about it.

I am not a big fan of LU (Liberation Unleashed) even though on the other hand what they do is way better than nothing. I think they are a bit too hasty in their ways and views. There are strange views involved, like neo-advaita influences which can be very unhealthy and problematic in the long run. We have to remember that awakening is the first permanent stage of spiritual attainment but not by any means the final one. So, we need to put awakening into context. It is actually silly how many seem to think that, "Awakening is all there is and that's it, you're done". Not at all. One has to be very obsessed with being awakened if you don't figure it out pretty soon after awakening.

I am not an exponent of formal traditional buddhism. And I haven't received a permission to teach from any physical buddhist teacher, though I have from a few non-physical masters known from the buddhist tradition. So, I do not have orthodox buddhist authority and therefore I cannot say whether my stream entry would be qualified by the modern ajahn's or not. And of course the followers of orthodox theravada say that no, what I'm talking about is not according to buddha dharma. Maybe they say that or not, makes no difference to me or any of the people who awakened through Open heart. What matters is that the primary cause of delusion, confusion and suffering has been removed. It makes all the difference.

- Baba Kim Katami
19.1.2016

Open Heart, www.openheart.fi

Dalai Lama Speaks About His Awakening

Dalai Lama Speaks About His Awakening

The Dalai Lama talks about his awakening at the age of 35 years. The quote is from his book, "How to see yourself as you really are".

"When I was about thirty-five years old, I was reflecting on the
meaning of a passage by Tsongkhapa about how the “I” cannot be found
either within or separate from the mind-body complex and how the “I”
depends for its existence on conceptuality. Here is the passage:
'A coiled rope’s speckled color and coiled form are similar to those of a
snake, and when the rope is perceived in a dim area, the thought
arises, “This is a snake.” As for the rope, at that time when it is seen
to be a snake, the collection and parts of the rope are not even in the
slightest way a snake. Therefore, that snake is merely set up by
conceptuality. In the same way, when the thought “I” arises in
dependence upon mind and body, nothing within mind and body—neither the collection that is a continuum of earlier and later moments, nor the
collection of the parts at one time, nor the separate parts, nor the
continuum of any of the separate parts—is in even the slightest way the
“I.” Also there is not even the slightest something that is a different
entity from mind and body that is apprehendable as the “I.”
Consequently, the “I” is merely set up by conceptuality in dependence
upon mind and body; it is not established by way of its own entity.'
Suddenly, it was as if lightning moved through my chest. I was so
awestruck that, over the next few weeks, whenever I saw people, they
seemed like a magician’s illusions in that they appeared to inherently
exist but I knew that they actually did not. This is when I began to
understand that it is truly possible to stop the process of creating
destructive emotions by no longer assenting to the way “I” and other
phenomena appear to exist. Every morning I meditate on emptiness, and I
recall that experience in order to bring it into the day’s activities.
Just thinking or saying “I,” as in “I will do such-and-such,” will often
trigger that feeling. But still I cannot claim full understanding of
emptiness."

In 2020, His Holiness the Dalai Lama said in a speech, 

"His Holiness disclosed that 50 years ago he was reading Jé Tsongkhapa’s commentary to ‘Entering into the Middle Way’, ‘Illumination of the Thought’ and when he read that a person is neither one with the psycho-physical aggregates, nor separate from them, but exists in name only, he felt as if he’d been struck by lightning. Subsequently he was able to see that self and others are like illusions, but later realized that he had had an insight into a coarse form of selflessness. Nagarjuna refers to this selflessness in his ‘Precious Garland’:

A person is not earth, not water,
Not fire, not wind, not space,
Not consciousness, and not all of them.
What else is a person other than these?

Source: https://www.dalailama.com/news/2020/teachings-for-the-nalanda-shiksha-first-day