Emptiness and Buddhahood

 

Emptiness and Buddhahood

Without emptiness practice, one cannot practice dzogchen. There is no such thing as dzogchen without the foundational realisation or insight of empty nature of mind. For this reason, we need to understand that we actually cannot practice atiyoga without complete purification. Without emptiness, dzogchen becomes entirely dualistic because the "natural state" is seen to be separate from thoughts and emotions. However, if you read any past master they make it clear that thoughts and emotions are not apart of the natural state. So what you need to practice is vipashyana, emptiness meditation, to release the sense of me-ness from all and any mind objects. In Pemako, we do this both by sutric and tantric means, sutric and tantric vipashyana. Sutric means to study, investigate and liberate selfing from the mind objects directly. Tantric vipashyana means to practice deities through their mantras and visualisations. Both result in directly seeing that whatever mind objects appear in the mind: any thought, any emotion, any dream, any desire, any fantasy or any subtle formless energy, is without this entity that samsaric beings refer to as "me" or "I". This solves the problem and this is the meaning of liberation in buddhadharma. From there, from emptiness of all phenomena, from exhaustion of all phenomena, great perfection or buddhahood is seen and attained. This means purifying the bhumis 1-10 and becoming a mahasiddha, or a buddha, whose mind has been exhausted of self-delusion. There are no distractions or bumps in the mind of a buddha, and no sudden surprises, no hidden blind spots... Completely clear and pure, radiating soft blessings...

Kim, 9.6.2021

Culadasa John Yates: Sutrayana ”doesn't go far enough”

Culadasa John Yates:

Sutrayana ”doesn't go far enough”

See this video from July 2019: https://youtu.be/X7brJ8qrLBo?t=3404

In the video Culadasa John Yates, a veteran of 50 years of practice and one of the most respected teachers of buddhist meditation in the West, discusses The Mind Illuminated, his own version of buddhist sutrayana meditations, and states that it "doesn't go far enough", despite of some insight and awakening that the method produces. This lecture was given about a month before he was fired or himself left his own Dharma Treasure organisation due to allegations of misconduct in the forms of lying and extramarital sexual affairs.

Although Culadasa's bio says that together with his hinayana lineage, he also has vajrayana lineage, I have never seen or found a reference that would state that he is a tantric practitioner or that he would teach tantra. If you know that my information lacks in this regard, please correct me. I have sought this bit of information for few years but never found it. In some webcasts he has mentioned vajrayana in general but I have never seen him talk about tantric practices in the sense that it was something that he and his students were actively involved with.

In the video he says that he has gone through buddhist meditation training and that, despite of some illumination, "buddhist meditation traditions" (in plural) have severe deficiencies. He goes on to say that combination of shamanism and buddhism would tap what his practices have left untapped. In this connection, he also mentions Tibetan buddhism and Bon-tradition. That he doesn't mention his own vajrayana teachings or practices, adds to my belief that he is not a vajrayana practitioner.

Culadasa John Yates

As a practitioner of sutrayana, his statement about the deficiency of all buddhist traditions needs to be viewed with critical thought. I am aware that buddhism in general and Tibetan vajrayana in particular has all kinds of problems but in general based on my own observations vajrayana practitioners go farther in their practice than practitioners of sutrayana. I leave scholars, academics and doctors of buddhism entirely out of this. In terms of bhumi analysis (OHBM) it can be clearly seen that tantrics have more bhumis open and perfected, or in common terms have more clarity and purity than sutrayana practitioners do. By saying this I do not deny the benefits of sutrayana, because I know from my own experience that sutra practice reaps benefits, though they are lesser. In my own experience as well as apparently Culadasa's, sutrayana leaves a lot of the psyche into the shadow. It just "doesn't go far enough". For this reason I have discussed the benefits of joining sutra and tantra together.

The problem is that sutric meditation practice is built on one's own effort, energy and ability of attention which in the present samsaric condition are very limited. On the other hand , tantric deities that are archetypes of the enlightened mind cannot but reveal all the nooks and corners of the mind or psyche, leaving nothing hidden. This is the unique gift and potential of tantric practice, that non-tantric methods do not have. 

Culadasa, "As you progress on the paths of awakening, the changes of you recognising them (parts of our pscyhe) as something that needs to be purified, diminishes."

It is such a strange thing to say... but this precisely is Culadasa's testimony of the insufficiency of sutric practice.



May All Beings Be Free,



-Kim Katami, 23.8.2019
Pemako Sangha
www.pemakobuddhism.com

 

About Psychotherapy, Buddhist Meditation and Tantras

About Psychotherapy,

Buddhist Meditation and Tantras

I've pondered about the marriage of psychotherapy and buddhist meditation lately. It is common for zen and theravada buddhists to think that it is necessary or at least highly beneficial to combine the two. I do not deny the benefits of psychotherapy and certainly encourage those so inclined to get down and dirty with it. However, my message to all those sutrayana practitioners who hold such views, is to look into tantric practices. Based on bhumi analysis, there's a lot sutrayana is not tapping or the common pedagogy is not tapping. So, my statement is that although it is said that there are three ways to liberation: sutra, tantra and dzogchen; there doesn't seem to exist a sutra group that'd really make progress in their practice, which leads them to falsely think that there'd be something lacking in emptiness meditation, which I don't think is the case at all.
My personal experience is that traumas and shadow work is part of the practice. This becomes evident after most of the mind is seen empty because we still keep having thoughts and emotions, that no longer offer material for emptiness meditation. At this point, one has much stability and it is rather easy to see how the hurtful or traumatic patterns still continue. Healing comes with togetherness and acceptance of these patterns, just like insight comes from emptiness meditation (lhaktong). I see no difference between the two, although many do. For this reason, I think it is not the buddhist paradigm but the particular schools that are lacking. I could present a more detailed criticism of zen and theravada that are nowadays often married with Western psychology but will save it for other time.

In the same vein, I've thought of all those bad boys and girls of vajrayana who willingly or being blinded by their confusion hurt and abused others. I used to put the blame on lack of ethics, lack of practice and lack of realisation. Bhumi analysis has well revealed the unfinishedness of their practice and I think that erratic behaviour of vajrayanis is much affected by these factors. But then, I began to think if there is something else to it, as well, perhaps something lacking in vajrayana buddhist training. 
 
What separates tantric buddhism from tantric hinduism?

There is an obvious difference of views between hinduism and buddhism. In practice, in my limited understanding and experience, it seems that long time ago, probably to make more progress in practice, buddhism started to emphasize dharmakaya, transparent-nonsubstantial-selfless-nonlocal and non-dimensional buddhanature, very strongly and de-emphasized the energetical, colourful, lively and expressive part of it (sambhogakaya). If you look at buddhist teachings, they are mostly about vipashyana, emptiness, returning self-charges into the colourless basic space (dharmakaya), with the help of compassionate motivation (bodhicitta). 
 
It is my observation of myself and other buddhists that the over emphasis of dharmakaya makes people emotionally flat, even spiritual bypassers. Spiritual bypassing means that one's mental and emotional habits are bypassed, and not adressed and used for practice, due to too much emphasis on onepointed concentration and calmness (shamatha). Back in my zen days, I was mostly instructed shamatha with the result that after 4 years of full time training I was emotionally pretty much as lost and hurt as I was before. That's why I left zen. As a teacher myself, I would never teach anyone like that, especially those who wish to wake up! 
 
More recently, I witnessed a proper out of proportions tantrum of a senior vajrayana monastic with more than 50 years of practice under the belt. It wasn't the first time I witnessed senior buddhist meditators go haywire but nevertheless from such a heavy weight, it was rather unexpected. In this persons case, this indicates spiritual bypassing, not lack of practice. Anyway. 
 
Most buddhist schools put a lot of emphasis on shamatha which I think is contributing to this problem, giving buddhism and buddhists their distinctive tone (of emotional flatness). I think, this is because buddhism puts so much emphasis on dharmakaya, transparent nature and awareness of all phenomena and all the energetic play is given a secondary place. Compared to hinduism, buddhism is way more succesful in yoga because of the clarification and emphasis of seflessness/emptiness (anatta/sunyata) and its meditative applications in sutra and tantra. One the other hand, this very emphasis has produced many buddhas and bodhisattvas in the history of buddhism but nevertheless it seems to me that no existing system is problem free, i.e. is complete as a system.

Hindus, on the other hand, never made the forced (and artificial) split between clearness of awareness (shiva) and energetics of awareness (shakti). These two always go hand in hand. For this reason they, myself included in my days of hindu tantra, get caught up trances, bliss and exalted states of meditation. For this reason, their recognition of the natural state is entirely false and misleading, at least from the point of view of buddhism. Because hindu yogas do not point out emptiness, is the exact reason for their little success in yoga. 
 
But then, hindu tantric practices of different deities, have a very different tone compared to those of tantric buddhism. I would say that hindu deities are emotionally more mature and elaborate, in other words, for one who has the view of emptiness, hindu deities can tap deeper and faster to the ultimate attainment of full buddhahood, full rainbow body, because they tap the energetic body (sambhogakaya) more efficiently. 
 
There are some sources that say that at one point in time, during the so called mahasiddha era, before buddhist tantra grew out of hindu tantra, yoginis and yogis didn't make such a great distinction between the two, as is common nowadays. Maybe that's why there were so many mahasiddhas, fully realized female and male masters during that era.

Testing the Mind of Meditation

Testing the Mind of Meditation

Mind of meditation is expressed and embodied by the physical body. State of mind and awareness (dual/nondual) can be demonstrated, verified and tested with simple physical contact. Please watch the video below for introduction.

Four modes of mind

1. Dualistic frame of mind, embodying negative thought or emotion
2. Nondualistic frame of mind, embodying positive thought or emotion such as loving-kindness, compassion, joy or peacefulness*, sutra-style
3. Nondualistic frame of mind, tantric guru yoga, tantra-style
4. Nondualistic frame of mind, open awareness/ati-meditation, ati yoga-style

*brahmavihara

Ways of testing

1. Gentle touch with soft pressure. Chest, shoulder, back, free variations. A way for beginners to see how their state of mind affects their bodies and how both negative and positive frames of mind can actually be concretized. Tester is there to give support for the tested.
2. Adding emotional negativity to the way of testing. Making physical contact in more aggressive manner, like poking to simulate conflict situations from everyday life. A way to test our frame of mind and attainment in an artificial conflict situation to see how our mind training might do in real life. Returing nondual frame of mind is one gets lost in dualistic mind content.
3. Very aggressive testing, poking and shoving by one or several testers. An artificially created situation where one's mind is tested in very aggressive conflict situation, as if bullied by one or several people.