How to Receive the Greatest Gift of Reality

How to Receive

the Greatest Gift of Reality

In this text, I will discuss mahasiddha bhumis, lit. grounds of great accomplishment, and their importance in yogic practice. I have written a book entitled What's Next? On Post-Awakening Practice that I recommend for new readers.

Biographical Note: First Glimpses

As a little boy, growing up in a family that was shadowed by my father's alcoholism, I began to pray and meditate spontaneously. I often went to my room, sat down on the bedside, and suddenly the room would be filled with immense peace and light, that entirely dispersed any anxiety I had. At the time I had no idea what happened but since they gave me great relief, I kept doing it. In retrospect, I have learned that I experienced both visitations of past mahasiddhas, masters of great accomplishment, as well as a descent of grace from my own mahasiddha bhumis, as they are called in Open Heart. I have discussed these experiences in some detail in this interview.

After 4 years of arduous training in Zen Buddhism in Japan and Finland, my health forced me to find a different path. As a young samurai-spirited fool who was desperately in love with zen, I would never have thought I would leave zen but I needed to and within few months my path took an unexpected turn towards sanatana dharma, or more commonly, hinduism, and its tantric methods, kriya yoga in particular. In December of 2006, I received my first empowerment of kriya yoga and I am not exaggerating when saying that after the first practice session of kriya pranayama spiced with strong guru devotion, my life wasn't the same anymore. I am neither exaggerating when saying that the clarity and depth of mind after 30 minutes kriya yoga practice, equaled a weeklong zen retreat where one sits in quiet meditation for over 12 hours a day. For those 4 years that I trained in zen, I had sat for 8 or more hours everyday without exceptions, following instructions of my teachers to the letter, so it wasn't like I hadn't tried.

Kriya Yoga and Paravastha

Nowadays there are many kinds of kriya yoga and not all of them have to do with Babaji, the modern time founder of kriya yoga, who is mentioned in Paramahamsa Yogananda's autobiography. I started kriya yoga in a lineage that had been passed from Babaji to Lahiri Mahasaya in 1860's, to Swami Sriyukteswar (d. 1936) and Paramahamsa Hariharananda (d. 2002), and finally to the yogi who initiated me, Paramahamsa Prajnanananda. In kriya yoga, I learned something called paravastha, which is short for turiyavastha or paraturiyavastha. Paravastha literally means state beyond mind. In kriya yoga this is done after magnetisation of the central channel with deep breathing, equipped with the emotion of loving devotion. To go into paravastha, the practitioner catapults her or his attention high above one's head. I do not recall what they told beginners about the energetic principles behind this exercise but nevertheless this exercise together with sweet devotion changed my life overnight. After finding kriya yoga, I still kept practicing 8 or more hours a day. 

 

Tibetan buddhist monk visualises tantric deity, Vajrasattva, above his head.

Sivakami

I followed that lineage for about a year until I found Sivakami Om Anandi's website. We started emailing and I received initiation from her. Over time and many emails, she became my teacher and very dear dharma friend for 3 years until she passed away in late 2010. Before she passed, she asked me to continue her lineage.

Sivakami was unusual among teachers. She was an American grandmother who had retired some years before from a lifelong career breeding dogs. By the time I got in touch with her, she had moved to the island of Kauai, which is one of the main islands of Hawaii, due to very severe form of arthritis. She never allowed any of her students to meet her in person, so I never met her in person. Back then I couldn't understand or appreciate her choice but now I do. All communication was done through email or telephone calls. My emails with her add up to 600 pages.

Sivakami was a mystic and a bhakta, not a yogi. She had excellent karmic connections with nonphysical masters who taught her during her countless night time astral travels (sleep yoga) and meditation. She also met and learned many physical teachers but never clicked with them enough to become a student, which now that I think of it, is exactly how I have come to feel. When one gets a hang of tantric guru yoga with a mahasiddha, it is not an option to settle for less. That's how I feel, anyway.

One of the nonphysical teachers Sivakami met was Lama Thubten Yeshe, who at the time (1984-1985) was in between two reincarnations. Lama Yeshe offered her his teachings but she kindly refused because she was never attracted by the buddhist vibe. She had immense devotion towards Yogananda in whose organisation she started practicing in 1976. Later she got connected with widely known masters, Babaji and Thirumular, who I also worked closely with for several years.

Thirumular and Sivakami had been together in previous lives, so their connection was unique. I, by the way, never believed a word of any of the mystical stories she told me, until I checked them through my own meditation. I verified the brief connection with Lama Yeshe and her connection with Thirumular, for example, through my own meditation, and that I did, made her satisfied because I wasn't blindly accepting whatever she told me.

Riding the Mahasiddha Bhumis

I had been visited by nonphysical mahasiddhas since I was a boy and in 2007, they started to make themselves known to me in a more personal than before. I began to receive teachings, visit subtle planes and had many mystical visions. Sivakami's guidance in understanding them was immensely helpful and now I believe that not many people in the whole world would have been capable of providing such advice based on their own first hand experience.

She also taught paravastha or what in Amrita Mandala are called mahasiddha bhumis. Connecting with these subtle centers had a central role in her teaching. In 13 Bhumi Model, which is one of the teachings I have received and taught, there are 7 centers above the head. These 7 can be split into two main groups: bhumis 7-10 and bhumis 11-13. That's how she taught them and called them 8^th and 9^th centers above the 7 chakras within the subtle system inside the body, from root center (skt. muladhara chakra) to crown center (skt. sahasrara chakra). She also called mahasiddha bhumis by the names of High Self and Oversoul, which I also used until 2013 when Amrita Mandala switched from Sundara Kriya Yoga to buddhist tantra.

”There are two chakras beyond the crown of the head.

The 8^th is that part of one's soul that never incarnates.

The 9^th is our connection to the Oversoul, wisdom and love.

These are not spoken about, and yet they are very important

at this time in humanity's spiritual unfoldment.”

- Sivakami Om Anandi (27.6.2008)

”I believe in the next 30 years, there is going to be a push

by these Siddhas to bring back High Self... 8th and 9th chakra understanding among disciples that are ready for it.”

- Sivakami Om Anandi, (3.3.2009)

What she says in the latter quote about mahasiddhas pushing to bring mahasiddha bhumis back is interesting. As far as I know, they are taught in some forms of kriya yoga (not all) and hindu tantra, few forms of Taoism, few forms of reiki and new age healing. In Tibetan buddhist phowa, which is the technique of exiting the body at death and aiming for Amitabha Buddha's Pure Land Sukhavati (tib. dewachen), and some other visualisations where one visualises buddhas or gurus above one's head, it is taught although I have never seen it explained why exactly they are imagined above one's head. In Rainbow Body Yoga mahasiddha bhumis are exercised a lot, through pillars above and below the body. In a simple form, this is taught already in the Introductory Practice, under Jewel Visualisation.

Getting Back to Basic Principles

In Rainbow Body Yoga connection between the reincarnated bodymind and one's mahasiddha bhumis is done extensively because this is the most direct way in which our pure nature and its energy can be brought to the tainted mind. In RBY this is further fortified with breathing exercises, deity mantras and mudras. This is a highly efficient way to generate purification of mind, in our terminology, opening and perfection of bhumis.

Mahasiddha bhumis can be accessed within one's body and aura as well, through certain channels and secret centers, such as those taught in Vimalamitra's Wisdom Meditations. With specific instructions from a tantric lama this can be taken as a valid path but it is my observation that practitioners of various sutrayana paths do not systematically access this inner potential, the ground of being. Mahasiddha bhumis are also cultivated through common buddhist practices such as Refuge, Bodhicitta and Lineage Prayers but since the energetic charge accompanied with prayers almost always goes unnoticed and is not pointed out by lamas, I think it can be said that the students are not learning a correct way of practice. This is very unfortunate, of course.

”These are not spoken about, and yet they are very important at this time in humanity's spiritual unfoldment”, Sivakami said. I think the reason why she said that these centers are very important at this time, is because we are in the midst of the most destructive period according to the yuga-theory. Our time in the history of mankind is marked by technological advancement but because ethics, clarity of mind, and love and compassion for others are missing, a lot of technological advancement turns against us and as a matter of fact, against the whole planet we are living on. Since the illness of mankind is strong, humanity needs strong medicine to heal. I really wish more people would be ready for the medicine I discuss here.

From what I have witnessed in my own practice and that of my students, I can say that this type of yogic exercise, connecting directly to one's own buddhanature, emulating the grounds of these attainments in one's daily practice, is undoubtedly the greatest gift there is. There is no way to remain crooked with this medicine, nor there are side effects.

Thank you for reading,

A BA HU MANI PEME HUNG HRI*,

- Baba, 21.5.2019

Amrita Mandala

*A - Seed syllable of 11^th bhumi

BA - Seed syllable of 12^th bhumi

HU - Seed syllable of 13^th bhumi

MANI PEME – Mantric formula of the Buddha of Compassion, Avalokiteshvara/Chenresig

HUNG - Seed syllable of the karmic body, i.e. bhumis 1-10

HRI - Seed syllable of enlightened heart

Bringing Joy Back to Buddhism

Bringing Joy Back to Buddhism

Every now and then I feel like writing reviews about what has been going on with Open Heart. This is one of those reports. I'll be talking about Guru Rinpoche's recent instructions and guidelines along with how our method is taking new (actually old) steps in it's evolution.

Several years ago a dear friend and one of my gurus, mahasiddha Babaji, told me:

”This is one and the same yoga. There is no this or that yoga. There is only that which is according to the great tradition of yoga and that which is outside of it. At the moment much yogic knowledge is scattered around the world. It is your work to bring it all together.”

For the last 3-4 years Open Heart has taken a very buddhist tone. Along with studying scriptural sources and lectures, Pau and I received a long list of empowerments of buddhist deities, pointing out instructions and practices that has been the main cause to increase my understanding about the basic principles of sutra, tantra and dzogchen. During this time I have sometimes looked back into earlier times with hindu deities, Shaivite tantras, kundalini kriya yoga and bhakti yoga, feeling that those days have passed while wondering whether some of that, greatly powerful and beneficial style of practice will ever be integrated into Open Heart. For a long time I couldn't see how this could be done.

Head

Buddhism is a wisdom (skt. prajna) and knowledge tradition. By wisdom and knowledge I refer to the principles of seeing, knowing, thinking, analysing and understanding. Buddhism and it's many schools from theravada to mahayana and vajrayana are known for it's detailed analyses and maps. I think that having a clear and understandable map is an essential requirement in seeking our way out of cyclical existence. Without a map and direction it's very difficult to find a way out from a foreign place.

Having said that, I feel that buddhism overemphasises the masculine feature of analysis and wisdom with the expense of intuition and heartfulness, which corresponds to the feminine principle. As buddhism has mostly been transmitted and molded by men, especially monastics, it is no surprise that this is the case. This gives buddhism a very distinct feel and energy. I completely understand why some people are not attracted by buddhism because of this and choose other approaches, my teacher Sivakami was one of them.

If we look at the way buddhist practices and training systems from the vast majority of it's schools are formulated and how they are cultivated, we can see that they are the creations of men. To exaggerate it, we can observe formality, seriousness, emotional coldness, hardness, rigidity and desire to be utterly transparent. If we consider these features according to our psychology, we can see that they relate to the head space. Wisdom of the head without heart is like this. We can be very sharp, clear and discriminative in our thoughts and actions but if we lack warmth and openness of the heart, we will not feel well. Any system created by men, like buddhism, can be very lopsided and this of course, is a problem.

I have often asked the challenging question: If vajrayana's potential is to fully liberate it's practitioners in this life and body, where are all the living buddhas? It is a legitimate question. I think a great part of the problem, that extremely few buddhists of all schools actually attain full enlightenment, lies in this question.

Heart

Being heartful, open minded, a receiver (instead of a transmitter) and being intuitive are feminine features. When we become ”open minded” or are in the receiving mode, we can feel that our heart space opens and softens up, and the mind shuts down very thoroughly. We become kind and mother-like, and it is wonderful. If we overdo feminine features, for example follow our intuition without thinking what we intuit, we become onesided. If we only follow our hearts and leave the head out of the picture, we become unrealistic dreamers. Both clarity and warmth are needed because, after all, we all have heads and hearts.

As a side note I would like to add something about lack of intuition among buddhists in relation to OHBM. For a couple of years I've tried to tell buddhists of various schools about it and how wonderful and exceptional tool it is. Potentially it could solve a lot of problems in buddhism today.

I have wondered why most buddhists have hard time accepting that attainments, closed, opened or perfected bhumis, could be sensed from other person whether present physically or from distance. Although mahayana buddhism talks about bhumis and attainments, they do not have another way to measure attainments except through long term relationship and verbal exchange between a teacher and student. Of course, there is nothing wrong in this but this leaves us utterly ignorant about the attainments of others, and actually often ourselves too. Verbal communication can never be as precise as direct exchange of living experience.

I have heard buddhist teachers say that one's attainment can be detected from the gaze but it never gets more specific than that. Why not? At some point it dawned on me that while for some who consider themselves buddhists understanding OHBM is easy, to most it is hard because they lack intuition. A buddhist who follows a system that is said to have worked for generations, has no need for intuition and hence might not even know what it is. Anyway.

Misleading Joy

While blissful and ecstatic states can also be relatively helpful, from the point of view of dzogchen, the ultimate nonduality, exalted states are pitfalls. This is very common in religions other than buddhism, namely hinduism and christianity in their many forms. I have talked about this here.

Intoxicating states are caused by 1. kundalini movements in the energybody of an unawakened person and/or 2. mental-emotional impurities, i.e. karmic traces stored in the subtle body. As far as I am aware only buddhism has a clear view and ways of dealing with both of these factors, so that the practitioners don't get stuck with heavenly experiences and realms.

In short, kundalini is resolved by awakening and all the many karmic traces are purified through distinct sutra or tantra methods that cover the full scope of human psychology. In the calm state, it is the deep subconscious mind (skt. alaya vijnana), in it's self-deluded mode, that causes strong bliss and ecstasy. Therefore thinking that exalted bliss is ”the” thing, is false.

It is interesting to note that great yogis and mahasiddhas who have greatly or fully nullified their deep mind, do not get intoxicated by over-emotional bhakti yoga, drugs or alcohol. A few glasses of whiskey, an easy way to test (some) one's attainment.

Joy

To know true joy, we first need to recognise and integrate it's basis which is awareness (tib. rigpa) or ”nature of mind”. While many traditions of nondualism point to this basis, as a rule in the history only tantric buddhists and dzogchenpas seem to be the only ones who manage to neutralise all karmas and hence attain the first stage of full enlightenment (OHBM, perfection of bhumis 1-10) or buddhahood.

The main point is that if we know how to avoid and remove the common pitfalls of the devotional approach, the feminine way of using emotional opening and loving surrender, it can be faster and more powerful way for getting into the natural state in it's profoundest meaning. Through emotional opening, the natural state is easily accessed and more pronounced than through mental or analytical means. That is my experience. True joy comes through uniting clarity of awareness of the head and warmth-aliveness of the heart. Together they make a whole.

Pure Land Buddhists

Recently I have corresponded with Pure Land Buddhists who have a wonderfully light and carefree spirit. Their main practice is remembrance and devotion towards Amitabha Buddha, through singing his name. This makes their apporach unique among buddhist schools because their main principle is devotion and surrender, instead of willpower and analysis.

Dharmavidya David Brazier, Pure Land Buddhist teacher:

”It does seem that traditionally in India there was a strong buddhist tradition of buddhist music until quite late on. Much of the music which style you now associate with hinduism, like Hare Krishna chanting, that sort of tambourine banging: Haa-ree Raa-maa!, that sort of thing was buddhist originally. It was a buddhist style. As India became hindu rather than buddhist again, the music continued.” (link to video)

Fujita Kotatsu in Genshi Jodo Shiso No Kenkyu about sound use of emotion in Pure Land Buddhism:

”In Hinduism, the idea of faith is expressed as bhakti. Bhakti is regarded as the highest path of interface with the gods and also implies the deepest reverence for gods. On the other hand, Pure Land prasada differs in that it appears less emotional and more serene and subtle due to its relation to prajna (wisdom) and samadhi (concentration).” (copied from here)

So it is also important to have wisdom because it naturally combines with emotional warmth.

Guidance of the masters

A few months ago Guru Rinpoche told me to,

”Bring joy back to buddhism”.

When he told me this I knew it would be another task and challenge in my work. An obvious point about his request is that I cannot bring joy back into all of buddhism, just to Pemako Buddhism, bring another bit of yogic knowledge to make our path whole and balanced. After having pondered the question of over-masculinity and emotional coldness of buddhism for some time, I understood master's request and agreed. At that point I remembered what I had heard David Brazier say in his talk quoted above and started remembering the ways and melodies we used to sing and chant back in the kriya yoga days. Those sessions were a blast!

After this year's annual Summer Retreat, in early July, Guru Rinpoche and mahasiddha Thirumular, started to introduce me to further options.

To inform those who do not know of Thirumular, he was the main guru of Open Heart before. He is one of the main founders of tantric Shaivism and a great mahasiddha who attained light body many centuries ago. A wonderful, jolly and joyful persona whose presence is felt in the physical body and it's tissues very palpably and concretely, not merely as plain awareness and subtle aliveness of the energy body, as is the case with the vast majority of buddhist masters. You can invite him over to feel him yourself. I am sure he is happy to come.

The further option they introduced me to was the option that ”the practitioner can dissolve his or her body into the Light Body (Tib. འོད་སྐུ་, ö ku), where the body transforms into light and disappears completely into space. This was done by Garab Dorje, Manjushrimitra, Shri Singha, Jnanasutra and Vairotsana.” (from RigpaWiki)

My understanding is that also Jesus and Ramalinga from Tamil Nadu attained this option of the light bodies. Interestingly, both Jesus and Ramalinga, who I consider to be reincarnations of the same person, greatly emphasised love and devotion, the feminine approach of the heart, towards the highest ideal.

Easiest Way to the Light Body

Guru Rinpoche and Thirumular asked me how I felt about mixing these two approaches, 1. emptiness/selflessness and 2. devotion of the heart to strike at the light body attainment of great perfection (tib. dzogchen). Since thogal-practices require a lot of time and specific practice circumstances for attaining light body and therefore is not a reasonable option for householders, I instantly felt this was a good and creative idea, as well as an interesting way to join different approaches, so I agreed.

Since Padmasambhava's attainment, his presence and vibration, emphasises transparency (emptiness) and subtle aliveness (and therefore doesn't concretely connect with the physical tissues), they demonstrated to me how both of their vibrations could be joined together. For this reason the vibration and transmission through Namo Guru Rinpoche-mantra has been different for a few weeks now. Now, it is very different compared to the common buddhist vibe. One can easily feel joy and lightness, together with penetrativeness (emptiness) through chanting it. Such a delight!

In case someone is new to this mantra, it does not require an empowerment, you can just start using it and plug into Guru Padmasambhava directly, he will take care of the rest. If you used this mantra before or if you have done other Guru Rinpoche'mantras from other lineages, you can easily feel that the charge reaches your physical body, soft and hard tissues, in a solid manner. This is a huge blessing from the gurus, so cherish it with sincerity and love. This guru yoga is one of the two ways to activate this particular vibration.

Another way to do this is through a particular mantra which is the seed mantra (skt. bija) of the 13th bhumi within ones own bodymind. It corresponds to the light body attainment and when used, starts to make it a reality. According to Guru Rinpoche's will, there is no need for an empowerment of this mantra either but you can ask him a blessing for it and you will receive it.

This mantra is HU. English speakers can get the correct pronounciation by considering ”Whooo?”. It can be chanted a few times or longer duration-wise, according to the situation and it will do the trick.

Bringing Joy Back

Beautiful and unique developments. I invite anyone to try out the mentioned mantras. That's how we will bring joy back to buddhism, at least to Pemako Buddhism.

Thank you for reading.

Yours in dharma.

• Orgyen Pema, 21.8.2017

Open Heart, www.openheart.fi

About my masters and Sivakami

Kim wrote:

Hello D,

Traditions, yeah. I have a bit mixed feelings about long traditions these days. When thinking about the number of only buddhist lineages, not to mention others, existing today, which are numerous, I am not that convinced of their ability in keeping teachings alive. There is so much useless baggage.

I've studied with about 3 dozen teachers and masters, both in and out the physical body, but my main teacher who really got me started, after a number of years when I hit my head into patriarchal zen, was an American housewife, a liberated arhat and a mystic of very high caliber. Her name was Sara or Sivakami and she was very private person. She left her body  in 2010. She got her initial transmission from Yogananda's student back in 1976, when she was 36 or 37 years old. The second time she sat down to practice those techniques she had learned, she spent 10 hours in immersion and during the next 4 months that same kept happening everyday. It was tough on her body as her mind was completely transformed, all her personal karmas burned. So, she got her initiation from a physical teacher in a lineage (which by the way was started 3 generations earlier by a non-physical master called Babaji) but after that initial samadhi streak, she started having non-physical teachers and masters visit her both when awake and when asleep. Lama Thubten Yeshe, after he left his body the previous time, was one of them. He offered Sivakami to take his teachings but she kindly refused because she was never that keen about the buddhist vibe. She was pretty much a heavily meditating bhakta all her life. She also had the fortune to witness on two  non-physical masters appear in physical form to her. One of them was Babaji known from Yogananda's book, and the other one was a shaivite master called Thirumular, the author of the famous Thirumandiram, a shaiva classic. So, anyway through her initial contant through Yogananda's disciple, something clicked and she started meeting all these masters from many traditions in astral form. It sounds pretty wild... but to me what she later passed to me were of true quality... compared to teachings that I've received from many lamas or gurus alive today. Her mind and teaching was juicy and fresh, delicious. That freshness didn't come from a tradition that had been kept alive for centuries in a physical form but came from these non-physical mahasiddhas, mostly Babaji and Mular.

So it turned out later that I also had a karmic link to these masters who asked Sivakami to teach. It was her who re-initiated me into this congregation of masters which in turn enabled me to initiate my work, part of which is about helping people get awakened. Like I've said before I didn't learn the two part method that I use when guiding people from any living teacher. It came to me intuitively, a memory from past lives. Later I read they use the same formula in some lineage of dzogchen... So fast forward to this day... I've studied, worked and received transmission from many non-physical masters, yogis and buddhas. I felt for years that I wanted to find a rinpoche or some lama to study with but I don't feel like that anymore because buddhas in the physical are so extremely rare. So what all these traditions out there can offer is quite limited and rarely of superb quality, I feel.
I didn't mean to babble and sorry for keeping so long but I just wanted to say this as "traditions that keep the teachings alive" don't always mean "just physical".

Kim Katami
18.1.2016. 

Open Heart, www.openheart.fi