Two Lessons from Tenzin Palmo

    Most of us start life eager to learn how to control, make & accumulate things & experiences to make us as happy, safe & comfortable as possible. Some remain at this stage for life.
    Some become frustrated from repeatedly failing to achieve deep, sustained peace & satisfaction despite controlling, making & accumulating all sorts of stuff & experiences. Some - probably many - stay at this 'life sucks, and then you die' stage for life.
    Some then turn to religion or spirituality, assuming the magic is in ancient rituals, places, & practices. And a wondrous 'honeymoon period' can occur in religion / spirituality which feels very much like falling in love. Sadly the 'high' doesn't last, and along with it, enthusiasm for religion / spirituality can peter out, leaving adherents with nothing more than a social club for those trapped in 'ordinary unhappiness.'
    A growing number of people sense that there must be a deeper, wiser way of being than wallowing in anxiety / depression. And of course shamans, mystics, saints & serious meditators have known, spoken & written about wisdom traditions for thousands of years: shamanism, Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Kabbalah, Christian Mysticism, Sufism, etc. http://www.johnlovas.com/search?q=perennial .
    Mature mystics tell us that becoming a mystic does not make all our difficult challenges disappear. With lifelong practice, mystics gradually integrate mystical insights into their daily lives. This means that they gradually become less-and-less focused on personal concepts, preferences, likes & dislikes, etc and more-and-more focused on the welfare of others. This profound shift in consciousness eliminates more than 90% of unnecessary (self-inflicted) suffering: no longer getting angry the many, many times 'things don't go our way.' HOWEVER, mature mystics still experience constant change, aging, sickness, pain & death; and actually feel their own & others' hurts & sorrows much more than the average person BUT experience it all from a very different, much wiser perspective, with little if any suffering.

    “Humans live through their myths, and only endure their realities."
        Robert Anton Wilson. “Cosmic Trigger 1. Final Secret of the Illuminati.” Hilaritas Press, 2016.

    What we hear or read about mature mystics are 'myths' to those who've had little or no mystical experiences, but are simply the reality experienced by other mature mystics, regardless of their background, geography, or time.

 
    “… there is within me something greater, something far more wonderful than I have yet been able to show to the world … something intrinsically good …” 
    Rev. Roshi P.T.N.H. Jiyu-Kennett, “The Wild, White Goose. The Diary of a Female Zen Priest.” ed 2. Shasta Abbey Press, 2002.

    "There is something greater than us, this nondual reality of which we are a part. And you’re always connected to it. There’s no way not to be connected. But you can block it. And unblocking is what these practices are for." 
    Rami Shapiro. CHALLENGING BELIEFS: Are You a VICTIM of Spiritual Misguidance? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rZLlvXFQ7k

    One of the many mystical insights we are ALL capable of receiving is that "there is within me something greater." After this, instead of fearing we're alone, meaninglessly lost in a hostile universe, we KNOW that each of us is a precious, integral part of the intelligent loving Source of all there is.

    “View all traditions and views as non-contradictory, 
      And as true expressions of the Buddha’s teachings.”  
            Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, ‘Heart of Compassion”

    Highly-evolved beings like Sri Anandamayee Ma understand that "the 'personalized gods' of organized religion - whether Brahma, Buddha, Allah, or 'God the Father' of Christianity - are 'like ice, different forms of what is really only [the] pure formlessness' of water: 'When you become attracted and get in touch with a particular Divine form, as you become more absorbed in it, you one day find out that S/He is indeed the formless. Then you see that S/He is sakara [with form] as well as nirakara [without form], as well as beyond both.'"

        Diane Perry felt a strong call to become a Tibetan Buddhist nun when she was 17. As part of her training, renamed Tenzin Palmo, she spent 12 years meditating alone in a 6x6 foot cave in the Himalayas at an altitude of 13,000 feet.
    Most of us can become very upset over ridiculously trivial inconveniences - "first world problems." For context, Buddhists consider the entire realm of existence as 'samsara' - an endless circle of birth and rebirth mired in 'dukkha' - suffering (but more accurately, ‘unsatisfactory’).  
    Tenzin Palmo's reaction to a problem can be a valuable lesson for ALL of us:
    "One spring as the snows melted, her cave flooded. Sick and soaking wet, Palmo sat in her meditation box examining her plight. ‘I was thinking, “Yes, they were right in what they told me about living in caves. Who would want to live in this horrible wet?” It was cold and miserable and still snowing. 
    Then suddenly I thought, ‘Are you still looking for happiness in samsara? We’re always hoping that everything will be pleasant and fearing that it won’t be.’ Suddenly, she realized, ‘“It doesn’t matter. It really doesn’t matter. Samsara is dukkha. There’s no problem. Why expect happiness? If happiness is there, happiness is there. If happiness isn’t there, what do you expect? It really doesn’t matter.” 
    When I felt that in my heart, this whole weight of hope and fear just dropped away. … It was an enormous relief. … Why do we make such a big fuss when we suffer? It doesn’t matter. We go on.”

    Even before she left England for the Himalayas, Diane Perry started doing a Buddhist mantra practice of chanting ‘Om Mani Padme Hum.’ This practice reinforces the practitioner’s focus on compassion for other beings.
    She "was working in a library and couldn’t say her mantra aloud, so she began repeating it silently in her heart. ‘Within a very short time, my mind split and there was this quiet, calm, spacious mind with the 'Om Mani Padme Hum' reverberating within it, then there was this peripheral mind with all the thoughts and emotions. The two minds were detached from one another. This gave great poise to my mind and the ability to exercise far more choice over my thoughts and feelings because I was no longer immersed in them.’”
    Lawrence Pintak “Lessons from the Mountaintop. Ten Modern Mystics and Their Extraordinary Lives.” Sentient Publications, 2025. 

    If you're naturally empathic to the plight of others, continuously repeating (internalizing) the mantra, 'Om Mani Padme Hum' will gradually open & soften your heart and you'll feel warmth radiating from your chest. SUPERCHARGE THIS WITH Loving-Kindness Meditation: http://www.johnlovas.com/2022/12/deeper-dimensions-of-acceptance.html 
    If you have a more devotional temperment, and feel more at home with Christian spirituality, try using the mantra, 'maranatha' - Aramaic Christian exclamation meaning "Our Lord, come!" or "Come, Lord Jesus!" used in some Christian meditation practices.
    If you feel more comfortable with a secular mantra, try, 'Om (Aum)' - the sound of the universe, creation, and wholeness. Other secular mantras, "I am grounded," "I am calm," "I am safe," "I am loved," "I am enough," "I am at peace."

    With steady practice, our command center gradually shifts from being exclusively fear / thought-based ("fight / flight / freeze"), located in our head, to being increasingly love / compassion-based ("tend & befriend"), located in our heart. This intentional process of "de-armoring" our heart, allows us to perceive everything - joys & sorrows - of life with progressively greater sensitivity. 

 

“God dwells within you, 
as you.” 
Muktananda


“No effort is lost, 
No obstacles exist.” 
Bhagavad Gita

 

     

Illustration from onbeing.org

Awakening - the Next Stage in Human Evolution

     It's blatantly obvious, when an elderly person observes how babies physically mature into toddlers, then gradually teens, young adults, middle-aged folks, seniors and elderly. However, at none of the earlier stages can we fully appreciate the lived experience of any of the later stages of life. Our inability to understand the lived experience of later stages of psychosocialspiritual development is a far more serious problem.

    As an example, someone who is angry, bitter & cynical, blaming others for his misfortunes, just wants to wreak havoc on "the system" and fervently believes every conspiracy theory YouTube video out there, cannot be reasoned with. His powerful emotional charge (misdirected Life Force) has to gradually run down like an old battery in cold weather before it can sense the way Home. Even then, psychotherapy, possibly with medications, may be necessary to allow normal psychosocialspiritual maturation to get back on track.

    Many of us, even if we've lived a reasonably successful life, and are reasonably comfortably retired, do not seem to be ready, willing or able to actively participate in normal psychosocialspiritual maturation. DO NOT IGNORE this resistance! Life is shorter than you think & you have no idea what you're missing!

    As most of you who've been following my posts realize, I understand true spirituality as Perennial Philosophy - the common meeting place of ALL serious seekers of truth / wisdom, regardless of what tradition they started in or continue to support, be it Aboriginal Wisdom / Shamanism, Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, etc. 

    For those who are ready, willing & able, I HIGHLY recommend this 67-minute video which beautifully summarizes the current spiritual understanding of many of the teachers I most respect: https://awakentheworld.com/film/awakening-mind-film-part-1-know-thyself/ 

Remembering Who We Really Are

     “Many people have intimations of their true nature in childhood – the sense of a benevolent presence guiding their life, a radiance that shines forth from all things, or a current of love that unites us all. …
     But we lose touch with this luminosity as we age … we forget who we really are and succumb to the way others see us until one day, perhaps, we have intimations of our immortality, our timeless spiritual nature, become seekers, and embark on the return journey home.

      Ultimately, your every desire – the desire for material things, relationships, career success, sexual gratification – is really the desire for the peace you experience for brief moments when you attain the object of your desire. Of course, such conditional peace is fleeting, and you move restlessly on to new objects and new desires in the hope of recapturing it. Until you know who you really are, know the freedom from desire that’s the true aim of every desire, you can never recognize the peace that can never be disturbed or lost.

      Our always already awakened true nature is our birthright, our inherent condition, our natural state, which we merely need to recognize, without effort or striving, in a moment out of time. … (this) echoed the teachings of the early Zen masters who were so revered (though not so often followed in practice) in the Buddhist tradition.

     As I’ve discovered, awakening doesn’t belong to one teaching or tradition, and in any case, once you wake up, you actually awaken out of traditional frameworks. After all, if you’re awakening to your true nature, the one you’ve always already been deep down inside, how could one tradition or approach have a monopoly on it? This precious spiritual nature has always belonged to you, and, like one version of the proverbial prodigal son, you’re merely discovering the diamond that’s been hidden in your pocket all along.
     In fact, more and more people appear to be awakening to their inherent spiritual nature, whether or not they’ve been practicing meditation or some other prescribed technique. Perhaps it’s just our technological times, when experiences are shared so much more globally through cell phones, e-mails, websites, and blogs, but awakening seems to have shed the garments of religion and revealed itself for what it is – a universal human experience available to everyone right here and now. Despite what you may have been led to believe, enlightenment is your birthright, your natural state – you merely need to reclaim and learn to embody it.

     Awakening is a fundamental recognition of the inherent insubstantiality or emptiness of the person you take yourself to be and a radical shift in your identity from being the suffering separate self to being the eternal witness, the limitless space or ground in which all experiences arise. In other words, you awaken from the dream of suffering and separation to the radiance and joy of your true nature. More than being merely one spiritual experience among many, this awakening (often called enlightenment) is the essential realization at the heart of the Eastern spiritual traditions of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Taoism, and it can also be found as a more subterranean current in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam – though mystics have been excommunicated, ostracized, or burned at the stake for making such pronouncements.”

     Stephan Bodian. “Wake Up Now. A Guide to the Journey of Spiritual Awakening.” McGraw-Hill, 2008. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

 

Stuckness & the Many Ways Out

     Most of us have some sense of "who I am." There are two levels to our self-concept: obvious personal qualities we & others judge to be good, bad or ugly, & a more mysterious level that's largely subconscious. Many of us are sadly resigned about, & firmly identified with (cognitive fusion) the obvious aspects: "that's who I am, & I'll never change", "can't teach old dogs new tricks." This melancholy stuckness is strangely offset by the comforting sense of being a unique individual that, in our mind, remains untouched by time. Most of us stay clear of the mysterious portion - our subconscious. Most of us have no training to intelligently & wisely investigate this part of our life. We sense its power, but our fear & ignorance turns this vital part into a paralyzing taboo.
     EVERY aspect of the above universal human tendencies is considered by Buddhist psychology (& increasingly by Western psychology) to be misguided, AND to cause suffering. Many of us remain stuck in the above predicament for life.
     An ever-increasing number of us realize that all wisdom traditions (Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, etc) were specifically designed to address this sad situation. All these traditions have 2 levels: 
          1) Basic support (dogma, rules, rituals, sense of community) for the masses who, like most of us, are also by & large avoiding the mystery.
          2) Specific guidance for an intentional journey along the well-travelled path into the heart of mystery - self-discovery, self-transcendence, & beyond. Traditionally this was, & mostly still is, restricted to monks ("mystics") doing long silent solitary retreats.
     North American Buddhism may be unique insofar as it is explicitly a path to self-discovery, self-transcendence, and beyond FOR EACH PARTICIPANT.
     Mindfulness training (MBSR) is even more easily approachable, since it is secular, starts at self-regulation ie stress-management, which naturally evolves into self-discovery, self-transcendence, & beyond FOR EACH PARTICIPANT.

     See: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2013/11/432-i-try-and-i-try-but-i-cant-get-no.html

Steve McCurry   http://stevemccurry.com/