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Summary:

In a recent conversation, Amy expressed excitement about an upcoming session and shared insights on her reflections post-retreat. She emphasized the importance of understanding the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism in relation to the participants' needs and how these teachings could genuinely benefit their lives. Amy discussed her contemplation of the teachings from her guru, CroNGO ER, who encouraged students to teach and spread the Dharma, as well as the implications of sharing secret teachings that had traditionally been restricted to certain stages of one's spiritual development.

Amy highlighted the shift in Buddhism as teachings previously considered secret are increasingly accessible to everyone. She referenced Kalu Che, who facilitated the translation of Buddhist texts into English, enabling a wider audience to learn without the need for a traditional teacher. However, she warned that the integrity of these teachings must be maintained, as there's a risk of misunderstanding and misrepresenting the essence of the path when teachings are taken out of context. As she moves forward, Amy aims to provide a broader perspective on the path, ensuring that teachings promote deeper understanding and individual growth.

The discussion also touched upon the evolution of identity and ego on the spiritual path, emphasizing the importance of self-awareness and the need to embody compassion and ethical conduct. Amy underscored that true enlightenment encompasses more than personal gain; it requires a commitment to help others and engage with higher spiritual beings. She concluded by inviting feedback from participants about their experiences and suggestions for future sessions, reiterating the significance of individual progression in the broader context of the teachings.

Key Takeaways:

  • Reflection on the importance of teachings in relation to participants' needs.

  • The transition of once secret teachings to accessible knowledge for a broader audience.

  • The need for self-awareness and ethical conduct on the spiritual path.

  • True enlightenment involves compassion and a commitment to helping others.

  • Seeking participant feedback enhances future teachings and sessions.

Words from 4500 to end:

Summary:

The discussion emphasizes the importance of approaching spiritual practices with the right intentions, particularly within the context of Tibetan Buddhism. It distinguishes between true spiritual pursuit and the desire for fame, wealth, or attention, highlighting the need for discernment on the path. The speaker encourages individuals to embrace self-purification methods to elevate their consciousness and positively impact not just their lives but also the world and other realms. Cultivating compassion and a genuine commitment to the spiritual journey is framed as crucial for experiencing transformation, regardless of one's knowledge or previous experience with these practices.

Further discussion includes a planned retreat focusing on different stages of the spiritual journey and the exploration of practices, particularly within the realm of tantra. It is clarified that many misconceptions exist about tantra, often reduced to sexual practices, while the true essence includes a vast array of methods aimed at quickening spiritual awakening. The conversation also touches on the significance of mantras, including their power and intention, asserting that understanding one's mind and cleansing inaccurate beliefs can facilitate a rapid shift toward an awakened state, allowing individuals to step beyond suffering.

In conclusion, the speaker reassures participants that they do not need exhaustive knowledge to progress on their path. Instead, an open heart and pure intentions are emphasized as more significant factors in connecting with higher spiritual beings and anchoring transformative practices in everyday life.

Key Takeaways:

  • True spiritual pursuit involves genuine intentions rather than desires for fame or wealth.

  • Self-purification methods can elevate consciousness and enable meaningful influence in this and other realms.

  • Misconceptions about tantra reduce its practices; true tantra encompasses a wide variety of awakening methods.

  • Mantras hold power through intention; understanding one's mind is key to spiritual transformation.

  • No exhaustive knowledge is required to progress spiritually; pure intentions and an open heart are sufficient.

 

 

TRANSCRIPT

I've been kind of contemplating what we did during the retreat and what the teachings are that are coming through. And one of the things kind of at the end of CroNGO ER's life, one of his last years on the planet. Hi Linda. We're just starting. You haven't missed anything. We started a minute early. I was saying that in the last years of CroNGO ER's life, who's my root guru, one of the things he was doing, because he knew he would be leaving for a time until he reincarnate. And so he was saying, I've given you all the teachings and you all have been students and you all, there's teachers among you. So go out and teach Ghost Spread Budha dma. It's a very traditional way of being part of a Sangha, and part of your lineage is to go out and spread Budha.

DMA hopes that it will benefit people and people will be able to receive the teachings and apply them personally, and it'll change their personal experience of their life and the world. But in the midst of all that we're our lineage is Ana. So in Ana, there's a lot of secret teachings and these secret teachings, it gets a little bit more sticky because there are a lot of teachings that are traditionally not allowed to be given out until a certain stage on the path that a person is on. So I know for the retreat I just did, there were some teachings that I was doing that would be considered more these kind of secret teachings. And so I'm looking at that and I just want to make sure that the teachings that we're doing and what we're talking about is really benefiting people. I saw a video with Kalu the second, Kalu Ka was one of the founders of translating the Buddhist scriptures into English.

And he did that during his last lifetime. He died in 1989, and he knew that if he translated all these texts and teachings and scriptures explaining the path, and he translated them into English and published them in books, then of course they were going to get distributed to the mainstream. So you wouldn't even need to have a guru to buy one of these books and read it. And traditionally it would be you had to do preliminary practice for 12 years. You needed a teacher that you were committed to. You had to be working closely with your teacher and get empowerments from your teacher before you were even able to get these teachings. But Kalo Che's, second incarnation, he's now 34. So he was born in 1990, so maybe he's 33. So he died in 1989, reincarnated a year or two later, and now he's 33.

And I was listening to him last night or a couple nights ago on a video. And he was saying in the video, because he's aware of his last lifetime in that he disseminated all these teachings and he got confirmation and also was actually, he authorized to do that through the Dalai Lama and all the high Lamas of all the lineages. So he didn't just do it on his own. And I think he knew when he did that. Okay, we are going against the traditional at this point because we're just allowing all these teachings to come out. A lot of them are tantric teachings, particularly Ana, which is our lineage. And anyway, so I was watching a video on him a couple of nights ago, and he was talking about that because the interviewer asked him, can you talk about secret teaching, secret yoga, secret tantra?

And he said, well, there is no more secret Ur secret yoga. It's all out now. Anyone can buy a book and read about it, and it gives you the method and it gives you the practice and it tells you why you're doing it. And that was a big part of actually the secret in Tibetan Buddhism. And even in the sixties and the seventies when Troy gum trunk started teaching in the West. And that really was the start of the new age movement because people would take certain teachings and then just kind of go and teach kind of a fragment of the tradition. And that's how we got these kind of tantric teachers and things like that. They're not really on the whole path, but they learned or had retreats or teachings around tantra, and then decided to go out and teach it as kind of a sexual activity that creates union, which isn't really what it is.

So there was that danger in kind of bringing it to the west and giving it out to people that people would take a fragment of the path and then kind of teach it as it was a path in itself. And it wasn't. So now after all this has happened, there's a lot of teachers out there. There's a lot of retreats out there, and there's a lot of movements out there that are taking one part of the path and saying, okay, here's the path when actually there's a much bigger picture. So I was feeling for myself, what I wanted to really share and explore together with everyone that would come to retreat or zoom is the bigger picture. Because taken out of context, I don't really think it means much to have an experience of emptiness, have an experience of samati in these isolated instances where we have these spiritual experiences, it's very hard to know where to go from there or what to do with it, or even how to think about it because we are in a lot of cases, eliminating the big picture of why we're even doing anything at all.

So that's the movement, that's the direction I'm going to be going in, is to kind of talk about these bigger picture, the path from a broader scope, from a wider view. And within that, there needs to be talk about these secret teachings because to talk about the path means that you're talking about things that would be traditionally given just from disciple to student. But now to kind of move into that space where we're talking about things that are given to everybody. There's a lot of books we're reading Treasure of Knowledge right now. I think I've talked about that on the retreat and in Zoom, and it pretty much lays out the whole path. But they say if you read that book or those series of books, if you're not really ready for the information, if you don't have any foundation, it's not going to really mean much.

But if you do have a foundation, then when you're reading the books, there's a whole transmission that comes through. It's almost like your eyes are open to a whole new world. So that's the other reason I was kind of like, okay, where do I go? How do I present this very large topic of the entire path? And that's one of the things, that's why I started writing. That's one of the reasons I did the handout I to do something, which there's a broad scope and we're looking at, here are the stages of the path. And that doesn't even really scrape the surface of the path itself. So I think where I'm going with all this is if anyone has any feedback about that, if there's things that we're talking about that don't make sense or there's a feeling that it's not benefiting or there is a feeling that it is benefiting, it would be really good to get, for me to get that feedback, trying to figure out what it is that I can share that's going to quicken the path for all of us.

And that's the point really. I mean, there's all different aspects and there's all different teachings, and there's the teachings that they say, okay, in 60 human lifetimes you'll achieve awakening through this particular method. And then there's teachings that are okay, in one lifetime you'll achieve, there's a possibility of achieving enlightenment with this other method. So most people are going to gravitate towards one lifetime rather than 60 lifetimes. But the one lifetime means that there's a certain level that you need to be at for that one lifetime method to work for you. So it's not just about picking the quickest way, because if you pick the quickest way and you're not quite there with what you need to be to receive it, you're not really going to go very far. And then the slower method might be better. So there is also the very important aspect of that we each know how do we move forward on the path?

What are the methods that are right for us? What are the practices that are going to work for my individual capacity, my mental disposition, how many obscurations I have, where I am emotionally? So part of it is knowing thyself, we have to be able to be honest about where we are. And depending on where we are, then we can work with practices that are being given that are right for us. And that's another thing I want to do as we do more offerings is offer individual support so we can find out what are the practices that are going to be the quickest for me for my individual progression on the path. So a lot of these things that as I'm contemplating that, I'm thinking of so much about this right now because it seems like things are unfolding more and more people are asking to kind of get a little bit more support with where they're on their path and where they should go. And that's a big question that's coming up with a lot of people. Here I am, what do I do? I've had this experience, I have this foundation, I've done these practices, and where am I going from here? So that's where my focus is. So if anybody wants to respond to that in an email or here on the zoom, please do. And it's something that we're going to keep on working with as everything unfolds.

Does that all make sense? Does anybody have any questions about that?

I have a question just to get out of the way.

Hi, Chris.

Okay. So the sense of identity and ego keep popping up for me in that it's just awareness. It's awareness. And I feel so strongly that our sense of identity in this experience is important because it has power for good or for not good, or for neutrality, for peace, whatever it is. I feel so much like this representation is important, but our attachment to it is not, and I have an example, great wise, radical teachers have always been non-conventional and they've always stood out. Where is the ego in that? Where is the attachment or detachment in that it looks so different, but one can assume that it's an ego assertion. So many have assumed that it's an ego assertion when it's a liberation. Can you talk more about that real quick before we get any more things?

Yeah. It's really one of the biggest questions on the path because we have this sense of identity. We have this sense of things we like and don't like, and we have a personality and we know that about ourselves. We see ourselves, we can watch ourselves behave in all kinds of circumstances, and we know how we behave, and we know what we like about our behavior and what we don't like about our behavior. So there is really a sense of individuality here. And yet the path is saying, okay, well, you have to realize emptiness, and then you have to realize your lack of identity. You have to realize the emptiness in yourself. But then the path is also saying, okay, practice these six parameters for your entire lifetime, which is all about ethics and discipline and generosity. And those can be looked at as personal aspects of the self because to be generous, well, yes, there's a person here that's being generous. So if there's absolutely no identity, then there's no one being generous. And that doesn't make a lot of sense once so much of the path is focusing on conduct.

So given all that, how confusing it all sounds and how contradictory it all sounds, there's many, many levels of subtleties of ego. We don't go from having a human conditioned personality to being a Buddha. There's a huge gap between those two really more what happens on the path is our likes and our dislikes, our actual conceptions of things, our conceptualizing, our environments, our experiences starts falling away. It thins, we don't feel so opinionated. We don't feel conviction like, oh my God, I'm a Trump hater, or whatever The thing is that we have previously been very adamant about, we're really not so interested in our own opinions. We really lose interest in our opinions. And that when we see that in ourselves, and it's something we can track in ourselves, we can track our behavior over time and see how we're a lot more chill about things.

And so that's one sign of the thinning of the personality. The other aspect I think that's very, very important to understand, which is again, comes into secret teachings, is that in the parameters, which is kind of like the six methods by which we purify our conduct. And so that's one way to put it. We start out with having a personal agenda maybe in life because we want a career and we want all these things for ourselves. And on the path, eventually we get to the point where we're not so interested in things for ourselves. We're more concerned about caring for others about the welfare of others. We make the interests of others our own instead of our post personal interests being what we revolve around. For a lot of people, it's like their personal agenda is the world, and then they revolve around that. Okay, can be considered an immature, kind of a primitive state of evolution.

It's almost animalistic. And so there is this kind of evolvement of the individualized mindstream. We go from being pretty self-centered to eventually selfless when we become selfless, when we truly have adopted the power meas, discipline, generosity, wisdom, meditation. And we actually have embodied it. So now we're not so in controversy with ourselves. We're not so much in conflict. Should I be generous? No, we're just generous. It's just who we are. There's still an individualized mindstream there, but it's purified. And that's really what we're referring to when we talk about lack of identity. It's really not lack of any kind of sense of self at all. It's really more the lack of what's called the poisons, desire, lust, greed. You can go on and on about what all the poisons are, and we can see it. We can see it in other people, we can see it in ourselves.

We can see in Gandhi or Jesus or the Dalai Lama, all these great beings. We could see the absence of those aspects of the personality that are thought to be more harmful to other people. Because when we're kind of like self-focused, really thinking about other people, so there's harm that can come to other people because we're just interested in ourselves. And one of the aspects of the path which kind of runs through humanity, if you look and even philosophy and in a lot of the great teachers is do no harm. It's even one of the tenants of the medical practice do no harm. And that's in the spiritual path. That's a very big part. Before you can really awaken, you have to stop doing harm to other people and yourself. So it's kind of like you are starting from one place, you understand, you start to understand how your mind works, why it works that way.

You start retraining your mind. You still have that individualized aspect. You become a good person, you become a caring person. When you're purified, to the extent that you really don't have those poisons driving you anymore, you actually start moving up into higher realms. And when you get into these higher realms, you are working with a lot of advanced spiritual beings that are kind of with these beings to fulfill your purpose At that point, you're here for a reason. You're not just here to awaken because you've awakened to the extent that you're a Bodhi Safa. And so you start working with advanced spiritual beings to support others, to save other people. That's what Jesus did. That was his whole mission. He came to save humanity, and he did that kind of.

So at that point that you're working with higher beings, there may be behavior that looks very strange to humans that are conditioned in a certain way because there's a lot of things that we're conditioned to think are bad, which may or may not be bad. And there's a lot of things we're conditioned to understand are good, which may or may not be good. So you kind of have to throw out all the cultural norms. Hum. Trump is a very controversial teacher. He had a lot of methods which people had a lot of issues with, and yet his mission was to bring Bud Dharma to the west in a way that Westerners can have a grasp of what the path was. And he did that. So again, there's going to be a lot of teachers that come in that have very kind of crazy wisdom methods, but that's not the same as a teacher that's out there teaching that hasn't fully purified and has gone off and done things that are unethical or immoral such that other people were harmed.

And now there's all of these scandals that's not the same thing. So there is that discernment on our part when we see a teacher. Is this teacher purified enough to be able to teach and spread dharma and give transmissions and give empowerments to really benefit people? And it is a very debated topic right now in Tibetan Buddhism as well. A lot of teachers are talking about it. Dalai Lama is talking about it. Council Norrow famously talks about it, and even he's kind of outside the norm. He's was raised traditionally, but yet his methods are not traditional. So he's even debated. So there's no black and white, but there should be an understanding that in Tibetan Buddhism, what we're trying to do is we're trying to purify our negative emotions or negative thoughts or negative qualities to the extent that we can exist in bliss, no longer be suffering. And at that point be working with higher beings to eliminate suffering for maybe not the entire humanity, but our sphere of influence in humanity. Is that kind of answering your question, Chris? Okay. It's a big topic.

Yeah. Anyone else? I want to get into one aspect and then we're going to have just a kind of sitting silent sitting just to kind of get everything out of our field and just have calm mind. But I talk about one aspect of the path tonight that's connected to what I've we've been talking about, which is these moving into, again, these things that are We Kong secret teachings. And I think it was really interesting when I watched Khalo Ache, they were asking, and again, they asked him, can you talk about these secret teachings? And again, he said something like, there are no more secret teachings. Everything's out.

So in a way, he was kind of saying, and he was the one that brought them out. He was the founder or his past life in his past life. So it's almost like the tradition itself is changing to make everything accessible. But then I think what we need to do is as we receive this material to work with a SGA or teachers, someone that we feel connected to, that we trust that can help us understand what this text is talking about. And then I think, and of course receive the empowerments, if you need empowerments to read some of this a real thing, the transmissions are a real thing. So I think if we can do all that together, that we can truly quicken the path for ourselves and not just be kind of in the path, but not quite sure how it all works. And I had it, but I lost it.

And all these things that we hear about from SAMA members. And the one aspect I just want to touch on that kind of follows all that is for a long time when I started the path, there was this word enlightenment. And I knew in my heart it was something big. It was something that felt like a calling to it, but I really didn't know what it was. And even for the first, I'd say 19 years on the path that I was with my first teacher, there was a lot of purification. There was a lot of moving from kind of a self-centered attitude to a more being interested in other people. And that was a lot of the movement of that first 20 years for me. It took me a long time on the path to kind of get to where I was really more in a selfless place.

A lot of people are born in that selfless place. For me, it was not that way for me. I had a lot of poisons, I had a lot of self-interest, I had a lot of selfishness. And so it took a really long time to purify all that out. But everybody's different. Some people, they come in and they're very pure when they come in. So it just depends. It doesn't take 20 years for everybody. But it did for me. And that was after that 20 years of purification, I started experiencing emptiness, but I didn't have context for anything. It was like, oh, this emptiness, oh, I guess is this enlightenment. Who knows? So I think that's important to put in context with these spiritual experiences are. And as we establish our experience of emptiness or Ana or shaah or just being a nicer person, we have a context to work with. Ultimately what we're trying to do is in the spiritual path, everything that the whole direction of it is leading to growing out of just the mundane human condition to become advanced spiritual beings.

We don't have to die to do that. We can do that in the body, which is what Shauni's message was. And it was what Jesus's messages was too. You don't have to die. This can happen in your own body. This can happen in your lifetime. And at that point, again, you're a buddhi Safa, but what you're doing is you are moving forward, you're evolving, you're moving into an awareness of a much bigger system. They call it the billion world system into bad Buddhism. But you're at the point where you are aware of a lot of more things than we're aware of from our kind of the way we're educated, the way we're trained, the way we're conditioned, we're very limited. And you kind of break out of that limitation. You purify your own personality. You have a very deep goodness in, you start working with advanced beings and all of a sudden you become a universal being.

Enlightenment is really about moving closer and closer to that universal being state, which is a state of, it's called samati, but samati is also very confusing. A lot of definitions for it. It's a state of bliss really, but it's also a state of enormous power and enormous capacity for compassion. It's almost like we're completely different people. We have a thread of that same mindstream that has been a continuum through our lifetimes, but we've reached a point where we are so empowered, we're so confident, we're so full of compassion and love, and we're trusted by beings in higher realms with true empowerment. So the whole point of the empowerment are to actually empower us, to give us skills we don't naturally have as humans, as we become more and more awake and lightened, we receive these powers. And there are many different types of powers. And one of the reasons why these teachings have been considered secret is because there has been this understanding that a student really should want to be on the path to help humanity and serve humanity, and not just to become a more powerful being because the powers involved becoming wealthy, having more longevity, having a more powerful body, having clairvoyance.

I mean, there's many powers that are given, and there's a lot of beings alive on the planet that have these powers, but you don't know it because they're not talking about it. They're not on TikTok or on YouTube. It's that they're doing their work. They're not wanting attention, they're not wanting fame, they're not wanting wealth. They're not wanting any of those things for people that are kind of using the path to get those things. I'm a spiritual teacher, so I can charge students and then I'll be wealthy. That's not even actually being on the path according to Tibetan Buddhism. So there is all this discernment and these distinctions, and I think it's really important for us for everyone to understand that and to use the path as a way we can purify ourselves and reach these higher states of consciousness. You can leave suffering at an early stage on the path, but to really come into the place where you're truly empowered and your sphere of influence is enormous. So that what you do really, really matters, not just for this planet, but it has an effect in other realms as well. And that's closer to the enlightened state. And that's what we're talking about when we talk about Buddhist sha and Boonie or Jesus Christ or some of these other beings that are very, very high beings. They're walking on water. They don't need to eat anymore. They are not human. They have bypassed, they have transcended the human condition.

Is there any, I do want to kind of open it up just in case anyone has anything to say about this. I've touched on it in 10 minutes. There's volumes and volumes and libraries of text and scripture written just about this. So I barely touched it, but I wanted to kind of talk about this bigger scope because from a bigger scope, we could then go into the aspects of the path and the stages of the path, and we can start doing the methods or the practices that feel right for us. And it's amazing how fast we can experience transformation on the path through some of these methods that are offered in not only Tibetan Buddhism and Hindu, also, because a lot of the methods ban Buddhism come from Hindu yogis and new guineas. Yeah, okay. I'll just, if anyone has anything or a question or wants to express anything, we can do that. Does everything that's sharing make sense? Does it kind support our understanding of our own path? Really, it all comes down to our own personal experience. Really.

Along this kind of same line, we're going to do a retreat, just a weekend retreat, June, I think it's June 8th and June 9th, whatever that Saturday and Sunday is. And I'm going to get into these aspects a little bit more. I do eventually. I've been thinking about this. I don't know how it would look, but I do want to kind of explore these stages of the path that were wrong, Ana maana, riana tantra, which is really riana what tantra really is and what the practices are. There's thousands of practices in tantra. We hear about this kind of sex tantra thing all the time, but it just, it's a fraction of really what the practices are for quickening awakening, and sex tantra actually comes at the very end when you're very close to union. It's not really something that's supposed to be, you don't start out with that.

And so some of these tantra methods I think have gotten a little bit confused. But if we do them with devotion, with the calling that, wow, I really feel committed to the path. I have made sacrifices in my life to be on the path, and I want to see the results of the methods and practices that could really make a difference. That's what I'm really interested in, and that's what I'm feeling to offer in the retreat going forward. Here's some methods, here's some practices, here's some teachings. And we can try those out for a period of time and then watch what's happening to us. And then on Zoom, or in the retreats or even in personal sessions, we can talk about what are the signs when we start doing these practices. One would be mantra recitation. You hear a lot of people doing, oh, Monte pe mantras, but what is it really supposed to be doing?

And some people are doing those mantras and saying they're ineffective. Well, why would they be ineffective? So that's a very powerful mantra, and there are other powerful mantras, but what's needed for the power of the mantra itself to kind of be revealed to us, how do we unleash the power of a mantra? I think that's a very important topic. Again, it's kind of considered one of these Tora or Riana teachings or methods. And I'd like to get into that because if we can understand our mind, understand the nature of our mind, we can then retrain our mind or master our mind. And that is very close to being purified or in the same continuum where we find ourselves in a very different reality. And I don't think it shouldn't this kind of shift into an awakened state. I'm not saying complete enlightenment. I'm just saying an awakened state such that we're no longer suffering and we have this new experience of reality.

I don't think it should take 40 years or five lifetimes. I think it can be achieved fairly quickly if we have the right understanding, if we have the right intention. Intention is so much. If we have devotion, if we have this kind of foundational place in ourselves, we're wanting what we're wanting for the right reasons, for good reasons, we're good people, which everyone in the Sangha is, then I think we can kind of move along a little bit faster. And that's really what I'm interested in. And we have people, I noticed in also the retreat, we had some people that were really beginners, but I don't think that really actually matters. I think all that really matters is our intention that we come to the pathway.

And that's something, again, there's a lot of talk about that when we get into the conduct tans on the para meas about intention. It's really, even if we do something that harms other people, the karma of harming other people is not so bad, really. If our intention was pure, sometimes we have the right intention, but things go wrong if our intention is not the right intention, if it's a selfish intention, if we have actually an intention to hurt someone, that's much worse karma. It's a completely different world of karma. So those are the things that we want to keep aware of. That's why I want to know the nature of my mind. Am I doing things for selfish reasons that are going to harm other people? Am I being really honest with myself about that? Because if that's true, I'm not going to be able to move along the path very fast until I really can be transparent and honest with myself. Yeah. Hey, Stacy.

I think for me, hi. I think for me it's like, I don't know what I don't know. Scott is so well read and I pick up a lot from him, but people talk about, oh, that mantra and that mantra. I don't recognize that. I don't know it. A lot of times he'll talk about theories and things, and I'm like, I have no idea in that way. I feel so, I don't want to say dumb. I don't feel dumb. I'm just not as red as well read as he's in those things. And so he's been so supportive and said, you'll come across naturally the mantras that you need and at the right time that you need them. And I do believe that. But then I'm like, okay, so Scott, which mantra should I do?

So sometimes I get kind of lost in that. So that's kind of where I get stuck. I don't know what mantras to do. I don't feel a relationship with deities or angels, and he really does so much. And so I wonder, well, that's just a natural way for him. Maybe that's not the right way for me. Or maybe it's like you were saying, I really liked what you said about opening up the mantra. I mean, I'm thinking, well, maybe that's it. That's kind of where I get stuck. I feel really uneducated in the details about that. I dunno.

Yeah,

Help me, ani, help me. I think that really, I mean, that's how everybody feels, right? That's how we all feel. There's so much to know. Obviously, we're in a universal system here, so we're not going to know everything about all the other worlds and who's running those worlds, these deities are, they could be thought about as angelic beings or masters of the universe. I mean, there's other words. The word deity feels very kind of Buddhist, but I think it kind of sometimes gives us the wrong impression of who these beings are. They're just advanced beings that have moved on from the human realm and are now an advanced realm in an advanced state, and they're kind of reaching back and working with humans in all different ways. Right now. Jesus could probably be the most identifiable deity on the planet. That's exactly what he did.

And there's a lot of other, you can call 'em Bodhi Safa, you can call them saints, you can call 'em masters. There's a lot of different words for them. It's all the same, but it's just that different traditions have different terminology. So to a large extent, it's not about knowing who every single being is that's out there doing whatever they're doing. It's really about, we actually have this inside us ourselves already. We already have Buddha nature. We already have unconditional love. We already have Christ consciousness. We already have that place in us that is pure. It's just covered over with this kind of what we're calling conditioning, or I like to refer to it as how we've been deceived and growing up as a human. We're given all this information. A lot of it's wrong. A lot of it's inaccurate, and we're running around trying to use this information.

We have to be happy, but the information can never make us happy or help us to be happy. The information is not based in truth. And Jesus actually taught a lot of this. He taught that we are deceived as humans. So a lot of it isn't so much about knowing everything there is to know about the deities and the mantras. It's really about purifying what the inaccurate information is. And in Ba Buddhism, it's understood and Christianity as well, this is really true for more of the mystical Christianity. Once those obscurations or inaccurate information or inaccurate belief systems get removed, our pure essence, who we already are, arises for us to get the information that we need to move on the path. So all these teachers come and these Bodhi officer are incarnated on this plane to help us quicken all that. But we could, even if they weren't here, it would still happen.

It's just going to be slower, because without someone to guide us to how to purify, we're not going to really know how to do it ourselves. And once we do start purifying, all of a sudden there's this knowledge base that we have this wisdom that we may not have recognized or have recognized in glimpses, but it just becomes louder and more of who we identify with as ourselves and our soul families. So the point I think, Stacey, the point is you don't have to know every mantra. Whatever mantra means you don't have to know everything. I think it starts with just really understanding, looking at our own minds and understanding our behavior and what is our intention with our behavior. And as we start clearing, getting all the clouds moved away, and the sky is kind of clear. It's a big analogy. And Buddhism, it's like this mind is like there's all these clouds, obscurations and misunderstandings or just confusion, and you move all that out of the way and everything's clear.

So it's more like that. The more you purify, the more you just all of a sudden things that, that it's truth, that it's wisdom. And then there's of course support to say, if you say this mantra, this mantra, the sounds that you're making with the mantra actually has an effect. Because the universe is governed somewhat by sound, it's governed by energy. So you're putting your focus on this mantra. You're saying something, and the mantra is saying something that can be translated to may all sent things be happy. May there be happiness, may I be purified or phrasing all those Bodhi SaaS that have helped move humanity along and help humanity evolve. So that's what the mantras are really doing. You're putting your attention on a higher being instead of putting your attention just here on this level, because where you put your attention is actually what you manifest.

It's a universal law. So you could try different mantras, but any mantra is better than keeping your focus on all the things that you are unhappy about. The point of it is to kind of start putting your attention on something higher, on something to contemplate that's higher. And I think contemplation is a very big part of the path. For me, it was the biggest part of the path when I started. I started thinking about, I was more in contemplative prayer because I was kind of connected with certain beings, like say Teresa Villa and Jesus Christ. And I would spend my time contemplating about these beings. The more I contemplated and put my attention on them, the more I felt connected to them. And that's the whole point of deity practice. These deities are real. They're truly here, but we have to find a way to connect with them.

And through the mantra, recitation or just calling out to them or prayer or contemplation, that's how we connect with them. So it's not important to know everything about everything. I think that's overstated. In fact, I think it can be very confusing if we have too much knowledge. You have such a pure heart. I think that's all you really need you to know. I, I have the capacity to love and I love other people. And you start there. So yeah, don't worry about any of that. That's certainly not kind of a prerequisite that you have to know the 3 million deities in the universe. Does that help?

It does. Thank you. I appreciate it. And that's what I mean. It's more like, I don't know which way to go with it. That's kind of what, not so much the lack of knowledge, but just maybe there is something that I'm just not even aware of yet. But I mean, I'm sure that will unfold too as we keep going.

Yeah, there is that. There is the aspect of just getting more information, and it's very, very helpful to get more information because some of this information, there's been so much misunderstanding and confusion in humanity that this information, we can't even find it in ourselves. There's just too many. Yeah, I mean, my path mean it really didn't start when I was young. I really didn't. I was too confused. But I remember one of the first things I did when I learned to read was I picked up the New Testament and I read it, and to me, it opened up a world that was just unimaginable before I read it. So it's like you start reading these scriptures and my first connection was with Jesus, and it was a real connection. So it's not like I even feel like, oh no, you have to convert to Buddhism or whatever. I don't even feel that. I mean, there's all traditions out there. Hindu tradition has incredible saints. But we do need to have, I think a faith and a devotion and a commitment to the path such that we connect with something higher. Right?

Right.

That's my feeling, right?

Yeah. So what that is for you, you may already know it could be, there's so many beings that it could be. I was very interested in reading about the Saints St. Francis. I had a phase where I was just obsessed with St. Francis. We go into these phases and these contemplations and we reach these connections. And then someone, another being may come in because different beings work with us for different phases of our path, and then we move into, or sometimes one being works with us for our whole life, and there's no set rule. It could look like anything. But I think, again, that intention and having love and devotion and pure horror and a place of knowing our own goodness, I think that's really the most preliminary and the biggest requirement for the path.

That makes sense. Thank you, Ani. Yeah,

I've talked a lot. Again, I hope this was helpful for everyone. Please send us emails and give us feedback so that I know what's helpful. If something's not helpful or confusing, please let me know. I am thinking to be working with people more now, and so I want to make sure that whatever I'm doing is really a benefit. So we'll send out the announcement if anybody's interested. We're going to do it on Zoom too. So you just want to come to one session. You can completely up to you. And then if there's anybody that wants to just touch in with me about what they should be reading or what they should be doing, please feel free to do that also. And of course, anybody can come here to advise your video and spend time with us here too. Alright, is there anything else? If not, then we're going to just do a 10 minute silent sitting, unless there's Vinny, did you have anything? No, you're good.

I'm good. It's just hot. It's hot in your house. Yeah.

Yeah. I'll be seeing you soon.

Yeah, I'm excited. Yeah. Maybe I'll just say while I have the mic, just that I've been really appreciating this. I feel like I'm kind of on in tune or something with you in these different areas where you're sharing. I feel like it feels very aligned with what I'm looking for. So I don't even feel like I have a question because I'm getting really relevant information and we're exploring things that I think are relevant for me, kind of stages of the path and questioning where we are on the path and what to do at what particular stage we're on the path. And so I am just finding this, I'm just kind of along for the ride and very much enjoying it. So thank you.

Well, it was wonderful to have you here for the retreat, and I'm excited about your refuge. Taking refuge is a beautiful way to deepen your connection with so much of what's offered. So I'm really excited, and congratulations there. Very good. Melissa, did you have something?

I was just wondering if you could give a brief description of what Ani pme hum means. And I know I butchered it.

Okay. Lemme see if I could, there's a lot of different definitions for it. Let me just pull up. There's some definitions I like, and there's some definitions that in a way, the mantra itself, each of the syllables has a certain meaning and a certain effect on us. So when you put the mantra, what you put the syllables together, together, it has a certain meaning. But each of the syllables is very powerful in and of itself. So even if you just wanted to, whom is a very strong, powerful purification symbol. So if you just said Oma, it's a purification mantra. So it purifies, but it also brings in a level of connection to what I would call unconditional love. It has the power to move us into a blissful state. But I'm, look, I just want to look real quick because it has, and it's either ung or and whom to me are kind of the same. Ung is a sounds script mantra that is associated with, how do you say that name? Karma? Do you know ra?

Yeah, I think so. Ra

The Bodhi of a compassion in his forearm sha form the majestic syllables and can be interpreted in many ways. The literal meaning is praised to the jewel in the lotus. And the lotus is symbolic of like a lotus grows out of mud. And it's very symbolic to the human condition because we kind of star in this kind of confusing, muddy environment, and we grow and blossom into enlightened beings. Our own evolvement is symbolic of the lotus, and some people feel like the lotus was brought to the planet as visual, symbolic visual image for us to contemplate for our own evolution. And we find a lot of that actually on the planet. There's a lot of visual signs here, particularly in nature, that give us information about our own evolution. So online home is a mantra that is also doing that. You can go very deep in that mantra and connect with higher beings just from that mantra.

It also is, some people use the mantra as a way of protection. But again, from the actual Sanskrit translation, it's supposed to, if we do it enough times, raise our consciousness and allow our minds to move into the place of connecting with a compassionate being like Rezi or Jesus or Ak Krishna, some Bodhi Safa that has intense compassion and just continues to work towards the liberation of all sentient beings. And when we connect with those beings through Amani home, then we ourselves cultivate that same Bodhi cheetah in us. There are people that all they do their only practice their whole life is to say, oh, that's it. That's their whole practice. And they'll say it millions and millions of times in their lifetime, and it will get them to the place that they feel merged with the compassionate beings that are exalted and are living residing in these higher dimensions. So I don't know if that's helpful. A lot of things we could say about it. Carmen, do you have anything you want to add about that mantra?

I think there's a lot of different meanings that are explained. Another meaning that I've heard is that each syllable represents one of the poisons. And so when you recite it, you're also purifying those poisons. And likewise, each of the syllables could, I don't remember exactly, but it represents one of the wisdoms.

And

So when you decided you're also developing the wisdom of each syllable,

We could actually, maybe what we'll do is as part of that weekend retreat, if you want to zoom into the sessions, Melissa, maybe we'll take a mantra like that apart and discuss it in more structured way to give context. And sometimes you can just hear a mantra and it's like the mantra you want to do. For me, it was Oma Home, Benza Group, pe City Home. As soon as I heard that and first heard about Guru and Fish, I knew that that was the mantra I was going to be doing for the next six months. And I think when I first started, I don't remember how long it took me, but I did it like a hundred thousand. And there was such a strong arising of my own Bodhi Cheetah from that, and just the cultivation of compassion in me. And I think Oma and Pemi Hong is similar in that way. But again, a lot of translations. And it also depends on your intention with the mantra. What is it you're asking the mantra to do? Yeah. Is that good for that?

Yeah, thank you. I first heard it at Vidia, and it just dropped into me so deep. And they have such a good one on YouTube, and I'll listen to it on repeat, and I'll recite it too. And it always did feel like purifying. And also that it almost gives me energy, really pure energy to do good deeds or things that need to get done without any begrudge around them. And so I guess it's just the mind wondering what this is. That feels so good.

Yeah. Yeah. It does bring you into a more exalted state, which is a natural state, right? Kind of the mind's confusion and criticisms and all the things that we're always looking at and kind of saying, oh my God, I need to fix this. All the things that the mind says are wrong, that's all based on inaccurate understandings of how things work. So all of that ends up getting purified out, which is what a lot of the mantras do. Yeah. Well, we're two minutes to, you guys have time for just a five minute sit? Yeah. Okay. Karma, you want to, is there a bell you can do? Okay, great. Thanks.

Yeah.

All things are possible...

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