WHY I MEDITATE EVERY CHANCE I GET and The Vital Importance of Training with Enlightened Masters
My teacher’s inspiring example of what becoming realized through prayer and meditation is really like in daily life completely transformed my life with power, direction and purpose.
The 16th Gyalwa Karmapa,(1924-1981) the leader of the Kagyu Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism…I met and became a disciple on his first tour of the US in 1974 and trained closely with him ever since through direct transmission
THE DAWNING LIGHT Volume 8, # 734 Friday, January 26, 2024
SPIRITUAL SOUP KITCHEN Section # 117 Stories by Chinmayan of the challenges and rewards of living your spiritual path in daily life
Kalu Rinpoche (1905-1989) My first Tibetan Buddhist Teacher, 1972…one of the very first realized masters who was asked by the 16th Karmapa to bring the Dharma to the West…He was a direct disciple of the 16th Karmapa and was considered to be one of the most accomplished meditation masters of the Kagyu lineage…
One of the greatest gifts that I received from my spiritual teachers is their example of what someone who has journeyed on their own lifelong spiritual path to a very high level of Realization is like, and how they lived daily life and integrated their prayer and meditation practice.
After meeting and becoming one of Kalu Rinpoche’s first American disciples in 1972, I was able to be close to him as one of his “heart sons”, to serve and travel with him whenever he came to the US on tour.
Through my ongoing and committed association with him, I was able to meet and train with many of the great Tibetan meditation masters who escaped from Tibet when China invaded and took over their country in the 1950’s.
Every one of them had achieved high levels of Realization through making the Dharma their top priority and pursuing Dharma practices with every waking hour from an early age.
Kalu Rinpoche repeated the same mantra that he taught all of us to use: “OM MANI PAYDMEH HUNG” (the mantra for developing our Love and Compassion) every second that he was awake, except for when giving teachings, answering questions or having a meal.
For more about this amazingly powerful mantra, check out these other “Dawning Light” Stories: “How To Use The Mantra of Love and Compassion” “Chanting the Mantra Of Love and Compassion is the Easiest Way to Achieve Peace Of Mind and a Loving Heart”
Each of my teachers would tell me how important it is to work out your path and practice through dedicating myself to it with a full heart and total intention.
Every person who has ever achieved enlightenment has done so through first learning the Dharma, receiving instructions and training from a master who was already realized and then dedicating themselves to the daily effort of actually following the path laid out by their teachers.
Paramahansa Yogananda, (1893-1952) one of the very first of the great Indian yogis who were called to teach and establish Self Realization Fellowship and many centers in the US from the 1920’s onwards, who wrote “Autobiography Of A Yogi”, and who is one of my life long primary teachers with whom I had direct transmission in spiritual darshan while visiting his main Center in 1990
No one can make you enlightened with a word, touch or glance, through just teaching you what enlightenment is all about without your making the sustained long term effort to work through the path for yourself.
But, it is also true that no one can achieve Enlightenment without the essential help, guidance and support of one who has already attained it.
This is what drew me to leave my old life on a beautiful homestead deep in the mountains, move to the City for many years, and make training with Rinpoche more important than anything else.
I recognized immediately that he was highly realized because it shone forth in everything about him, for a realized person’s energy is very different than an ordinary persons.
Anandamayi Ma (1896-1982) known as “The embodiment of divine bliss” she was one of the most realized saints of the last century in India
They are always present, mindful, unconditionally loving and totally selfless in their dedication to serving others. They are always in the very highest state of pure consciousness and have natural powers and abilities that are the result of having become completely free from the endarkening influences of ego mind.
They have no ego, so their true Self shines forth continuously with a powerful inner radiance. They are living at an extremely high level of awareness and compassionate love for all beings.
You can feel this uplifting energy of supreme consciousness the moment they walk into a room, which is being broadcast all the time from their heart.
Unfortunately, most of us have never met a living master or had the opportunity to train with one, so we don’t know what we are missing.
Just to be with a realized master is a life changing experience.
I have always wished that everyone on earth, could have “Darshan” (Sanskrit word for being in the presence of a saint) with a living master…and then be so inspired by being with them that they would take up their own spiritual path and see it all the way through the stages of inner transformation to becoming Realized themselves.
Ramana Maharshi (1879 -1950) attained complete realization as a young man and was widely revered for his ability to “teach” his disciples through heart to heart direct transmission just by being having his darshan (being in his presence)…one of my mentors and inspirations
Fortunately, there have been and still are many masters doing their work of training, guiding and supporting their students…Thich Nhat Hanh was such a master, as was Suzuki Roshi, Paramahansa Yogananda, Neem Karoli Baba, Ramana Maharishi, Master Hua, Sri Ramakrishna, Anandamayi Ma, Mata Amritanandamayi Ma and many others.
Through association with Kalu Rinpoche, I was blessed to meet and train closely with the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa, Dilgo Kyentse Rinpoche and many other lesser known, but highly realized teachers …who were all from the great living lineages of Tibetan Buddhism, which has maintained unbroken streams of one realized master to another to another for the past 1,000 years.
You can’t read about it in a book or a course or any other way that knowledge is gained and then do practices and become realized…because the most important things we can get from our teacher are beyond the verbal or logical.
A classic illustration of this principle is “You can write the word “Sugar” on a piece of paper and lick it all you like and never get a taste of sweetness.”
Sukuki Roshi (1904- 1971) was a highly realized Zen master who brought Zen to the west from the 1950’s, founded the San Francisco Zen Center and the first Zen monastery in the US. I trained with Baker Roshi, his primary disciple, for several years
One of the reasons that Japanese Zen traditions are declining is that there are fewer and fewer truly enlightened teachers to train with.
For centuries, all the great monasteries and centers were led by enlightened masters who trained many students, some of which become enlightened through training directly with them, who became masters themselves and were made the head of the temple when their master died.
Being enlightened was the requirement for becoming a Roshi or Abbot, who then took responsibility for training the next generation of masters in an unbroken lineage.
But gradually, because of the status, influence and power of being a Roshi, many temples were taken over by unenlightened students who were related to, usually the son of the previous master, who then passed the temple and position on to their son and so on.
But once a tradition is no longer led by realized masters, then it ceases to produce students who become masters themselves to carry on the lineage.
This is the sad fate of almost all the spiritual traditions, as each one became like a business succession, and lost its spiritual potency.
Saint Francis of Assisi, the great Christian saints who attained complete realization through intense prayer and renunciation in the 12th century
This is what happened to the Franciscan Order, even during Saint Francis’s life time.
It was taken over by ambitious monks who not only were not realized, but had no interest in doing the inner work or living the selfless, God devoted lifestyle required to attain it.
These new leaders even banned Saint Francis from his own monasteries in a classic unfriendly corporate takeover, so that he left this life in a forest with just one true disciple at his side.
They made changes to the Rules of the Order to make being a Franciscan monk more comfortable and secure in a worldly sense, and let go of many of the practices that led directly to becoming one with God.
These new leaders insured the continuation and temporal power of the Order that has survived and grown ever bigger down to the present day, but has not produced any real saints.
The Franciscan Order, like so many other spiritual traditions, exists with the structure, the dogma and some of the original practices, the uniform and a vast network of churches, monasteries, schools and charitable activities, all with leaders who are not enlightened themselves.
A realized person has completely activated all the higher powers and abilities that exist as potential in all of us. These powers and abilities are all connected with our higher Self. Enlightenment or Self Realization is that state achieved when the ego mind is dissolved and we become our true Self.
One of the things that happens when we are with a realized person is that we can see what being realized is like, which is very inspiring and transformational.
Neem Karoli Baba, also known as Maharaji, one of the greatest saints of the 20th century, the guru of Ram Das and Krishna Das, who has been one of my teachers since the beginning and from whom I had direct transmission through spiritual darshan in 1989
If you want to become a master pianist, you need to train with someone who has achieved that level of mastery. Even hearing them play will give you a powerful motivation to persevering on your own path until you attain mastery.
This is why I practice prayer and meditation every chance I get.
It is and always has been the most rewarding, uplifting and self transformational thing I have ever done with benefits and results that continue to unfold and expand the more I practice.
For myself, it is by far the most important thing I am doing with my precious time, energy and attention.
Mata Amritanandamayi, known around the world as “Amma”, the “Hugging Saint” who is the most realized of all the masters I have trained with. I became her disciple on her first world tour in 1987, and traveled and trained closely with her on all of her annual US tours. I was one of Amma’s first American close disciples.
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“Your greatest service to humanity is to attain your own Self Realization!” Ramana Maharshi
“When you change the way you think about things, and the things you think about change”
—Wayne Dyer
“I see my life as an unfolding set of opportunities to awaken.” —Ram Das