Season 3, Ep. 7, School for Yogis, Class 7, What is the yogi's journey?

In this episode of 'Lowly Yogi Tales and Other Stuff', we explore the yogi's journey. From the wisdom of ancient teachings to navigating modern challenges, we dive into the rich tapestry of yogic practices and philosophies. You'll hear captivating stories from the past, including the life of Shri Dhyanyogi, the transformation of hardship into spiritual growth, and the gentle yet potent power of deities like Mahakala and Tara. Join us in understanding how yogis perceive karma, the significance of mantra practice, and the profound impact of embracing suffering as a path to enlightenment. Description given by AI friend, underlord.

Transcript

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Earth, mother and friends, you cross our heart. Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to the Lowly Yogi Tales and Other Stuff Podcast. Oh, I'm so happy you found this lowly yogi here. Wherever you find yourself vibrating in that multiverse, attune this way. Let's have some fun together. Come and join me for the School for Yogis. We have made our way to class six. Class six is entitled The Four Ages, and it should be a great foundational piece. Aye, aye. I'm having this marvelous experience as I go through and I listen to these classes. They were done 13 years ago in the basement of a tattoo parlor. A tattoo parlor that those who were there will know. Addictions. And, uh, boy, it was quite an adventure together. Uh, we had so many obstacles and so many joys as we shared the information. So it's bringing all that back. And then to also be teaching myself these words that have meaning. And the meaning resonates because it's being said to me in my own voice. And how intriguing is that? I hope that you're finding a similar experience, although it's not your voice, but maybe it's a voice that you know within you, a voice that you've heard, or you recognize, an old voice. And if so, please, that would be such a compliment in every way. Ah, well here we go once again, Class Six for the School for Yogis, the Four Ages. and that's something really to speak to, is the idea that as yogis, we are working in charnel grounds. That actually what happens for yogis, once they have gained their realization, they're not sent to nice places. They're actually traditionally sent to the roughest parts of town, or parts of the world. Uh, there was a, there's a great book if you're interested in, in a really intense, energetic read. It's called, His House is on Fire. It's the life story of Deanna Yokichi. Had an interesting journey in that he left his house when he was twelve. And in India it is different, you know. And he decided he was going to go on a spiritual path. He was very clear about it. And he left. He just started walking. And he walked across India for about thirty years. Studying with different teachers, learning different techniques. And that's really, you know, a lot of what we're talking about here is that. that these are the particular techniques that yogis have passed down from generation that have worked for them. But I think what's really important to note is, there are as many different means as there are people. There are really good means out there and there are really crappy means out there. And people will come up and they'll try to sell you on pretty much all of it. And that's it. It's what the Adyogi Jew was doing, he was kind of sifting, you know, sifting the gold out of the dirt, sifting the, the flax away from the grain, you know, and he, it took him 30 years and he was sitting in a cave, and his guru showed up. Now this is an interesting, it's a bit of a different means because this is what's called Shaktipat. Shakti is the energy of Shiva. And, what I've really come to see is that Tibetan Buddhism is the garb in which the ancient Vedic yogas have been clad for the last thousand, fifteen hundred years. It's the way that they've survived and made it to us. You know, um, the great deities, Chakrasavarva, Shogini, well, If you follow them further back, they're Uma and Shiva. If you follow them even further, you know, so you can keep following these deities back. They just have different names. Our Lady of Guadalupe, you know, the great, we would call her Catholic. Well, before she was Catholic, she was Aztec. Before she was Aztec, she was Etruscan. You know, you, you see The ancient Etruscan images of the women holding the two serpents is the Mother of Gods. They manifest in many different ways throughout history. Right now, the Catholics are working with her, although I see her more and more, actually, in the Buddhist pantheon. Um, the interesting thing about these energies is they have, they're consistent deities. They're consistent energies. And when I come in and I talk about your Mahakala, Dear Our Lady Kwatelekiw, Rainbow Serpent Mother. I'm not saying that that's, you're not emulating. Right. Okay? I'm talking about a very particular teaching that speaks to what are called yinoms. Again, this is very secret, very potent stuff. Right? I'm going right to the end. Right? I feel like we don't have time to waste. Okay? I feel like, we could talk around stuff a lot, but the fact of the matter is there, there is a very high need right now to solve some big, some to meet some big energies. And if we don't meet'em right now, we'll have some big problems. You know, and I, and I, I, I'll go off into that tangent here in a little bit. So remind me of the tangent if I don't go there. um. But what yidams are, is they are actual enlightened energy. One of the things to note for Mahakala, is that he is sweet. When you're doing his mantra right, when you're doing his practice right, and by the way, now that I say your mantra, now I say Mahakala mantra, I see it on your chest, so. There. It's still on. But that is one of the things about these deities. We get this idea that they should be some heavy duty thing, you know, black, three eyes, you know. No, they are really very sweet, and they're very gentle, and they're very loving. Mind you, they're extraordinary protectors who will cut your throat in a heartbeat. But when you're doing the practice and you're becoming the deity, you will know that you're doing it right because you're becoming so. Because you're becoming more expensive, more open. If you feel like you're getting caught up in power, you've gone the wrong direction. If you, if you feel like you're getting, you know, filled up with I'm the best thing in the world, stop. It's missing the point. I realized recently that, you know, I kept thinking that money was the answer, right? Because I was raised poor. Right? So when you're raised poor, and you don't have money, that, it's a really easy thought process to put together. But I started teasing that apart, because I started getting to meet rich people, and they're not happy either. And so I was like, well, I mean, really, really wealthy people, I mean, these are people, like, who don't have to work, who have yachts, who have, I mean, all manner of, you know, extraordinary wealth, and they are really not happy. And I started wondering, well, wait, okay, if being poor isn't working and being rich isn't working, what do I really want? And what I realized that I really want is that I want to bathe in love and kindness. That's what I want. Wealth may come with that, or not, and that doesn't matter. And that's what these practices do. You do them right. Guru that you love. You become. That's, that's why they're so precious. Is that you're actually given a means, a way, to become, to do what they did. They're a human being, and you're a human being, and they did it. Which means you can do it. The key is to understand that these deities are Bodhichitta. The Mother Law quadrature, Our Lady. Many names. is actual emanation of karma. She is that which wields and holds karma. Tara, if you go back far enough into her energy, the sweetness is unending. The kindness is so vast that she would manifest anything for us to wake up and meet her karma. But we could take that very personally, right? We could say, why do I have to meet this poor me? You know, why does this always happen to me? Very small, simplistic view, right? It's the view of a child. The victim view is really the view of a child. It's the child who's had their candy taken from them. But what they haven't realized yet, and this is really stepping into adulthood, or maybe stepping into the role of a yogi, is the opportunity of having one's lollipop taken away from them. The opportunity that suffering brings. The opportunity to wake up. Tara, in every moment, offers us that opportunity. When we have the opportunity to feel powerless, we are being made into the greatest warriors of all time. If you can experience powerlessness with ease, there is nothing anyone can do to you. There is nothing anyone can take for granted. This is actually what's going on right now in the world. The interesting thing that's happened, there's a fellow, I don't know his name, but everybody in Libya does, who has looked into the science of peaceful revolution. And what he has come to understand, that it is not that they give up, but that they are not afraid of powerlessness. And so when the dictator tries to take their power, all they're doing is saying, See? See? See what they're doing? Is this okay? And what starts to happen is people start to change because they're fundamentally good. People are fundamentally and basically good. And when they see that kind of stuff happen, it doesn't matter how afraid they are. It doesn't matter what someone's offering to them. If it gets bad enough, they're going to say, this is not okay. At which point, the dictator is overthrown. From the inside out. This fellow has put this book of a step by step means of how to do this on the internet. This is why everyone in Libri is afraid of him, and we don't know his name. So I guess what I was speaking to here is the idea that a yoga, when you're working to meet your Yidam, you're working to surrender enough, that you actually surrender to the vibration of Mahatma. Surrender to the vibration of Tara. What that means is all the other vibrations have to burn up and that hurts. They have to literally relax into the fire of light. Right now we are protecting our small lives. Like a little womb that we don't want anyone to touch. That is actually the picture of karma. Alright? Tara or Mahakala. Being this vast fire, our working to protect ourselves against that vast fire is our karma. Our belief that we're separate. Our suffering is within that. The trip is for the child that's trapped within that karma, and the mother to relax into one. To do that, all of our karma has to dissolve into one. These mantras are powerfully What you're doing is, rather than having to meet your karmic staff on your own, right? As Emily, as William, you get to now meet them as Tara. Way more potent. Much faster. When suffering comes up, you go, fantastic opportunity, get the mala. I don't even, the great thing about mantras, you don't even have to get the mala. You can do, you can be a yogi in such secrecy. No one has to ever know that you're doing it. You can drive while you say mantra. You can eat while you say mantra. You can shit while you say mantra. It's fantastic. No one can take this away from you, ever. You can be beaten ruthlessly while saying mantra. No one can take it away from you. What people haven't understood about Tibet, and the horrors that took place with the Chinese, but they They saw it as an opportunity to meet up. Fast amounts of karma, very quickly. And it's been said that if it hadn't been for the Chinese invasion, we would not be talking, we would not know about Buddhism. But because that took place, there is a Buddhist center in every city in the world. Which is extraordinary. It is that act of meeting the poison, rather than running away from it, which we're talking about. The means by which we do it is through money. Because we're yogis and yoginis. There are many means. We could sit there. I could teach you meditation practice. That's a good one. I could teach you Tongue Lin. That's a fantastic one. Mantra is the most direct. We're literally invoking the vibration of the deity and saying here. I often think of taming demons. I've had to do that a lot in my life. And one of the things I always, my technique, It's to look very weak, very fragile. They love it. Predators, bullies, love it. They come after you. Once they've done their thing, once they've hurt me, they have an energetic, they have created an energetic link between us. Well, the interesting thing about that, and this has always been my technique, is once they've crossed that line, I change. I say, thank you, I would like you to meet some of my friends. This is how I am. And this is Mahakala, and right over here that's Vajrakalaya. And they'd like to talk to you. Because you just connected with me, so you got them now. And what will happen is there's a real transformation. Bullies will either give up, or shift. Often times they're just waiting for their pain to be met with loving kindness. Tara can do that. So can Mahakala. It's feast. You know, we think, oh, this horrible pain, this horrible suffering. They think, well, it's another feast for me, thank you. It's a moral ambrosia. Bodhichitta, true vibration of enlightened mind. The sweet kindness in that adamantine diamond state. There was an interesting, fellow at the country fair who was doing readings for POD. And he was doing spiritual, you know, readings and he would call out, Drugs! Give me drugs! Okay. Well, fortunately, we had some. So, we were able to get a reading from this gentleman. It was one of the best spiritual readings I've ever received. And, what he, he gave an image. And to me, it has always stuck with me of what yoga is. He said, the light, they're in the center of everything. There's this great light that burns fiercely. And, that he said, and our job, when this light hits us, is to have no shadow. Literally letting the light of the creative pass through us without any residue. Come and visit. This was the perfect image of yoga. That the ground of everything is bodhichitta, love and kindness. That when we get to that point where we become literally invisible, we are enlightened. I found as a yogi, many of my teachings have come from very strange places. That, that the guy sitting on the edge of the road, is not someone to be ignored. Behold the secret to the universe. Other piece to note, which I think is really important as we talk about the practice of attaining enlightenment, is that we're not just having to meet our karma, we're having to meet all karma. That's why we want to wander in the charnel ground. All of those beings, good, evil, and indifferent, that arise, offer us the experiences I was talking to someone earlier. I realized that I paid two dollars for the experience of being lit on fire and thrown on a subway track. Homeless men walk by me and say, Here you go, that's for a dollar. I was walking away. He said, I'll tell you a story for another dollar. He told me the story. I was sleeping on a bench in a subway track. a group of young kids coming down, pouring gasoline on him, lighting him on fire, and throwing him on the subway tracks, was the end of the story. At the time, it took me a while to realize what I had received, because I was, needless to say, I was a bit in shock. But what I, what I understood was that I would never have to have that experience because I had had it through his eyes. So, he had given me that much closer insight. When we come from the perspective of being a yogi, or a yogini, we're coming from the perspective of, I will meet our karma. Not your karma, not my karma. I will meet the karma of this situation. And that does bring me back to my tangent, which is that when Deanna Yogiji had attained enlightenment, he was sent to a little village that had this beautiful Hanuman monkey statue. With that being said. With that being said, the honored Yogi was sent to this town that was literally filled with thieves and gangsters, and, um, myths of all kinds, and prostitutes, and so on. As he practiced in ten years, his whole town to actually, uh, really flourish. One of the most interesting moments for me in the book was when one of his attendants, after all of this had happened, uh, went down and was cleaning the temple and they pulled up his cushion, his meditation cushion, and underneath was filled with spiders and scorpions and all of these creatures that you really want to sit on. And when the student came up and asked the yogi, Do you want me to remove those? He says, No, no. We're just fine. It's their season. We're fine together. To my knowledge, he was never bit. There were centipedes under there. I mean, there were, there were the ones you really don't want to get bit by, you know, that really is that perspective of the yogi. That we're not here just to meet Mark Harlow. It's not that it's bad, but it is quite harsh. It is quite brutal. You start to see that there's a king of the demons. You start to see that Mara exists. You start to see that, you know, there are beings feeding on other beings. All these things become clear. And yet, it's no big deal because you also start to understand that the means that you have at your disposal addresses the problem. You know, we could come in with this whole hell and brimstone and fire and all of that, and be afraid, be very afraid. Well, that misses the point completely. Don't be afraid. Do something about it! Don't be afraid. wield your means. Let the horror wake you up faster. It is the true paradise of the yogi. And here we are at the great opportunity. All the karma of the world has ripened and popped we're at the beginning. Practices and just meeting whatever arises. That's exactly right. Whatever is arising in front of you is exactly as it's supposed to be. There's meet that with bodhicitta. It really becomes really fun when you start meeting bodhicitta with bodhicitta. The slogan that I would offer, we will dedicate the merit after this, there's two slogans. One is meet it, don't become it. The other is, it's all good in the end. If it's not good, it's not the end. By this merit, may all obtain omniscience. May it defeat the enemy wrongdoing. From the stormy waves of birth, old age, sickness, and death. From the ocean of samsara, may it and I free all beings. By the confidence of the golden sun of the great east, May the lotus garden of the Rigden's wisdom bloom. May the dark ignorance of sentient beings be dispelled. May all beings enjoy profound, brilliant glory. Ah, maybe a little bit more strength to the dedication of merit. My dedication was always a little weak back then. I hope you all enjoy the School for Yogis and its culmination, and now wander forward on your paths. Enjoy meeting as a firekeeper all that you encounter, just as it is, with love and kindness. I hope this message finds you with a week filled with joy, a week filled with plenty, and a week filled with glorious. Play us out, Monkey Max. Play us out. Heart of a Queen Earth Mother and friends, You crossed our hearth at last. Long have we grieved, While the King of Demons had his way, But no longer, no longer, It's time to dance and sing. This is the time when the golden age begins As we welcome love and peace and ease may it never cease Welcome joy and bliss in all the eyes of serpents kiss Welcome Mother, Welcome Child, Welcome Bodhi, Tinder, and Mile. Welcome Protection, and Welcome Friends. It's been a long wait, but now the Golden Age begins. Welcome Spring, Summer, and Fall. Winter is Persephone's and sweetest of all. Welcome Immortality. Welcome all, it's time to dance and sing, as the golden age begins. Welcome all you yogis, and we call you in. Welcome all you protectors, and we call you in. Welcome all you yogis, as the golden age begins.