Book reviews
The 11 Karmic Spaces, Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati

The 11 Karmic Spaces, Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati

by Katinka Hesselink - Spirituality on February 23, 2012

Karma has fascinated me for decades now (yikes, I’m getting old), so the offer to get a review copy of Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati’s new book ‘The 11 Karmic Spaces: Choosing Freedom from the Patterns that Bind You‘ came as a welcome surprise.

Unfortunately, the book isn’t as much about karma as you’d think. The book is mainly about escaping the patterns we get stuck in. Useful stuff, but not very metaphysical. In fact, Bhagavati insists that karma does NOT apply to every accident we get into – just like I’ve often said in fact, basing myself on Blavatsky and Buddhism. Unfortunately my (Tibetan Gelugpa) Buddhist teachers don’t agree. They insist that every accident, every detail of our lives, IS ruled by karma – even as we do have the power to clean our karma every moment, thus rescuing free will.

I guess this is where Ma Jaya agrees with my teachers and with me, I guess: the realization that however stuck we may seem to be, we DO have the power to change our lives. Ma Jaya gives tools for that transformation.

That’s where I get stuck writing this review: I did not try her exercises. While I can read about all spiritual paths the way I always have, I don’t have emotional room in my life for the practice of more than one path.

This book reminds me of all the strengths and weaknesses of the interfaith paradigm. Ma Jaya is basically a Hindu in her approach: her teachers are Hindu, her concepts are psychological and Hindu. Her practical exercises are psychological and Hindu. Her examples and references are Buddhist, Christian and Hindu. On average I guess that makes her a Hindu, but in a story about herself in the book she makes it clear she’s really not bound to labels about herself. I can respect that. However the result is a path without a goal.

About that path: it does seem altogether wholesome. Ma Jaya stresses love, compassion, wisdom, finding a sense of humor, getting out of the cycle of abuse, feeding the homeless (aka service) etc. When it comes to living your life in this world right now, I don’t think there could be a better guide.

But it’s not for me. Perhaps my issues with Ma Jaya’s approach are clearest in the chapter I think is best and worst in this book: the chapter on intent (p. 131). I quote:

We know we can use positive intent to visualize happiness and bring it towards us. However, intent becomes a karmic space when the ego gets between the thought and the action.
Over time, unfulfilled intentions build up, getting heavier and heavier until they block movement, or something’s missing, but you don’t know what. Your life just feels stale. You have lost the ability to live in the moment.

Sure, that’s true. It’s the reason why Tibetan Buddhists make such a big deal about only taking vows you can keep. In their cleaning rituals they have us promise to abstain for negative actions and thoughts for only as long a time as we can manage: whether it’s merely a minute, a week or a lifetime. Setting intentions and then not keeping them sets a bad habit – as anybody knows who has NOT kept their new years resolutions. The question is though, how to get out of that pattern without giving up on yourself. The answer is, for Ma Jaya, to set manageable intentions and act on them NOW. Literally: clean that closet now, not after lunch.

So what’s the big deal, why am I still uncomfortable with this path? I seem to agree with everything in there. The issue is Bodhicitta – not that I think Ma Jaya doesn’t have it, but that she doesn’t teach it. Bodhicitta is the highest possible intention one could possibly set: the intention to help save all beings from the rounds of rebirth, and to gain enlightenment for that purpose. Talk about promising something you’re not sure you can keep. And yet, without such a high intention, what is it all FOR? Ma Jaya doesn’t give the answer. She doesn’t really explain karma either. However, she does teach a path that may just help you transform your life.

Guided Lam Rim meditations: on the Stages of the Path, Thubten Chodron

Guided meditations on the Stages of the Path, Thubten Chodron

by Katinka Hesselink - Spirituality on February 15, 2012

Guided meditation is probably the most accessible type of meditation for beginners out there. After all: all one has to do is listen. The voice of the meditation instructor will help you get back to the meditation when your mind wanders (which it will).

However, Thubten Chodron’s guided meditations may not fit your idea of meditation at all. If you’re in it hoping to space out, to get a rest from your life – pick another tradition. Thubten Chodron teaches within the Gelugpa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism and that means that her meditations are what they call ‘analytical meditations’. In Western terminology: her meditations will help you contemplate your life, face up to your issues, clean up your messes, deal with your addictions, face your negative patterns and create positive ones. She will get you to face up to all kinds of issues while you contemplate attachment, karma, emptiness and Bodhicitta (universal love).

That’s because in Tibetan Buddhist terminology we’re talking about Lam Rim meditations here. The Lam Rim or the ‘Stages of the Path to Enlightenment’ is said to contain everything you need to become enlightened. It’s the full ABC. Following the Dalai Lama in this, Chodron has changed the order of the meditations around a bit, starting with attachment instead of devotion to your teacher, for instance. That’s the way it should be for us Westerners: we don’t relate to guru yoga much, in general. We do relate to issues with attachment and heartache.

There is a book too, but I’ll be honest with you: I haven’t read it. I bought the book to get the CD. I ripped the CD onto my phone and the meditations are now part of my daily meditation routine. If you come to these meditations with no Buddhist training whatsoever you will probably come across ideas you weren’t quite prepared for. Since I’m being taught in the Gelugpa tradition Thubten Chodron is a nun in, I felt I could skip the book.

However, I do think Thubten Chodron does a good job of expressing the more difficult concepts in a way that make them palatable to the Western mind. Looking at the table of contents it’s clear that the book also helps in that respect. For instance: in her chapter ‘Enjoying the meditation practices‘ (p. 58):

The purpose of meditation isn’t to get a “hit” of good feeling. The purpose is to understand what life is about and how to make our lives meaningful. The purpose is to understand our Buddha potential and to actualize it for the benefit of all sentient beings.

…

Be brave and honestly acknowledge what is going on in your mind. … Do research in the “laboratory” of your own mind and heart. In the process, you may discover some biases and prejudices. It may become evident how you create the friend and the enemy and ignore everybody who doesn’t directly affect you.

These meditations have just the right length: between 15 and 25 minutes. I have sometimes done only half of a meditation file for my morning meditation, but that is generally not necessary.

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Evolutionary Enlightenment: A New Path to Spiritual Awakening is the first book by Andrew Cohen that I’ve read. His name precedes him of course: both on the good and the not-so-good. But I’ll let the book stand on it’s own two feet. Let’s start with the style: Andrew Cohen really is a great writer. The words [...]

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September 2, 2011

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Don’t we all love quotes books? There’s a reason quotes websites are so popular. Richard Singer has come out with a book in which he first gathers inspiring quotes on ‘living in the now’ and then comments on them, showing how you can transform your life by living those quotes. That really could be the [...]

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June 14, 2011

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June 1, 2011

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ZOR: Philosophy, Spirituality and Science

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