Satsang with Giten on Buddha: Bhumis – Ten Steps to Enlightenment

Satsang with Giten on Buddha:

Bhumis – 10 Steps to Enlightenment

 

From satsang with Giten, February 4, 2016, in Stockholm 

 What are Bhumis? Buddha’s Way has ten Bhumis. Bhumi means ground, foundation or level of development.

 

The first Bhumi is attained when the meditator achieves his first insight into emptiness in meditation. With each of the ten Bhumis the meditator achieves deeper realization of emptiness in meditation.

 

Buddha has said that if you understand and practice these ten grounds, you will attain to the ultimate. The Bhumis are the Bodhisattva path to enlightenment. 

 

1. PRAMU-GITA: The first Bhumi – Joyousness

 

 The first Bhumi, the first ground, is joyousness.

 

Pramu-Gita means joyousness, delight, and celebration.

 

The first Bhumi is called Joyousness, because the meditator  also works at developing generosity, the first Paramita, the first of the ten provisions on the spiritual path. The ten Bhumis and the ten Paramitas are developed simultaneously.

 

People have thought that Buddha is a sad and pessimistic thinker, because he says that life is suffering, but he is not.

 

Buddha says: Unless you are joyous, you will never reach to truth.

 

Only joy can take you to truth.

 

Truth brings joy, truth brings happiness.

 

The first Bhumi means: to be joyous for no outer reason.

 

Ordinarily to be joyous has a reason, but if your joy has a cause, it will soon turn into unhappiness.

 

The first Bhumi is about joy without any cause, and then joy becomes your own source happiness, which nobody can take away.

 

Buddha says that the frist Bhumi is about the awareness, where you create joy and happiness for yourself. 

 

– Swami Dhyan Giten