Q&A with Lama Yeshe

wisdomeye SG

The best answers come through meditation
Whenever human problems arise, instead of getting nervous and worried, you’re better off meditating and checking up. Meditation is like a computer - whenever regular people have a problem, they turn to their computer for answers; similarly, whenever meditators have a problem, they meditate. And through meditation they get answers. The answers are there; the calm, clear mind gives knowledge-wisdom the space to come up with answers. The foggy mind is an obstacle; it makes the answers invisible. So meditation really is the best way to check up and find solutions to your problems.

We usually think we get answers by asking questions and that’s true up to a point; certain things can be answered that way. But if you’re unaware, even if the lama gives you a good answer, it doesn’t really register; it goes right over your head. That’s because the way you’re asking is not serious. If you want to question something deeply and really, seriously meditate on it, when the answer comes it’s so powerful. You become the answer, you become that knowledge; it doesn’t just remain as some kind of superficial fact.

Often when you ask somebody a question and the person says, “This, this, this,” you might receive a little wisdom but we don’t consider that to be true knowledge.

So meditation is really worthwhile; it gives you the answers you want. Meditation is the real personal computer. Answers you discover for yourself through meditation are much more meaningful, much deeper, than those you get from somebody else’s replies to your questions. You ask, “Please could you tell me blah, blah, blah”; the other person replies, “Blah, blah, blah”; you think “OK, that’s good.” But then another problem comes to occupy your mind because you don’t have the penetrative concentration to cut through the fog of your confusion. That’s why I always say that human beings are so powerful. Potentially, we have fantastic energy; we just have to use it in the most professional way.

Every human being has a beautiful quality. If we only look at people’s superficial external appearance we will never find true beauty but if we look at their deeper human qualities - what people can do, the positive actions they can create and the power of the human mind - we will see everybody as beautiful. In fact, all universal living beings have some beautiful qualities.

If everything that existed in the world were to appear as beautiful, there’d be no way for the miserable mind to arise. The view of the miserable mind is foggy - the subject, the mind, relies, or depends, on the object it perceives. Transforming the external world into beauty prevents the ugly mind from arising by giving it no space.

So it’s really worthwhile that you people, having realized that happiness can never be found in the superficial sense world alone, are seeking a joyful life through internal happiness, fully convinced - not “maybe, maybe” - that this is the way. You have to make that decision. If your mind still harbors the doubt, “Maybe the supermarket really does contain everything I need,” your meditation will be no good and you won’t get any realizations.

Also, you shouldn’t spend your life on useless pursuits. For example, there’s so much garbage on television; when you watch it your unconscious mind automatically absorbs that garbage reflection. So you have to exercise the discriminating wisdom that assesses whether what you’re doing is worthwhile or not.

I’m not saying that television itself is bad. I’m saying that, according to your mind, you have to check up whether what you’re watching is useful or not. Does it lead to wisdom or to the completely concrete attachment that causes conflict in your mind? Check up. This is really worthwhile.

Actually, you’re much better off watching the internal television of your mind. Regular TV is so boring; the same old programs on the same old topics over and over again. You don’t really want to watch. But when you watch your mind, it’s incredible; it’s much more interesting. There’s always something new; if you think about it, every experience is new.

This is really true. I’m not exaggerating. Every moment of mind is interesting. If you check your mind in meditation for ten or twenty minutes a day, it’s so worthwhile.

In Tibet, after listening to lam-rim teachings and receiving a clean clear intellectual understanding, people would often go into retreat to put the teachings into action; they’d experiment to see if what the lama said really worked or not. They would seriously check up. Of course, Western life is so busy that you don’t have the time to do long retreats, but if every now and then you could spend a two- or three-day weekend in strict meditation it would be very powerful and most worthwhile.

And with respect to this seminar, we’ve been talking so much that you haven’t had much time to meditate; but if we’d allowed more time for meditation you wouldn’t have received the teachings you need, so we’ve just had to try the best we can.

Now I can try to answer any questions you might have, bearing in mind that the real answers are those you get through meditation. As I said before, those answers become incredibly powerful and meaningful. Verbal answers often aren’t as meaningful. However, if you have serious questions, please ask.

Q. Lama, last year in Nepal you said that fully ordained nuns have over one hundred more vows than fully ordained monks do. Also, we see far fewer pictures of Tara than we do of male manifestations of Buddha. So I was wondering if you could say something about women. Sorry!

Lama. Lord Buddha gave fully ordained monks, gelongs, 253 vows and fully ordained nuns, gelongmas, 364. The reason for the difference is that women have incredible wisdom and very quick minds. Men are normally a little bit slow but women can put things together and come to immediate conclusions much more rapidly. Also, the way women’s bodies are constituted makes them more susceptible to vibrations of the sun, moon and earth, and they undergo monthly internal changes as well. All this has a psychological effect. So women’s minds change much more quickly than do men’s. Women are very intelligent; they have the wisdom to quickly put things together.

In addition, women’s desire does not arise frequently but when it does it can be very strong and last a long time; it can feel very uncomfortable, like being poked by a needle. Men also have desire but while it’s often present it’s not as strong.

Q. So the greater number of precepts is because women are less able to control desire?

Lama. Yes, that’s right. That’s why I’m talking about this.

Q. So it’s bad karma to be born female?

Lama. No, not necessarily. You asked a general question so I’m generalizing in my reply. Certain individual women have great control. There are female buddhas. So actually, you can’t generalize. However, Lord Buddha considered that men and women have equal potential to gain liberation in this life. Also, Lord Buddha didn’t just say the words - he showed the method, the path to liberation. So women’s liberation - inner liberation - is very good. Anyway, women have qualities and abilities that men don’t and vice versa. Both have their own individual characteristics.

Also, when we ordain women, Lord Buddha said that first we should give five precepts - precepts being the way we start training the mind - for say a month; then perhaps eight; then maybe more. Proceed slowly and wait, sometimes for a year, then check up to see whether she can manage or not. Traditionally it was very strict; the purpose was to make sure. Of course, generally it’s the same thing with men. They too have uncontrolled desire. But men also have their own specific characteristics, psychologically and physically.

But there’s no way you can say that men can attain liberation or enlightenment and women cannot. That’s impossible. In Tibet, sometimes even senior monks would take teachings from higher nuns.

Q. If one has overcome strong attachment or aversion in this life, would one be placed in contact with the same people or places in the next life?

Lama. It’s possible, yes. It’s also logical. If in this life you train your mind such that your attachment gets less and less, at the time of death your powerful determination and the force of your karmic mental energy can lead you into perfect contact with familiar people or places so that you have the opportunity to help them again.

Q. You said last night that a man couldn’t be religious if he points a gun and shoots another man who is religious. What bothers me is that you hear of Thai monks blessing guns that are then used in Vietnam, Vietnamese monks burning themselves to death in Saigon, and Tibetan monks disrobing and fighting the Chinese. Can you explain all this, please?

Lama. Thank you, it’s good to ask about such things. I think monks who bless guns do so out of misconception, no matter who they are. Psychologically, that will come back to bother them. As for the monk who burnt himself in Saigon, there could be two things. If he has incredible compassion for the Vietnamese people suffering in the war and burns himself in order to demonstrate their suffering, I don’t think that’s foolish; but if he doesn’t have compassion and is just doing it out of anger, that’s foolish.

Q. Is it true that Tibetan monks have disrobed, fought the Chinese and therefore killed some?

Lama. Yes, some Tibetan monks have done that. There are different kinds of Tibetan monk. When the Chinese came, some monks did return their vows to senior monks who didn’t go to war. You can’t stop that kind of individual anger. Actually, they were wrong to do that. If they’d asked the senior monk if they should go, he would have said, “That’s foolish; a misconception. You want to fight but you’re already the best kind of soldier. You want to give up being a member of the best army, the Sangha, to join a junk army.” That monk is already a soldier; he’s fighting the internal enemy of the delusions, which is what really brings him down. That’s a great question; you’re right to ask.

There are many religions in the world, Buddhism among them. When their followers act in mistaken ways it’s not the religion that’s wrong; it’s the people who have the misconceptions. And it’s not only misconception - uncontrolled attachment is so powerful: “Oh, my nation, my country . . . I’m going to lose the place where I eat and sleep.” So acting out of uncontrolled attachment, these Tibetan monks abandon their ordination and rush off to fight. They’re foolish; I agree. That’s exactly what I was talking about before. I don’t even consider those people to be Buddhist. They’re so emotional; their wisdom is so limited.

Q. What do we do if we recognize our negative mind? Do we just face it or do we react to it? Sometimes it seems the reaction could be to not want to face it.

Lama. What kind of situation do you mean? Be specific.

Q. For example, when we’re meditating and see, “Oh, now I’m proud” or “Now I’m angry,” do we just recognize this and say to ourself, “OK, I’m angry,” or do we say, “I’m angry and this is not good”? What do we with the negative mind? When we find the negative mind, what do we do?

Lama. When you find that your negative mind has arisen, instead of just letting it go, apply the appropriate antidote. Even better, as soon as you find your negative mind starting to arise, stop it right there; don’t let it go any further. Many Western psychologists say that when you’re angry, let it out, don’t suppress it; they tell you to get more angry. They mean well, but according to Lord Buddha’s psychology, they’re wrong. Every moment of anger creates a karmic imprint; every moment of unchecked anger builds up the energy of anger within you.

What’s better is to recognize the anger within you and as soon as you feel it start to arise, instead of letting it come and recognizing and expressing it, try to digest it. That’s the best way. Western psychology says, “No, no, no... don’t keep your tremendous anger energy in, let it out; express your anger.” So that allows the person to be overtly angry. That’s foolish. It’s not good because your anger energy builds up. Actually, any action you do over and over - positive or negative - builds up the corresponding kind of energy.

Let me give you an example. How do you control anger if you’re a person who has great difficulty doing so? When you get up in the morning, bring to mind the characteristic nature of anger. First of all, anger comes from the root of ignorance, and the cooperative cause for its arising is a huge build-up of superstition. Its function is to destroy all your pleasure. Even your face becomes the picture of misery. Check the faces of people who are always angry: they’re always kind of tense, tight. Check up; they’re different.

Anyway, first thing in the morning, because you’re not angry at that time, examine the shortcomings of anger and see clean clear what the nature of anger is. After that, generate much compassion for yourself: “If I keep behaving in this way I’ll ruin my life. But it’s not only me. All universal living beings also destroy their beautiful, enjoyable lives by getting angry. A moment’s anger can destroy the lives of a couple that has been together for years. They do this to themselves. It’s incredibly foolish. The nature of anger is pure foolishness; today I’m not going to get angry at all. I dedicate my life today to the opposite of anger: patience. From now until I go to bed tonight, I’m going to control my anger, with much compassion for all universal living beings.”

When you make that determination in the morning, the whole day goes like that. In the evening you check up: “What a surprise. Normally I’m always angry but today I didn’t get angry at all. I’m so glad, so appreciative, so happy.” Then dedicate your positive energy to others and, rejoicing, go to sleep.

The next day you almost won’t need to generate strong energy to maintain your control; it will be easy. Then the day after that it will be easier still... and the next and the next, until you’ve managed to control your anger for a week. If you can control it for one week, the second week will definitely be easier. Then you’ll have been able to control it for a month. So two months will be easy. Then you’ll have controlled it for a year. Once you’ve done that you’ll practically never get angry again. Finally you’ll finish up saying to people, “I find it impossible to get angry. Please would you teach me how?” You might have to go to anger school to learn how to do it! It’s possible. That’s true. You can reach a point where there’s no way anybody can make you angry.

So that was a good, practical question. Just stopping the problem of anger is most worthwhile; that’s incredible. The nature of anger is misery and the angry mind is uptight. Angry people suffer greatly; their faces are different and they totally destroy their enjoyment of life. So at least controlling your anger is most worthwhile. If there’s no anger between a married couple there’s no way their life will be miserable; it’s impossible. They will always have a good relationship, a good home and good vibrations.

Many times Westerners are too intellectual, always looking for some kind of higher meditation. They’re not realistic. If you just practice not getting angry it’s so worthwhile. That itself is liberation, inner freedom; that’s more realistic and so worthwhile - in everyday life you’re dealing with people, so you don’t get angry with your wife, husband, friends or anybody. You always have a good time.

Q. Please could you say more about the dedication of merit?

Lama. We have an analogy for why we dedicate the energy of merit. Say you’re riding a big, powerful horse. If you have no bridle the horse will run wild and you won’t end up where you want to go. Although the horse’s energy is perfectly strong and it can run really well, without control you’ll finish up falling off and hurting yourself badly. Similarly, if you have the powerful energy of merit and don’t dedicate it, if somebody suddenly says something to you that makes you angry, your merit immediately disappears.

Creating merit and then destroying it is like first cleaning a floor, then, when you’ve finished, putting ka-ka all over it, dirtying it up again. This is a good example of what we normally do. Therefore, you should dedicate whatever positive energy you have to benefit others, instead of letting it go without direction, like a powerful horse without a bridle.

Also, whenever you dedicate your positive energy to others, the energy you dedicate is like a drop of water put into the ocean - as long as the ocean remains, that drop of water is never exhausted. Similarly, when you deposit your positive energy into the bank of enlightenment for the benefit of others, it becomes exhaustless.

Not only that. When you do something positive you might automatically feel proud: “Oh, I did such a good meditation.” Pride is a psychological problem; dedication is the solution. Therefore, it’s very important to dedicate your merit. Otherwise we often generate pride, boasting, “I did this; I did that.” You make a big show of your virtue. Dedicating merit is like putting money in a bank. You bank your money to protect it; dedicating merit protects it in your internal bank.

Q. When you do something good and you know what it’s for, is that dedication?

Lama. No, that’s not dedication. Dedication is the mind that thinks, “I have not done this positive action for my own salvation or pleasure but totally for the benefit of others.”

Q. So you let go of it?

Lama. Yes, you let go; put your energy in one direction. Don’t let it go like an uncontrolled, powerful horse. If I were to talk about merit in detail it would take much time, but briefly, it’s not that easy to dedicate merit properly; you have to bring to mind the emptiness of three things: yourself, the person dedicating the merit; the merit itself; and the way you dedicate. Dedicating with understanding of the empty nature of these three things is the best way to dedicate, absolutely worthwhile. Dedicating with pure knowledge-wisdom releases all the misconceptions of self-attachment to these three things. This is the prajnaparamita - perfection of wisdom - way of dedicating. It’s difficult, but, if you can manage, you should do it that way. Otherwise our dedication is mixed with attachment. In Tibetan we call this ngo-wai kor-sum–dedicating in the circle of the three.

Q. How does one use the rosary (Skt: mala)?

Lama. One thing that a mala is used for is to count mantras. Sometimes we have a certain number of mantras we have to count on a daily basis or in retreat and we use it for that. In some retreats you have to recite one, two, five or even ten million mantras; each day we bless our mala and use it to count the number of mantras we recite. We also use it to treat certain illnesses. For example, some people are made sick by spirit possession and can be healed by a mala placed on their head, but the person doing this needs long experience and to have received the power of the mantra.

Q. Can we go beyond time, like reincarnate in the past?

Lama. No, that’s not possible. Each rebirth is the result of previous karma and takes place in a different environment, so they’re never the same. For example, say from the time you were born until now you’ve lived with the same family in the same London house - you feel as if you and the things around you are the same. But if you check up carefully, from the time you were born, every minute your environment and your experience have been changing; everything is totally different. If we just look at things superficially we have the attitude, “Oh, every morning I drink coffee, I have the same lunch, I have this family, this house... it’s all the same.” But they’re not the same; thinking that they are is a misconception born of superficiality.

If you check your life experiences scientifically you’ll see that each one is different. Even from the beginning of this seminar up until now, everything’s different: your experiences, your perceptions, your view and your consciousness. Of course, you can say something like, “Last year I was a black woman; perhaps in my next life I’ll be a black woman again.” Is that sort of superficial thing what you’re asking? That can happen but there’s no way you can be exactly the same as you were in a previous life. Is that clear? Perhaps you’d better ask me your question again.

Q. Are you saying that karma goes forward all the time?

Lama. That’s right, yes. It’s impossible for karma to go backwards. If it were then it would be possible for me to become a five-year-old child in this life.

Q. A lot of people do become children when they get older.

Lama. Come on, dear; that’s just street language. We need to talk about this scientifically. When we talk generally we say things like, “Your mind is like a baby’s.” That doesn’t mean the person has become a baby. We’re talking about a one-hundred-year-old person’s becoming a five-year-old. That’s impossible. Can you prove scientifically that it can happen? You can say somebody’s like a child; that doesn’t mean the person’s a child.

Q. But things seem to go in a circle.

Lama. Yes, things circle, but the experiences themselves are different. You can’t say they’re always the same thing. If you check scientifically you’ll see that they’re different.

Q. Can you say specifically what meditations we should be doing when we first wake up in the morning and right before we go to sleep at night?

Lama. The best meditation to do in the morning is the development of single-pointed concentration; at night you should do purification. Before you go to sleep, check back on your day: “Since I awoke this morning I’ve done many things and gone many places.” So you check up: “What kind of mind did I have here? What kind of mind did I have there?” Check how many positive minds you had and how many negative. The conclusion you’ll probably come to is, “Most of my actions were negative; not so many were positive.” So before you go to sleep, do a purification meditation and then go to sleep with a happy, joyful, clean clear mind. That’s very useful.

Actually, it’s best not to go to sleep with a foggy, uncomfortable mind. If you go to sleep in an agitated condition, you keep generating that energy all night. For example, if you go to sleep angry, anger energy builds up in your mind all night. Therefore, it’s much better to make your mind calm and clear before you go to sleep. And if you can actually go to sleep in meditation, your entire sleep energy becomes the everlastingly peaceful path to liberation. So meditating prior to going to sleep is very, very useful. And we also have special methods of meditating while you’re asleep called dream yoga that are in the further reaches of the graduated path to liberation, so you can study those later.

That’s a wonderfully practical question. When you get up in the morning, instead of thinking in a conflicted, mundane way, “What am I going to do today?” and rushing into the kitchen as your mind immediately goes into your refrigerator, get up slowly and meditate. Relax, make your mind calm and clear, and dedicate yourself to making this day’s life meaningful in the highest way instead of living like an animal. That way you’re not up and down all day because the powerful determination you generate in the morning keeps you on track. Even if somebody suddenly hits you, you remain in control. That’s possible, through the will power of the mind.

Your mind is incredibly powerful, I tell you. You have to know how. We think external things are so powerful but they’re all manmade. Real power actually lies within us. We created all these things; our internal power manifests the external world. If we direct this power inward we can create the inner realization of enlightenment. That’s why generating proper motivation in the morning is very important.

Thank you for your questions. Now, one of the students has made small Manjushri lapel buttons, which is very auspicious. Manjushri is the manifestation of knowledge-wisdom, so now I’m going to bless these buttons and offer them to you. I’ll also give you the transmission of the Manjushri mantra to facilitate the growth of knowledge-wisdom within you.

[Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche do puja to bless the Manjushri buttons.]

Mantra transmission
Now, if you can, instead of visualizing me, Thubten Yeshe, sitting here with this body of meat and bone, immediately transform it into the radiant red-yellow light body of Manjushri. At my heart is the Divine Wisdom Manjushri mantra. From this mantra a duplicate transcendent mantra manifests and comes from my heart through my mouth like a rosary. This electric rosary energy goes into your mouth and down to your heart three times: the first time, it comes to your heart; the second time, it sinks into the first mantra; the third time, it again sinks into your heart mantra, making it indestructibly powerful, magnetically powerful to attract enlightened realizations through your developing knowledge-wisdom.

While visualizing all this, repeat the mantra:

OM AH RA PA TSA NA DHIH; OM AH RA PA TSA NA DHIH; OM AH RA PA TSA NA DHIH.

Now let’s recite it together:

OM AH RA PA TSA NA DHIH DHIH DHIH DHIH DHIH.... (x3)¹³

From your heart, blissful red-yellow radiates all throughout your entire body, energizing great joy.

[Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche chant.]

By receiving the transmission of this mantra you’re not making a commitment to recite it daily but you can if you like; doing so would be most worthwhile. It’s a specific method for gaining knowledge-wisdom.

For example, in Tibet, if a monk was a bit slow in understanding things he would practice Manjushri in order to gain quick knowledge-wisdom. Also, this mantra is incredible for people who can’t talk properly because of trouble with their tongue. After just a month they can talk properly. I’m not joking; this is people’s experience. If you recite this mantra before talking or giving a speech the power of your words can be greatly increased. So it is a very good to recite this transcendental mantra. Manjushri is nothing external; Manjushri is all enlightened beings’ supreme transcendental knowledge-wisdom transformed into such a red-yellow light body. That’s what we call Manjushri - the embodiment of knowledge-wisdom.

Conclusion
And now we’ve come to the end of this very short seminar. I’ve enjoyed it very much and have been very happy to meet you beautiful people. I pray that next time we meet we can spend more time together; that would be better. It’s been a little rushed this time, so please forgive us for that. However, if you have any questions arise you can write us. These days, the world is very small. Also, if you have questions, you can talk to Chime Rinpoche or Akong Rinpoche, who both live in the UK.

We’re also going to offer a protection cord blessed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to anybody who wants; you can wear it around your neck if you like. It offers psychological protection. It’s not that we think there are demons from which you need to be protected.

Also, the Manjushri buttons are worth keeping. They can be very useful in reminding you of the knowledge-wisdom you have gained instead of allowing your mind to be always occupied by mundane thoughts. This kind of image is not merely a material object but a reminder of knowledge-wisdom. It gives you teachings without words. When you look at an image of the Buddha sitting in the meditation posture you feel something, don’t you? It automatically gives you some control. That’s why we have this kind of art, not because we somehow believe that this is really God or Buddha. It gives off a positive vibration.

Also, when you get back home, check up on how you have decorated the place you live. This can give you a clue as to your psychology, what interests your mind, what kind of mind you have. Anyway, what’s best is to keep the inside of your house very clean, clear and simple instead of cluttering it with all kinds of garbage. When everything in your house is clean, clear and orderly, your mind becomes simple, clean and clear. Don’t keep all kinds of mixed up things, many pictures, crazy stuff around. Look at the art of people who are psychologically disturbed. Everything they draw is so complicated and disordered. So don’t make your environment like that; your mind is conditioned - you haven’t yet reached beyond conditions.

Art can sometimes be useful. Religious art explains things beyond words. Even shopkeepers understand this kind of psychology, as you can see from their window displays.

I think that’s all I can say. Thank you so much for everything. Now we’re going to dedicate the merit we’ve created during this seminar to the benefit of all sentient beings, to lead them into enlightenment, the everlastingly joyful state of consciousness.

Ge wa di yi nyur du dag
Lama sang gyä drub gyur nä
Dro wa chig kyang ma lü pa
De yi sa la gö par shog

Thank you again. Perhaps I’ll say one more thing. Sometimes young people take teachings from a lama then go back home and push their ideas onto their parents and friends, agitating them. You shouldn’t do that.

The things you’ve learned here are for your own liberation, not to push onto other people. We don’t believe in pushing our ideas onto people, trying to convert them to Buddhism. That’s not right. Don’t push your parents or friends; just live naturally. Just put what you’ve learned into action as much as you can. Don’t push your ideas onto others.

If you live the teachings, those close to you will get a good vibration from you, through your actions. Some young people get all excited, “Oh, now I’ve found something really special,” and lay their trip onto others. Don’t push that way. Also, don’t accost strangers in the street and say, “Come with me, I’ll show you the path to liberation.” That doesn’t work either. Be realistic; be natural. Of course, if somebody approaches you with questions, at that time you can answer to the best of your ability. But if people don’t ask, don’t push - that’s not the characteristic nature of Buddhism. Act as much as possible; that’s the way to gain realizations.

So thank you again for everything and we’ll see you again soon - in the sky!

Notes
¹³ DHIH is the seed syllable of Manjushri. It is often recited repeatedly, either alone or after a repetition of the mantra OM AH RA PA TSA NA, in order to benefit the speech in the ways Lama mentions below.

wisdomeye SG

Kensington Town Hall, London
18 September 975

Meditation is the way we realize the nature of the mind. Therefore it’s something that we absolutely have to do. Since Western education does not explain how the mind functions in everyday life, many Westerners these days are seeking out meditation because they are not satisfied with what they’ve been taught about the mind.

Buddhism always talks about suffering. This turns some Westerners off: “We’re happy; we’re not suffering; what’s our problem? Why should we listen to teachings on suffering?”

Well, you can think in that way if you like, but in fact, if you check more deeply into how your mind functions in everyday life, you’ll realize how dissatisfied you are and how up and down your uncontrolled mind actually is. That up and down itself is suffering, that’s all. It’s very simple. When Lord Buddha talked about suffering he didn’t mean simply physical pain, like toothaches, headaches and so forth. Those kinds of suffering are very temporary; they’re nothing. But if you check within yourself, whether you’re rich or poor, famous or unknown, you’ll always find dissatisfaction, a kind of uncontrollable, ever-changing energy of dislike. That energy too is suffering.

From the beginning of human evolution on this earth up to now, people have constantly sought something worthwhile, pleasure and happiness, in many different ways, but most of their methods have been completely wrong. They’ve sought happiness here while all the time it’s been over there, in exactly the opposite direction. You’re educated - check historically what people have believed through the ages and how they’ve sought fulfillment in different ways. You can see. Most times they’ve gone in totally the wrong direction.

So now people are finally beginning to realize that happiness is not dependent upon external development or material wealth. These days you don’t even need a lama to explain it to you because the manifest world itself demonstrates the up and down nature of mundane reality - socially, economically and in many other ways. That makes it easy to realize that material things aren’t everything. As a result, people are now beginning to investigate better ways of achieving a happy and joyful life. Meditation is one of the ways.

Mental attitude
In the West, meditation has recently gained some popularity. Most people have heard of it and many have tried it, but if you check why these people are meditating, the reason they’re trying it out, a question arises. Actually, you can ask the same question in relation to why people are practicing religion. In general, people are meditating or following a spiritual path because they want to be happy, but from the Mahayana Buddhist point of view, whether or not you get the desired result from your meditation practice depends mainly on your mental attitude, or motivation. For meditation or any other implemented spiritual philosophy to bring happiness, it has to be done for the right reason.

Many people think that meditation means sitting someplace doing nothing while your mind toys with an object. That’s a misconception. Your mind playing with an object, trying to concentrate, is not enough. Of course, I understand that way of thinking. Your mind is tired; you’ve heard so many things, so many philosophies, so much this, that and the other that all you want is a bit of peace and quiet and you think that single-pointed concentration will give it to you. But that’s not enough.

Meditation is a tool. The most important thing is your motivation for using that tool, for practicing meditation; the way you are using it. That’s what matters. Otherwise there’s a danger that your meditation will simply become some kind of mindless routine, the way some people go to church on Sunday. They don’t check their motivation; they just go. And not just in the West; Eastern people do the same thing. They go to the temple just because everybody else is going, because it’s the local custom. Meditating or practicing religion for that kind of reason is a total misconception.

Also, practicing meditation just to experience temporal happiness, just to make this life happy, is also mistaken. That’s a tiny goal; it’s selfish and it’s wrong. If all you’re trying to do is make this life comfortable, your goal is really not worthwhile.

Ordinary people think that the purpose of meditation is to make the mind calm and peaceful, but that’s not enough. Of course, when you create a calm, peaceful environment, you can integrate your mind and make it calm and peaceful, but that’s not liberation. Liberation is complete freedom from the uncontrolled, up and down, selfish mind. When you reach beyond that kind of mind you’ve reached a worthwhile goal.

Meditation isn’t just a mental game where you sublimate one mundane state into another. When we meditate, we’re not joking, playing with hallucinations. The purpose of meditation is to gain joyful inner freedom and everlasting peace - in Buddhist terminology, nirvana or enlightenment. But the words don’t matter that much - what you do have to know is what kind of goal you’re aiming to achieve.

So the mental attitude I’m talking about, the best kind of motivation, is what Mahayana Buddhism calls bodhicitta, the enlightenment attitude: total dedication of your body, speech and mind to the benefit of others. If you meditate with that kind of mind, your mind automatically slips into the vehicle that will carry you to your desired destination - enlightenment - without delay. If you don’t, if your subconscious motivation is selfish, then even if you think intellectually, “I’m doing this meditation in order to realize enlightenment,” you’re dreaming. That’s not bodhicitta.

Also, some people think that the only kind of meditation is singlepointed concentration and strive for years to attain it, but because they are motivated by self-attachment, even if they do achieve this level of concentration, their mind is still agitated. That can happen because they’re meditating with the wrong kind of motivation - selfishness. Bodhicitta is where you totally sacrifice yourself for the benefit of others.

When I say “sacrifice” I don’t mean in the Hindu sense of blood sacrifice - human or animal - such as we often see in Nepal. It’s not like that. I’m talking about your sacrificing the actions of your own body, speech and mind with knowledge-wisdom, totally dedicating them to the benefit of others.

As long as you have that dedicated enlightenment attitude, the pure, innermost thought of bodhicitta, no matter what your everyday actions, they’re automatically beneficial. Similarly, your meditation practice is also successful and free of frustration.

Often you meditate with much superstition, with the expectation of easily attaining the highest goal of enlightenment. That’s a misconception; you’re psychologically sick from the very beginning. When you begin with a sick mind you can only finish up sick.

Of course, dedicating every day of your life, your entire body, speech and mind, to others, is one of the most difficult things you can do, but if you can do it, your life automatically has purpose. When your life has purpose, you naturally experience satisfaction and enjoyment. True enjoyment comes from within, from your mental attitude, not from without or from single-pointed concentration.

You can’t concentrate in the busy confusion of your workplace; you can’t sit cross-legged in the supermarket. You have to deal with people. But when you do deal with people, if you have the pure thought dedicated to others, they automatically give you good vibrations - because of the projection of your own mind.

If, however, your mind is clouded with thoughts such as “These people are no good,” you automatically have a negative projection of others. That leads you to always blame them for how you feel: “He hurt me; she hurt me.” Actually, nobody else hurts you. You hurt yourself because you lack the knowledge-wisdom to understand yourself; you haven’t integrated wisdom into your everyday life.

In the terminology of Buddhism, self-cherishing is schizophrenic. I know that Western psychology thinks schizophrenia is something else, interprets it differently, but Buddhism thinks selfish motivation itself is schizophrenic and the cause of mental illness.

Experiment for yourself; I’m not saying you have to accept what I’m telling you just because I said it. When you get up in the morning, instead of thinking how difficult your mundane life is, generate the strong motivation, “Today I’m going to totally devote the energy of my body, speech and mind to others.” If you really dedicate yourself in that way, your day will go very smoothly. Try it out.

The human problem is that people have to interact with each other and when problems arise, as they inevitably do, they blame others for them. This is a misconception. So bodhicitta isn’t just an idea - it's a psychological method for treating the sick mind.

Also, physical actions aren’t necessarily the best way of benefiting others. You need to investigate for yourself what the best way of helping others is. Actually, hunger or physical suffering are not the main human problem. To help others in the most effective way, you have to discover human potential. And not just human potential: even every insect has a mind and therefore the potential to be led into everlasting, peaceful enlightenment. You need to see that, instead of suffocating yourself emotionally with thoughts like, "I want to help others; they need help, I can see that they’re suffering, but I can’t see that I can do anything about it."

When you can see the potential of the human mind, the innate beauty of human beings and humans’ infinite possibilities, you begin to see the solution to any problem that might arise. To the Mahayana Buddhist way of thinking, every human problem has a solution. For a start, every human problem has a cause; problems don’t arise without cause. And if you eradicate a cause, its effect also disappears, doesn’t it? That’s scientifically verifiable.

Knowledge is the path to liberation
Buddhism isn’t some fanatical religious trip. It’s a philosophical way of living life. And also, to study Buddhism you don’t need to believe in something extreme. It’s a matter of investigating, examining and experimenting on yourself. It’s not just belief. Without understanding, belief can be very dangerous. So what Lord Buddha emphasized was that understanding is the path to liberation, knowledge is the path to liberation.

Thus Buddhism emphasizes understanding; understanding is the path: no understanding, no path to liberation. Perhaps you’re not sure about that. Ordinarily, people think, “This is religion, this is Buddhism,” and paint their own picture of Buddhism and religion. For example, there are more than a hundred of us here - I can almost guarantee that each of us has a different understanding of what constitutes the path to liberation. Check up. Although we all might say, “Liberation is this, this, this,” using the same words, at the same time our limited mind will be painting its own unique picture of our personal interpretation of the path to liberation. In fact, in our practice we may not be doing anything positive; our life may have nothing to do with the path to liberation.

So you have to check carefully to see if you’re on the right path or the wrong. You should not proceed along your chosen path blindly. It’s much more important that you investigate your spiritual path than the goods you buy, for example. When you go to the supermarket you spend much time checking products - “Should I buy this? Maybe this? Maybe that?” - but when it comes to choosing which path to the highest goal of enlightenment is best for you, which path is right, which is wrong, you check nothing. Checking is never a mistake; checking is most important.

Checking is meditation; observing is meditation. As I said, meditation doesn’t mean just sitting in some corner doing nothing. You can meditate when you are walking down the street, checking, investigating your mind’s view of things. That’s meditation. Are you perceiving reality or a hallucination? When you analyze your mind like this, you’re meditating.

We often talk about positive and negative actions. Everybody says things like, “Today you’re so positive; today you’re too negative.” It’s common. But how do you know which actions are positive and which are negative? You need to know how to check. How do you ensure that your meditation is positive and a vehicle leading to enlightenment? How do you know?

It doesn’t depend on the meditation itself - it’s your motivation for doing it that directs your mind into the right channel.

So how do you tell if you’re on the wrong path? How do you discriminate? You need discriminating knowledge-wisdom. That’s the path of meditation, the path to liberation. You have to be able to discriminate right from wrong. If you mix everything together, all you get is soup.

Method and wisdom
I’m not being judgmental, saying you’re this or that; I’m just explaining how to go about meditating. We all need happiness; how do we check that the path we’re on will bring us to that goal, that it’s the most effective way of leading us to happiness? That’s what we need to know.

Also, Mahayana Buddhism strongly emphasizes the simultaneous actualization of method and wisdom. Wisdom without method cannot produce enlightened realizations. That’s very true: many religious people and meditators have wonderful ideas but lack the method for putting those ideas into action. Then their great ideas become useless.

Similarly, in the West, many people have great intellectual wisdom but not too much method. This is a problem. As Lord Buddha said, intellectual knowledge alone is not enough to gain realizations.

I don’t have much more to say right now but I hope you all will actualize the method and wisdom that constitute the path to liberation and find everlasting peace as soon as possible. And now, if you have any questions, please ask anything you like. There’s nothing wrong with our discussing all this. Tibetan Buddhism is very open. If you like, you can even tell me everything I’ve said is wrong. No problem. In that way I learn as well. I’m not enlightened, so discussion is most worthwhile.

Q. Lama, you were forced out of Tibet. How have you made exile work?
Lama. Well, as long as people know how to put their life together, it doesn’t matter if they lose their home and country, they can still have a good life. For me, every country on earth is my home. Having to leave Tibet hasn’t made me worried or miserable. I’m OK. Here I am meeting English people, eating English food, enjoying it very much. But it’s a good question. It’s true that when some people are forced to leave their home they are psychologically damaged and get sick as a result. But in general, Tibetan people understand cause and effect - the law of karma - and when they find themselves in a foreign country they’re able to accept that their past actions have put them into that situation and thus find it easier to accept. Denying reality can make you want to kill yourself.

Q. You said that we should check within ourselves as to whether what we’re doing is right or wrong according to our motivation. But isn’t there the danger of over-analyzing everything and getting so tangled up that not only do we gain nothing from it but end up worse than when we started? Or would you say that that’s a good state to be in?
Lama. You’re right; it can be dangerous if you check too much using the wrong method. But if you check the everyday actions of your body, speech and mind with skillful method and wisdom, there’s no danger; the more you check the more conscious and aware you become. Most of the time in our relationships with family and friends we act unconsciously and finish up hurting those closest to us. I agree; if you check your mind in a confused way you won’t find anything and it can in fact be dangerous. Therefore I say that if you are seeking everlasting, peaceful inner liberation, you need perfect method and perfect wisdom. So it’s not an easy job. Even if you have single-pointed concentration, that’s not enough.

Q. Do external factors such as diet, sleep habits and livelihood affect the quality of one’s meditation? In particular, is the food you eat important? For example, I’m a vegetarian but many people aren’t and meat is considered to make people more aggressive and bloodthirsty. This is not something that can be easily proved, but many people, including me, tend to believe it. What is your view of this point especially?
Lama. We do have some dietary restrictions when doing certain meditations where there are some foods that we should eat and others that we shouldn’t, such as meat, eggs, garlic, onion and radish. But when doing certain other kinds of meditation, those foods can be taken. Now, while in general ordinary people shouldn’t eat too much meat, eggs or garlic, if you’re used to a diet containing them, because of this conditioning, suddenly stopping eating them can shock your body. Also, even if you don’t eat such foods, sometimes you might need to do so for health reasons. So it’s better to take the middle path and not be too extreme. In Tibet, we would sometimes eat meat but we were forbidden from eating meat of animals that we had killed ourselves or ordered killed or that had been killed especially for us. Those three kinds of meat have tremendous negative vibrations associated with them and can make your meditation foggy rather than clear.

Q. I’ve heard of Tibetan lamas exorcising demons. What are demons?
Lama. Sometimes it can be possible that superstitious, primitive people believe that they’re controlled by a spirit and get sick as a result, so lamas have certain methods of healing such people. But in general, by “demon” we mean the energy of the ego. There’s no external demon, lying somewhere in wait for you. The Buddhist connotation is that the demon, devil or whatever you call it is within you.

There are thousands of different kinds of mind, some of them positive, others negative. Some of those negative minds are demonic and when they manifest they completely occupy your mind. At such times you become a kind of demon. When the demon mind takes over, wisdom, or your positive mind, has no room to function. However, by developing your meditation practice, perfecting your motivation and gradually purifying your mind, you can automatically control that negative energy. So that’s the reason that meditation is worthwhile.

When Westerners feel psychologically unwell they tend to seek a therapist for help. The Buddhist point of view is all living beings have both positive and negative energy simultaneously existent in their mind. By meditating we can gradually increase the positive, decrease the negative and continuously develop until all the negative energy has been completely eliminated.

Therefore the Tibetan Buddhist approach to training the student is gradual; we guide students along the graduated path to liberation. These days Zen is very popular in the West; some Zen practitioners talk about instant enlightenment, like instant coffee. We think that’s impossible. We think the mind has to evolve, or develop, gradually, just as modern science talks about gradual evolution. Accordingly, we have degrees of meditation from the beginning of the path up to the end. Some people have just one favorite meditation that they always do, from when they start meditating up to the end of their lives. The Tibetan tradition says that that’s wrong: instead, you should do one meditation; when you reach a certain point, go on to the next, then the next and so forth, in a logical order. This is what we mean by the gradual, or graduated, path to liberation.

Q. When we meditate, do we concentrate on our breath or do we just let our mind go free?
Lama. If you’re a beginner, it’s better just to focus on your breath rather than let your mind become occupied by mundane thoughts. It’s very useful. Actually, Tibetan Buddhism doesn’t consider focusing on your breath to be real meditation; we call it preparation for meditation. Why? If your mind is emotionally bothered, totally occupied by strong attachment or strong hatred, it’s impossible to meditate. What you can do at such times to create a good foundation for meditation is to manipulate your mind by concentrating on your breath and feeling sensations. If you do that, your mind will automatically calm down: the object with which your hatred is obsessed goes away, the object with which your attachment is obsessed goes away, and you are then free to direct your mind into any meditation that you choose.

Q. When you are doing checking meditation, what do you think about?
Lama. Many things can be the focus of analytical meditation; there are many different topics upon which you can meditate. You can’t simply specify this or that. Also, Buddhist meditation depends a lot upon the individual meditator, what each person needs at any given time.

Q. In Western medicine there’s a growing interest in the benefits that meditation can bring to people suffering from stress, both physical and mental. I wonder if in your trips to the West you have been in contact with doctors who are beginning to take an interest in this particular practice. Have you been able to talk to them and point out the deeper meaning of meditation?
Lama. A few months ago I met a group of psychiatrists in Melbourne, Australia, and we had a very interesting discussion about patients with mental problems.¹ I’ve also spoken with American doctors on similar topics. I think they’re still seeking and growing, experimenting scientifically, and as a result their theories are also constantly changing and growing. I think they’re doing good work. Also, Tibetan Buddhism has more in common with science, logic and philosophy than with what the average person considers religion.

That’s all we have time for tonight. Thank you very much for coming. If I’ve made any mistakes, please excuse me.

Notes
¹ See “ A Buddhist Approach to Mental Illness” in Lama Yeshe’s Becoming Your Own Therapist, free from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom

wisdomeye SG

This weekend we are very fortunate in that we have the opportunity to cultivate bodhicitta and put the actions of our body, speech and mind into the path to liberation, the path of control. This is so worthwhile.

Despite having had many previous lives and having lived many years in this one, if we really check, from the time we were born up to now, we’ll find that we haven’t acted seriously for even one day because most of the time our mind has been completely occupied by uncontrolled thoughts and superstition. So we are very fortunate to have generated the enthusiastic feeling of wanting to help others and ourselves in the highest way possible.

Since we were born we’ve wasted practically every moment of every day, month and year. Instead of making our time worthwhile and using it to bring happiness, we’ve engaged in only useless actions and used our precious life for nothing. At the time, we’ve thought that what we’ve been doing is useful but if we check we’ll see that it really has not been.

Perhaps you’ll disagree; you think that what you’ve done has been worthwhile because you’ve taken care of your life, preserved yourself and made money. But is that fulfilling your human potential? Is that all you can do? If that’s all you can do you’re no better than a cat or a rabbit. Having profound human potential but using your life as an animal does is such a waste of time. You have to realize how incredibly tragic that is.

If you check up deeply to see if, since you were born until now, you’ve done anything that was really worthwhile in bringing you true happiness and a joyful life, do you think you’ll find anything? Check up. Don’t look at others; check yourself. It’s not complicated: you have your body, speech and mind; just these three. Which of their actions have been worthwhile?

I’m going to suggest that most of time your actions of body, speech and mind have produced only frustration and confusion. Check up: how many hours are there in one day? During how much of each of these hours have you been aware? How much of each hour has been positive? Check that way; it’s very simple. The Buddhist way of checking is very scientific. Anybody can do it; we’re not trying to be exclusive. It’s realistic. Check for yourself.

Even though you might say that you’re following a spiritual path or leading a meditator’s life, you’re not serious. It doesn’t matter if you sit in meditation, go to church on Sundays, visit the temple regularly or do any other kind of customary religious activity; that doesn’t mean anything. The actions that you need to do are those that actually lead you to everlasting, peaceful happiness, the truly joyful state, not those that simply bring up and down transitory pleasure. Actions that bounce you up and down are not true Dharma, not true meditation, not true religion - here I can make a definitive statement. Check up: you might think you’re doing something spiritual but is your polluted mind simply dreaming?

Relative and absolute
Here I’m talking about what Buddhism calls your relative nature. You might think, “How can you describe my nature just like that? My nature has many different aspects.” That might be the Western idea of it but the Buddhist idea is much simpler: we say your nature has two aspects, relative and absolute.

So when I describe how you are, I’m talking about your relative nature. Sometimes we talk about higher ideas, something absolute. Perhaps you’ve read books that talk about the absolute nature. Forget about the absolute - first you have to know the way your relative body, speech and mind function in everyday life. That’s very important. You can’t just jump straight into inner freedom.

When Western science talks about evolution it describes a process of gradual development. Even I know that and I’m somewhat stupid and uneducated; I haven’t even been to school. Nevertheless, when I hear Western scientists talk about mind control, to me it sounds rather primitive. Of course, I’m sure they would say that I’m the primitive one!

However, ever since you could talk you’ve been saying, “My mind is this; my mind is that,” but actually, you have no idea what your mind is. The nature of the mind is not some Eastern custom. You’ve had a mind from the moment you were born - you can’t say that it’s an Eastern custom. Also, Buddhism doesn’t talk about customs; customs aren’t important. So describing the mind isn’t an Eastern custom. Anyway, here I’m talking about your relative nature.

It’s your relative mind that functions in your everyday life. For example, whenever things go wrong in your interactions with people - family, friends or society in general - you always blame somebody else. Check your mind - you do. That’s a misconception. In fact, all your problems, both physical and mental, come from ignorance - a lack of intensive knowledge-wisdom - and attachment. These two mental factors are the biggest root of any problem, social or individual. Check up, but this time check up on your own mind.

Think about when you cheat others through lying or when you kill, taking another’s life. Check up: why do you do such things? The root is ignorance; the motivation is attachment, involvement in your own pleasure. The energy of ignorance, a lack of intensive knowledge-wisdom, is like a king or queen and attachment is like a director. It’s the mind; it’s your mind. I’m not talking about something else. And your mind contains the association of these two things: ignorance and attachment.

These two factors are the principal cause of all problems, physical and mental. If you do not realize this you’ll never be able to solve your problems because you’ll continue thinking that their cause lies outside: “I’m not happy, I’m not going to see him again; I’m not happy, I need a bigger house; I’m not happy, I need a better car.” You can never put an end to problems that way. Especially in the West, we always think that money is the solution to all problems. It’s not true; that’s a complete misconception.

Don’t think, “Lama’s putting me down ... that’s not how I think.” I’m not talking about intellectual thought; I’m talking about something much more deeply rooted in your mind. Human problems don’t originate from intellectual thought. Actually, if you could see what goes on in your mind, you wouldn’t believe it. Even though you’re not consciously aware of this materialistic way of thinking, deep in your subconscious there are forces leading you in a circle from one trip to another to another to another, constantly changing. This is what we mean by cyclic existence. We go round and round but never reach beyond the circle. Our entire way of living is a joke. We give children toys to play with . . . we’re the same; it’s just a different game.

We like to boast, “This modern generation is so well educated, we know so much. We’re well versed in social theory, economics, inflation and so forth.” But it’s not that the current generation is more intelligent and older ones were foolish. Why? Because the external world itself is changing automatically and all you’re doing is observing natural occurrence. So don’t think that you’re so much smarter than previous generations.

However, some of you do see that it’s worthwhile to seek something beyond mere material comfort, but if you don’t seek with the right attitude you’re still going to circle in samsara. Even if you try to meditate, do yoga or follow some other spiritual trip, you’re still going to go round and round. So make sure you have the right mental attitude and the right view and that you’re on the right path by recognizing how the wrong mental attitude leads you down the wrong path to the wrong goal.

Often Western people say, “Don’t be negative; be positive.” They like to talk about the positive but not the negative. But negativity exists; why not talk about it? You don’t have to talk about it angrily but it’s important to demonstrate and know how the negative mind functions. From the Buddhist point of view, that’s very important.

That’s why I always say that Buddhism isn’t a diplomatic religion, always saying nice things. We like to call things as they are, without hesitation. So don’t be shocked; you should expect me to say things that are not particularly nice. Don’t worry.

Of course, we do have nice qualities, beautiful qualities. Equally, so do all other living beings, even fish and chickens. We all possess good qualities of mind. But at the same time we all possess a negative nature that can bring us down. So we need to be shown and know both the good and the bad within us. Then we can let go of fear. Otherwise, our every move can make us fearful.

As long as you don’t have the inner understanding or knowledge-wisdom of what constitutes real happiness and a truly joyful life and just sit around expecting the world to somehow get better, you’re dreaming. How can the world possibly get better by itself?

Take inflation, for example. How’s that going to improve? Inflation comes from attachment. It does - but I’m sure that political economists don’t know that! Month by month, year by year, they go on, “This, this, this, that, that, that,” but they don’t know that inflation is actually due to attachment. Why is that?

You check up. It’s not that the economy is strong and suddenly worsens for no reason. It’s due to selfishness and attachment. Some people have too much but worry about not having enough. So they hoard and then the economy inflates. It’s not that there are insufficient material goods; there’s plenty of food, plenty of goods. It’s the selfish mind that causes inflation.

Anyway, check this for yourselves; it’s not true just because I say so. Still, if you investigate you’ll see how attachment, the selfish mind, creates problems for both the individual and society and destroys everybody’s inner peace and joyful life.

Look at religious wars. There’s one going on right now; ² and not only now - throughout history. Religious wars come from attachment. I’m talking about how attachment functions. Two small children fighting over a piece of candy comes from attachment; two huge countries fighting each other also comes from attachment; and religious people fighting each other comes from attachment, as well.

Actually, those religious people fighting each other all think that religion is wonderful but fighting is not a religious action, is it? For them, religion is just an idea, that’s all. Those who fight religious wars are not religious people. Religion is about compassion and universal love. How can killing become a religious action? It’s impossible. It comes from attachment.

So you can understand how attachment is the biggest problem in the world. “My religion is good, therefore I’m going to kill you.” That’s ridiculous. People who think like that are simply destroying themselves.

If I were to do that I’d be turning religion into poison. What I was doing would have nothing to do with religion. But even though my actions were the opposite of religion, I’d be thinking, “My religion is good.” Instead of being medicine to solve my psychological problems, because of my distorted mental attitude, my religion would be poison. Even though I’m thinking, “This is my religion,” not a minute of my actions would be religious.

For example, I have the idea that my thangka³ is my religion. Then if somebody tries to burn my thangka I get upset because I think he’s destroying my religion. That’s a misconception. A painting isn’t religion. People who think material things are religion misunderstand the meaning of religion. Religion is not external; Dharma is not external. It’s only in the mind.

The Bible says the same thing. The New Testament contains wonderful teachings by Jesus but many people don’t understand what they mean. For example, he said that people who worship idols are not following him. That’s very true; that’s a fantastic teaching. We have to understand how to integrate religion with our everyday life, put it into action and solve our problems, not think that material things like church and property are religion. That’s ridiculous.

In other words, people who worship idols thinking that the material atoms are their religion and don’t realize the nature of their own consciousness or spirit have no idea of what religion really is. Jesus gave perfect teachings explaining this; we just don’t realize.

Ego and attachment
Attachment and ignorance produce many misconceptions in our life. How? For example, we often think, “This is good; this makes me happy,” but if we investigate a little further we’ll find that such thoughts are misconceptions; that the things we think make us happy actually cause suffering.

Evel Knievel is a good example of this. ⁴ He believes his death-defying, daredevil stunts to be pleasure. Even when he nearly kills himself, after he recovers, even though he’s decided to quit, his ego and attachment tell him, “This is your profession, your job; you have to do it again.” So he does and nearly dies once more. Why does he put himself through all this?

Well, we ourselves do the same thing. I mean, in one way what we do is completely different but from another point of view it’s exactly the same. Why? Through misconception. We do things that bring us suffering but cling to them as wonderful causes of happiness. Check up on the things you do, physically and mentally - you’ll see that what I’m saying is true.

Perhaps it will be clearer if I give an example from our own experience. We’re always attached to food, aren’t we? As a result, we eat with greed and our stomach is often upset. This comes from attachment; it’s common.

Actually, people think that food should preserve body and life, but eating with ignorance turns nourishment into poison and kills us. Everybody knows this; check up. Why do most people die? It’s because they eat things that finish up killing them. If you really look into it you’ll nearly always find that the person made some mistake or other.

What I’m saying is simple but you have to realize it more deeply; it’s not just an idea. If the meditation you do is just an idea, if you’re simply on some kind of trip, then it’s not worthwhile. Proper meditation scientifically demonstrates the reality of your nature, your relative nature. This is well worth knowing. When you know the nature of your own mind - how your mind torments you, how it brings you suffering - your mind can then cooperate with your life. Most of the time our mind does not cooperate with our life. As a result, we don’t know what’s going on in our life.

Look at the Western world in particular. We’re too involved in objects of sense gravitation attachment⁵; we over-exaggerate the importance of the sense world such that it’s constantly exploding in front of us. The way we’re brought up, we automatically believe that the external world brings us happiness. It’s true; check up. Perhaps we don’t assent to this intellectually, but if we look more deeply into our mind we’ll see that that’s what we believe. That misconception is deeply rooted in our consciousness.

I’m not talking about something intellectual. Forget about the intellectual. Just penetrate more deeply into your own mind and investigate your lifelong beliefs, what you think is best for you and what you think is not. Everybody holds to such beliefs. Don’t think, “I’m not like that. I just go with the flow.” That’s not true. Don’t think, “I have no fixed ideas.” The nature of attachment is such that you always have fixed ideas of what is best for you: “This is me, therefore that is best.” Check up on your “this is me.”

So attachment to “this is best for me” based on ego’s conceptualization of “I’m Thubten Yeshe, this is me,” the conception of I, my mind’s fixed idea of who and what I am, this association of ego and attachment, has nothing whatsoever to do with my reality, relative or absolute.

While I’m saying this you should be meditating, checking up on whether or not what I’m saying is exaggerated or exactly right. Check up on this right now. What I’m talking about is how the ego and attachment are associated, how they relate to each other.

What I’m saying is that the fundamental cause of attachment is the conceptualization of ego, and in reality this ego does not exist within you, either relatively or absolutely. But the ego mind projects and paints “I am this,” you get a fixed idea of what you are, and then you start worrying, “I am this, therefore I should have that; I am this, so I need to maintain my reputation; because I’m this, I need that.” You check up.

Such fixed ideas of what you are, how you should be, which are completely mental projections, hallucinated, polluted projections, have nothing whatsoever to do with reality, either relative or absolute.

A meditation on how you exist
Why don’t you take a couple of minutes right now to check up on what you are, how you exist. When you ask, “What am I?” a concrete, substantial idea of “this is me” will reveal itself.

Your color is not you, your I. Your form is not I. Your nose is not I. Your leg is not I. Your heart is not I. So where is that idea, your conceptual idea of ego? Where is it?

Your imaginary I, your hallucinated ego, was not created by God, Krishna, Buddha or anybody else. It was created only by your own mind, your own misconceptions.

When you realize that your imaginary, conceptualized I is non-existent, suddenly something substantial and concrete disappears from within your heart. Your heart becomes restful rather than restless; your heart’s restless energy is released. It’s incredible; it’s so powerful. As a result, your body becomes less intense and tight.

There is no self-existent, concrete I, ego. All transitory phenomena, your physical body and all that appears is totally non-self-existent. However, you - your superficial mind - have always thought that within your five aggregates,⁶ you truly exist. Your mind, your conceptualization of I, ego, always feels that within your body, within your five aggregates, an “I am” really exists. You have always thought, and also felt, that something exists within you. If you check up carefully you will find that this is simply a projection of your hallucinating mind.

From the Hinayana point of view, your self and the entire sense world are non-self-existent; only inner reality is self-existent. But from the point of view of the Madhyamaka, a Mahayana school, even inner reality is also non-self-existent; nothing at all is self-existent, concrete, as the ego perceives. It’s impossible for anything to be self-existent.

In other words, to keep it simple, when you feel miserable, it’s because of misconception. Misconception produces miserable conditions; misconception holds a misconceived object that has nothing whatsoever to do with the reality of either your inner world or the outer sense world.

That’s why Lord Buddha said that all your frustration and confusion results from your own actions and is not created by God. God doesn’t create evil actions, does he? The Bible doesn’t say that God created evil. Nevertheless, many people have the misconception that because God created everything, God created evil. Philosophically, that’s a dubious position, but philosophy’s not important here. You just have to know what the Bible’s saying.

Many people think that the Bible is mistaken. The Bible’s not mistaken; you’re mistaken because you interpret the Bible with a lack of knowledge-wisdom.

Negative comes from the mind
So it’s really worthwhile if you can discover that all your false conceptions and miserable experiences come from attachment and the polluted I, the conceptualization of ego; if you can realize this you will release the tremendously uptight energy of bondage.

Also, it’s not just a matter of your believing something. Through experimentation comes experience; through experience comes realization. We don’t call mere intellectual understanding realization; without experience, knowledge is dry. From the day we were born until now, we’ve all been dry, and if we don’t actualize the teachings, don’t gain experience, we’ll remain dry until the day we die. Dry, like dry wood.

However, as I talk about the relative nature of your own mind, don’t think, “Oh, my mind is garbage; I’m the worst person on earth.” Instead of thinking in that way, realize that “It’s incredible. I’m not the only one with such problems. All other living beings in the universe have them too.”

Now I’m sure that there have been times in your life when you’ve thought, crying emotionally, “I want to make my life worthwhile; I want to help others.” That’s ridiculous; it’s so emotional. If you really want to help others, the way to think is, “First I need to realize the nature of my own mind and how to stop human problems. Then I’ll really know how to help others.”

If you don’t understand your own problems and know how to help yourself, how can you possibly think you can help others? You’re just being emotional: no wisdom, no method; you’re just joking.

First realize your own situation: “It’s not just me; countless beings on this earth are in the same situation, full of misconceptions, and, as a result, are greatly conflicted both physically and mentally.” Our minds are full of conflict and when that mental energy transmutes into the physical level, our bodies also get sick. In that way, all sickness comes from a diseased mind; the sick mind manifests as a sick body.

So the way to expand love and compassion is to first understand yourself; then you can relate to all other living beings. That’s good. The problem is that much of the time we don’t even have compassion for ourselves, we don’t comprehend ourselves, so how can we then have love and compassion for others? It’s impossible. Even if we say we love others, it’s just words, emotion. We say, “I love you,” but true love first has to be for you. You have to know your own situation, what you are. This leads to sincere love for yourself, and from that, sincere love for others. Without doing it that way, you’re joking.

Most of the time what you call love is selfish; it’s purely attachment. Also, although sometimes your meditation might not be attachment, most of the time it is also selfish, attachment. Check up; really check up. I’m not joking; I haven’t come here to joke. It’s true. As long as you grasp at something concrete and cling tightly to your own comfort, it’s still selfish, even though you think you’re a meditator on a spiritual trip. It’s still selfish.

Why am I talking about this, emphasizing this? Because even if you’re a meditator, as long as you’re seeking something concrete for yourself, it has the psychological effect of making you easily frustrated. Even if you’re on a spiritual trip, it’s still self-cherishing. In other words, you still have the conceptualization, ego’s fixed idea, “I’m this, my realization is that,” which has nothing whatsoever to do with true realization.

So it’s worthwhile for you to realize your own situation and the way you live. This is not just some philosophical point of view. Check how your life is, how you think, what sort of mistakes you make and how your misconceptions are related to what you experience. Analyze how all that happens and how it’s related to attachment. By realizing that, instead of then worrying about your own problems you can see that all universal living beings are in the same situation. Then automatically, intuitively, love and compassion ensue. With such understanding, even your greatest enemy can become a good friend - yesterday you didn’t even want to see him but today he appears beautiful to you. It’s true, because it’s all your projection.

Actually, when you look at other people and think, “She’s ugly, she’s good; he’s ugly, he’s bad,” it’s totally your own mental projection. Who on this earth is absolutely good? Who? Please tell me. Who, in London, is absolutely beautiful? Who is absolutely ugly? There’s nobody you can point to, for sure. You check up on that. It’s interesting, isn’t it?

I’m talking about scientific fact, not something you have to believe in. If you really believe that there’s something in London that’s absolutely beautiful, please prove it to me scientifically. You can’t. The thing is, we always accept things too easily; we never check. We call that kind of attitude sluggishness; its nature is absence of intensive knowledge-wisdom.

Notes
² Lama may have been referring to the conflict in Lebanon, which had started just a few months earlier. [Return to text]
³ A thangka is a Tibetan religious painted scroll. [Return to text]
⁴ He was in the news around this time. From his website: 31 May 1975: a record crowd of over 90,000 at Wembley Stadium in London, England, watched as Evel crashed upon landing, breaking his pelvis after clearing 13 double-tiered buses. He died 30 November 2007. [Return to text]
⁵ Editor: For several years I thought Lama was trying to say “sense gratification attachment” and would try to correct him (to no avail) but eventually it became clear to me that he knew exactly what he was saying and meant the irresistible gravitational pull that objects of attachment have upon our mind. [Return to text]
⁶ The five skandhas, or aggregates, are the five psycho-physical constituents that make up a sentient being: form, feeling, discrimination, compositional factors and consciousness. [Return to text]

wisdomeye SG

Mantra
Mantra has the power to separate your body, speech and mind from ordinary, mundane thought. The vibration of a mantra can automatically unify the split, scattered mind into single-pointedness. Reciting a mantra can focus your mind into the here and now rather than leaving it to run all over the place as it usually does. So that’s very useful and is one of the reasons we recite mantras.

The mantra of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha is TA YA THA OM MUNÉ MUNÉ MAHA MUNAYE SOHA. OM means magnificent knowledge-wisdom and power and MUNÉ MUNÉ MAHA MUNAYE contains three meanings: control, great control, greatest control, or conquest, great conquest, greatest conquest. We all need to control or conquer our uncontrolled mind, don’t we? We don’t need to conquer other sentient beings; we need to conquer our own uncontrolled mind. The connotation of the mantra is along those lines. So it’s very useful.

[Lama and the students recite the mantra three times.]

If all negative actions and unhappy feelings come from false conceptions, then the only way to overcome these actions and feelings is to purify and release our false conceptions by perceiving the right view. Perceiving the right view is not something that can just be done instinctively. It takes time to develop right conceptions and perceive the right view.

Meditation
In order to awaken, or become conscious, we need to practice meditation. We tend to think we’re conscious most of the time but actually we’re not; we’re unconscious. Check up; really check up. But by gradually developing our meditation practice we slowly, slowly integrate our mind with reality.

Also, when we meditate we often encounter obstacles to our practice and experience much trouble and frustration. The fundamental character or absolute nature of our mind is clean clear - we call this nature clear light - but relatively it is obscured by misconceptions and other hindrances that prevent us from seeing reality. It’s like the sky obscured by clouds - when a strong gust of wind comes and blows away the clouds, the underlying clear blue sky is revealed. It’s the same thing with our mind. Therefore, when we try to meditate, we encounter hindrances and lack of clarity and find it very difficult to concentrate single-pointedly on an object. When this happens, instead of getting disappointed we should employ the methods contained in Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism to purify our mind.

When our meditation is not going smoothly we should not push. The mind is like a baby; babies don’t like to be pushed - we have to treat them differently. Instead of pushing them we have to play with them in a psychologically skillful way. Then they’re OK.

Similarly, we have to play a little with our mind. When it becomes impossible to meditate, we shouldn’t push. Instead, we should just leave our mind where it is and do some purification practice. This will decrease obstacles and make our mind more powerful.

Unfortunately, many people do try to force it. This just makes them aggressive and frustrated and angry with their friends: “I don’t like you this morning; I didn’t have a good meditation. Instead of making me calm and clear it made me uptight.” Such people don’t have skillful wisdom; they don’t know how to integrate their practice.

Also, every time you meditate, cultivate bodhicitta and totally dedicate your practice to others: “It doesn’t matter whether my meditation is good or bad, I’m not doing it for me, I’m doing it solely for the benefit of other sentient beings.” If you have that kind of dedicated mind, even if your meditation is not that good, you’re not disappointed; you’re secure in the knowledge that whatever you did was for the benefit of others. Then, even if you’re not successful, you’re still relaxed. You know that you tried your best and that your attitude - concern for others rather than the selfish “I’m miserable, I want to be happy, therefore I’m going to meditate” - is the most important thing. If you meditate with self-cherishing and it doesn’t work, you get really disappointed.

Therefore, before you meditate or do any action, actually, it’s incredibly important to dedicate it to others by cultivating bodhicitta. Take going to work, for instance. Most people in this country work for a boss, so before you go to work you should dedicate, “May my life today be beneficial for others.” That’s the way to avoid frustration. If your motivation is selfish, concern for only your own pleasure, your work is always troublesome; your mind is sick, not happy. You get uptight with your supervisors.

These are important points. Don’t think that only sitting in meditative concentration is important. It is important but it’s not everything. All the time, no matter what you’re doing - meditating, working, walking down the street, cooking, making soup - always try to have good motivation. If your motivation is pure you can take all those actions into the path to liberation. It’s possible.

Otherwise, even if you do meditate, if your motivation is wrong, the action too becomes wrong. Even if you go to church or the temple, if you go with a negative mind, it’s a waste of time; it’s not even a religious action; it’s purely samsaric.

Perhaps you don’t know what samsara means. It’s a Sanskrit word, but that doesn’t matter; don’t worry about the word. It refers to worldly, mundane things. In Tibetan, it’s khorwa, which means circle, or cyclic. However, I don’t have time here to explain Buddhist philosophical terms. If you want to learn that sort of thing you’ll have to go to university. Since our time together here is so short, I just want to talk on the practical level.

Try this simple experiment for yourself. Next time somebody asks you for a cup of tea or coffee, check to see how you feel within. Often you’ll find that at your heart there’s a background buzz of irritation, so even though you say, “Yes, OK,” you don’t mean it; selfish motivation makes you insincere. Since you don’t have a mind dedicated to others, even though you bring the person their tea, you’re unhappy about having to do it; you do it begrudgingly.

If your mind were dedicated, you’d be happy to serve others. You wouldn’t be psychologically bothered. You’d bring the tea or coffee joyfully, seeing even this small act as worthwhile, as a step on the path to liberation. It’s not that the tea or coffee is so good; it’s your sincere motivation, wanting to help others, that gives you much pleasure to serve them and makes you happy.

This is simple human psychology, not something religious or fabricated. It’s the psychological effect of dedication to others.

Actually, we know all this from our own life experiences. Trouble between wife and husband, husband and wife, boyfriend and girlfriend and girlfriend and boyfriend . . . all these things come from the selfish mind. You know - if you’re selfish you have trouble in your relationships.

And it’s not a question of intelligence: “Oh, I’m intelligent, I have to get angry.” If you check more deeply you’ll see it’s totally selfcherishing and attachment that are involved.

If the mind is dedicated, a wife is totally dedicated to helping her husband and a husband is totally dedicated to helping his wife. If you have the attitude, “I want to help you” rather than “I want you to help me,” you’ll have no trouble.

Look at the unconditional loving kindness a mother has for her only son. Even if he does stupid things, she still thinks he’s good; she thinks, “He’s so cute - look at what he does.” Actually, what he does is stupid, but the reason it gives his mother pleasure is because she sees him in such a positive light and has so much love for him that she wants everything he does to be good and projects good onto even the stupid things he does. If somebody else were to do the same things she wouldn’t like them at all. It’s all to do with her motivation. You check up - I’m sure my example is apt.

You can see how different mental attitudes affect people’s behavior and the way they interpret things. If you actualize bodhicitta meditation - train your mind in totally dedicating yourself to other sentient beings - nobody will trouble you. It’s true; I’m not joking. Nobody will make trouble for you. And you will see others as beautiful; nothing will appear ugly or make you uptight. The reason you get uptight at the moment is because your schizophrenic, neurotic mind projects negativity onto objects.

You’ll see that both Buddhism and Christianity talk about heaven and hell, but the connotations are quite different. Buddhism holds that there is no such heavenly place externally existent, but when an individual’s mind has developed and completely released all ordinary conceptualizations of the I, the ego, then whatever that person perceives - the whole earth, all human beings - becomes transcendentally beautiful; for that person, that view is heaven.

You can understand that, can’t you? I’m talking in psychological terms. You don’t have to necessarily believe that heaven or hell are out there waiting for you, but you can easily understand how the polluted projections of ordinary mundane thought make you miserable and through releasing such conceptualizations you can develop a healthy mind and perceive a perfect view. It’s so logical; I’m talking about this in the logical sense, not in some higher metaphysical way.

It’s incredible, really: if you put the things you learn into action, if you put your meditation into practice, everything you perceive in your entire life enhances your wisdom; everything that appears to you increases your understanding. If you don’t put what you learn into action, even if Jesus or Lord Buddha were to manifest before you right now and give you teachings, it wouldn’t help that much. Just because Jesus and Lord Buddha are high beings doesn’t mean your mind would automatically open in their presence. No - you have to develop it yourself. That’s why Lord Buddha said that it’s your own positive actions that lead you to enlightenment and your own negative actions that bring you down.

Because of their scientific education and understanding of progressive evolution, Westerners often find it difficult to accept that a human being can become an animal. They think such regression to be impossible. Actually, it’s possible. As I said before, the sick mind can manifest at the physical level; this is the same thing. It doesn’t matter that you look like a human being - your mind can degenerate such that you behave worse than an animal. The mental energy generated in that way can later transform at the physical level and come to occupy an animal body. That’s possible.

But don’t think that this means your human body somehow changes into an animal body. I’m not saying that. When your consciousness separates from your present human body, since it contains the energy of the animal mind, that mental energy transforms into an animal body.

However, right action and wrong action are determined by right thought and wrong thought: right wisdom leads to right actions; wrong conceptions lead to wrong actions.

If we put the energy of the human body, speech and mind in the right direction, it is so powerful. The problem is that our life has no direction and that’s why our energy is fragmented. Check up on how your life is right now - does it have direction? If not, you’re wasting all the energy of your body, speech and mind.

Therefore you need the discriminating knowledge-wisdom to distinguish between right and wrong. In order to develop that, you have to understand your mind and know how positive and negative minds arise. Since all actions arise from the mind, without checking your mind, how can you determine the nature of your actions?

Anyway, it is very useful to seek the right view, the ultimate reality of your nature, through meditation. And you also need to understand your relative nature, which is extremely uncontrolled, ignorant of reality, full of wrong conceptions, and the source of all frustration and suffering. Once you do, you should then extend that understanding to all universal living beings, even the insects around you now. Meditate, right now, understanding that all living beings in the universe, not just the beings in your immediate vicinity, are in the same situation as you are - their relative nature intoxicated by attachment - and generate much love and compassion for them all.

Guided meditation
Seeing that you and all other universal living beings are in exactly the same situation, ask yourself, “How can I best help others?” Check: is giving them bread, candy or chocolate the best way to help? That’s ridiculous, isn’t it? That’s an insufficient way of helping because living beings’ problems with their uncontrolled mind do not come from a lack of bread; their problems derive from a lack of knowledge-wisdom - not understanding what they are or how they exist, relatively or absolutely.

It doesn’t matter whether one person is wealthy, another is poor, one is beautiful, another ugly or one is dancing, another is not - in fact, all beings are equal in experiencing suffering caused by false conceptions. They’re equally the same in this: king, queen and pauper. As long as misconceptions and the polluted conceptualization of I, ego, rule their mind, they’re equally the same. Eastern or Western, there’s no difference; it doesn’t matter. They’re all equally the same: they all want happiness and don’t want suffering. But because their actions are driven by misconception, even though all they want is happiness, all they get is suffering. So it’s misconceptions that are the biggest obstacle to freedom and inner joy.

Also think: these misconceptions are just temporary obstacles - momentary, transient. It’s possible for all beings to totally transcend these obstacles and reach the everlasting peaceful inner freedom of liberation.

Now visualize Lord Buddha. Actually, what is Buddha? Buddha is universal compassion and omniscient knowledge-wisdom, which is in the nature of everlasting peace and joy. So visualize that that wisdom mind manifests in front of you as the radiant light body of Lord Buddha. If you can’t visualize Lord Buddha you can just see me here in front of you. From the crown of the head of Lord Buddha (or Lama Yeshe), a powerful stream of radiant white light emanates, enters the crown of your head and passes down your central channel like an extremely strong waterfall into your heart. This purifies all the impurities of your body’s nervous system.

Then, from Lord Buddha’s (or Lama Yeshe’s) throat, a powerful beam of radiant red light emanates and enters your throat, purifying all your impurities of speech, such as telling lies and creating disunity between people.

Then, from Lord Buddha’s (or Lama Yeshe’s) heart, a powerful beam of radiant blue light emanates and enters your heart, filling it with blissful, joyful energy and purifying all your false conceptions. Your entire bodily nervous system and mind are completely filled with blissful radiant light.

Concentrate on feeling the unity of you and these lights that have entered you.

Dedication
Thank you very much. Now dedicate the merit of having done this meditation. What does that mean? Whatever we do, there’s some kind of mental energy generated. Even though we don’t see this at the physical level, it’s there. Merit is the kind of energy generated by positive actions, such as the meditation we just did. So instead of thinking, “Oh, I just meditated; how good I am,” and building our ego, we should direct our positive energy to the benefit of others. That is very useful.

We can’t be certain of how we’re going to be - sometimes we’re up, sometimes we’re down. And sometimes we get angry and anger destroys our positive energy, our merit. That’s like spending time cleaning a room and when you’re finished throwing dirt all over it. We meditate, making our mind clean, clean, clean, and then we get angry and foul it all up again.

So dedicating our merit protects it from destruction by anger and in that way we don’t waste our energy. Dedication is also useful in that our meditation becomes not for pleasing our ego but for benefiting others and bringing us to enlightenment, or inner freedom. Actually, that should be our only purpose for meditating; we should not be doing it for pride: “I’m that, this, this, this.” Being somebody is not important.

[Lama chants the dedication prayer: Ge-wa di-yi....⁷]

Actually, it’s not necessary to chant a prayer; a prayer is not the words. You have to know that. We use words when we pray but the actual prayer is not the words. In fact, prayer is in the mind.

Dedication is a form of psychological treatment. Many times, after we have done something religious or meditated - or even after some mundane activity - we feel proud: “I did this, I did that.” We’re so proud of what we did.

There’s no reason to be proud. Pride is a symptom of the sick mind. Therefore, instead of feeling proud, we should dedicate everything we do to the benefit of other sentient beings, to bring them into everlasting peaceful enlightenment. If we do that, then psychologically, we won’t feel proud; there won’t be that strong feeling of “I did something.”

For example, say a husband works and his wife stays home. When he comes home he can feel resentful: “I’m so tired. I worked hard all day; all you did was stay home and do nothing.” He puts on a big show that he did this tremendous job but actually, there’s no reason for him to show off. Going to work and doing his job is his duty.

It’s the same thing when we meditate; there’s no reason to show off to others: “Oh, I just did this great thing.” Just totally dedicate your actions to others as much as possible. Then there’s no sick reaction of pride. Otherwise, we do these things and all we get is more mental illness.

Dedication is something practical we can do for others; it’s not just some empty Tibetan custom.

Notes
⁷ Due to the merits of these virtuous actions
May I quickly attain the state of a guru-buddha
And lead all living beings without exception
Into that enlightened state.

wisdomeye SG

Earlier we did a meditation for training our mind in detachment by giving away all our possessions, including our body, to other sentient beings. This time we’re going to do the same thing, sending all sentient beings all our goodness - our knowledge-wisdom, good qualities and positive energy.

Technically, the way we do this is to mentally transform all this goodness into white light and, as we exhale through our right nostril, send this light into others’ left nostril. As they breathe in it enters their heart and they experience an extremely joyful feeling.

Then, when you breathe in, inhale all others’ sickness and problems in the form of smoky black energy - it leaves their right nostril, enters your left nostril and goes into your heart. This is the kind of negative energy and suffering that your association of ego and attachment completely dislikes. For countless lives, and even in this one from the time you were born up to now, you have been trying to avoid such problems as much possible, always obsessed with goodness for yourself, I. So this time, bring all that negativity into your heart; it completely mashes your ego and attachment. They freak out - let them freak out.

Totally changing the attitude of your ego-attachment’s attitude is very useful because the personality of attachment is limitless want: “I want every pleasure the universe has to offer.” And at all costs, attachment wants to avoid any unpleasant feelings whatsoever. So this time we act in completely the opposite way. Without the slightest hesitation, we send all our goodness, wisdom and joyful life energy - all our positive physical, mental and verbal energy - to others. We exhale through our right nostril and send joyful, blissful white light energy into all other beings’ left nostril without discrimination - not just our dear friend; all living beings in the universe.

Then bring their biggest problems, those that you don’t even like to see, let alone experience, in through your left nostril into your heart, where they smash into your ego and attachment, which completely vanish as a result; your ego completely freaks out.

Normally your ego’s attitude is such that if somebody who is not a friend barges uninvited into your house, you freak out: “How dare you come in without knocking?” Compared to your heart, this is nothing! So visualize bringing all sentient beings’ problems and sickness through your left nostril into your heart.

We call this kind of meditation tong-len. Tong means giving; len means taking. And we also say lung wai gyö par cha. Lung means breath: to give and take together with breathing.

In summary, send all your goodness, the positive energy of your body, speech and mind, your mental control, whatever, out on your breath through your right nostril. It enters others’ left nostril and goes down to their heart, which completely fills with joyous energy. Rejoice. Then bring others’ worst diseases and psychological problems - everything your ego dislikes - in the form of black smoke, in on your breath through your left nostril into your heart.

Perhaps you find it difficult to bring sickness and so forth into your heart. However, visualize old people in the West, many of whom are like vegetables, suffering greatly in nursing homes; they don’t know what’s going on. Send them positive energy. Think of all the people dying of hunger and thirst - such things do exist in the West, even though there might be supermarkets full of food nearby; because of their individual situation, many people still go hungry. Think about wars: thousands of people killing, thousands of others dying. Send your positive vibrations to all people suffering like this. Visualize that your positive energy enters dead people’s bodies and they come back to life; take all their bad karma and its results in the form of black light in through your left nostril into your heart.

Even with your dearest friend, the situation can arise where you have to make the choice, “There’s no way out, either my friend has to suffer or I do.” When it comes to that point, even though intellectually you say, “I will take any suffering for your happiness,” when the actual situation arises your self-cherishing is going to make the decision for you. Check up; be honest: you’re going to choose happiness for yourself and let your friend suffer.

Normally we consider ourselves clever and intelligent because we know how to avoid disease and things like that. We feel so superior. Actually, it’s just attachment - obsession with pleasure and aversion to the unpleasant. This is not a good attitude. Of course, avoiding disease and so forth in order to remain healthy and use your life for the benefit of others is OK but doing so with self-cherishing is not.

So this time, bring others’ sickness into your heart. Let your ego freak out; let your attachment freak out. And when you do this meditation, from the psychological point of view it’s especially important to watch how your ego reacts to your bringing others’ sickness into your heart. Transform others’ TB, cancer and so forth into black light and bring it through your left nostril into your heart and check how your ego likes it. You’ll find there’s a tremendous ego reaction when you do this.

Again, consider old people in the West. They’re incredibly miserable. They don’t have any mind training to help them understand themselves; they have no meditation with which they can keep their mind together. I’ve seen this myself; this is my scientific experience. When people in the West get old they become incredibly miserable, much more so than old people in the East. This is going to happen to all of us as long as we don’t die. At the moment we don’t even want to see old people’s faces but every day we ourselves are getting closer to having that kind of face.

Think about it: if all of a sudden your face became that of a onehundred-year-old person, do you think your ego would freak out? Check up now; it’s possible, not a dream. The potential is there. Every day you’re getting closer to having an old person’s face.

However, if we train our mind in releasing attachment and developing detachment, even if we get old we’ll have no problem; we’ll be able to deal with the situation and comprehend our own mind. Even though physically we may be one hundred years old, our mind will remain young, like that of a child. It’s possible. This is the power of the human mind . . . and we can progress the human mind into everlasting peaceful, joyful realization, whatever you call it: nirvana, enlightenment, salvation - it doesn’t matter; they’re just words. What matters is that you can gain insight into ultimate reality. That’s so worthwhile. Therefore, mind training is extremely important. Those who have trained their mind can deal with any bad situation that arises, transform it into joyful energy and in that way always have a joyful life. Irrespective of whether the world is up or down, they always remain joyful.

So really bring what you normally don’t like to even hear about into your heart and check how your ego reacts; examine how you feel. Tibetan lamas do twenty-one repetitions of this meditation, sending out their good qualities to others on their breath through their right nostril and bringing in others’ bad qualities, sickness and any other problems in the form of black light through their left nostril into their heart, and check how their ego reacts.

At the same time they make the following determination: “For countless lives, and even from when I was born up to now, I have always grasped at temporal pleasure. With a grasping attitude and the self-cherishing thought I’ve wanted the best happiness for myself and tried to avoid all suffering. I now recognize this as the main psychological problem behind all my mistaken actions. As long as I don’t change, as long as I don’t do something about this, I’ll continually experience unhappiness and miserable reactions. Real everlasting joy and true happiness are beyond the attachment of the self-cherishing thought, so for the rest of my life, as much as I possibly can, I’m going to put all my energy into releasing attachment and the self-cherishing thought. This is my main path to real liberation, inner freedom and enlightenment.”

Feeling equilibrium with all universal living beings is really powerful, as is the experience of sending all your goodness to others and bringing into yourself all their sickness and problems. The result you get is incredible joy; your mind is really balanced and you enter the middle path. Attachment and hatred are exaggerated extremes, so if you can stay on the middle way between them and deal with people from there, it’s really worthwhile and most beneficial, because most of our problems arise from dealing with other human beings.

More shortcomings of attachment
Check up: Lord Buddha said that we should not be attached to even the realizations of nirvana or enlightenment. He also said that it’s wrong for his followers to be dogmatically attached to his doctrine, that that’s another type of psychological sickness or disease.

That’s incredible, isn’t it? Most of the time we think, “My idea’s good,” but if somebody says, “Your idea is bad,” we freak out. That’s attachment. Lord Buddha said, “I don’t want any of my disciples to be attached to concepts, such as the highest goal of enlightenment or any of my other philosophies or doctrines.” Also, in Tibetan Buddhist tantric yoga there are vows forbidding us to criticize the doctrine of any other religion. Can you imagine? Lord Buddha has us take vows against that; it’s incredible. This is a fantastically skillful method and shows how wonderfully well he understood human psychology. Unbelievable, isn’t it?

I mean, worldly people are going to say, “My idea is best,” and if you contradict them they freak out. That’s because of their attachment; they’re not realistic. Lord Buddha says that instead of freaking out, don’t have attachment in the first place, because as long as you’re attached to your religious ideas and philosophies you’re setting yourself up for inner conflict, and that will destroy your inner peace and joy.

Therefore we should take the middle path and avoid extreme views as much as we can. That’s the real path, the true path to liberation, enlightenment or whatever you call it; the words don’t matter. If you reach beyond attachment and self-cherishing I can guarantee that your life will be free of physical and mental problems and there’s no way that you’ll engage in mistaken actions - the door to suffering will forever be closed. But whenever you open the door of attachment and self-cherishing you also open the door to all problems.

The greatest human problems are actually rebirth, aging and death, but if you are free of attachment you can even die with much pleasure; dying is like going home. If you die with attachment to your material possessions, friends and reputation, your death will be miserable; if you don’t have attachment you’ll have an incredible death; your experience of dying will be blissful, joyful.

Really, Buddhism teaches us how to die. Buddhist education starts at the beginning of life and continues all the way through to its end; it’s a total experience. Actually, it’s not that difficult; it’s easy. If you have the skillful method and wisdom to release attachment and self-cherishing your life will always be happy. You don’t need to pretend; it will be natural. Happiness will be natural; control will be natural - you won’t have to pretend.

If you plant a seed it’s natural that it will grow. Similarly, if you plant the seeds of the knowledge-wisdom solution to releasing attachment, it will automatically develop. That’s why I always say that the human mind is very powerful - positively powerful and negatively powerful. You can direct it either way; it’s flexible. The energy of the human mind is not fixed.

You can see how the energy of attachment and selfishness is like a needle in your heart; when you release it you feel incredible joy. You lose that uptight tendency in your heart and you’re physically relaxed.

The benefits of meditation
Through meditation we can really reach a state of everlasting joy, so if we don’t do something to get there we’re really foolish, aren’t we? And we can reach that joyful state without having to spend any money. But we forget that and instead get overly concerned with material things and, exaggerating their value, run after sense objects of attachment. We’re totally unrealistic.

Do a comparative check: which offers you more, material things or knowledge-wisdom? Of course, material things do give you some level of comfort, but if you spend all your life working only for them, when you die you end up with nothing. On the other hand, if you spend your time developing knowledge-wisdom and releasing attachment and self-cherishing, it’s incredibly powerful - your whole life becomes content. Even if the earth goes up into the sky and the sun and moon crash down to earth, no matter how much the external world changes, control and wisdom are always with you. Material things always cheat you - sometimes they’re there, sometimes they’re not. Many rich people die hungry. It’s never certain; money is no insurance or guarantee against hunger. I think you know that, but it’s important. Really check up, seriously.

So for at least a short time every day, compare the benefits of chasing materials with those of developing your mind. You have plenty of time to do so. You just need to meditate and train your mind for ten minutes, twenty minutes, half an hour every day in the meditation techniques we’ve been teaching you here. These practices are incredibly powerful. In just a short time you can produce such joyful energy in your heart. That’s much more worthwhile than running after transitory samsaric pleasures, which simply bring one miserable, useless result after another.

The potential for pleasure and joy is already within your mind; you don’t need money to buy it. Anyway, you can’t buy that kind of joy; it’s already there within you. If you use that energy skillfully it will always be with you. Whether you go up into the sky or down into the ground, it will always come with you. Material possessions are the exact opposite.

Meditating is also much easier than going to the supermarket. You probably think I’m exaggerating, but think about it. Going to the supermarket is not necessarily that easy. First, you can’t walk; you have to go by car. Then, maybe your car doesn’t work. Anyway, you know; I don’t have to go into details. There can be all kinds of difficulty in getting to and from the supermarket. Check up. In contrast, a short meditation can immediately relax you and keep you consciously aware all day. That’s really worthwhile. It can bring you everlasting joy. Physically you may be old but mentally you can be experiencing an incredibly joyful awakened state of mind. It’s so worthwhile. We’re all going to get old but we can make sure that when we do, our life will still be joyful. It’s possible and therefore so worthwhile that we abandon collecting garbage with attachment, which is so unreasonable.

However, I’d like you to check up for yourselves; I’m not trying to push my ideas onto you. You’re intelligent, so check up for yourselves. Actually, Western people aren’t that easy. You have much learning but you’ve also picked up a lot of garbage. But now you can look into that garbage and learn from it; you have much experience to check on. It’s much more difficult to teach primitive people the things we’re talking about here; they find it much harder to understand subjects that Westerners find easy.