In fact, the French philosopher, Pascal—I
like this very much—he once said: “All of men’s difficulties—” I mean in those
days they used to say ‘men’ anyway. They also mean women—“All of men’s difficulties
are caused by his inability to sit quietly in a room by himself.” You understand? “All of men’s difficulties are caused
by his inability to sit quietly in a room by himself.” Trouble with us in the modern world, we do
too much. We speak far too much. We think too much and we don’t have time
ourselves. In fact sometimes I think it’s very interesting
in the modern world that, you know, sign of success is “I’m very busy. I’m busy, I don’t have time. I’m always, you know…” Actually, it’s not success; it’s failure. Real success is if you have leisure. Most important is you have time for yourself
and spend well. And what we’ve done we’re doing, doing
but we’ve, we have forgotten how to be with ourselves. We’ve lost the sense of being. In fact I always tell my students we are scattered
everywhere and nobody’s at home. We miss ourselves. We always look externally for all stimulations,
you know, but remain ourselves alone. You become lonely, you become, you know, you
fill your life. See, there are two things: loneliness and
aloneness. Aloneness is like the solitude that is wonderful,
that great meditators, yogis, hermits have that, which brings such profound peace, you
know, that aloneness. That we, we have not found, we have not, we’ve
not come to terms with ourselves. In fact I always say, you see, I told people,
you know, if you’re afraid of dying, I tell them, “Don’t worry. You will all die successfully.” So then why are we afraid of dying? Because when we die, that’s the moment of
truth. We need to face ourselves. Fear of death is not looking at ourselves. That’s why among the Christian contemplatives
they say, “Momento mori”, “Remember that you have to die.” If you remember that we must die we might
then realize what life is. In fact death is like a mirror in which the
true meaning of life is reflected. Death is one of the greatest teachers. In fact in the Christianity and Buddhist—contemplative
monks, one of the most important focal point for practitioners is about meditating on—meditating
on impermanence and death. In fact meditating on impermanence or death
is like similar to meditating on God. So meditation’s bringing the mind home. Meditation is a process of coming to know
one’s mind. In fact, there are so many meditations these
days but on a deeper level meditation is coming to know one’s nature of mind. On a beginning level, the essence of meditation
is the state of non-distraction and as beginning meditation is about stability of mind through
the practice… You see, meditation’s good for stabilizing
because in an unstable world stability is really it can bring. See the most important thing is to be open. OK, can you try to now sit a little bit, practise
with me. If you wish. Be, most important, be spacious. Body—a great master said—body on your seat,
mind in your body—mind in your body, body in relaxation. To be open, spacious. In fact the main point, the ultimate point
is to go beyond our ordinary mind into the state of transcendence, into the sky-like
nature of mind. The amazing thing is while still being in
this world we can elevate our mind through that state where we can see things, view things
with our awareness in a very special way. When you have the awareness of awareness then
even when we have anger, even negative emotions come, if we have the awareness of awareness,
anger can rise but we will not act. Do you understand? I think the main thing I wanted
to share with you is that, main thing is the bring your mind to a different level. In fact drop your mind. The trouble with us we don’t leave mind
alone. We’re always thinking, thinking, thinking. Leave your mind alone. It’s a bit like people who know how to—I,
I don’t know how to ride bicycles so I’m fascinated with people who know how to ride
bicycles. People who know how to ride bicycles. I tried to ride and I fell down many times. Now I don’t even try. I’m past it. But now, whereas those people who know how
to ride bicycles, the moment they get on the bicycle they don’t have to think about the
balance, isn’t it? They have the balance in them. That’s the thing! The main thing of meditation is the balance
of the mind, the equipoise, it’s called nyam sha in Tibetan, equipoise. Khyentse Rinpoche always used to say sem ma
chöpa nyampa sha, leave your mind unaltered, in the state of equipoise, equipoise,
the way you leave your mind unaltered meaning without any manipulation or contrivance. Leave it in its own natural state. The more and more you leave your mind in its
natural state, the more and more it becomes more natural, the more and more you arrive
at the ultimate nature, the more and more your mind becomes purified. And
the more and more your mind gets purified, it affects your being also. The, the way your mind is or the way, when
you really, the whole point of the thing is it’s not about just meditating when you
meditate on your cushion but in everyday life. Integration, integration. You need to impact on everyday life, the way
you are. As I drink this, this is meditation. In fact, it is said that as long as you’re
not distracted, you’re mindful and aware, then whatever you do is meditation, the great
masters say. In fact there’s a famous story about a Zen
master, when the student asked him, “Master, how do you practise enlightenment in everyday life?” The master said, “By eating and by sleeping.” The student said, “But master, everybody
sleeps, everybody eats,” whereupon the master said, “But everybody doesn’t eat when
they eat; everybody doesn’t sleep when they sleep.” From there a famous Zen saying comes: I eat
when I eat; I sleep when I sleep. You’re completely in the action 100 per
cent. You understand? And almost like 100 per cent there but without
‘I’, without the ego, without the grasping, just pure action, pure being, pure eating,
pure drinking. Not xxx. Pure, pure, pure at whatever you do. Even when you do movements, meditation. Everyday. Dudjom Rinpoche used to say: “Leave the
seeing in the seeing. Leave the hearing in the hearing. Leave the thinking in the thinking.” Leave them in its natural state, in a spacious… When we remain that what happens, then something
deep thing happens. Like—it’s like you go beyond the clouds,
reach the sky-like nature of mind and out of that shines forth this extraordinary sun
with the tremendous light of wisdom and the warmth of love and compassion deep within,
from that the love and compassion grows. More and more integrate that in your, not
only your meditation but in everyday life, in every action. That’s why the great masters say: never,
never separate everyday life with your meditation. Trouble is if you separate everyday with your
meditation, you just say, “When I practise then what happens? I’m practising,” you start to practise
and then like from upstairs your neighbour or your wife or somebody flushes the toilet
and you can scream, saying, “I’m meditating. Can’t you keep quiet?” and then, you know,
like you become very tense about it. You simply—but whereas if you just take
it as just everyday then whatever, even flushing is meditation, even noise is meditation. When the noise comes, that becomes the object
of your meditation. Every thought becomes meditation. When you use thought as a meditation, what
happens? Thought. It’s like when you have thought as meditation,
it’s like the best experience is that moment you watch thought as your meditation, the
thought dissolves. That’s the best experience. The next best is that if you watch your thoughts
as a meditation, you meditate on thoughts, what happens? Suddenly it’s like watching a movie or a
television. When you watch a movie, television, there
are a lot of things going on on the screen but you’re not in the movie, isn’t it? It’s like when you start watching meditation
then you’ll be a little bit separated from your thought. That brings that space. So what we need is space, inner space, inner
freedom. Clear? And very much integrating that in everyday
life. In fact more and more when you practise, what
happens, the grasping dissolves, grasping mind dissolves, like, you know, that you can
still think, perceive things, there's no longer grasping entering into the perception. It’s a bit like I use the example, you know,
non-stick pans? You fry eggs and thing doesn’t stick. It’s like your mind becomes non-stick. You can view all kinds of things but they
no longer stick. There’s a space between you and you begin
to see things as more like illusory as you realize more. So in the meditation there are two kinds of
meditations. In Tibetan and Buddhism, the first meditation
it’s called shamatha and vipashyana. Shamatha is the first. Shamatha is kind of practice of calm-abiding. It’s mainly a practice of mindfulness, awareness. There two kinds of shamatha: shamatha with
support and with an object, like focusing on the breath, on an image, even thoughts
because Buddha realized that the root or the cause of our problems is distraction so the
antidote to distraction is mindfulness. He taught the practice of mindfulness. Like when you have the mindfulness practice,
focusing on the breath, for example, I use very much the image of Guru Rinpoche, Looks
Like Me. You don’t put 100 per cent on concentration,
because if you do 100 percent on mindfulness
then you know— for example, there’s Buddha’s main disciple
called Ananda, he had a disciple called Shrona. He started meditating. He concentrated too much, he got a headache. Then he was told to relax, he relaxed too
much, fell asleep. So when he was brought to Buddha, asked for
advice, Buddha said, “Well—” he was a musician, he said, “What kind of a—”
he was a vina player, he said, “What kind of string, what kind of string brought the
best sound?” Then he said, “Neither too taut nor too
loose.” Same with the mind. You understand? So therefore when you meditate, only fifteen
per cent focus on the mindfulness on the breath. Very much spaciously and then another fifteen
per cent on awareness, because if there’s no awareness or vigilance, because you may
be mindful but you’ve just fallen asleep. You may be daydreaming, you don’t know,
so therefore fifteen per cent is an awareness that oversees whether you’re mindful or
whether you’re practising or not. Keeps a check, a guard. But then left with fifty percent, fifty per
cent is left abiding spaciously. As the great Zen master, Suzuki Roshi, said:
"The way to control a cow or sheep is to give a big grazing field." So you give your mind space: fifty per cent
abiding spaciously with fifteen per cent mindfulness and fifteen per cent awareness. And as you go, continue to practise, the whole
point of this meditation first is to overcome distraction, you understand? Bring mind together, bring stability. Meditation is very good for bringing stability,
if you practise regularly it will bring more stability in your mind. In fact bring stability, as in one of the
teachings His Holiness the Dalai Lama gave, he said, it, it strengthens your mind so that
mind, your mind becomes more conducive to virtue. Then the main thing is afterward, after a little
while what happens is that, you see, then distractions, you know, like the mind becomes more, distraction
dissolves. The whole point of the essence of this meditation
is the state of non-distraction. When you’re able to remain in the state
of non-distraction, then you’re not, don’t have to focus on the breath, you understand? Or focus on the object, because that’s only
a skilful means. Once you’re able to arrive at the state
of non-distraction then meditation is called shamatha without support. You’re free of the objects, free of the
technique. Instead you remain in the state of non-distraction
while you’re mindful and aware and then whatever you do is meditation. You got it? Whatever… That’s the best meditation. Whatever you, everyday, whatever you do is
meditation. But you have to be in a state of non-distraction. And it’s good to do that before you're beginning,
there you need to do a formal practice because then that will bring your mind to the state
of non-distraction, then everyday what you do is you remain while not being distracted,
remain in a state of, you know, that non-distraction. Then whatever you do, while walking, while
sleeping, while walking, becomes your mediation. Is that clear? I thought that would be helpful. But then, as you continue to do—this practice
is called calm-abiding—as you begin to do, slowly, slowly the grasping tendency begin
to dissolve, because the root cause of all our suffering is grasping. Grasping specially at the false view of yourself,
which is the ego. Ego is the root of all our suffering. Hence therefore the remedy is thinking of
others, cherishing others instead of cherishing yourself. Then finally also to the remedy of realizing
both self and all phenomena are empty of nature, then you become free and bring liberation. That I’m going to, whole Buddhist path of,
you know. Then as your mind becomes free of grasping, then you arrive at what is called beginning
of the glimpse of the vipashyana, you reach the, where there’s no grasping enters into
perception. That’s the kind of what’s called dak mé
tokpé sherab, the wisdom that realizes the egolessness gradually dawns and then from
this, the mind is therefore purified purer and we have deeper insight. Then into then you slowly then you come to
the nature of mind, from there to the nature of mind. Shamatha, vipashyana and then nature of mind. So these are actually very, very precious
teachings I’m sharing with you.
