This is another important point: You may meditate for a while and find that
nothing exciting or drastic or different is happening. You begin to wonder:
"What could actually happen?" So you give up. First you begin to give
up the positions, thinking "What is the point of sitting in these different
positions? They are more uncomfortable and more disturbing than things normally
are for me." Eventually you quit meditating completely. This possibility
definitely exists.
I have personally been giving these instructions to everyone, so you have been
informed of the facts and of the importance of these positions. Other lamas
such as the Venerable Chogyam Trungpa have also emphasized shamatha practice
and given these instructions. The point has been made. For various reasons,
sometimes it is not necessary or skillful to make everything clear.
My sincere hope is that you will learn these things I have explained to you.
I trust in your sincerity, your sense of commitment to the practice, and your
willingness to make genuine use of what has been made available to you.
When you were given the meditation instructions, a jewel was given to you, a
very special jewel that you will find nowhere else. You should use it wisely.
Sometimes there is concern as to whether people really know they have been given
a jewel, or whether they will use it properly. The point here is, yes, it is
a real jewel both inside and outside. It is not a fake. Do not let it get stolen
or leave it somewhere or lose it. Keep it with you all the time. Make it yours,
because it is really precious. You might not get this kind of jewel again.
The jewel has been given to you along with some important guidelines concerning
its true value or benefits, benefits that cannot be compensated for by any other
so called jewels. Keep this point in mind and use it as a stepping-stone to
keep going.
These positions and practices are not just showpieces. They are not peculiar
customs or cultural exhibitions. If they were only that, it could become very
frustrating. If all you were doing was sitting in these positions and trying
to block distractions, you could definitely go crazy. How long could you just
keep blocking your thoughts with nothing happening? How long could you sit like
that?
Do try these positions. Make use of this resource and of the being that you
are. Begin knowing and touching the proper points, and there can be great growth.
If you do not understand these points or relate to them, naturally there will
be no benefit. You would be like a prisoner who was told to go into a particular
cell and sit in a particular way and then was kept in isolation for some period
of time. Instead of calming down and getting better, the prisoner would probably
get worked up to the point of going crazy. Simply being alone in a particular
place and sitting in some kind of position is not enough.
Earlier I mentioned that in your spiritual life, as well as in your material
or mundane life, meditation practice can bring about different levels of benefit
and wisdom and can affect the clarity and tranquility of your mind. It can help
you become a good communicator and can help you relate to your practice with
deeper appreciation, insight, and understanding. You can also relate to your
work with an increased sense of accommodation, openness, and efficiency. If
you can understand how you truly function, and if you can tap into the resourcefulness
of your body and mind, these things can definitely happen in your life.
Walking Meditation
As you may know, the sutras mention both sitting and walking meditation. The
idea of strong mindfulness and awareness runs throughout these teachings. The
traditional instructions are given that "when you are sitting, know you
are sitting, and when you are walking, know you are walking." This refers
to the strong practice of moment-to-moment presence of mind. In the past in
Tibet, though, walking meditation was not popular; in fact, it was not done.
It was the custom then to sit cross-legged on the ground or floor. Maybe this
is one of the benefits of underdevelopment--people were not accustomed to sitting
in comfortable chairs. When they were studying and receiving teachings, they
simply sat cross-legged. When people were meditating and resting the mind with
all the specific positions we discussed, the feet and knees and so forth did
not get tired or present any problems, so walking meditation was not introduced
or encouraged.
Now we seem to be in a time in history when the wisdom of the Buddha can be
applied in many different ways. Different things are important and applicable.
Now people are not as used to sitting cross-legged, and when they sit for a
long time, they get mentally dull and are bothered by pain. Instead of stopping
and not doing meditation at all, it is better to do a combination of sitting
and walking practice. This gives some exercise as well as some possible room
for clarity of mind. The body also gets rested, and between these, whether you
are sitting or walking, the mind becomes clearer. Another important reason walking
meditation can be beneficial is that it is a closer step toward post-meditation,
but without having left the meditation at all. This takes you closer to bringing
meditation, or some sense of meditative momentum, into your ordinary day-to-day
life. This bridging between formal and informal practice seems to be an important
step.
In doing walking meditation practice, the sutras do not specifically describe
where your hands should be and how you should walk. However, from a physical
point of view, to have your hands swinging at your side could be a hindrance
instead of a contribution toward the tranquility of the mind. Therefore we hold
our hands together in front, at the level of the heart, with the palms up and
the right hand on top of the left. This is also a gesture of mindfulness, in
the sense of being collected, so the position seems to be rather appropriate
for this kind of practice.
In supplication prayers to the Buddhas and arhats, it is said they move as if
"walking with the gait of the crane" because of their dignified or
sacred outlook. The Buddhas and arhats are in a state of tremendous tranquility
and have very dignified, well composed outlooks. The walking meditation mirrors
this sort of dignity. We walk by first lifting the heel upward, and then the
rest of the foot, on toward the tip of the toe. Then we take the step, placing
the heel on the ground first and gradually the entire foot. In this way, we
take moderate steps. In addition, as a gesture of turning the wheel of Dharma,
the Buddhas and arhats always go in a clockwise direction, so it seems sensible
and appropriate to incorporate this also. Walking this way, with the right foot
first and proceeding in a clockwise direction, contributes toward a more wholesome
and tranquil state of mind.
Walk with moderate steps at a moderate speed. If you move too slowly, you have
to concentrate too hard on your balance. You get shaky when you take too much
time or lift your foot too high. If you walk fast, it is not much different
from ordinary walking, so walk with a moderate speed.
The Importance of Group Practice
As we all know, when many people do a wholesome activity together, there is
an enormous achievement of something positive, just as when many people make
it a point to do an unwholesome activity together, the result is an enormous
amount of destruction. This principle definitely applies to meditation practice,
and I would like you to keep in mind the importance of group practice. Of course,
we get a general sense of inspiration and support from the presence of each
other, but there is also more than that. In this room, for instance, when one
candle is lit, there is some light and some warmth, but if there are more candles
lit, there is more light and more warmth. In the Buddha's time, there was also
a tremendous emphasis on group gatherings and group attitude. There was a genuine
understanding among everyone involved as to the importance of meditation, and
the attitude was to decisively go ahead and actually do it. With this attitude,
people would make the effort and come together to do practice.
The truth is that if, for instance, five people meditate together, each one
will share the benefit of five people. In spiritual situations as well as ordinary
situations, group cooperation is encouraged because there is greater effectiveness.
Some people may think this cannot be true, because well-known realized beings
such as Milarepa went away by themselves into solitude. If group effort were
so important, perhaps Milarepa would not have left society. However, for Milarepa
it was not that leaving society was important--it was that he was the only one
of his kind. Whether in a group or by himself, he was basically alone in his
uniqueness, determination, insights, and so forth.
If there had been many like Milarepa who came together and did what Milarepa
did, the same realization could have occurred for them also, but there were
not many like him, unfortunately. After Milarepa developed his great realization,
he brought inspiration to others, and he transmitted the teachings with skillful
means. There used to be a saying that wherever Milarepa was, the whole province
(or in fact, all of Tibet) was filled with repas, or cotton-clad yogis. Thousands
of Milarepa's disciples meditated together and went places together like an
army of yogis. With their different realizations, they demonstrated signs of
realization to each other, inspiring each other in that way.
During the time of the great Gampopa, there were often as many as 50,000 people
at one session of practice or teachings. If it had been important for these
people to practice individually in separate places, that could have been arranged
and could have been emphasized. Instead, practicing together was most encouraged,
wherever it was convenient.
Throughout the Buddhist teachings, great emphasis is placed on the importance
of working for the benefit of others. This is important for others, and it is
important for us to be involved with such wholesome activities. We all have
some sense of how important this is, yet at our level, there is not much we
can do for others. What we can do as individuals is very limited. Sometimes
there is perhaps a little something we can do with our speech or with our bodies,
if we can provide something someone needs. We may genuinely have the aspiration
or the desire, but in actuality there is not much benefit we can extend, or
that we know how to extend.
With this in mind, we should realize that the activity of meditating together
and helping each other in a group is definitely the way to start benefiting
others. One of the important benefits of a center for the practice of the Dharma
is providing a place to extend cooperation or participation. Perhaps a person
cannot do much as an individual, but a group can do a lot. The benefit we are
able to extend toward others is equally beneficial to us.
For instance, working together as a group and putting forth all the sincere
effort and actions we can extend and contribute allows us to have visits by
some of the highly realized masters. Many of them are truly a cause of liberation
at sight, which means that seeing them could certainly be the cause for our
ultimately experiencing liberation. This occurs because we are able to connect
with their auspicious aspiration to benefit others. Because of our cooperation
as a group, hundreds of other people are able to come into contact with a great
master and hear and see him. The benefit that is brought about is enormous,
and it is the highest benefit, the highest possible benefit.
Even if you practice by yourself, it is good that you are practicing. If you
are just keeping yourself aloof, though, and not really extending yourself to
others, you are not contributing much benefit. It is very doubtful any teacher
or any great master will be able to fulfill your wishes of coming to visit simply
for your sake alone. Probably there will be more important things for the teacher
to do than just visiting one particular individual.
Suppose you make the effort to go to a certain great teacher to receive instructions.
With these instructions, you come back and work on them. Understanding them
requires a certain wisdom and realizing them requires a great amount of diligence.
However, it is questionable that you will gain much realization. Even if you
do gain some, it is questionable how long it will take you. After gaining these
realizations, you would finally be able to go out and help others, but a long
time would have passed before you had reached that point. Even then, how much
you would be able to do is still questionable.
Therefore, the important thing is to do everything you can for others right
away, and to keep going and expanding on that rather than waiting to be able
to do something really extraordinary at some future time. That future time may
never come. One of the ways in which you realize the most is when you are able
to extend yourself to others. This will make situations thoroughly workable.
We should have a tremendous sense of gratitude and appreciation for the Venerable
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and the Venerable Kalu Rinpoche, who were the main
pioneers in introducing Tibetan Buddhism here in the West. They have gone through
immense hardship and difficulties while starting many centers and emphasizing
the importance of these centers.
As a result of their diligent and compassionate work through the years, many
great teachers--the highest great teachers in the lineage--have been brought
to this country and other parts of the Western world. This also resulted from
their encouraging students to be together and work together. Now the benefit
has been brought into your lives, and you can bring it into the lives of others.
From the beginning, the idea has not been to develop some kind of "groupism"
or some kind of organization separate from the others for the sake of a particular
identity. That has never been the intention or purpose.
The purpose is that if we work together with cooperation and understanding,
whatever benefit we could not extend to others by ourselves, we can extend with
help from others. The benefit we extend to others, and the meritorious accumulation
developing from this, is inexhaustible and unequaled by anything we normally
think of as precious and valuable.
For these reasons, please understand that your efforts and energies together
are always appreciated and that continuing to work in this way is very important.
For instance, at the beginning of the Buddhist path, when refuge is given for
the benefit and enlightenment of all beings without exception, you relate to
the enlightened objects of refuge as the highest inspirations for being able
to benefit others. Having taken this vow and made this commitment, henceforth
you do whatever you can for the purpose of benefiting others. This could be
a cause for feeling a tremendous sense of joy at being able to fulfill the commitment
you have had the good fortune to willingly make.
When you work together in this way, a great deal of goodness is achieved. You
are contributing toward the preservation of the Dharma. You are contributing
to your own realization through meritorious accumulations, which are an inseparable
part of true realization and which are absolutely indispensable for true realization
to take place. You are contributing by benefiting others. You are fulfilling
the wishes of all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas and of your own teachers. In
all ways, when very profound and noble activities are performed, the path is
being followed.
As practitioners, we have certain roles or responsibilities to which we have
to be mindful and alert. In some sense, at this time we are still pioneers.
As such, we are each quite important. Were present something that could make
an enormous difference in the lives of others. Everything makes a difference--the
kind of work we involve ourselves with, the way we present ourselves, as well
as our ability to extend cooperation, accommodation, openness, and generosity.
By developing these qualities in our participation with the centers, we are
not only doing the best things for ourselves, we are also setting a very high-quality
example for others. We are social beings. Influence plays an important role.
We may influence someone in a very wholesome way, and that person may affect
someone else, and so forth. Though we may have started out extending a wholesome
influence on only one person, that influence could expand to many others. From
this point of view, our responsibility for a task has extraordinary importance.
On the other hand, a person may have the sense that "I really need to do
my personal practice, and in terms of working for a group, or making financial
contributions or providing space or time, I cannot make a contribution because
my own practice would suffer. Because of my personal practices, I can't do much."
In one sense, this is preserving the Dharma through practice, but in another
sense, it may also be the cause for its degeneration, because someone else may
think, "Well, this person is supposed to be involved with the practice
but is not extending good things toward others, so why should I?" That
kind of influence may spread, and then maybe only a few people take genuine
responsibility. It is very fortunate for them to be able to do that, but if
there are only a few, it will not be very easy.