by the Venerable Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche
Biographic:
Born in 1955 in the eastern Tibetan Provence of Kham, the Venerable Traleg Kyabgon
Rinpoche was recognized as the 9th incarnation of the Trangu lineage and enthroned
as Abbot of Trangu Monastery. Rinpoche came to Australia in 1980 and established
the Kagyu E-Vam Buddhist Institute in 1982. He regularly conducts courses and
retreats in Victoria and Australia, and travels extensively overseas giving
lectures and seminars on Buddhism.
Buddhist Meditation and Mental Well-being is from his talk at the Mind,
Immunity & Health, 4th Annual International Conference Lorne, Victoria,
Australia - Hosted by The Gawler Foundation 6th March, 1998
Contents:
" Health: Being an Integrated and Fully Developed Person
" Meditation of Tranquility: Getting Touch with Ourselves Properly
" Meditation of Insight
" Meditation of Loving Kindness Health: Being an Integrated and Fully Developed
Person
We are here this weekend to discuss the issue of health generally. But as you
know, when we talk about health, we can talk about it from many different angles,
perspectives, and levels. We can look after our physical well-being, our physical
health by adhering to certain diets, exercise and so forth. We can also think
about psychological health and how to deal with our neuroses, psychological
problems of all kinds, from mild neurose.s or psychotic episodes - one minute
you are a mild mannered person, the next moment you are mad at your husband.
So we also have to look at our own psychological well being. And then there
is the spiritual health, spiritual well-being that should also be addressed.
To be a whole person, to be an integrated, fully developed person, one needs
to be able to take all of these aspects of our being into account. No aspect
of our life as a living being is ignored or left out. We have to look after
our physical well-being, our psychological well-being and more importantly,
our spiritual well-being. Because, according to Buddhism, it is only when we
pay attention to our spiritual well-being that we can truly learn how to be
a total person. Even addressing our physical health, physical or psychological
well-being, it's not enough.
Why? Because we have not dealt with what it is that is really me, the self.
We develop various self-images about ourselves - our body and our psychological
makeup, our personality characteristics, propensities, predilections, and dispositions
- and then we identify with that so strongly that we forget where our original
dwelling place is (Buddhists would call it our spiritual home). We are so busy
running around projecting this image or that image, identifying ourselves as
being this person or that person, that we have lost touch with our own inner
core - the original dwelling place. So basically we are 'out-to-lunch'. Nobody
Home! Seriously, either with our body, we are so obsessed about being too fat
or too skinny, having a large nose, small nose, flat nose! There is this constant
preoccupation with our looks and we are obsessed. The amount of attention that
we pay to our body is actually so obsessive that we end up doing damage to our
body. So instead of getting more healthy, we end up sick because we are worried
about the shape, the physical appearance more than the actual physical balance
- in terms of how the energy of the body works, as it is in eastern philosophies
where we work with the different energy systems. Instead of paying attention
to those things (balance of energy), it becomes all about exteriority, outward
appearance. When we become like that, we are not at home. We have left the original
dwelling place and as a result we have become self-alienated, separated from
ourselves.
Meditation of Tranquility: Getting in Touch with Ourselves Properly
In Buddhism we do meditation. Meditation is designed for us to get back to that
original dwelling place so that we can get in touch with ourselves properly.
Now, when I say 'getting touch with ourselves', according to Buddhism, that
self is not an entity. The self, the original dwelling place, is that space
where we do not worry about who I am, what I am, what physical characteristics
I have, what attributes, qualities, credentials that I have. No, it's open space.
So when we meditate we are learning how to enter into that space where we do
not have to worry, where we do not have to prove a thing, show our credentials
- where we do not have to say I'm John, I'm Tracey, I'm fat, I'm ugly, I'm short,
I'm an interfering nosy bastard! You don't have to think like that any more.
When we enter into that space through meditation, we begin to learn how to become
more focussed, more concentrated, more tranquil. But that does not mean when
you start to do meditation your life from then onwards will be so beautiful
and the road forward is covered in roses. It's not like that. Even when you
meditate, old anxieties, old propensities to experience depression, frustration,
anger, resentment, bitterness - they will come up. If you are a meditator, in
post-meditation situations, if you are wandering around as if you are on some
kind of drug, with a silly grin on your face, then obviously you are on another
planet. You've gone off with the fairies. You are not grounded.
Meditation is designed to ground ourselves, in ourselves, with ourselves. Meditation
is not there in order for you to go off somewhere or be in some airy-fairy,
lovey-dovey, extra-terrestrial, X-file kind of realm. We practice meditation
so that we can become more aware, not less aware - more aware, more mindful,
more focused, more grounded - so that we can learn to be here and now, to be
present. We find it so hard to be present. Our mind is all over the place, constantly.
Through the practice of meditation we learn how to come home, how to find the
original dwelling place, how to find that sense of groundedness, find our real
sense of self-confidence. Normally, in order to find self-esteem we have to
prove ourselves to be better than somebody else, to be competitive, to be thinking
that it is a dog-eat-dog world. 'I have to be slimmer or more attractive, more
articulate, make more money or drive a better car, live in a bigger house than
somebody else, than my friends'. Just to boost self-confidence. Neither am I
saying that to meditate we should be living in poverty. What I'm saying is,
in terms of how we go about dealing with our sense of self identity, self worth,
when we go into that sense of inner, the original dwelling place, through meditation,
a real sense of self confidence arises. Self confidence is very different to
being ego centered, selfish, arrogant, because one begins to find comfort being
able to be in oneself, with oneself.
Normally what do we do? We look for comfort elsewhere, through somebody or something
else! Our arrogance, our egocentricity, our selfishness, all of that is based
on what we have, what we think we have, but never on what we really are. So
then, how do we meditate? How do we find that original dwelling place? We do
this by paying attention to the breath. We can sit in a chair, or sit cross
legged on a cushion, and have our spine straight and shoulders relaxed. Posture
is very important according to Buddhism. It relates to the body. Good posture
means you will be able to have good meditation. If you are slumping forward
or leaning to one side or the other, then you can't have a proper meditation.
The spine has to be erect and then you pay attention to the breath. Why the
breath? According to Buddhism, the breath signifies life. When we stop breathing,
that is when we die. Breath also signifies something else which is also very
important in Buddhist philosophy, and that is a sense of impermanence. So to
live, we have to die. Life and death, exhalation is death, inhalation is life.
When we do that we become very present. We do not have to think about anything
else, just pay attention to the breath coming and going. It is also said that
when we pay attention to the breath we realize that the breath actually connects
the body and the mind. Breath is the conduit. We notice that our breathing pattern
corresponds to our mental states - if we become agitated, excited, we breath
even harder, our heart starts to pump. That is why we pay attention to the breath,
to bring ourselves to the present.
Gradually then as we proceed, we learn how to enter into that state of being
where there is no worries, where there's no overwhelming disturbing thoughts
arising. Why? Because gradually we learn how to let go of those thoughts and
emotions. Thoughts and emotions will keep on arising during meditation, but
we learn how to let go of them in the same way that we learn how to let go of
the breath. By holding the breath, this will not make us live any longer. You
have to exhale, you have to breath out. In a similar fashion, we learn how to
let go of our disturbing thoughts and emotions as they arise. They arise and
subside, arise and subside. By getting used to that in meditation, our lives
will then become less complicated, because our tendency to want to hold onto
things and dwell on things, is no longer there, or we do not dwell on those
experiences as much as we used to. It's like this. Normally, whenever we have
a disturbing experience, although that experience is disturbing enough, what
is even more disturbing is that we elaborate, exaggerate and build a whole story
around it. Many of us don't have the skill to become a novelist, but we are
writing novels every day (with our neuroses) - if only we had the skill to put
it together, we could all be millionaires. What stories we tell ourselves all
the time - tragedy, comedy, romance, unrealized and unfulfilled dreams! We constantly
tell and retell those stories all the time, that is all there is in terms of
who we are and what we are, those stories which shape our lives.
Through meditation we begin to realize this is what we do, and we begin to realize
that we do not have to believe those stories so much, that we can let go, not
become obsessed with them, not get bogged down with them or victimized by the
stories that we have told and retold ourselves, constantly. When we let go,
then we find stillness, and then we are in a meditative state because we are
not allowing ourselves to be pushed that way, pulled this way, thrown around,
turned upside down, inside out, by all the stuff that goes on in our mind. Normally
we think that we can get our life together if we control the external situation.
When people say that they want to get a grip on their life, usually what the
means is that they want to control things, situations, other people. But the
demon is inside. According to Buddhism, that is what demon means, the devil,
Satan, is inside. The devil is that aspect of ourselves that is unexplored,
unacknowledged, denied, pushed out. Mara it is called in Sanskrit.
Through meditation we learn how to sit comfortably with the devil, with Satan,
incorporated, and then there is peace, then one can find one's original dwelling
place. One cannot find one's original dwelling place as long as one is thinking
' I have to be pure, virtuous, this or that', while in the meantime you are
beating your wife, or stabbing a colleague at work in the back just to get ahead.
We find our original dwelling place by making peace with ourselves in totality.
Meditation of Insight
That concludes the aspect of meditation on tranquillity. I will briefly say
something about the meditation of insight and also about the meditation of loving
kindness. When we find that original dwelling place, then we develop insight.
We cannot have insight when the mind is scattered, when the mind is roaming
all over the place, latching onto this, onto that, clinging to this and that.
When the mind becomes settled and focused, then the precondition is created
for insight to arise. What is insight? In Buddhism, insight is that way of seeing
things which is unitive, non-divisive. Our normal way of thinking is divisive,
dualistic way of thinking as it is said in the teachings. A dualistic way of
thinking is 'this is good, that is bad; I like this, I don't like that; this
is beautiful, that is ugly; I want this, I don't want that; this is sublime,
that is ridiculous; this is sacred'. So the mind is constantly judging and never
stops judging.
Wisdom or insight arises when we can see the inter-connected nature of all things.
Everything that exists in the temporal world of space and time are interconnected,
interdependent, according to Buddhist teachings, interconnectedly dependent.
Mind and body, subject and object, space and time, they do not exist independent
of each other. Everything is interdependent. These days, so many eco-philosophers
are saying that the biosphere itself operates on that principle of interdependency.
Everything is interconnected and that is the unitive way of thinking, instead
of thinking that there's mind as a separate thing, existing by itself, independently
of each other, body and mind are interrelated, interdependent. Nothing exists
by itself, in itself. Buddhist philosophy can be very complicated, but to put
it simply, that's what emptiness means. You may have heard about Buddhist teachings
with emptiness. Emptiness does not mean nothing exists. Emptiness means nothing
has inherent existence. Everything is empty of inherent existence. What does
that mean? It means that whatever exists in the world of space and time, exists
in a relationship to other things. Nothing can exist on it's own accord. That's
where insight, wisdom comes from. To personalize the whole thing, we can say
even in terms of our emotions, our traumas, our frustrations, our despair, they
are all contingent upon situations, varieties of factors. There is not one cause
and effect situation happening here. Whatever we experience is dependent upon
varieties of factors - causes and conditions. When we begin to see that, we
begin to see our emotions, our emotional afflictions in a different light, and
that is wisdom, insight.
Meditation of Loving Kindness
Finally we do meditation on loving kindness. The first two meditations are designed
to change our way of thinking, and meditation on loving kindness allows us to
deal with our emotions more directly. Loving kindness meditation is normally
practiced by contemplating on the Four Infinities - Love, Compassion, Joy and
Equanimity. According to Buddhism, love has to be based not purely on our feelings
but also on our thoughts, our emotions and feelings all have to be brought together
in unison. As we know, when we don't do that, we may think that we are in love,
love is blind. This may be true, love gives you a rush, but it may also give
you a lot of heartache. You have to bring all aspects of yourself to bare, in
terms of how you express your love to another person and to other people.
The same goes for compassion. As one of the greatest 20 century Tibetan teachers,
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, has said, 'It is better not to have any compassion
than to have idiot compassion'. What is idiot compassion? It is when, without
thinking, our heart pours out and we become obsessed, so over whelmed by the
object of our compassion that we loose our sense of focus. We become completely
overwhelmed. So, even when we have compassion, we also have to be present, be
aware. That is why meditation is so important, because when we are focused and
aware, then our ability to show compassion increases.
And then there is joy. Joy is very important. As we know, when we feel strong
emotions such as love, compassion, it is so easy to become depressed because
the task at hand seems so overwhelming, so difficult, that it is not worth pursuing,
we feel can't handle it, we can't cope with it, that it's too much. How do we
maintain a joyous state of mind? By looking at what we have been able to achieve
so far, what we have been able to do, what we have been able to experience through
love and compassion, so far. Instead of thinking of all the things that could
have been, may have been or may be possible, we look more at what we have been
able to achieve. Even if we are talking about the environment, alleviating environmental
problems for example, if one is contributing towards that, then one should be
thinking more about what one person has been able to do so far, and encourage
others to do the same, rather than think that everyone is ruining the world
and there's nothing to look forward to but a big natural catastrophe, cataclysm
awaiting us at the end and then feeling very depressed about it.
As Shantideva said - it's like going hiking. When you go into the mountains,
you don't keep looking ahead and say to yourself that you have to surmount that
mountain. Otherwise you run home scared thinking it is too much. Rather, you
should be looking back to see how far you have come and then you will feel more
energized, more vigor, more resilience. And then you can say to yourself - I've
come this far, I've done it, now I can go ahead with no problem. So instead
of being overwhelmed by defeatist attitudes, one can inject oneself with a new
sense of vigor and enthusiasm. That is why joy is so important in relation to
love and compassion. And finally equanimity. Equanimity is so important because
without it, love can turn into sentimentality. Love can turn into attachment.
Compassion can turn into sentimentality and joy can turn into temporal elation.
So we need equanimity, and this comes from sitting meditation, the meditation
of tranquillity. We can finish here.
Thank you everyone.