(For Podcast, click here. For ITunes and on other weeks, click here)
To purchase Meditation for Non-Meditators: Learn to Meditate in Five Minutes,
click here. For Buddhism for Non-Buddhists, click here. (Thanks!)I often describe meditation in the simplest of terms: creating a gap between stimulus and response. To create the gap, we practice being fully present in the moment and being aware in a non-judgmental way. Much easier said than done! There are mental habits that become obstacles to being fully present—the judgments, opinions, speculations and theories that we create about ourselves and others, as we are often mired in the past or weighed down by the future. All these habits distract us from the present moment. The practice of being fully present is about giving up these reference points, not entangling ourselves in the inevitable stream of thoughts that arise in each and every moment. We can see them more clearly when meditating, but we can also learn to work with them in any moment of the day, to practice disengaging with the sense of ownership or need to react.
One
of my teacher’s teachers was Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche. He was a Tibetan Buddhist master, a great teacher
in Tibet, but suffered severely with the overthrow of Tibet by China. He became
a refugee, ended up on the streets of Calcutta and almost died. People came to
his rescue, and he went on to teach for another 30 years. From his writings and through my own teacher,
Lama Surya Das, I hear the stories of his incredible ability to be so
completely present with whoever was with him. Someone described it as his
complete here-ness. That’s it! This
practice is all about complete here-ness.
Each of us has the capability to exercise the muscle of awareness to
create more moments when we are quite simply just here, just present, dropping
all the conditioned assumptions and pre-conceived notions that we have about
our selves, our situation, our life and all others. Just practice being fully and completely
here.
Although
Nyoshul Khenpo was a highly educated Buddhist scholar, he often returned to the
basics, again and again, to teach the importance of setting a strong foundation—what
can we do to be more fully and lovingly present in each moment? He emphasized
two practices that lead to more here-ness (and I guess less there-ness J): PURITY OF
MOTIVATION AND ATTITUDE OF BODHICITTA.
Purity of Motivation: Ever start a project that you’re passionate about then give up? Ever feel insulted, agitated, angry, resentful or upset about how another person treated you or how life isn’t going your way? Ah, good! Then, you have plenty of material to work with. It’s imperative on this path to check our motivation again and again. We can practice being clear about not only what and how but also why we are thinking, saying and acting in each moment.
What
does it mean to be “purely” motivated?
Can we truly think, speak and act from a desire to create the most good
and relieve the most suffering? What
would that look like and feel like?
What
is your motivation for being here, for doing what you do? Reflect for a moment on what drives you on a
daily basis? I find own my motivation
often gets degraded from purity to
personal—I want to experience happiness, I don’t want to get hurt, I knee-jerk
react to people and situations. Our mind
doesn’t need much to form an opinion or judgment. We are meaning-making machines. The value of sitting in the silence is that
we get a chance to see what is our projection versus what are the facts. With a little gap in time, we can explore the possibility of having more purity of motivation.
Attitude of
Bodhicitta (Awakened heart/mind):
Nysohul Khenpo taught about different perspectives of Bodhicitta. You
might find it helpful to think of Bodhicitta as a gradual path. First, we intellectually understand the benefit
of awakening and opening our heart/mind. Then, we explore having an attitude of
Bodhicitta with specific regards to others.
1.
In some traditions, they say that,
by individuals working on themselves to be enlightened, they naturally benefit all beings.
2.
In other Buddhist traditions, they
specifically commit to not leaving the
cycle of rebirths until all beings are enlightened.
3.
For others, the wish to attain
enlightenment includes to free all
beings from suffering AND help them get enlightened .
4.
In Dzogchen, there is a slightly different
distinction made. Quoting Nyoshul Khenpo,
“All sentient beings are recognized as
having within themselves inherent wisdom. “ We are not just being nice to
people to make ourselves feel good. We
are not being nice to people because we want to relieve their suffering. We can practice being fully present in each
moment, so that we will know how best to bring out the best in others, to tap
into their inherent goodness and wisdom.
For NK, arousing BC is summoning forth or evoking basic goodness as
wisdom. I would offer that we see people differently when we take the time to
see them as fellow human beings, inherently wise and good, regardless of their
unskillful behavior.
To
lay the foundation of presence, we can check our motivation and cultivate an
attitude of bodhicitta. Then, just
breathe and just be. J
