The Foundations of Presence

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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