I have a question for everyone. Relating to this discussion, the text states “. . . Buddha nature . . . is an utterly pure, spiritual essence inherent within us from the beginning of every lifetime. It is eternal . . .”

Does “eternal” in this case mean unchanging? At first glance when I read “eternal” I automatically thought “unchanging” (such as the idea of soul).

Also, does “impermanent and ever-changing” refer to Buddha nature or to the conditioned mind? And is Buddha nature an absolute phenomenon, versus the conditioned mind as a relative phenomenon?

Mark Gerrard responds:

According to Buddhism, everything that exists is either impermanent (changing moment by moment) or permanent (not changing moment by moment). Permanent is an unfortunate translation for ‘not impermanent’ as to us it usually means eternal or ever-lasting. But there are impermanent things that are eternal (e.g. the mind) and there are
some permanent things that have a beginning and end (don’t ask :).

In Buddhism, the continuum of the mind has no beginning or end but changes moment by moment.

Definitions are useful so we can talk to each other without being misunderstood.

Cheers, Mark

We are taught that each being has their own separate mindstream. But what happens to that mindstream once we become buddha?

A student writes:

RE: Mindstreams, Separate or Merged?

I am probably totally mistaken on this but this is how I put this together in my own very little mind. If someone with more experience – even a teacher- would like to help solve this for us, I for one would greatly appreciate it. It seems to me that the mindstreams themselves are separate – Ven Courtin made that clear for me with her karma discussion. But, I am wondering about Mind after Buddhahood. Clear, omniscient, beginningless (is it endless too?) perfect awareness, perfect clarity. In my mind, this Mind stretches limitlessly in all directions, all moments are the present moment, all places are the present place. Infinitely luminous. How can there be more than one Mind like this?
Everything is this Mind. Is the nature of Mind infinite? I cannot conceive of how there could be multiple Infinite Minds. This Mind is beautiful beyond words. Perfect clarity and perfect awareness are the source of infinite compassion. If my theory is right, the question is, Why are there separate mindstreams now? Perhaps, this separateness – although real to us – is actually simply a product of our ignorance, a delusion. And of course, eliminate the ignorance, no re-birth, no more separate mindstream?

Mark Gerrard responds:

According to Buddhism every being has their own mind which has no beginning and no end. It’s also impossible for minds to merge into one or for one mind to split into many. Even when our mind becomes omniscient and we become a Buddha, we still have our own experience of this.

Every being has the potential to become omniscient because every being has a mind which can develop. Of course very few beings have the circumstances to take advantage of this fact. Just because we have the potential to become a Buddha does not make us Buddhas now. It’s a little like the clear sky behind the clouds (our beginningless ignorance). Our job is to get rid of the clouds & expose the sky. The wonderful thing is once you get rid of the clouds they never come back – once you directly understand the true nature of reality you’re on the path of no return heading towards enlightenment/Buddhahood.

Hope this helps,

cheers Mark

If a buddha’s Mind is omniscient and all-knowing, doesn’t that mean this Mind has merged with all other minds?

A student writes:

What is the definition of omniscient…? It is difficult for me to imagine omniscient minds being separate because, to me, omniscience means “all-knowing”. So if my Mind knows everything, that would include knowing your Mind as well (and all other sentient beings) and in this way, the Minds would overlap becoming “one”. I am not trying to
contradict anyone here – I am just trying to understand something that I obviously don’t understand. But I guess that is what we are all trying to do! 🙂

Mark Gerrard responds:

I think you’re right, omniscience means all-knowing i.e. knowing all there is to know in the past, present & future. Nothing left unknown, ever. Not to be confused with omnipotent which implies having unlimited power (and not a Buddhist idea). So you would have knowledge of other beings’ minds but I don’t think this means your mind has to merge with theirs. I could imagine reading someone else’s thoughts or knowing their mental dispositions but it wouldn’t be necessary for our minds to merge for me to do this. Unless you think your mind becomes one with any object you perceive (which is true I think for one Buddhist school).

Cheers Mark

How are the assigned readings about rebirth and remembering death in “Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand” relevant to the Module 1 subject of Mind and Its Potential?

A student writes:

I am trying to dedicate myself to the study of this module in earnest and already I am overwhelmed and stumped. Perhaps the words don’t go in because of my grief, but I feel so frustrated. Here’s where I am. I purchased “Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand,” because page 15 of the general notebook material says to read pp. 307-332, among other texts. I have read the Lama Yeshe books, but not the other. Anyway, this part of “Liberation” talks about rebirth and remembering death. I can’t seem to apply it? Then, I looked on pg. 5 of the notebook material for this module, and under the suggested texts, this reading from “Liberation” is not mentioned. Help me. I’m failing Buddhist Kindergarten and am feeling lost.

Kendall responds:

Don’t worry. The pages in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand do seem a little out of synch. They cover a topic called, the “Precious Human Rebirth” – which may in a later version of Discovering Buddhism become it’s own topic, as it is in the Lam-rim. The reason why it is in the module on “Mind and Its Potential” is that as we begin to understand just what the mind is capable of, we can begin to appreciate the opportunity we have to develop it.

We also begin to appreciate how different “realms” of existence might be possible and to recognize that the situation in which we now find ourselves, with opportunity and interest combined with meeting with valid teachings – is incredibly precious. You are not the first to point out that the readings from Liberation to not feel directly relevant to this module and we are considering how things might be re-worked in the future. It is something we will need to address when we take a look at Discovering Buddhism next year with a view in mind to revise and improve the program.

Probably where the teachings on the Precious Human Rebirth will feel most relevant is in Module 8: Establishing a Daily Practice, when we look at how to actually develop the mind through meditating carefully on each point of the lam-rim. In that module, Lama Zopa Rinpoche also very carefully explains HOW to actually do that particular meditation.

So, don’t worry. At this point, maybe glance through the readings so you have a sense of what is contained in them and just spend some time reflecting on how unique is your life compared to the majority of living beings on this planet. Reflect on how special an opportunity you have and what a loss it would be for not only you, but for the entire world, if you were not to seize this chance to become everything you have only imagined you could be…..a perfectly compassionate, wise healer and helper….Your mind and heart have been longing for this and now you have found a way to do it! That is why at least at this point it is included in Mind and Its Potential.

Hope that helps. I think we have created a one or two page sheet that tries to help give an outline of how all the modules fit together. Will see if Merry and I can find that and post it, if we haven’t already. This might help as well.

Hang in there and don’t worry. It is a bit like watching a movie when all the pieces to the story might not completely make sense, but you see later what a wonderfully woven experience it was!

With love,
Kendall

If we are able to quiet our minds briefly during meditation, how are new thoughts dependent upon previous thoughts or connected to a beginningless continuous stream of thought?

A student writes:

Hi, I have a question regarding mind. During meditation, when one quiets the mind, however briefly, then a thought arises, seemingly independent of any previous thought, how is this thought dependent on any previous thought and how is this related to the continuous stream of thought since beginningless time?

Thubten Yeshe responds:

Because the mind is still does not mean that the continuum has ceased. The definition of consciousness is that which is clear and knowing. The knowing factor is always present. So in moments of stillness the mind is aware of stillness. In deep sleep, when conceptual thought is virtually shut down, this does not mean that knowing, or awareness, isn’t present. In this case, we are aware of blackness.

So, moments of conscious awareness continue even through the quietest periods of deep meditation. Therefore, when thinking, i.e. conception, begins again it can still be said to depend on the previous moment. Even if that next mind moment is a memory of a past event, that memory is ‘held’ in the continuum of all past mind moments, and that continuum is not broken.

Also, until our mindfulness is perfect (that is continuously maintained mindfulness) it is difficult for us to be aware of every thought moment. So, the first moment that we are aware of, after a period of stillness, may not actually have been the first thought or concept. Sixty-five thought moments in a finger snap are extremely difficult to grasp.

Best wishes,
Thubten Yeshe

How does memory work?

A student writes:

I wonder how memory works in relation to the mind stream? Is it a function of the physical brain (as a sense-organ) or does it also operate at other levels? What is memory exactly? I’ve been thinking about this in relation to one of the readings, where His Holiness observes:

“Let the form, sound, smell, taste, touch and mental events which are the relations of the six senses be shut off. When this is done the recollection of past events on which the mind tends to dwell will be completely discontinued and the flow of memory cut off. Similarly, plans for the future and contemplation of future action must not be allowed to arise. It is necessary to create a space in place of all such processes of thought if one is to empty the mind of all such processes of thought. Freed from all these processes there will remain a pure, clean, distinct and quiescent mind.”

Does this mean that the clear pure mind has no memory?… and perhaps no use for memory?

In the Christian tradition I grew up with it is sometimes suggested that there are different types/levels of memory: mental/intellectual, emotional, moral. The moral memory is supposed to be the only one guaranteed to last into old age and beyond death. The lower forms of memory supposedly whither or fade even during this lifetime. I hope this doesn’t cloud the issue, I’m just explaining where I’m coming from as I try to understand the mechanics of memory and the mind.

Kendall responds:

I probably don’t have this exactly right. But I do recall a teaching wherein memory was described as a deductive process. The example given was a bear in hibernation gets bitten by a mouse. He only slightly stirs. In the spring, the bite has become quite infected. Then the bear thinks something like, “Mmm, how did this happen? I must have been bit by something.” This conjures up a mental image of being bit by a mouse and then the bear “remembers” it. Memories are conceptual.

I imagine this is partially why HHDL mentions if the six senses are disengaged, then memory will also disengage – as memories are associations made with sights, smells, mental events, etc. What is it that triggers a memory? Usually something related to some present experience in some way – a song, a sight, a smell, a mental experience, etc. Remember there are different levels of mind – gross, subtle, and very subtle. The senses and things like memory are associated with the grosser levels of mind. It is not that when we access more subtle levels like sleep that the seeds of things experienced in the grosser levels just vanish. They are simply not manifest. This all gets very tricky as it is difficult for us to think of mental moments and karmic seeds as anything but inherently existent in some way – and so we try to “find” definitively where and how they exist….Of course, this is not possible, they are dependent-arisings, so the whole thing gets a bit slippery if you think on it too much!

Anyway, these are my thoughts. TY, Nick, or Connie can correct any misinformation – this is only from “memory” of teachings I received!

With love,
Kendall

The student responds:

Thanks, Kendall, this gives plenty to think about.

I wonder how this relates to the meditation on continuity of mind (Module 1)? What exactly are we observing in this meditation? We are not really looking at the past (or future), are we? As we ‘move’ our attention backwards in time following our past thoughts we are experiencing these as PRESENT thoughts, surely? To my very limited understanding it seems that these memories are existing in the present and are subject, as you point out, to all the grosser processes and function of mind i.e. heavily distorted by the faulty lens of conceptualism.

Of the meditations in module 1, this is the one I am having rather a struggle with, I guess that’s why I’m labouring the point a little.

Following the process of thoughts arising from moment to moment with attention on the present, I have a sense of the horizontal continuity of the mind as related to time but when unraveling past thoughts as memory I begin to feel like a vertical observer watching some sort of pantomime of memory being acted out by a certain level of the mind – but still in the present moment.

Hope I’m not missing the point of the exercise, that’s all!

I get lightheaded and the feeling that my mind is expanding when I meditate on the clarity of mind. Is this ok?

A student writes:

When I do the meditation on the clarity of mind I often feel lightheaded. It sort of feels like my mind is expanding. Has anyone else had this experience?

Thubten Yeshe responds:

I want to make one suggestion to you if the ‘light headed’ feeling becomes very strong, like pressure in your head, or uncomfortable in other ways. It can be a sign of too much energy in the energy centers (chakras) in the head. One thing you can do to alleviate this is to sit quietly doing nothing for a few minutes after you finish the meditation, then imagine your mind coming to rest at a point about 4-5 cm. (2-2 ½ in.) below the navel, and located just in front of your spine at the navel chakra. Sit quietly again for another few minutes, holding the mind at this point. Then, go on about your daily activities. If the discomfort returns, again bring the mind down.

This can also be useful to help one deal with an overly excited or scattered mind. Just bring it down, literally.

Some gentle activity like a walk, some yoga or tai chi, can also help disperse this collected energy.

Best wishes,
Thubten Yeshe

Should our eyes be open or shut when we meditate?

A student writes:

Quick question, if I might. I was taught that when meditating, at least as a beginner, I should keep my eyes slightly open, glancing down when my mind is active, and eye level when my mind is dull. I was taught that the risk of closing your eyes is that you can end up in one of the contemplative states that are not the same as the awareness that manifests in meditation.

In some of the meditations in Module 1, we are specifically asked to close our eyes. Does this reflect the difference between analytic meditation and other types of meditation?

Thubten Yeshe responds:

As far as I know, eyes open is best for all kinds of meditation, at least at our level. His Holiness said in one recent teaching that I attended that he thought the Zen technique of meditating with eyes open, facing a blank wall was excellent.

Actually, good you ask this. Eyes slightly open is best, according to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. I am in the process of revising Module One and this is one thing that is changing.

Happy meditating,
t.y.

After I finish my meditation on Clarity of Consciousness, objects seem brighter but more vague somehow and my mind doesn’t feel sharp. Is this ok?

A student writes:

I’m a bit freaked out. I have been doing the Clarity of Consciousness meditation in Module 1. When I finish the meditation, my interaction with the external world changes dramatically, for hours. All objects are brighter, but vaguer in form. But my mind is not sharp, as I imagine clarity would be. So I don’t think this is about having great success at removing obscurations and seeing with a new (though not developed) clarity. On the other hand, I realize now that I can’t even imagine what clarity and awareness are. For some reason, I had associated them with the thinking mind; and by thinking mind I mean analysis, correct conceptualization, etc. Even now, I am getting lost.

In any case, this kind of dramatic internal shift and its effect on how I am “seeing and experiencing” external factors is a bit disconcerting. I wonder if, while doing the meditation, I am somehow not intensely aware of emptiness (as instructed), but something entirely different, like my mind is relaxing and resting too much.

Any thoughts or sharings would be of great help in easing my agitated mind.

Thubten Yeshe responds:

You are wise to ask for help with the problem that you have identified. Some things that you have said are not completely clear to me, so I will address those issues in an email to you personally.

But, I do want to talk just a little bit about meditation in general to the entire group.

Remember that to become a buddha means to wake up, to become more aware and conscious. All the methods taught by the Buddha and the teachers who have followed him lead to a more conscious state of being. Meditation is the main tool we have to achieve this waking up. If we notice at any time that the meditations or any aspect of our practice is leading away from clarity, away from heightened awareness, and towards a dull or spaced out state of mind, it is time to seek some advice from your teachers or other trusted advisors.

I also want to note here that nowhere in the instructions for the meditation on the clarity of consciousness does it suggest that we should be meditating on ’emptiness’, that is emptiness of inherent existence which is the true nature of all reality. This meditation is about generating an experience that approximates the clarity of mind, which is the conventional (not the ultimate, or empty) aspect of the mind – mere clarity and awareness. I did refer to maintaining awareness of the ’empty luminosity’ that you have generated, meaning that this luminosity is not obscured by thoughts, emotions, projections and so forth.

Best wishes,
Thubten Yeshe

What is consciousness anyway? Is it our thoughts, feelings, emotions, or what?

A student writes:

Can anyone give me any inspirations or thoughts on consciousness? I think I’m spelling it correctly. What is it? Is it our thoughts, feelings, emotions or do I have it backwards? I try to mull it over in my mind more scientifically; it just doesn’t want to compute!!!!

Thubten Yeshe responds:

From the transcript of Module 1-Mark 2, Mind and Its Potential: Consciousness is defined in Mahayana Buddhist literature as that which is luminous and knowing, or mere clarity and awareness.

And a bit further along: This illumination, in the definition of mind, is the luminosity of the object itself in its appearance to the awareness factor of the mind; it is that which the awareness can grasp or apprehend.

In “Two Views of Mind” by Christopher deCharms, the Esteemed Lobsang Gyatso, principal of the Dialectics Institute in Dharamsala, says: When you are talking about non-aware things, the clarity in them is to do with light or luminosity. Another word to use is [the Tibetan term] dawa, which means nothing sticking to it, nothing obstructing it in the way that something which is sticking obstructs a mirror. Its being luminous is its selwa [Tibetan – clarity] and its not having anything stuck to it is its dawa, and thus you have clarity.

He goes on: When you are talking about awareness, what you actually mean is the appearing of the object, which is described in terms translated as ‘light’ or clarity.’ It is the appearance of the object to awareness which is the light or luminosity. Then there is something grabbing it. That grabbing it is what is known as knowing [awareness].

In “The World of Tibetan Buddhism” His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in reply to a question about mind, refers to a passage attributed to Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyaltsen: .between the arising of different moments of conceptual thought, the clear light nature of mind occurs uninterruptedly.

Later following a discussion of the practice of mindfulness, His Holiness continues: When you utilize this technique of mindfulness and maintain your awareness on only the object in front of you, immediately perceiving the distractions and withdrawing from them, eventually you will clear all the conceptual events that obscure the natural state of your mind. You will gradually perceive a very stable and lucid state of mind. If you apply yourself to these practices and experiments and gain your own experiences, then when you speak about consciousness in the future, you will no longer be speaking mere words. Your experience will enable you to understand what ‘consciousness’ implies and what it is. Consciousness is a non-obstructing phenomenon, is non-material, and has the quality of luminosity, that is, it reflects any object by arising in the aspect of that object.

His Holiness goes on to liken consciousness to a clear crystal which, when placed on a colored surface, takes on the color of that surface. It is only when one removes it from the colored surface that one can perceive its clear nature.

His Holiness finishes by saying: Luminosity is something that I cannot fully explain to you in words. If, on the other hand, you undertake these experiments on your own, you will begin to understand through that experience and you [will] eventually be able to say, ‘Ah! THAT is the luminous nature of mind!’

In the context of Module 1, there are several ways to begin these ‘experiments on your own.’ If His Holiness has no words to describe the luminosity of the mind, what hope have I? In Module 1, Mark 2 the mindfulness meditations that can provide some inner-lab work have been expanded (from those in M1-M1). Mindfulness of breathing/body, sensations, mind and so forth are a great way to begin your journey to an understanding of consciousness. Use these tools.

Watch your mind and you too can experience its luminous nature,
Thubten Yeshe

A student responds to the above:

Dear T.Y.,

Thanks for your long and detailed explanation.

There is one point where I get lost: the luminosity of the object. In what sense are objects luminous? They don’t have consciousness, at least inanimate objects. They have no independent existence of their own. If it is not the luminosity of the mind that illuminates them to become aware of them, is there a luminosity/radiation or whatever independent from the perceiving consciousness? And how does all that fit into the understanding of ultimate non-duality? I think I have it all wrong – maybe you can help me sort out my confusion.

Thubten Yeshe responds:

Correct. Inanimate objects do not have consciousness; they are not inherently existent. The mind is also not inherently existent.

From Module 1: Clarity (in Tibetan) has the connotation of arising – the mind gives rise to something. This clarity or luminosity (illumination might be an even better word) is an inner quality experienced as awareness which means knowing the object, holding/grasping the object, engaging with the object, entering into the object; sometimes referred to as ‘taking the aspect of the object.’

Alex Berzin discusses clarity in an excellent passage from “The Gelug/Kagyu Tradition of Mahamudra” (pages 59-65). He calls ‘clarity’ a ‘verbal noun with an object, not a quantitative noun referring to something that can be measured.’ He then describes it as ‘the action, or occurrence of the action, of being clear about something or making something clear.’

Remember that you cannot have mind without those two aspects of clarity/luminosity and awareness. Awareness must have something to ‘grab.’ The mind and an object ‘come together’ and the luminosity would seem to be part of the experience.

Experience is a key word in understanding the mind.

Mind games!

Thubten Yeshe

Why does the Buddha face in different directions and assume different locations during our visualizations?

A student writes:

A question about the direction that the Buddha faces in our visualizations. In the first Buddha visualization in module 1 we are instructed to visualize the Buddha facing in the same direction as we. In subsequent meditations, the Buddha sometimes faces us, sometimes he is visualized turning around when coming to the crown of the head before absorption. Is there any significant meaning to this?

The same question is valid for the guru visualized as the Buddha. I can hardly imagine the guru/Buddha facing the same way as I do when taking refuge.

Thanks for any information

Nick Ribush responds:

I’m sure TY will have something to say here, especially as I forget exactly what she teaches in Mod 1, but in general, when you visualize the Buddha (or deity) in front of you, he’s looking right at you; when you visualize the Buddha (or deity) above the crown of your head, he’s facing the same way you are. When he comes from in front to above your head, he does indeed turn around to face in the same direction as you.

Much love

Does our continuity of consciousness contain actual memories of past lives, similar to memories of what we did yesterday? Or are we just aware of past lives?

A student writes:

When we talk about the continuity of consciousness, Dose the conscience have its own memory? Is our prebirth consciousness something we can remember (have its own memory’s) or is something we can only be aware of?

Nick Ribush responds:

Consciousness, or mind, is a beginningless continuity. Our ignorance is beginningless, as are our other delusions, our karma, our memories, our previous lives etc., etc.

The more we meditate and develop single-pointed concentration, the more we can remember. First we recall more and more from this life; then our previous life; then more previous lives. I think pretty much only a buddha remembers all his/her beginningless previous lives…although, as Lama Zopa Rinpoche has taught, the Buddha sees no beginning to the mind’s continuity (which is proof there is none) so I’m not sure how it would therefore be possible to remember every past life.

The student responds:

My question about continuity of consciousness was probably premature. I have only attempted this meditation three times. As I try to follow my consciousness past birth and conception the continuity seems broken but I still felt some kind of awareness.

Thubten Yeshe responds:

The continuity is ‘broken’ because we can’t remember everything. We can’t remember what we had for breakfast last week on Tuesday (well…I can’t), but something might come along that could trigger that memory. It isn’t lost, just buried. So, with all our memories or the gaps that appear in our attempts to retrieve them.

Don’t worry about the gaps, the point is to get a feeling for, an experience of, the nature of the continuum.

Happy meditating,
t.y.

Can mind moments only be perceived in mental events or can we find them by examining our experience of physical events too? And how do you identify the luminous nature of mind anyway?

A student writes:

I thought I was not doing the meditation on the continuity of consciousness right because I often can’t remember what I did an hour before. Thubten Yeshe was very kind in clarifying that issue. Thank you.

In meditation I can catch a mind moment when a thought arises. I find that if a positive mind state arises what usually follows is another positive mind state if you don’t let the first one go. The same is true for negative mind states. Stupid question? Can a mind moment only be seen thru mental events? Can there be experiences other than mental in regards to mind moments? One time I had a pain in my hip that was bothering me a lot when I sat down to meditate. I would get up from the cushion and would move around in an effort to get rid of it (aversion at its best). One day I started to look closely at the pain. What happened was that the pain broke up into little segments that could no longer be called pain. It was really strange. What was experienced as pain a few moments before became one small moment of sensation followed by another small moment of sensation with different levels of intensity. I wish I could have given it away to people who are in pain.

I cannot yet see the continuity of consciousness when the mind is calm. I find that when the very gross level of mind subsides there is another level in which subtle movements of mind can be detected as they are begin to arise. Or maybe is the same level? I don’t know. One more… Is there a meditation to discover the luminous aspect of mind?

Thubten Yeshe responds:

You are having some good insights. Regarding the experience you had with pain, there were two things happening. One was the sensation in your hip; the other was your experience of that sensation. First you felt it and had an experience of displeasure that you labeled ‘pain.’ So, there is both a physical and a mental component to your experience. Then you examined more closely and discovered that this sensation is just that, a sensation made up of tiny moments, almost atomic, not one of which in and of itself can honestly be labeled ‘pain.’ Well done; don’t stop!

You don’t mention where you are in the program, but I’m guessing early in Module 1. Later in the module is a Meditation on the Clarity of the Mind. This is a small beginning in recognizing the luminosity of the mind. But, really it could be said that every meditation in the Buddhist system is leading you to that recognition. So, just hang in there and work with the program in a systematic way. You’re doing well.

Best wishes,
Thubten Yeshe

The student responds:

Thank you Thubten Yeshe for your response. Yes, I’m only at the beginning of Module 1. I don’t even have a steady meditation practice yet. I am a nurse and my work schedule is demanding working 12 hours a day for three days straight so I meditate on the days I don’t have to work. I wish I could practice as if my hair was on fire but I’m not there yet.

I have done the continuity of consciousness meditation as well as the meditation on equanimity. I am also happy to say that today I bought a computer and began reading the material required to complete this module. I aspire to be able to take some time off or work less hours maybe in the next three to four years so that I can concentrate more on meditation practice. Hopefully by then the right circumstances will have developed and I can find a teacher to work with.

So, in the experience of pain there is a physical as well as a mental component it. The mind comes in and recognizes the sensation in this case labeled pain, but it doesn’t stop there, it also creates a story about it. In this case, I don’t like this, I want to get rid of it, maybe walking around and shaking the legs will make it go away. We get caught up in the story and take action in trying to avoid pain and gravitate towards pleasure. If we like it we go towards it and want it around forever and if we are indifferent to it we could care less whether it stays or leaves. Thus we create suffering for ourselves and others. I think that when our understanding strengthens we will be able to look at our mind states clearly and not be affected by them and do things that hurt us and hurt others also.

Anyway, does all experience have a physical component? Sometimes we experience events that do not involve the body in any way. You are sitting on your meditation cushion and all of a sudden a memory of something someone said or did arises and you start to feel the anger rising in your gut. Or in the case of a sad memory you feel a a soft spot in the middle of your chest or a heaviness in your heart when you yourself are suffering or remember someone else’s suffering.

So I find that there is a physical component to experience even if it doesn’t involve the body, and it’s just that a physical component; a sensation, a heaviness, a soft spot and not any other label the mind puts on it such as I am suffering, or I am sad or I’m in pain. And where is this I anyway? Is there a solid entity in any of these passing phenomena that one can call I? There doesn’t seem to be but we act as if there is.

I’m looking forward to the other meditations in Module 1. Being part of this group and having access to others who are much further along the path is indeed a blessing. Even though I haven’t found a teacher nor a dharma center in which to practice, I am extremely lucky because I have these precious teachings and this lifetime in which to practice.

May all benefit.

Thubten Yeshe responds:

It is good to tailor your practice to what you can actually accomplish given your circumstances. But, you would do well to do a little bit each day. For example, first thing when you sit up in bed in the morning set your intention for the day, and to the best of your ability get connected with the Buddha the Dharma (his teachings) and the supportive spiritual community that you have access to (both in the form of your teachers and realized beings, and your Dharma brothers and sisters with whom you are in contact on this site and elsewhere). This can take thirty seconds or five minutes, but it has the effect of putting your mind on the right track. Then during the course of the day, you can easily bring your mind back into that connect state anytime you wish – when you have a moment of space, when the going gets tough, whatever. That daily consistency is essential.

All experience does not have a physical component, as you have noted. Please watch. What come first the anger or the experience in the gut? With the pain it is obvious what’s happening; you feel the sensation, it gives rise to an experience – pleasure or pain, and that gives rise to attraction or aversion. But, with this other experience, let your mind become a bit more still, a bit more subtle, and work out what’s happening there.

And, well you might ask: Where is this I! Look for it! Question every experience of it. That is the way to discover where and what it is. I could quote the scriptures, but in the end, as His Holiness the Dalai Lama has said in his teachings, you must have the experience yourself. So, you might as well start from your own experience, instead of working backwards through another’s experience.

You are doing well. Don’t stop! Have fun.

Best wishes,
Thubten Yeshe

How are our meditations influenced by our mental or emotional state on any particular day?

A student writes:

Some minutes ago I practiced my “number 5” meditation on the continuity of consciousness, and… I wish I had been able to look at this pain in the way Tania did, as constituting many little “pain points” not even deserving to be called “pain”. But it has rather been sort of the opposite…

I have to say first there was maybe a “background” or a “frame” that may have influenced the course of today’s meditation, and this is a specific question I would like to ask: how much the course of our daily (weekly in my case!!) meditations can be influenced by our
mental-emotional state of the day?…

The case is that… this evening I felt particularly “blue”, I mean melancholic. I have always been a lonely person. And, although in the last few years I have grown a lot and improved a lot from the emotional and spiritual point of view, and have gained a lot of confidence and strength and become much more human and much more opened… still continue to be basically a lonely person. I never had a girlfriend, a partner, or a “successful” loving relationship, and that seems to be very much my particular difficult point to solve in this life. And these days I am falling (I have already!!) in love with
a girl, so these days I’m a cluster of contradictory feelings: love, fear, hope, anxiety, happiness, pity…

Sorry for all those details, but I think this background may help understand why today my meditation on the continuity of consciousness did not end in “The Light”, but rather in a horrible pain…

At first it was as always, I could follow the arising of thoughts from this afternoon to yesterday morning and so on, and, this time, everytime I noticed the arising of a thought, immediately it prompted other memories of related thoughts in different moments of my life to show themselves. It was quite interesting. So I could see, immediately and clearly, the connectedness (connectivity…?) (my poor little English…) between moments of thought along my life.

So everything was going as usual. But, when I came back to the time of my youth and childhood… moments of pain and loneliness started to arise, and I saw the causal connections with the loneliness and affliction and love frustrations later in my life at different moments, all of these events linked as part of a pattern… but, then, when looking at my childhood, the smaller I “was”, the bigger the pain… at the end, I could see myself as a very small child, and the pain was so HUGE, and then as a baby, and it was SO HUGE!!!!!… And it has been really a very bad time. Nothing like Tania’s “cool” experience with her physical pain. In my case, I have been feeling a tremendous, almost completely unbearable emotional-mental pain, for half a minute. And I could not see clearly where it came from, but it seemed at times that I had come to this world already with bringing that horrible pain from somewhere else. It has been a hard experience, but I did want to feel it, not dismiss it or open my eyes and stop the meditation, it was necessary to “observe” it, but in this case that meant feeling it for a long time, until, little by little, it has begun dissipating and I have finally recovered.

Anyway… I wonder what it means. I wonder how much my “feeling blue” of today may have affected the course of my meditation. I wonder if, in a case like this, it would have been possible too, to look at that pain and be able to see it “broken” into many small punctual little things not deserving the name “pain”, rather than the very hard “half a minute-continuity of pain” I have suffered. Can the elders say something that helps clarify these things? Have others experienced strong emotional painful feelings in this kind of meditation? Is it normal?

Thanks…

Thubten Yeshe responds:

Yes, of course your experiences during each day will have an effect on your meditations, and everything else in your life. From one day to the next our meditations may be pleasant and we feel satisfied, then boring or painful or difficult. In the same way, each day is itself different colored by our state of mind.

What our meditation can help us to see is where these experiences come from, and how each experience no matter how insignificant or how HUGE came, in the beginning, from a single thought moment – 1/65th of a finger snap. So, just as physical pain can be seen in its ‘atomic’ nature – tiny moments of sensation, so can we see the construction of our emotional pain – thought moment by thought moment. It did not arise independently, of its own accord, as one great monolithic mountain of pain.

It will help if you can begin to meditate daily. This is important. Even if it is only possible for you to do a few minutes each day, this is far more beneficial than once or twice a week. Like anything else in our life – learning a trade or profession, training as an athlete, becoming a musician – learning to meditate requires consistent training. For beginningless lifetimes our mind has been mostly out of control; now, we have decided that it needs some help to settle down and adjust its direction. The whole array of our continuum is impossible to control, but one thought moment at a time is easy.

So, use the breathing meditations from Module 1 just as they are taught. I think you have the second version, so use those, and try to do a little bit each day – five, ten, fifteen minutes – whatever you can manage. What will help you not to get caught up in the emotions that arise is to try to maintain that mode of cool, scientific observation. Almost as if you are watching the mind of someone else, step back a little bit from your own involvement in the content, and just watch. Then when you are able, when you have more time, do the longer meditations from Module 1.

Another thing to do each day, immediately on awakening, is to renew your connections with the Buddha and his teachings, set your motivation for the day – to maintain this connection and to open your heart to others, to take the next step (whatever that might be) on the path to your enlightenment for the benefit of others, and so forth. Remember in doing this that you yourself have buddha nature, the potential to live each moment from an enlightened perspective.

I hope this helps.

Best wishes,
Thubten Yeshe

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