Give Your Ego the Wisdom Eye
Lama Thubten Yeshe |
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Contents
If your ego is obviously giving you trouble, reciting the
mantra of Lord Buddha can help. Mantra is inner sound; therefore,
when you recite a mantra verbally, you can feel it vibrating
in your heart at the same time. As it does so, it digests
and controls your ego’s energy force.
The connotation of Lord Buddha’s mantra is, “Control,
great control, greatest control.”* Recite it three times
and then stop and listen silently to the inner sound of the
mantra in your heart.
TA YA THA OM MUNÉ MUNÉ MAHAMUNAYÉ
SOHA
TA YA THA OM MUNÉ MUNÉ MAHAMUNAYÉ SOHA
TA YA THA OM MUNÉ MUNÉ MAHAMUNAYÉ SOHA
When you realize through your own experience how the powerful
energy force of your ego comes and goes, you will realize
that as well as your physical body there exists another, different
kind of energy—your mind.
Instead of fearfully running away when confronted by the
energy force of your ego, it is better to stand up to it with
wisdom. Face up to ego problems with wisdom. The narrow mind,
the mind weak in wisdom, cannot face the problems ego brings.
Fulfilling your human potential
You can discover through your own experience that when you
investigate with introspective knowledge-wisdom the way in
which your ego functions, it disappears. That small experience
gives you confidence that you have the power and the potential
to discover egolessness, the basic nature of the human mind.
You may not have truly realized egolessness, but your experience
shows the logical possibility of doing so. You can see that
you possess wisdom and intelligence and are not hopeless by
nature. It is extremely worthwhile for you to gain that understanding.
Basically, your mind is weak. You don’t comprehend
that you have the potential to realize something like eternal
peace. It doesn’t even occur to you. However, a small
experience of egolessness will give you a logical reason for
generating the brave, courageous mind that strives for such
heights of human attainment. Such understanding does not come
from the wisdom or the power of the lamas. It comes from your
own wisdom, the power of your own mind.
Realizing egolessness
We always use the word “ego,” but although we’re
constantly saying “ego, ego, ego,” we have no
idea of the psychological nature of the ego or the way it
controls our mind. We seem to think the ego is some kind of
physical entity. Therefore, it is crucial to discover that
the ego is not physical but mental.
Our lives are short; we do not have much time to realize
egolessness, but striving to do so is what differentiates
us from animals. Otherwise, how are we different? Animals
enjoy the sense world and lead their lives to the best of
their ability. Just like ourselves, they like those who feed
them and dislike those who beat them. What’s the difference?
Perhaps you think, “Rubbish! I can conceptualize,
I can write; I can make money to support and enjoy my life.”
But even rats and mice can look after themselves with ego
and attachment. They can collect and store food many times
their own weight. What about bees? Even though their lives
are so short, they collect enough honey to last for maybe
hundreds of years. What, then, is the difference between bees
and so-called intelligent humans if the mental attitude is
the same, where both are living only for sense pleasure? Perhaps
bees are even more intelligent than we are—they live
such short lives but accumulate vast amounts of what gives
them pleasure.
Therefore, I think it’s extremely important that while
we occupy these precious human bodies, where intelligence
and many other good qualities have come together, we take
this opportunity to seek our inner nature and release ourselves
from all the problems of mental defilement, which come from
our ego. From the time we were born, everything we’ve
done has come from our ego, but whatever pleasure we’ve
experienced has been so transitory and small. Nevertheless,
don’t think, “Oh, I’m too bad; my mind is
completely dominated by my ego.” Don’t put yourself
down. Instead, be happy to realize what’s happening.
Guiding yourself
To realize that only your own mind and effort can release
you from your ego is most worthwhile. For years and years,
all you’ve done is build up your ego, and under the
influence of its hallucinated projection of the sense world,
you’ve run, run, run from one thing to another, as if
you’d lost your mind. To now have even a flash of recognition
of this reality is most worthwhile and well worth the effort.
Don’t think that without your own effort, without using
your own wisdom, you can stop the schizophrenic mental problems
that result from the energy force of your own ego. It’s
impossible.
No lama believes that he can solve your problems without
your own effort and action. That’s a dream. If that’s
what you think, it’s a complete misconception. “God
will do everything for me; Buddha will do everything for me.
I’ll just wait.” That’s not true either.
“I don’t have to do anything.” That’s
just not true. You’ve already done everything and now
you have to experience the powerful consequences. You can
see all this through your own experience. Just one meditation
session is all it takes.
What I would like is for each of you to become a wise human
being instead of one dominated by the energy force of a super-sensitive
ego. At the end of this meditation course, I’d like
you to be thinking, “Well, that was my own meditation
course, given by my own wisdom.” If you feel like that,
the course was worthwhile, but if you go around telling people,
“This high Tibetan lama gave a meditation course; I
was there,” it’s just another ego trip. What’s
the purpose? Your old habits, your schizophrenic mental attitudes,
haven’t changed a bit. So what was the meditation that
you did? Lord Buddha is already enlightened. Through his own
effort, with his own wisdom, he freed himself from the schizophrenic
mind, but here we are, still agitated and confused.
Realization is highly personal. It depends upon each individual’s
mind, effort and wisdom. Realization is completely individual.
Even though you’re all meditating on the same thing,
from morning to night, each of you has different experiences
according to the level of your own mind.
If you think, “Oh, I have so much to do at home…my
house, my family, my friends…it’s difficult to
sit and meditate,” it means your mind is ensnared by
the worldly life. You’ve been like that from the time
you were born until now, and if you keep going that way, you’ll
end up dying with nothingness. If this is how you live, how
will you ever finish anything? In the materialistic life,
work continues to pile up—one thing after another, then
another, another, another—and you never reach the point
where you can say, “Ah, at last I’ve finished
everything; now I can sit and meditate.” That time will
never come.
When your mind is occupied by ego energy, it’s like
constantly having needles stuck into your body. That would
be pretty uncomfortable, wouldn’t it? Being under the
control of ego is exactly the same. Thus, you can realize
how important it is to release attachment and ego. If you
can manage to do so, you will realize everlasting joy, inner
freedom, inner liberation, nirvana…it doesn’t
matter what you call it.
By realizing the agitated nature of his ego department,
Tibet’s great yogi Milarepa fled to the mountains. There,
eating only nettles, he lived like an animal, but his mind
was much happier and he had far greater pleasure than before.
You can be eating three meals a day and still think that your
life is too ascetic. If you were sent to live like Milarepa,
you’d freak out: “Oh, that’s his trip, not
mine.” Maybe you’d worry that if everybody were
to live like Milarepa, there’d be nobody left to eat
all that supermarket food and it would go to waste. Don’t
worry about the supermarket; if you retreat to the mountains,
the supermarket will come to you.
Learning from all phenomena
For those seekers investigating the nature of inner reality,
problems help; instead of harming, problems benefit them.
Problems give them more energy, greater wisdom and deeper
realizations. Negative experiences become positive. They don’t
even see such experiences as negative but as opportunities
to learn.
For example, there’s another story from the life of
Milarepa. After many years’ study with his guru, Marpa,
Milarepa was sent back to visit the village where he was born.
“Go back home,” said Marpa. “Some-thing
will happen.” When Milarepa finally reached his old
house, it was completely deserted, dilapidated and occupied
by wild animals and birds. At first he was a bit shocked,
but the experience became a teaching—he realized the
inevitability of decay.
Also, all villagers were afraid to go near Milarepa’s
old house. Even after his mother died, everybody avoided it
because they were afraid of his black magic. In fact, when
Milarepa first got back nobody recognized him, and when he
asked about the house, the neighbors said, “We’re
too scared to go near it because that’s where the black
magician Milarepa used to live.” Milarepa learned from
such experiences; he saw deeper into the nature of reality.
Anyway, slowly, slowly, he went to the house and saw how
derelict it had become. But even though his mother had died
long ago, all the family possessions were still there because
nobody had dared to touch them. As he looked around, he saw
some old bones lying in the mud on the floor. When he picked
them up he realized they were his mother’s. This, too,
became a great teaching for him; he saw clearly the impermanent
nature of all phenomena. He didn’t need anyone to tell
him, “All things are impermanent.” He realized
it clearly for himself.
We, however, do not see the world as clearly as Milarepa
did. Because of the way our ego interprets things, we see
the sense world as solid, self-existent, concrete. Those who
have realized impermanence see it completely differently.
They see the world changing automatically hundreds of times
a minute. You can understand this yourself by watching your
mind in meditation. You can see how your internal world—the
feelings and sensations that continually rise and fall in
your mind—change automatically from moment to moment.
That inner expression of impermanence is similar to what is
happening in the external world.
Exploring your internal world
Actually, watching your internal world is much more interesting
than watching a movie and certainly more worthwhile. Once
you’ve seen a movie, you don’t want to see it
again; you get bored the second time. But if you watch your
mind with skillful wisdom you will never get bored. Every
minute, there’s something new. Your mind is constantly
moving. It’s a remarkable experience.
Every time your ego contacts an object, its interpretation
leaves a different imprint on your consciousness. Those imprints
react again and again. That’s what we call karma—cause
and effect. The imprints are the cause; the reaction is the
effect. That’s karma. Therefore we say that karma is
very powerful. Why? Because the imprints left by
previous ego activity are very powerful; extremely strong.
The energy force of ego bursts into your mind without permission.
Even if you don’t want it to enter it forces its way
in. If someone were to rush into your house without knocking
you’d get really upset, wouldn’t you? “What’s
going on? You didn’t even knock!” Even if your
closest friend comes in without knocking you’re likely
to object. So isn’t it silly that when the negative
energy force of ego walks uninvited into your mind, instead
of getting upset you say, “Welcome, ego. Please come
in. How are you? Have a cup of tea. Would you like some chocolate?”
All we ever do is try to please our ego; it’s like
we’re always paying homage to our ego, offering it tea,
chocolate and prayers. We dedicate all our energy to our ego
and what do we get in return? What does our ego offer us?
Mental pollution. It brings such a foul, suffocating smell
in our minds that there’s hardly room to breathe.
So from now on, instead of welcoming your ego’s energy
force, stand guard against it with mindfulness and wisdom,
watching with penetrative attention for the first sign of
its arrival. And when it comes, instead of greeting it warmly,
“How are you, ego? Come right in,” examine it
with a great big wisdom eye—a wisdom eye bigger than
your head. Just watch it. When you give your ego the wisdom
eye it disappears all by itself.
Mental continuity
In the next meditation session, I would like you to check
how your mind of today is related to the experiences of yesterday’s
ego games. Check; observe. How are they linked? Similarly,
check back to last week; last month; last year. Go all the
way back through your life. Check with your big wisdom eye
how your ego and attachment have functioned over the years;
how you have identified things at different ages; how you
have perceived different views, all of which have been projections
of your own ego.
If your mind were not connected with last year’s ego,
there’d be no reason for memories to keep coming back
uncontrollably into your mind. Therefore, check how these
experiences relate to the continuity of mind. Go back as far
as your time in the womb. Forgetting previous experiences
and clinging to the future is not realistic. Unless you have
psychic power, you have no idea whether you’ll be alive
next year or not. Nobody can guarantee you that. And you don’t
have to be sick to die. One minute you can be well, drinking
a cup of tea; the next minute, you’re dead. We all know
that this can happen; we’ve seen it. We’re not
babies.
If you check well enough you’ll find that even when
you were in your mother’s womb you experienced ego and
attachment. Check where that came from. It didn’t come
from itself; it had to come from some-thing else. There is
no such self-existent entity that doesn’t depend on
something else—for example, a permanent soul. There
is no such thing as a permanent soul, ego, consciousness or
mind of attachment; nor is there any self-existent physical
entity, either. Belief in such things is a wrong conception.
Some religions, like Hinduism or Christianity, talk of an
eternal soul. That’s a misconception. They have no understanding
of the characteristic nature of the soul. Impermanent means
changing every moment. How could there be a permanent, never-changing
soul? It’s impossible. If you accept the existence of
a permanent soul, you have to accept the existence of a permanent
human being. It’s impossible for there to be a permanent
human being. Where is that person?
Therefore, in the next session, check back through all your
experiences of how your mind has perceived the sense world
from when you were in your mother’s womb up to now.
Check its different interpretations, its different feelings.
You will find this meditation very helpful in integrating
your mind and life and introducing a little order into both.
Begin the meditation by concentrating single-pointedly on
the movement of your breath and the feelings in your body.
Then move on to an analytical meditation, checking your experiences
as I’ve just described. When you find an object, or
experience, on which you want to focus, practice placement
meditation—concentrate single-pointedly on that object.
In Sanskrit, this kind of meditation is called samadhi.
Keep your mind on the memory of that experience for as long
as you can. When your mind begins to get distracted by other
thoughts, repeat your analytical meditation until you get
to that point again and re-focus your attention upon it.
Now it’s time to stop. Start the next session with
questions and answers with Dr. Nick and then do the meditation
I’ve just described. Questions and answers are good.
Be open; just say whatever you think. Don’t have any
expectations. Don’t worry, “Perhaps I’ll
ask a stupid question. Perhaps Dr. Nick will freak out; he
mightn’t like my question.” I guarantee he won’t
freak out. Whether you agree or disagree, just speak your
mind. It’s most worthwhile. Our discussions are not
for some material purpose; we’re searching for what’s
best for the human mind. Also, when you ask questions you’re
not trying to find answers for yourself alone but for the
benefit of all.
Furthermore, when different people in the group express
themselves you hear a wide range of opinions, which can only
help to deepen everybody’s understanding. It’s
almost like psychotherapy, group psychotherapy. We’re
working together with compassion to solve everybody’s
problems and help each other. You also ask the group leader
questions out of compassion—to help him destroy his
misconceptions. We all have misconceptions. Therefore, don’t
worry.
Thank you so much. Thank you.
*Note: At other times Lama has explained
that these controls mean (a) control over the causes of the
suffering of the lower realms; (b) complete control over the
delusions and karma that prevent liberation; and (c) control
over self-cherishing and the sub¬tle dualistic mind, which
prevent enlightenment. |
