Questions and Answers
Lama Thubten Yeshe |
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Contents
Questions and Answers
When you investigate your mind, questions automatically
arise. Instead of reacting negatively—“Oh, I have
too many questions”— think, “How lucky I
am to have questions. For such a long time I have accepted
being under the control of ego and attachment without question.
For once I am trying to understand and control my own internal
world; therefore it’s good to have questions.”
When you ask questions, you get answers. Those answers become
wisdom; questions produce understanding knowledge-wisdom.
Sometimes our weird mind thinks, “Normally, I have
no questions; I’m happy. Now that I’ve been listening
to Lama carrying on, I’m confused. I have so many questions.
All I get from listening to Lama is questions.” That’s
possible. When you’re under the control of wrong conceptions
and the superficial view, you have no questions, but when
you begin to understand how your false conceptions and projections
work, serious questions arise. That’s worthwhile.
In America, there’s some kind of telephone hot-line
you can call if you have a question and need an answer right
away, even if it’s the middle of the night. Somebody
showed it to me in New York. Other people can listen in. So
I listened for a while; it was really funny. The answers the
man on the end of the line gave were so silly. It was incredible;
the things people asked and the answers they got were for
me a completely new culture. But I enjoyed it very much. Afterwards
I thought a lot about the questions and the answers. I kept
asking myself, “What kind of mind is that?”
Anyway, during this retreat I should be giving each of you
personal interviews, but you are too many and we don’t
have enough time. Therefore, if my talks have created any
confusion or difficulty, now is the time to ask any questions
that you might have.
Q. I find it very difficult to concentrate on only one thing.
I have many distractions, both inner and outer, which are
difficult to ignore, and I can’t keep my meditation
focused on the object of concentration.
Lama. I’ve addressed that already. Whenever distraction
arises, whether it be a dog barking or the memory of some
old experience, instead of reacting negatively and trying
to force it out of your consciousness, just watch the thought—how
it comes and goes. When you watch your thoughts with wisdom
they disappear of their own accord. If you don’t watch
with wisdom, thoughts appear; if you watch with wisdom, they
disappear. That’s their nature. Once the distraction
has gone you automatically revert to single-pointed attention
on your object of concentration.
Another technique you can use with distracting thoughts is
to see how you feel when they arise. Instead of looking at
them like an outside observer, “Oh, what is that?”
concentrate on feeling; pay more attention to how you feel.
Examine how sense perception registers in your consciousness,
how you interpret it and how you feel.
Q. How long do we hold our breath when we
do the vase breathing exercise?
Lama. Start with what’s comfortable, but do try
to extend the period. At first you’ll find it difficult
to control your breath but it becomes easier with time. On
inhalation, hold it for as long as you can but on exhalation,
don’t hold it out too long. Exhale naturally, slowly
and completely, and once you have, again inhale naturally,
slowly and completely—with strong concentration. If
you do this properly, your mind and nervous system will automatically
relax. They’ll be calm and quiet. If your concentration
is strong, you’ll feel as if you’ve almost stopped
breathing. That’s the experience, although it takes
time to reach that stage. But if you have excellent concentration,
your breathing will be completely silent.
The first time new students meditate their breathing can
be really noisy but with experience it gets quieter and more
peaceful. The breathing meditation is a very useful technique
to master because in our busy society, with work and everything
else, it’s very simple to take a moment and focus on
your breath. Whether you’re at work, in a restaurant
or wherever, you can concentrate on the movement of your breath
and your sensations. You don’t need any other object
of concentration. This is very helpful for integrating your
mind.
Q. I’m more distracted by shapes and colors than by
discursive thought. I like to watch them. Are these really
distractions?
Lama. It depends. If you remain concentrated on feeling
but at the same time get an impression of different shapes
and colors passing by, that’s not distraction. But if
your mind moves away from the object of concentration and
pays more attention to the shape or color, then at that time,
yes, you’re distracted. Just having an impression of
something else in your mind is not necessarily a distraction.
Q. If my meditation is going well and I’m not getting
distracted for long periods I get quite pleased with myself,
but then I feel guilty about being pleased with myself. Is
this just my ego?
Lama. Definitely. But you don’t have to feel
guilty about recognizing that your meditation is going well.
Instead of feeling egocentric pride, dedicate your meditation
to others. Then your ego won’t arise. Think, “This
meditation is for others. I’m not doing it because I’m
obsessed with my own problems. I have dedicated my life to
the welfare of others. Should I feel happy and joyful as a
result, may my good behavior and positive actions make others
feel good. This is my practice of charity.” Offering
your friends good instead of selfish behavior is most worthwhile;
it helps other sentient beings. There’s no pride involved
in this. You want to create a positive environment for others;
you want to give them a good visualization by improving yourself
and becoming a good example. If you dedicate your meditation
and other actions in that way there’ll be no room for
pride or ego. It’s most necessary to do this.
Remember what I said at the beginning of the course: don’t
expect me to give you any big realizations in these five short
days. I asked you to think, “Whatever happens during
this course, I don’t care. Recognizing how selfish I
have been for countless lives, I dedicate the next five days
to benefiting others.” If you do that, no matter what
I say, no mat- ter what happens during the course, everything
you do during these five days becomes powerfully positive.
Thus you can see that whether your meditation becomes positive
or negative depends on your own mind. I’m saying this
for all of you, not just in reply to that question.
Q. If I enjoy things like food and music, is that the same
as being attached to them, and if so, how do I stop the attachment?
Lama. You stop attachment by understanding what it
is and how it works. When, for example, you realize how attachment
grasps at more food than you need, it will stop naturally.
You can’t stop it by generating some kind of radical,
rejecting mind. Understanding brings natural change; when
you understand attachment to food, it will automatically change
into detachment. Satisfaction has to do with the mind, not
the amount of food you eat.
Also, listening to music isn’t necessarily negative.
That, too, depends on your mind. When you listen to music,
analyze how the sound is produced, how it comes through your
sense of ear and registers in your consciousness and how attachment
clings to it. In that way, listening to music becomes analytical
meditation and a form of wisdom.
Q. But if I hear some music that I like and just think that
it’s nice, is that different from attachment?
Lama.Yes,
that can be different. But as I said, you have to know the
basic nature of how the sound is generated, what kind of mind
produces music and how your interest in it arises. If you
understand the total nature of the music, it’s impossible
to be attached to it. Our problem is that we cling to it,
wanting more, more, more. We don’t understand the true
nature of music, therefore we crave it. When we understand
the nature of music our attitude becomes, when it’s
there, it’s there; when it’s not there, it’s
not there and we don’t miss it terribly. It’s
the same with any other object of desire. When we understand
the nature of the object and the nature of the subject—the
mind of attachment—and the way they function, our attachment
automatically falls away. If we don’t have this understanding,
attachment only makes us miserable. Q. We’re told that
if we create negative karma we’ll be reborn as some
lower being. How can we really check up on this? You tell
us not to simply believe what we are told, but how do we analyze
this point?
Lama. It’s not necessary to simply
believe—through your own experience you can see the
possibility of this happening. For example, you see people
in human form whose minds and behavior are worse than those
of animals. The result of such thoughts and actions is rebirth
as an animal. If you generate an animal mind, an animal mind
results, although not necessarily an animal body. As I mentioned,
some people have animal- like minds. Either can result: rebirth
as an animal or as another kind of being with an animal-like
mind.
Q. To survive in Western civilization, we have to earn money.
To earn money for food, clothing and the like for ourselves
and our family, we have to have a job. In other words, we
have to voluntarily put ourselves into some form of suffering.
Please could you offer some thoughts on that?
Lama. Yes, I understand that in the West, to preserve
your life you have to work and make money. Now, most people
work for somebody else. Therefore, instead of simply craving
for money, instead of thinking only about the money, sincerely
offer your services to your boss; offer your life to that
other sentient being. Whether you work for the government
or some private company, you’re still working for some
other sentient being. So instead of thinking, “I want
money, therefore I work,” instead of having that logic
in your mind, think that you are working for others; dedicate
your work to others.
Also, we need to preserve our precious human body to use
it intelligently for inner growth. Our body is sort of on
loan, like a rented house. We have to look after it so that
we can practice Dharma properly. Therefore attachment isn’t
the only reason to work; we can work with pure motivation
and the highly respectable aim of benefiting society and other
sentient beings. Therefore, if you are wise, working for money
is not necessarily negative.
The most important thing is to dedicate whatever you do to
others. That is of prime importance. Not emotionally—“Oh,
I’m on Lama’s Tibetan Buddhist trip”—but
by recognizing that attachment is the root of every problem
that you have ever experienced, from the time you were born
up till now. Mahayana Buddhism stresses the importance of
the pure thought of bodhicitta above all else and complains
bitterly about how attachment is the worst problem of all,
but there’s a vast amount of psychological explanation
behind these statements. I can’t explain it all to you
in just five days. Nevertheless, you have to know that Mahayana
Buddhism does contain such wonderful teachings on human psychology.
Q. Does Buddhism
recognize a higher being than the Buddha?
Lama. No,
but that’s a good question. There’s no higher
being than the Buddha but you have to understand what “buddha”
means. Buddha doesn’t mean a person in a yellow robe
sitting somewhere holding a begging bowl. It means a mind
that has reached beyond attachment, beyond the dualistic mind.
The nature of such a mind is what we call buddha. Therefore
buddha is neither form nor color; it has nothing whatsoever
to do with material substantiality. The characteristic nature
of buddha is exclusively mental—universal knowledge-wisdom.
That is what we call buddha, and when you reach that level
you too become buddha; there is no difference in attainment
between you, Lord Buddha or any other fully enlightened being.
Q. Do you create negative karma if you do a good action but
you’re not sure if you’re doing it for yourself
or others?
Lama. First of all, if you’re not
sure why you’re doing something, better not do it. Be
wise. Before you go ahead and do something, check up. For
example, if you want to give somebody a piece of fruit, first
check your motivation. Is this act of giving simply an ego
trip? Will it benefit the other person? Can you give without
miserliness? You don’t want to find yourself in the
situation where you give somebody an apple and a couple of
hours later think, “I wish I hadn’t given him
that apple; now I have nothing to eat.” That’s
not right giving. Q. What if after you give, you think, “Aren’t
I good for giving him that apple”? Is that ego? Is that
negative?
Lama. If you overemphasize how good you are,
that’s mistaken, but if you think that it was good that
you gave it to him because it helped purify your miserliness,
that’s OK. That works. You have to know what effect
your actions have as well as what your motivation is for doing
them. Q. When you open your head chakra, do you get psychic
powers?
Lama. I think I understand what you’re
asking. If you approach opening your head chakra, raising
your kundalini—or whatever other terminology you use—with
wisdom and a perfect method, you can transform the negative
aspect of your inner nervous system into blissful wisdom.
Instead of your nervous system being blocked, you’ve
opened the door to wisdom. But if you are unwise, practicing
such techniques can be very dangerous. Mahayana Buddhism does
contain methods for activating your kundalini energy but you
need to have reached a certain level of spiritual development
before you’re qualified to practice them. If you try
them with a mind possessed by lower, sensual desire, if you
practice those techniques with attachment, for sense pleasure,
as an ego trip, instead of having a positive effect they can
affect you negatively. Therefore, you have to be very careful.
Q. Do people who reincarnate as animals have any choice in
the matter?
Lama. They have no choice. If they did,
there’s no way they’d choose to be reborn as an
animal. Remember the two departments I’ve been talking
so much about? The association of ego and attachment are in
control. We ourselves have no freedom. Even though we’re
human beings with this powerful, precious, human body, look
at our minds—we have almost no freedom whatsoever. Look
back through your entire life, at what has happened to you
from the time you were born until now. Have you freely chosen
everything that has happened to you or not—where you
live, for example? Mostly you’ve had no choice; it’s
karma. You think that you chose to come to this meditation
course but perhaps there’s more to it than that. There’s
a deeper, karmic reason that you’re here. Wherever you
go, there’s a karmic reason. Q. Surely it’s true
that the more you evolve spiritually the less chance there
is to be reborn an animal?
Lama. That’s very
true. The more you progress, the less reason there is to receive
an animal rebirth. What happens is that as you develop in
a positive direction, your negative imprints get burnt. It’s
like when you burn seeds, they lose their power to grow. Therefore,
even though your past non-virtuous actions have left negative
karmic imprints in your mind, when you make spiritual progress,
they automatically get burnt and can no longer bring their
suffering result. As you continue to evolve, your positive
mind develops, you start to get more control over your mind,
your wisdom increases and automatically the two departments
of ego and attachment decrease. Then there’s less space
for the animal mind to function and less chance that you’ll
be reborn in that form. But as I mentioned before, just because
you have been born human this time doesn’t mean that
you can never again be reborn as an animal. Also, some humans
have the mind of an animal; some people have more suffering
than birds. Therefore don’t think that after receiving
this excellent human body it’s impossible to go back
to such a horrible form. Q. I disagree that you can be reborn
an animal once you have reached the human level.
Lama.
Then why are some humans more miserable than animals and why
are some people’s minds worse than those of animals?
Some people may be outwardly human but inwardly worse than
animals. What’s the difference? You cannot say that
human beings are so highly developed that they will never
regress. It’s the mind. I’m not saying that the
body is higher; it’s the mind. If they have a human
body but the mental functions of an animal, what’s the
difference? Q. I’m saying that you don’t get to
be happy until you’ve gone through some kind of miserable
suffering. Until you learn from your lower situation, you
can’t advance to a higher one. Since you have to start
somewhere in the human kingdom, it’s more logical that
you’re going to start with a suffering human incarnation
and then slowly work up to a better, more fully realized one
rather than be thrown out of the ranks of humans altogether
just because you didn’t have enough wisdom to make it.
Lama. How can you prove that? How can you prove that
life has to always get better and better? You’re assuming
that modern scientific evolutionary theory is correct—that
lower forms evolve into better and better ones and never regress.
But science simply looks at life as physical matter. Q. I’m
not referring to that. I’m saying that you might sometimes
waste an incarnation because you didn’t learn the lessons
you were supposed to, but in that case you remain at the same
level. You don’t go back.
Lama. Really? You can
remain as a ten-year-old child? Impossible. You can’t
even keep your mind at the same level for an hour. How can
you remain the same for years? That’s a wrong conception
that completely disregards impermanence. Q. What I’m
saying is that you come into this lifetime to learn certain
lessons. You have a small amount of free will, but if you
choose the wrong path, unwittingly or fully aware, then obviously
you have not learnt the lessons you came to learn. Therefore,
next time around you have to go through the whole trip again.
Lama. I understand your point but I’m saying
that it’s impossible for anything physical or mental
to stay the same. Everything always changes. You can’t
remain on the same level. Nor is it true that you always have
to progress. It’s possible for the mind to degenerate.
Q. Can a human who is reborn as an animal learn something
from that experience so that it doesn’t have to be repeated?
Can you realize at the time that it’s a bad state of
existence?
Lama. It’s possible that as a person is passing
into rebirth as an animal there’ll be an instant of
recognition of what’s happening, but that moment passes
immediately and the person then has to live out the karma
of having an animal mind. Before a karmic result ripens there’s
always the possibility of changing it completely but once
it has ripened there’s nothing you can do. You are stuck
in that particular bodily form until the karma to experience
it has finished.
Note, by the way, that some animals’ possessing certain
abilities— for example, vultures can telepathically
perceive dead meat at great distances—doesn’t
mean that they are intelligent. Such karmicallydetermined
abilities aren’t wisdom.
Q. When bodhisattvas reincarnate for the purpose of
enlightening other sentient beings can they choose the form
they take?
Lama. Yes, higher bodhisattvas have complete
freedom to choose. They check up to see what’s most
beneficial—East or West, male or female and so forth—and
take rebirth in an appropriate body. Their only purpose is
to benefit others; there’s no thought of their own welfare.
Q. How do you deal with negative energy that arises in the
mind during meditation?
Lama. If the negative energy is purely mental it will
disappear simply by your recognizing it, as I described before.
If there’s a physical component, like pain, you can
try to transform it into bliss. You can also try the breathing
exercise.
Breathe in deeply as I described before, push your diaphragm
down, pull your inner pelvic muscles up, compress the two
energies just below the level of your navel and concentrate
at that point—you’ll automatically feel a blissful,
physical sensation. When that happens, concentrate on that
feeling as strongly as you can and automatically your negative
energy will be transmuted into understanding wisdom. That’s
a good way to get rid of negative energy and ignorance but
there are many other methods as well.
Q. How do you avoid falling asleep during meditation?
Lama. First you have to know the process by which sluggishness
arises so that you can recognize it from the start. Sleepiness
in meditation doesn’t come openly; it sneaks up on you.
If you’re aware you can observe your mind begin to go
from light to dark. A foggy darkness begins to descend; then
it gradually gets darker and darker, your gross sense perception
slowly disappears and finally you’re asleep. That’s
how sleep comes; not all of a sudden. We think we fall asleep
straight away because we’re unconscious. If you check
up wisely you will see that it happens gradually.
We call the early part of that process sluggishness—a
small impression of darkness. As soon as you notice it starting
you should apply the antidote, which is to clarify and brighten
your object of concentration. If you do this the fogginess
will disappear and you won’t fall asleep. At the first
sign of sluggishness, visualize light. In meditation, strong,
clear light prevents you from falling asleep just as it does
when you’re in bed at night.
Q. If you are reborn in
a pure land do you have to reincarnate back on Earth?
Lama.
It’s up to you. If you’re selfish, you can stay
there; if you care about others you’ll come back down
to the human realm.
Q. Can one be reborn in a pure land with a selfish mind?
Lama. Yes, it’s possible. There are many degrees
of selfish mind. We actually classify them into nine different
levels—the gross, intermediate and small levels of selfish
mind, each of which is divided into great, medium and small.
As you begin to purify selfishness, you start with the great
gross level, then the medium gross level and so on down to
the small level of the small. But it takes time to purify
the selfish mind all the way down to its most subtle level.
The problem is that when we’re happy we tend to forget
other sentient beings’ suffering. Take, for example,
the arhat. Someone who is incredibly concerned with his own
ego problems practices meditation until he reaches perfect,
single-pointed concentration. He then focuses on the ultimate
nature of his own mind until he realizes emptiness and discovers
the everlasting blissful peace of liberation, or nirvana.
He has worked for this experience so hard for so long that
once he attains it he forgets other sentient beings and just
wants to stay there forever, enjoying his concentration on
everlasting bliss. It’s no doubt a great achievement
but selfish from the Mahayana point of view.
The Meditation Course
Thank you so much for your interesting questions but now
we have to stop. Five days is a very short time to understand
this subject. It takes time. If you ask the more experienced
students, they’ll tell you that even our usual one-month
meditation course is nothing.
At those courses we have teachings, books, discussion groups,
debate and much meditation, but it’s still a very short
time.
Therefore, at this course I’m more interested in having
you gain some meditational experience by putting a few techniques
into action than I am in giving you a huge amount of factual
information. If I were to try to teach you too much intellectual
philosophy you’d freak out. I’d rather you come
away thinking, “Yes, this meditation course really helped
me. Something in my mind has changed.” Of course, intellectual
information is necessary but five days is too short for me
to impart much.
Therefore just put your mind into action as much as you possibly
can. Don’t expect to receive realizations; just act.
If you do, perhaps even in this short period you’ll
experience the sweet taste of the honey of Dharma wisdom.
That experience can help solve all your psychological problems.
It’s possible. If you just get intellectual information,
there’s no action, no experience, no change in your
mind and no interest in the subject. Anyway, if intellectual
information is all you want you can study Buddhism at university.
You can ask, “What is karma, dear professor?”
I tell you, if you compare what a college professor tells
you about karma with what we are doing here, you’ll
see a big difference. But don’t just believe me; check
it out for yourself. Ours is a very different kind of school.
My approach is to expose your ego so that you can see it
for what it is. Therefore, I try to provoke your ego. There’s
nothing diplomatic about this tactic. We’ve been diplomatic
for countless lives, always trying to avoid confrontation,
never meeting our problems face to face. That’s not
my style. I like to meet problems head on and that’s
what I want you to do, too. The experience of an atom of honey
on your tongue is much more powerful than years of listening
to explanations of how sweet it is. No matter how much I tell
you about the wonderful sweetness of honey, you’re still
going to be thinking, “Well, maybe it is, maybe it isn’t.”
Anyway, if you dedicate the five days of this meditation
course to other sentient beings, with nothing for yourself,
that takes care of everything. That kind of motivation is
most worthwhile.
I’ve seen many young Westerners who’ve been into
all kinds of trips. They love to talk about their experiences:
“I went to a meditation course. This Tibetan lama taught
some amazing stuff….” But even though you did
that course, nothing in your basic nature changed. You got
nothing out of it to make you happy. Taking Dharma teachings
as just another trip is a waste of time.
However—forget about realizing enlightenment—if
the teachings you take help you see things more clearly, make
your life easier, improve your communication with others and
make you friendlier toward other sentient beings, taking them
has been most worthwhile. You have gotten more out of them
than simply dry, intellectual knowledge.
And when your ego does arise, when you suffer, when difficult
minds plague you, instead of feeling as if a nail had been
driven into your body, think, “I’m not the only
one that has to go through this. Even now, countless other
sentient beings are experiencing the same kind of thing.”
Look at yourself right now. Look at your own agitated, uncontrolled
mind. When you begin to perceive your own nature you start
to have compassion for yourself. When you start to have compassion
for yourself you start to have genuine compassion for others.
Compassion for others starts with yourself; the realization
of true compassion comes from you. First understand your own
situation, then you’ll feel kinship with and compassion
for the countless other living beings. Otherwise your compassion
is mixed with attachment. Love and compassion for others come
from understanding their nature and situation.
Normally we say, “I love you, I love you.” Check
up if that’s really love. Perhaps you should be saying,
“I’m attached to you, I’m attached to you.”
Love and attachment are completely different in nature.
Therefore, when problems arise, instead of getting overly
concerned, “I have a problem with this meditation course;
I have a problem,” instead of getting too emotional,
“I have a problem,” instead of focusing too much
on “I,” when a problem arises, observe closely
how your ego interprets it and don’t just blindly follow
that interpretation. Wait. Check up.
Even when you get back home, keep checking. Don’t think
that checking in this way has nothing to do with concentration.
It takes a lot of concentration. If your mind is preoccupied
with too many mundane things, this kind of checking does not
come easily. It’s not like the checking you apply to
your business affairs. It requires strong introspection, wisdom
and an alert state of mind.
That’s all for now. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Notes
4. For more teachings on vase breathing, see Lama Yeshe’s
Becoming Vajrasattva, p.40ff., and Bliss of Inner
Fire.
5. Here Lama is referring to the annual meditation course
taught each fall at Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal, by
Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
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