Meditation Brings Clarity
Lama Yeshe explains that enlightenment arises through a disciplined progression of hearing, analyzing, and integrating teachings through meditation. This teaching was given at Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, near Marseille, France, in October, 1978 and is published in chapter 16 of Big Love: The Life and Teachings of Lama Yeshe.
In the Tibetan system we have a kind of gradual process that leads to enlightenment. First of all you hear the teachings. Through hearing you receive a clear intellectual understanding. This we call the wisdom of hearing. Next, we analyze what the teacher says; we check up to see whether the teachings actually fit with our experiences or not. We check up internally, analytically. This we call the wisdom of analysis, or contemplation. This analytical checking wisdom is what gradually grows into a kind of inner experience. You know? It grows into what we call penetrative wisdom. But this wisdom grows slowly, slowly.
When you participate in this meditation course, you act; in every moment, in every movement you act! When you are walking, you are in meditation. When you are eating, you are in meditation. When you are drinking, you are in meditation. You understand? You try to integrate all your actions with your penetrating wisdom consciousness by using your memory and bringing to mind your understanding of the teachings. You understand? That is the reason we present this kind of meditation course. It is so useful. Not only do you hear the teachings and take notes; you need to put those notes into your consciousness and to check up analytically if the words are really valuable or not. If they have no value, then you can just get rid of them. But if they are of real value, if your analysis proves their validity, proves that they work well with your experience, then ... deeper understanding! Penetration! Meditation brings one to a useful inner conclusion. But without meditation, I tell you, we have no conclusion. Do you understand?
In the West we are overwhelmed with so much information ... so much! A hundred thousand bits of information from the television, from newspapers, from Time magazine ... we keep learning things. But all this information brings us no conclusion, no clear direction. This is the problem. If you have too much information, how can you come to a conclusion? This is why meditation is so important. From meditation comes clarity, a clear conclusion, a deeper understanding.