Mar 13

Kalu Rinpoche | Transforming Our Ordinary Emotion to Clarity (Part 4)

And how you practice also differs, it also depends on that. If you practice any sort of a deity, or protectors, or enlightened being, based on the very rigid ideas and very fixated mind, that will also not help and if you have the understanding that “oh yeh, everything is emptiness and nothing truly matters” like completely the opposite, that also doesn’t help.

There is a genuine ground in the middle that we need to find. In order to find that genuine ground in the middle, that is to understand the purpose of the practice itself. In order to understand truly the effect and the purpose of the practice is to do the solitary retreat. Long story short.

The solitary retreat does not mean “isolation”. “Isolation” is by force, whether it is a religious obligation or people outcast you or people push you in the corner, that is an isolation, without a choice you’re left alone, that’s an isolation. Solitude is by choice. And that choice has to come without any religious obligation, without any religious manipulation also. The genuine solitude, understanding and the importance of that, has to be discovered and has to be understood over the time. And once you do the solitary retreat, it doesn’t mean that you have to do hours and hours and hours. You need to give the importance of the quality of the practice. The quality of the practice is far more important than the length of the practice.

And then the quality of the practice comes down to how much of an understanding you have developed when you reflect to the reality of the suffering. People they say that “I need to have a motivation, I have a terrible motivation, can you give me some tips, some method to overcome my laziness, and have more motivation”. The disappointing part is I don’t. I don’t have a method to make you motivated, unless you choose to see it.

 

Transforming Our Ordinary Emotion to Clarity by Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche
Hawaiï Association of International Buddhists – Saturday, Feb 19, 2022 (21′ 29”)

To be continued …