But any positive action needs to have some sort of awareness in mind. And that awareness in mind is the discipline. The discipline does not need to define as “being strict”, “being forced” or “being obligated”, you know? In order to have a genuine discipline to the one’s own mind, you need to have a reflection as a mirror, the reality of the suffering, the reality of impermanence, at all time. As long as you have that, that is the natural discipline. You understand?
If you try to hold on to it, little bit like “I shall not break any rule”, then you will break the rule, you know? It is very tempting also “not to break the rule”, you know? It’s quite mysterious “not to break the rule” also, you know?
But if you have a deep reflection to oneself about the reality of the suffering, the reality of the impermanence, if you truly reflect that in your mind, over the time, and then the sense of awareness and the mindfulness attitude tend to develop over the time, you know?
So, seeing the reality of the suffering does not mean that you have to cry twenty-four seven, you know? You just need to reflect the truth. And the truth does not have to be something enormous like the traditional teachings of the six realms, you know? “The heaven and the hell and the human realm” and “how fragile, how vulnerable” and “they are bound to die, like a bubble”, you know? You don’t have to think that far, you know? We just think about the very, in this very moment, whether I am happy or whether I am unhappy, whether I am not content, whether I’m content or whether I’m not content. Then if I’m not content what is the cause of that? What is the reason of that? Defining that, you know, from your pure genuine mindset, is very important, you know?
Like an example, for last, since the pandemic, you know, I’ve being engaging lot of, you know, Facebook livestreaming, almost every Sunday, you know, and a lot of Zoom engagement with people. And one thing that we always tell to ourself is that “I want to control the anger”. And it doesn’t function like that, just because you want to control it, you know? In order to see and “control” the anger, you have to remove the idea of “controlling”, you know? and rather see what is the source of the anger. And when you see the source of the anger is aggression then you abandon the idea, you know, the very thing that you believe that was a anger and you believe that is an aggression. As you analyze furthermore, then the aggression becomes, you know, eventually, you conclude the very sensation of the aggression comes from lack of content.
The state of mind that is lack of content is also due to the lack of, lack of clarity. Lack of clarity is due to the state of ignorant, you know? So when you conclude that over the time then you really start to have a genuine renunciation from the bottom of your heart, again and again, you know?
But in order to have this analytical approach, you also need to have some sort of compatible with your meditation practice, you know? You cannot have analytical approach based on your basic mental thinking only. That is not analytical enough. Analytical can be, can go very subtle over the time, you know?
If you say “I am right, I am righteous with my action, with my decision”, if you have this very self-righteous attitude, you know, even that may be good in that very moment, in that circumstance, in that very situation, it may not be the solution for all the sentient beings, you know? So in order to deepen the analytical approach, we need to establish the practice itself, you know?
So therefore, establishing the practice does not mean that you have to visualize many deities, it doesn’t mean that you have to receive many empowerment. Just practice one, have a small commitment, big dedication, small commitment. That makes the difference. If you make a big commitment with the very little dedication that, then it’s not good.
So therefore, in order to develop more profound analytical capacity, you know? Because the way to analyze genuinely, you need to be in the state of mind that is more absent from the state of ignorant, you know? As you practice more, as you develop less and less fixation to the external things, to the internal things. “Internal” doesn’t, I don’t mean the lungs and heart and the stomachs and so on. When I say “internal”, I meant emotional level, Okay?
So, as you examine further more with the, in a more subtle approach, you know, as you continue to practice more and more, and then you create more and more absent from the fixation. As you create more and more new reality that is, that is absent from the self-fixation, the capacity to analyze certain things, you know, about the state of mind, about the reality, about the projection of thought, will become more and more profound.
Like an example, when we are not a good, you know, when we are a beginner we are told what is the “projection of thought” and we have to recognize what is “projection of thought”, you know? When I first recognize my projection of thought, or in Tibetan we say རྣམ་རྟོག “nam tok”, you know? རྣམ་རྟོག “nam tok” means “projection of thought”.
When I first saw my projection of thought, I didn’t practice for few days, because I saw how polluted it was, you know? It was little bit like a tornado, and thunderstorm, and everything, you know? And I, I say to myself “how can I do practice, this is impossible!”, you know? “My projection of thoughts is just so immense, like a wave, and tsunami and tornado, all mixed together”, you know? Still it would be much more, my thoughts, you know? So I was telling myself “This is impossible, this is impossible, this is impossible”. But then the more I focused, based on generosity practice, and then the strength of the projection of thought tend to dissolve over the time. As you continue to practice, you know, over the time, the projection of thought, in the beginning, it becomes, you know, it is already influenced your mind, your reality, your decision, your perception. And then, at the end you realize “Oh, I didn’t realize that”, you know, in the beginning, that’s the first stage.
The second stage is that, you know, when, when you, when you, you start to sense the negativity or positivity or projection of thought and all the influence. You start to, you know, witness it but don’t have the capacity to overcome instantly, even if you do, you may fail many times. But that is still a good attempt.
And then over the time, as you become a more genuine practitioner and more, you know, practice, let’s say. And then the, the very moment there is an instant projection of thought, some sort of negativity, some sort of attraction, some sort of anger, the moment it is appear in, in your state of mind, you can dissolve that instantly. You know?
So all these, you know, so all these are analytical meditation, you know? Analytical meditation is not just simply sitting there and questioning everything. That doesn’t work well, you know? You have to progress with the practice, you know? So you have to progress with the practice. As you progress, then your analytical strength and the clarity and the sharpness of that becomes more widened and becomes more precise, you know?
The Great Way with Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche (17′ 50″)
Zoom Meeting – November 24, 2021
To be continued …
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