STARTING UP TO COOL DOWN!
Do you honestly want to start taming your mind and be happy? Do you have the right motivation and intention to begin? Are you serious about it? If the answers to these questions are an emphatic, undoubted and a spontaneous “YES”, then this piece is for you, dear seeker. The ‘Three Pre-requisites’, in the order mentioned, is all you have to know well to begin this journey towards realization, unimaginable happiness and finally enlightenment. And may i add that this has been my experience too, although through trial and error. I hope this article helps you cut down the time for such exploration and becomes a harbinger of early benefit!
1. There cannot be a beginning without knowing what to begin on! So, the very first thing to do is to get started on the teachings. Although, as Buddhist, i would recommend the Buddha Dharma to you, as it appeals to clear logic and is not speculative, you may choose the teachings of your choice. Whatever you decide on, please have vivid, eager and confident faith in the teachings. Here it also means that you need to have a teacher, qualified and competent himself/herself, to enable you to find answers to little roadblocks you might encounter along the way. As the masters say: “Learning to meditate without proper understanding of the teachings is like trying to climb a tree without limbs!” What this means is that one must know what to meditate on before starting, and for this, one needs to have a reasonable understanding of one’s lineage teachings. It also means that a special motivation or bodhichitta must be humbly awakened within ourselves to begin spiritual practice.
2. Secondly, there is wisdom saying in Tibetan: “Gompa ma yin, kompa yin”, which means: Meditation is not, getting used to is”. Let me explain. Meditation cannot be ‘done’, or for that matter done sporadically. It would be foolish to meditate and stay calm during the practice and be rabid minded with upheavals of afflicted emotions of anger, greed, pride, jealousy, revenge etc the whole day! It wont help at all. One has to get so comfortable with meditation that it becomes embedded into our system. It becomes something that we can do anywhere and anytime and then finally all the time! However, to reach this stage, one has to calm the mind to a reasonable level of steadiness. Which method should one adopt to do this? The Buddha taught 84000 ways to calm and ease negative emotions. Also, there are countless ways to meditate. Choose the one that you and your teacher decide best for you to begin with. Remember, no short cuts! Be regular with meditation, preferably do it at a fixed time each day. I prefer early mornings as the clutter and clamour of urban life is yet to start around the neighbourhood. Endeavour tirelessly, however difficult the path may seem. It is certainly possible to tame the mind. There are hundreds and thousands of people in the world who have achieved enlightenment. We can do it too!
3. Finally, be ever vigilant of the mind. Bear in mind that the nature of mind is thoughts and emotions. In an average human mind, over 50000 thoughts and emotions come and go each day! The trick is to let them be. Don’t engage them. Especially the disturbing, negative ones. Let them rise and fall. Be at peace with their rise and subsequent fall. Never try and get difficult or overtly friendly with them. They will go just as they have come. A beautiful metaphor is to look at the mind like an ocean and the rising and falling thoughts and emotions like the waves. Whoever has heard of the ocean being disturbed by the waves? Be like the old grandfather watching the child play. He knows the pranks going on and is amused by them too, but is vigilant of the child not causing any harm to itself or to anybody else around. In short, be mindful of the goings on of the mind at all times. The mind can slip away faster than you have realized its departure.
We take so much trouble and pay such a lot of money to go to a gym and exercise to keep our body fit. Why not consider a little bit of time and no money for our mind’s wellness too? Imagine a world of people with strong bodies and untamed minds! It would be a terrifying place to live in, isn’t it? An approach to tone both would be in global interest where disrupting emotions today are running high.
Now that you will begin in right earnest, whatever goodness accrues from this, dedicate all of it to your near and dear ones, your teacher, old folks or those you are indebted to in your life and other sentient beings around you. This way more benefit, peace and happiness will come your way.
Prayers for the Buddha to smile upon you.
Girish Deshpande, is a Pune based Dharma practitioner
lamagirish@gmail.com
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