The Benefits of Meditation

This past Friday evening, Khenpo Ugyen Tenzin held at public talk at FCCJ Kent campus entitled, "Benefits of Mediation."

TheVenerable Khenpo Ugyen Tenzin is a Tibetan Buddhist scholar holding an Acharya Degree (Ph.D. equivalent) and is the new Abbot of KarmaTriyana Dharmachakra in Woodstock NY.

Khenpo Ugyen began his teaching with a recitation of the Mahamudra Lineage Payer. Following are my notes from that evening:

Meditation is a vast field covering a variety of topics of meditation, such as tranquility, faith, loving compassion, kindness, and suffering, to name a few.

The basis of all meditation is Shamatha Meditation - the meditation of tranquility and Vypashana Meditation - the meditation of insight.

Suffering - physical, mental and emotional suffering - are all the result of manifestations of the mind. In essence, suffering does not exist. Most beings do not understand that suffering is a mental creation. In that same way, peace of mind is also a mental creation. We don't understand that suffering and pleasure are mental creations and so we seek external ways to recreate these manifestations.

In order to achieve lasting peace we cannot achieve it through external or material means. Our material bodies are not permanent. We fill our lives with jobs and all kinds of activities seeking peace and happiness. But we can't find peace in material things because they too are impermanent. An example: When a house is demolished so are the drawings on the wall of the house. So we can decorate the house however we like, but because the house will not last forever, neither will the decorations. All material things do not have true existence because they are impermanent.

If we seek happiness or pleasure from our mind it will be true or lasting. Our mind is what is permanent. We can achieve peace and happiness in this life and in future lives.

If you meet a person who has harmed or hurt you, or will harm or hurt you, your mind can conjure thoughts of hatred or fear. Thoughts of hatred and fear is suffering. Physical suffering is also a mental creation. When we cannot protect ourselves we feel fear and we suffer. Mental anguish produces physical suffering. If you give up thoughts of hatred, fear, and retaliation you will have peace whether the person harms you or not.

Mental conceptions produce anger. Suffering is produced from attachment. If you are content you won't develop fear or anger.

If we meet people who are equal to us and we try to be competitive with them to be better than they are - that is attachment. Attachments brings suffering. If we meet people who are better than us and we become jealous and competitive to be as good as them or better - this is attachment. These thoughts will bring you no peace or happiness, only suffering.

When we cannot feel satisfied and are motivated by jealousy and restless thoughts it results in suffering.

If we learn to be satisfied with what we are, who we are, and what we have we can let go of competitiveness and jealousy and suffering will not appear. If we are satisfied we will have no hope. Hope breeds fear - fear of not achieving our goal. If we let go of all this we can have peace.

If we let go of all thoughts and concepts of attachment - anger, jealousy, craziness (negative emotions) - we can have peace in this life and future lives.

The purpose of meditation is learning how to let go of these thoughts and negative emotions which produce suffering. Through meditation we can train our minds to let go of these thoughts. Meditation means to let go of negative emotions and focus our mind single-pointedly on wholesome thoughts.

At our present stage our minds are so restless, like the waves in an ocean or a candle in the wind. Our minds are always distracted by thoughts of the past, present and future. Our minds are not able to rest for even a single moment.

Meditation pacifies all kinds of upset and emotions and agitations. Through meditation one can get stability in one's mindfulness.

If we encounter suffering while practicing meditation it is the result of one's past karma. This kind of suffering can be overcome.

Through training, utilizing the meditation of tranquility, and focusing the mind on the breath, we can achieve stability of our mind. Don't reject thoughts, just let them come and then turn your mind back to your breath. Through this, negative emotions will be suppressed and they will subside.

We will not be able to completely eliminate negative emotions through tranquility meditation alone. To get to the root of the negative emotions we must also practice insight (vypashana) meditation. During insight meditation we analyze the "I" and "mind." What is mind? Is there an I? What is ego? Who is asking the question?

If we do insight meditation without the stability of tranquility meditation it will be like a candle in the wind - not lasting. Inseparability of tranquility and insight meditation is absolute bodhichitta (ultimate nature of the mind).

If we meditate we can pacify the sufferings of this life and future lives.

These are my notes on the talk. Any thing that doesn't make sense or is not correct is my error, not Khenpo Ugyen's.

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"Hard to hold down,
nimble,
alighting wherever it likes:
the mind.
Its taming is good.
The mind well-tamed
brings ease."

-Dhammapada, 3, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.