Does the mind need a body to become enlightened?
Lama Ole: To become enlightened, it is better to have a body. In the pure lands, where one only imagines one has a body, reaching enlightenment is certain, but it happens much more slowly. To have a body means to experience desires, attachment, pride, and many other states. If the huge power contained in these feelings is transformed, it brings radiant enlightenment very quickly indeed. That is the advantage of having a body. If we properly use all the desires, attachments, expectations, etc. that we currently experience, then we are on the fastest path to enlightenment.
The body is also useful because we can hold the mind with it. Since the mind is bound to the body, one can, for example, use body posture during meditation to calm the mind down and focus it on one point. We can also work with sense impressions and our identification with them.
What actually keeps the mind tied to the body?
Lama Ole: Habit! At this very moment you are connected to all energies and places everywhere. What keeps you in your body is an ego-illusion. There is actually no difference at all between the vibration in your skin and the vibration everywhere. And you don’t have to leave the body to become enlightened. What keeps you tied to your body now is habit. And habit again is what will try to hold you back while dying. This will continue until the ego-illusion falls away.
Why does the unenlightened mind always seek out a body again?
Lama Ole: Our actions, thoughts, and words from former lives—our karma—work like a kind of glue, like something that makes things crystallize out of the possibilities of space. We then find parents when they make love—we tether ourselves to the fertilized egg and are born. And what binds us here is cause and effect and our ignorance in thinking that we are limited. We are bound here because the conditions are there, because a hook and a ring came together, because we aren’t able to see mind as clear light but instead identify with the body.
If we think we are our body, we are deluding ourselves. Rather, we have a body. The body is something through which we can work, but our true nature is clear light. As long as this is not recognized, we believe that we are our body and experience old age, sickness, death, and all the difficulties that go along with these concepts. Buddha shows us the experience that we really are clear light. This is the goal. The body is our tool to use for the benefit of all—without experiencing ups and downs, without expectations and fears, but simply because it feels so right.
What does it mean if one suddenly sees oneself from above?
Lama Ole: That is a good state. It is good if one can leave the body; this is a sign of good karma and previous meditation. It means that you have little attachment to your body. It will be easier for you to do something for others, and dying will be easy, too. You should mix this wisdom with compassion so that you consciously do what benefits beings.
Hannah, my wife, often experienced this phenomenon of seeing herself from above. When she was a child, she used to see herself from a corner of the room. I have mostly experienced these states while on LSD or during accidents.
Once while climbing, I fell ten meters down because the foothold I had put all my trust in came loose. There I was outside of my body. I saw my body spin around and knew that if all went well, I would continue to live, and if not I would go somewhere else.
Is it meaningful to keep our body in shape—for example, by bodybuilding?
Lama Ole: A little bit of bodybuilding will certainly do no harm. At the same time, if you identify enough with the desired form, then you will get that form. In my case it is like this: I hardly have time for sports. I hold a pencil in my hand if I am writing something, and from time to time I hold a steering wheel. And yet I am still in rather good shape. The reason is that I see my body as a tool to protect others. While walking around, I experience myself in the shape of a “Y”—that is, with broad shoulders and a trim waistline. And the motivation is to be able to protect others. I think that if you do that, then all the extra kilos disappear by themselves, because in your own image of your body there is no place for them. They don’t fit into the plan.
The effectiveness of bodybuilding also works to a great extent through the mind—for example, if you focus on developing half an inch more muscle than last week. If you see yourself as the Buddha of Limitless Life, then you will certainly live long and be strong and healthy.
