In this column, Lama Ole Nydahl answers questions about Buddhism and one’s own practice. His words are directed to his students as well as to all bright minds who value independent thinking and life-experience.
When we talk about subject, object, and action in our experience, is there a sense that we still have an individual mind? Or is there no mind?
The unity of subject, object, and action means instant fulfillment. When most people hear about mind’s clear light, they associate a regular light. Mind’s clear light, however, is its ability to be aware. It is not something outside but rather the state of inspiration, of immediate insight. This clear light appears when awareness knows itself. It expresses itself when one knows who is calling before picking up the phone, or when one’s crumpled-up paper hits the wastebasket precisely when one finally gives up on aiming. Such “aha”-states happen when things simply fit—with synchronicity or whatever one may want to call it. The observing function is not separate or away from mind, but its very awareness-nature. The thrower, the thing thrown, and the act of throwing are all interdependent parts of the same whole.
All hopefully know the state from making love. Here, two beings fuse and become one. In that moment there is no distinction between who is giving and who is receiving. Skydiving and racing fast motorcycles down curvy roads give that same feeling of oneness, which is exceedingly blissful and totally round. In the here-and-now lies the fullness of life. It goes totally beyond ego, cuts through limitations, and sets all who enter free.
In other words, whoever looks for absolute bliss outside mind wastes precious time. Awareness itself is the clear light. It cannot be separated from mind, just as joy is mind’s natural experience. Whoever claims to be enlightened and gets even the least bit depressed or vulnerable still has lots to learn. Space was always indestructible, rich, and kind; and he apparently misses out on that. Also, there may be liberation, but there is certainly no enlightenment without helping others. We need their hands and paws on our backs pushing us forward and their wish that we get enlightened quickly—and then give them a hand! When one discovers that others are countless and all want happiness and try to avoid suffering, how could one then not help them? There is no chance to think “me here” and “you there.” The certainty that this behavior is spontaneous and effortless should become second nature.
If we ask the Tibetan lamas how to reach Buddhahood, they always tell us that the one hour that the average person has for meditation is not enough; they say that you have to do more. On the other hand, we have the life stories of the Mahasiddhas, who lived “normal” lives while watching their minds. What would you say is the best way for us to reach Buddhahood?
I think that one should use every tool available. Most important to an educated Westerner is the view, meaning how one sees things. If one starts from the wrong angle—for example, if one experiences Buddha as a god or human or anything else that is separate from oneself—even a hundred years spent with a straight back will not get one enlightened. The understanding, however, that Buddha is a state of mind and that the seer, the thing seen, and the act of seeing all influence one another and are actually parts of the same totality, is enlightening. If one is able to hold onto and to stay with that insight, then countless examples—and not just from venerably antique Asian sources but from the lives of Diamond Way Buddhists today—show the effectiveness of this approach: People have reached unshakeable and transpersonal states by meditating and being conscious whenever possible while collecting experience through their eventful lives.
People are very different, but there are ways for everybody. Though long retreats sound awe-inspiring and can be very fulfilling—whoever really meditates is with Buddhas all the time—still I have seen several people who did consecutive bouts of three years of meditation without changing markedly. Some even became so soft that they had to lead protected lives. The ritual practices they learned did not help them later in everyday situations. Other people who hold the Diamond Way view and use the extremes of life as mirrors to know and strengthen themselves may work hard and manage both this life and the lasting goal of their liberation. Enlightenment lies beyond hope, fear, or expectations. It appears when one is neither in the past nor in the future. Moments of being spontaneously effortless and natural thus mature into the enfoldment of all mind’s qualities.
Can you explain the Buddhist view that might compliment the new age idea that we are all “one”?
We are certainly all interdependent and influence one another. As both outer and inner space is pregnant with potential, often small causes trigger sizable effects.
Actually, several levels are involved here. From the absolute viewpoint, everybody’s mind is essentially clear light, aware space. One may therefore say that everybody’s basic mirror— their awareness—is the same. Inside this mirror, however, appear many different images. Also, some mirrors are dustier than others.
Basic awareness is thus the same in everybody. One finds both the space that makes things possible and the clarity— intelligence—that is able to know and understand. What is different is the degree of awareness given, as in mind’s openness, in personal or abstract directions, into female or male worlds. Also, some body-minds produce many images, while others have few. Basically, however, space and awareness make mental functions possible, and they are essentially the same in everybody.
Mind’s flows of experiences and feelings are to be marveled at and enjoyed but not taken seriously. They come and go, are constantly changing. They have no lasting, absolute nature; and it is on this superficial level that beings differ. Whoever experiences mind’s ultimate essence sees changing factors like thoughts, bodies, money, and languages as its many sided play.
What about people who have gone through therapy and are still angry about childhood situations and parents?
Such feelings destroy lives, and those afflicted with them should strive to understand two things: that we experience our own former actions or karmas, and that parents are also human beings. They make mistakes like everybody else. Actually, the vast majority of the world’s sufferings happen because of stupidity. Even to Muslim terrorist criminals, a hope of receiving 72 automatically re-capped virgins is probably as strong as their hate of freedom when they blow themselves and others up. Therefore, one should quickly decide if unpleasant people are mental patients or enemies. Danes send the former—mainly difficult foreigners from south of the Mediterranean—to Sweden and enjoy it if the enemies make a big enough fight to be interesting. In therapy, however, it is important not to exchange the old rusty chains of bad feelings for some nice golden chains of sweet identifications. And why? Because both are heavy and cramp oneself. The outcome of therapy should be to live unfettered. One simply releases past, future, and every perceived slight and does what is in front of one’s nose.
If one’s parents were impossible, it liberates to send them good wishes. Surely, parents generally try to do their best. They are just caught in the same big wheel as others and therefore confused. Nobody begets a child in order to torture or harm it, or anything like that. Both good and harmful actions in former lives create bonds, however; and people sometimes attract children with whom they share negative actions and therefore cannot handle. On top of this, they may have problems themselves that spill over into the relationship. If complaining offspring can see their parents as beings who, like others, are pulled right and left by their changing situations and who reacted to them in unskillful ways because they had no other choice, their anger will become compassion. Such predicaments should motivate their children to work with their own situations so they are always in control and will never need to act in weak or confused ways toward others.
