On Feb 5, 2007, at 2:52 PM, Bhairitu wrote:
Bhairitu wrote:
My experience over the years is that as my consciousness rises if I
spend any amount of time at all around non-meditators the majority of
them start to seem like wild animals. I guess this is because
they are
at the mercy of superficial influences which are like "lines drawn on
water or lines drawn on air" for many of us. I'm not saying that
all
non-meditators are like that as there are some people who just
come into
life at a higher level of evolution than others. Nor am I
positing some
superiority thing. It's just that if you spend any time with them
beyond some casual contact they seem to go completely blindly off on
tangents that I evolved out of years ago as so can be a little
annoying
(especially if they are trying to drag you along with them).
My relatives who out of all of them only my oldest nephew learned
meditation are always "so busy" and I think "no you just aren't
able to
handle life so well any more being blown about by an increasing
amount
of chaotic influences in our noisier world." We as meditators
tend to
have a stable base of consciousness and the chaos of the world has
less
and less influence as our consciousness evolves.
I would like to hear other's *experience* on this and not theory.
Thanks to all those who replied. Reading the replies though I wonder:
1) how honest they are or did some of you post something to make you
look cool.
2) if you just replied to the subject line and not the post.
3) some still posted philosophy (i.e. theory) and not experience.
Thing is most meditators I know frequently comment on this. After all
many of us started meditation to get an edge in life and if we
didn't we
have wasted our time. I think noticing the difference is why some
of us
want to be teachers so we can help lift the rest of the populace up.
Unfortunately the establishment seems to encourage ignorance and
non-thinking.
I've had the experience you describe in the past, but I'm finding
that often the opposite is the case and the most unusual people
sometimes deliver some mindfuck essential wisdom and then they're
like deities in the mandala. It's like the Aerosmith song where they
say "lived and learned from fools and from sages". And sometimes
people are still schmucks and they need a kick in the ass. It is a
helpful experience for me to learn to exchange self with other and to
see the enlightened essence in whoever I can. If I get to what you
describe, It'd be a sign for me that my practice was lacking. So I do
Tonglen whenever I get a chance, it keeps me from crossing that line.
Since you may not know what I'm talking about, here's an example
someone emailed me yesterday. Try it, you'll like it :-) :
TONGLEN - 'Sending and Taking'
BY
THRANGU RINPOCHE
TongLen is a meditation done in conjunction with one's breathing, and
in relation to one's parents, friends and enemies, to all beings
gathered around oneself. As one breathes out, imagine that with the
exhalation out goes all one's happiness and all the causes of
happiness, all the good karma that one has, in the form of white
light rays (from one's heart center). These light rays go out to all
beings to touch them, so that they obtain present temporary happiness
and the cause for the ultimate happiness of buddhahood.
With inhalation one imagines that all the suffering, the causes of
suffering and the bad karma that beings have are drawn into oneself
with the incoming breath, in the form of black light rays. These
black rays enter and merge into oneself, so one thinks that one has
taken on the suffering of all other beings. (The "Black Light" is
instantly transformed and purified into pure White Light upon
entering your Heart Center) Thus this Sending & Taking meditation
involves giving away happiness and taking on suffering, in
combination with one's breathing.
What does this meditation accomplish? Generally, happiness &
suffering occur as a result of karma, one's good or bad actions. If
someone has done a good action, then naturally from that there will
come a result of happiness. That person will receive the result of
happiness that cannot be denied him or her. Likewise, suffering
occurs as the result of bad actions. If someone has done a bad action
then the only result that can be obtained from that is suffering,
which cannot be avoided.
In doing this meditation one changes the attitude of seeing oneself
as more important than other beings; one will come to consider others
as more important than oneself. The normal attitude that people have
is to think that it does not matter if other beings are not happy, it
does not matter if others are suffering, but it is important that
oneself is happy & free from suffering. One normally considers
oneself, takes care of oneself first, regarding oneself as more
important than others. Through doing this sending & taking practice
it is possible to change one's attitude so that it does not matter if
oneself is unhappy or suffering, but it does matter that others are
happy & free from suffering. Thus one develops the attitude that one
is able to take on the suffering of other beings.
Some people new to this practice get worried because they think that
by doing the practice they will have to lose happiness and experience
suffering, which makes them fearful. However, there is no need for
this anxiety because whatever happens to oneself is solely a result
of one's karma. Doing this practice does not bring suffering.
Other people do the practice with great expectation, with great hope.
They think of a friend who is ill, unhappy or otherwise suffering and
they visualise this friend during the meditation in the hope that
they will remove the suffering. When they find it does not work they
lose hope and become disillusioned. This also is not what the
practice is about. The point is to cherish other beings as important,
rather than regarding oneself as important. So there is no need to
have worry, fear or expectation.
However, it is not true to say there is no result from the practice.
In the immediate present one is not able to bring happiness or remove
suffering, but by doing this practice one will gradually cease to
cherish oneself over others. Instead, one will develop the wish to
practise in order to benefit other beings, eventually leading to the
ability to help beings, teach and train them in the Dharma, and so
forth. Consequently, one will be able to give them happiness and
relieve them of suffering, and offer them whatever qualities and
abilities that one has. This is the relative bodhicitta.
The ultimate bodhicitta is approached by pacifying concepts and
dualism: all one's thoughts are calmed; one's clinging to dualism
assuaged; one just rests in the state of peace, of meditation. One
dissolves into emptiness and just rests in the true nature of the
mind. This is the ultimate bodhicitta.
Taken from the Oral Instructions on the Karma Pakshi Practice
given by Thrangu Rinpoche‚ to the retreatants of Samye-Ling, December
1993.
