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philosophy, constitute a person. How does it work?
Lama: Yes, that s another good question. Most of the time, our per-
ception is illusory; we re not perceiving reality. Sure, we see the sense
world attractive shapes, beautiful colors, nice tastes and so forth
but we don t actually perceive the real, true nature of the shapes, col-
ors and tastes we see. That s how most of the time our perception is
mistaken. So our mistaken perception processes the information sup-
plied by our five senses and transmits incorrect information to our
mind, which reacts under the influence of the ego. The result of all this
is that most of the time we are hallucinating, not seeing the true nature
of things, not understanding the reality of even the sense world.
Q: Does past karma affect our perception?
Lama: Yes, of course. Past karma affects our perception a lot. Our ego
grasps at our uncontrolled perception s view, and our mind just fol-
lows along: that entire uncontrolled situation is what we call karma.
Karma is not simply some irrelevant theory; it s the everyday percep-
tions in which we live, that s all.
Q: Lama, what is the relationship between the body and mind as far
as food is concerned.
Lama: Body is not mind, mind is not body, but the two have a very
special connection. They are very closely linked, very sensitive to
changes in each other. For example, when people take drugs, the
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substance doesn t affect the mind directly. But since the mind is con-
nected to the body s nervous system and sense organs, changes
induced in the nervous system by the drug throw it out of harmony
and cause the mind to hallucinate. There s a very strong connection
between the body and the mind. In Tibetan tantric yoga, we take
advantage of that strong connection: by concentrating strongly on the
body s psychic channels we can affect the mind accordingly.
Therefore, even in everyday life, the food you eat and the other things
your body touches have an effect on your mind.
Q: Is fasting good for you?
Lama: Fasting is not all that important unless you are engaged in cer-
tain special mind training practices. Then, fasting may even be essen-
tial. This is certainly the lamas experience. For example, if you eat
and drink all day and then try to meditate in the evening, your con-
centration will be very poor. Therefore, when we re doing serious
meditation, we eat only once a day. In the morning, we just drink tea;
at midday we have lunch; and in the evening, instead of eating, we
again drink tea. For us, this kind of routine makes life desirably simple
and the body very comfortable; but for someone not engaged in mind
training, it would probably feel like torture. Normally, we don t advo-
cate fasting. We tell people not to punish themselves but simply to be
happy and reasonable and to keep their bodies as healthy as they can.
If your body gets weak, your mind becomes useless. When your mind
becomes useless, your precious human life becomes useless. But on
special occasions, when fasting enhances your meditation practice,
when there s a higher purpose, I would say yes, fasting can be good
for you.
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Thank you very much. If there are no further questions, I won t keep
you any longer. Thank you very much.
Brisbane, Australia
28 April 1975
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A GLIMPSE OF BUDDHIST PSYCHOLOGY
The study of Buddhism is not a dry, intellectual undertaking or the
skeptical analysis of some religious, philosophical doctrine. On the con-
trary, when you study Dharma and learn how to meditate, you are
the main topic; you are mainly interested in your own mind, your
own true nature.
Buddhism is a method for controlling the undisciplined mind in
order to lead it from suffering to happiness. At the moment, we all
have undisciplined minds, but if we can develop a correct under-
standing of its characteristic nature, control will follow naturally and
we ll be able to release emotional ignorance and the suffering it brings
automatically. Therefore, no matter whether you are a believer or a non-
believer, religious or not religious, a Christian, a Hindu, or a scientist,
black or white, an Easterner or a Westerner, the most important thing
to know is your own mind and how it works.
If you don t know your own mind, your misconceptions will pre-
vent you from seeing reality. Even though you might say you re a
practitioner of this religion or that, if you investigate more deeply,
you might find that you are nowhere. Be careful. No religion is
against your knowing your own nature, but all too frequently reli-
gious people involve themselves too much in their religion s history,
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BECOMING YOUR OWN THERAPIST
philosophy or doctrine and ignore how and what they themselves are,
their present state of being. Instead of using their religion to attain its
goals salvation, liberation, inner freedom, eternal happiness and
joy they play intellectual games with their religion, as if it were a
material possession. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]