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is to miss much training, training which you will find vital in later
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life. However, you can move into the room next to mine, because
you will pass the examination when the time comes.
That seemed fair enough to me; I was quite willing to do what-
ever my Guide thought best. It gave me a thrill to realize that my
success was his success, that he would get the credit for training
me to pass as the highest in all subjects.
Later in the week a gasping messenger, tongue protruding, and
almost at the point of death apparently! arrived with a message
from the Inmost One. Messengers always used their histrionic
talents to impress upon one the speed with which they had traveled
and the hardships they had endured to deliver the message en-
trusted to them. As the Potala was only a mile or so away I thought,
his  act rather overdone.
The Inmost One congratulated me on my pass, and said that I
was to be regarded as a lama from that date. I was to wear lama
robes, and have all the right and privileges of that status. He
agreed with my Guide that I should take the examinations when I
was sixteen years of age,  as in this way you will be induced to
study those things which you would otherwise avoid, and so your
knowledge will be increased by such studying .
Now that I was a lama I should have more freedom to study
without being held back by a class. It also meant that anyone with
specialized knowledge was free to teach me, so I could learn as
quickly as I wished.
One of the earliest things I had to learn was the art of relaxation,
without which no real study of metaphysics can be undertaken.
One day the Lama Mingyar Dondup came into the room where I
was studying some books. He looked at me and said:  Lobsang,
you are looking quite tense. You will not progress at peaceful con-
templation unless you relax. I will show you how I do it.
He told me to lie down as a start, for although one can relax
sitting or even standing up, it is better to learn first by being
supine.  Imagine you have fallen off a cliff, he said.  Imagine
that you are on the ground below, a crumpled figure with all
muscles slack, with limbs bent as they have fallen and with your
mouth slightly open, for only then are the cheek muscles at ease.
I fidgeted around until I had put myself the position he wanted.
Now imagine that your arms and legs are full of little people who
make you work by pulling on muscles. Tell those little people to
leave your feet so that there is no feeling, no movement, no ten-
sion there. Let your mind explore your feet to be certain that no
muscles are being used. I lay there trying to imagine little people.
Think of Old Tzu wiggling my toes from the inside! Oh, I'll be
glad to get rid of him.  Then do the same with your legs. The
and nights would soon collapse, yet the brain and mind are given
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calves; you must have a lot of little people at work, Lobsang.
They were hard at work this morning when you were jumping.
Now give them a rest. March them up towards your head. Are
they all out? Are you sure? Feel around with your mind. Make
them leave the muscles untended, so that they are slack and
flaccid. Suddenly he stopped and pointed:  Look! he said,  you
have forgotten someone in your thigh. A little man is keeping a
tight muscle in your upper leg. Get him out, Lobsang, get him out.
Finally my legs were relaxed to his satisfaction.
 Now do the same with your arms, he said,  starting with
your fingers. Make them leave, up past the wrists, march them to
the elbows, to the shoulders. Imagine that you are calling away all
those little people so that there is no longer any strain or tension
or feeling. After I had got so far he said:  Now we come to the
body itself. Pretend that your body is a lamasery. Think of all the
monks inside pulling on muscles to make you work. Tell them to
leave. See that they leave the lower part of the body first, after
slackening off all the muscles. Make them drop what they are
doing and leave. Make them loosen your muscles, all your muscles,
so that your body is held together merely by the outer covering, so
that everything sags and droops and finds its own level. Then your
body is relaxed.
Apparently he was satisfied with my stage of progress, for he
continued:  The head is perhaps the most important part for
relaxation. Let us see what we can do with it. Look at your mouth,
you have a tight muscle at each corner. Ease it off, Lobsang, ease
it off each side. You are not going to speak or eat, so no tension,
please. Your eyes are screwed up: There is no light to trouble
them, so just lightly close the lids, just lightly, without any tension.
He turned away and looked out of the open window.  Our finest
exponent of relaxation is outside sunning herself. You could take
a lesson from the way in which a cat relaxes, there is none who can
do it better.
It takes quite a long time to write this, and it seems difficult when
it is read, but with just a little practice it is a simple matter to relax
within a second. This system of relaxation is one which never fails.
Those who are tense with the cares of civilization would do well
to practice on these lines, and the mental system which follows.
For this latter I was advised to proceed somewhat differently. The
Lama Mingyar Dondup said :  There is little gain in being at ease
physically if you are tense mentally. As you lie here physically
relaxed, let your mind for a moment dwell on your thoughts.
Idly follow those thoughts and see what they are. See how trivial
they are. Then stop them, permit no more thoughts to flow.
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