Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche on Meditation

Meditation, says Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche, is one of the most direct, practical, and simple methods for training the mind.

Many classical Buddhist treatises note that even if you are highly learned, have engaged in extensive analysis, and have heard countless teachings, you will not have completed the most essential task unless you apply these to actual practice. It is like a farmer who plants rice but never harvests the crop: the most important work is left undone.

There are countless methods of meditation. Some simply allow the mind to rest in its natural state, while others use specific techniques to guide the mind into a clearer, more vivid, unobstructed state.

Some approaches use opposing contemplation to counteract the waves of negative emotions: for example, cultivating loving-kindness to counteract anger. Other approaches use similar thoughts or negative emotions to counteract that same affliction.

A large fire can be extinguished with water, but another effective strategy is to fight fire with fire: lighting small, controlled fires or using explosives to contain the blaze and stop its spread. Similarly, some meditation techniques are inherently very similar to the problems you carry. For instance, if you struggle with strong craving, you may be well-suited to practicing devotion, because the nature of devotion is very close to that of craving. You can therefore practice devotion in line with your natural disposition, allowing your mind to be drawn to the object of your reverence.

No matter which technique you use, meditation is fundamentally a process of acclimating yourself to a particular way of thinking. Great practitioner-scholars of the past, through their own dedicated practice, discovered certain patterns of thought and types of mental activity. From these discoveries, they developed techniques to cultivate or evoke specific states of mind.

If we meditate regularly, we will gradually grow accustomed to these states of mind and ways of thinking, until they become second nature. Though we do not call it that, we are always meditating in some way.

In winter, you might daydream about spending the summer with a friend, picturing the two of you lounging on a beach, then sharing a meal at your favorite restaurant, then catching a movie somewhere. If you replay this fantasy over and over, it will almost become a part of you; whenever you wish, you can summon it up instantly—this is what meditation is.

Our identity is also entirely a product of meditation. We are born with no sense of who we are; if we had been taken to be raised by a different family, we would be completely different people today, shaped by entirely different influences. As babies, our parents give us names, and alongside other people in our lives, begin telling us through their words and actions: who we are, what we are like. They also tell us whether we are good or bad, smart or foolish, beautiful or ugly, lovable or unlovable, and countless other traits. We absorb the projections of "who I am and what I am like" that others place on us, and build our sense of self based on how others treat us. Our mind then crafts an image of who we are.

At first, you fixate on this self-image and almost constantly think: "This is me! This is me!" Even when you are consciously focused on other matters, you are still mulling it over subconsciously. After years of practicing to embody this person, you become so accustomed to being "him" or "her" that you now automatically are "you". You no longer need to pause and check to confirm your identity; you simply, without a shred of doubt, assume you are this person—and meditation operates in exactly the same way.

Using this same technique, you can nearly completely shift your perception of everything. You might find the view outside your window ugly, but if you are willing to spend time reflecting on it and make an effort to see it from a new angle, you can change your view of the scenery to see it as beautiful. Once you grow accustomed to seeing it as lovely, it will become very difficult to imagine it as ugly again.

Everything you currently find ordinary and familiar, from the food you eat to your closest partner, all required a period of acclimation at first. Acclimating to something is, in general, an unconscious psychological process, but meditation turns it into a conscious one.

Some people believe meditation is impractical for those who hold jobs or run businesses. They worry that meditation will make them too detached or too spaced-out to interact with others in a grounded, realistic way, but the opposite is actually true. Meditation brings you to the "no big deal" state mentioned earlier. This mindset of not blowing small issues out of proportion comes through naturally, and others can sense that you are flexible, easygoing, and your relationships are naturally filled with harmony. Whether communication is effective depends on whether the message penetrates your heart, or just bounces off the surface. If your mind is closed and unable to receive any messages, you will not be able to communicate with others; if your mind is open, able to receive messages and know how to respond, it does not even matter if the person you are communicating with is closed off or emotionally unstable themselves. People who meditate are the best communicators, because meditation opens the heart, making communication effortless.