Zen Practice Helps Us Learn How to Live (Akapa Rinpoche)

Teachings by His Eminence Akapa Rinpoche on the Foundational Himalayan Yoga Meditation Course

After attaining enlightenment, Siddhartha Gautama Buddha realized that beyond the cycle of birth, aging, sickness, and death that defines human existence lies what we call life itself: seemingly vast, boundless, and infinite. From that moment on, the Buddha embodied true freedom. He began teaching the practices of the four dhyanas and eight samadhis, also known as the path of right mindfulness.

At its core, right mindfulness practice means not lingering in emotions, anxiety, or habitual patterns. It is the practice of meditation that arises when we turn our attention to our body, breath, and actions.

The Buddha taught that he had uncovered a treasure hidden within life: perfect, unblemished wisdom, and a pure, untainted nature of mind. When we can experience this for ourselves, we can overcome all emotions and afflictions. We no longer have to be tangled up in them; we can break free, and know true freedom in our lives.

In a society that prizes success above all else, truly successful people know how to subdue the greed and desire festering in their hearts to conquer the self, rather than trying to dominate others. Real greatness belongs not to those who defeat other people, but to those who conquer themselves. You may be able to kill thousands of enemies, but you can never kill them all. Even if you slay thousands, thousands more will rise to take their place. But if you ever truly conquer yourself, there will be no enemies left in your world at all.

Conquering yourself is one of the hardest things any of us can do. We’re used to fixating on other people, which leads us to blame those closest to us, even complain about our family and children. But more often than not, the root of the problem lies in ourselves. Only when you have truly conquered yourself are you truly invincible. Your world will be filled with peace and stillness: no more struggle, no more craving, no more conflicts to trouble you.

In this sense, meditation is the path to conquering the self. The purpose of meditation is to become someone who has overcome their own desires, aversion, and pride; who has overcome anxiety, turbulent emotions, and long-held habits. That is what meditation is.

Meditation is neither a religion nor a faith. It does not belong to the domain of any specific knowledge or cultural tradition. We turn to meditation to overcome our own confusion. For each of us, our greatest confusion is not our life, not our work, and certainly not our family. Our greatest confusion is ourselves. Only when we conquer ourselves can we understand ourselves. And when we understand ourselves, we understand everything. This is the core philosophy at the heart of meditation.

Meditation teaches us how to live. Many religions teach people how to die, but that is not what meditation is for. Meditation teaches us how to live. Living is an art, and it is also a skill. Most of us have no idea how to live well, so we stumble through life riddled with anxiety. Look back on all the years we’ve lived, and they can pretty much be summed up in four words: confused and muddled. Meditation lets us live with clarity and full awareness.

Meditation lets us live without regret. Life is full of countless regrets, because we never truly land in the present moment. Meditation is a way of living. When we practice meditation, we don’t have to play the part of a religious fanatic, or pretend to be superstitious. Meditation asks you to be a real, authentic person, not a hypocrite, not someone who lies to themselves. We have grown accustomed to living in deception: we lie to ourselves and to others countless times, and we get lost in a life full of lies and deceit. Meditation is a sharp blade that tears through lies and deception, letting us dare to face our true selves. In this sense, meditation is a game for the brave.

Those who dare to face their true selves are well-suited to learning meditation. If you aren’t brave enough to face your real self, don’t bother learning meditation—it will be of no help to you at all. Meditation helps us become real, grounded people, people who dare to face themselves.

But on another level, no matter how absurd life may get, we have no choice but to face it. The very nature of life is that you can’t escape anything it puts in front of you. So we not only have to face what comes our way, we have to work through it. But when we try to handle these situations, the selfishness, pride, desire, aversion, and emotions buried deep in our hearts blind us to the true nature of things, and we end up with regrets every time we try to work through a situation.

The true nature of life holds no regret. What we call regret is simply the product of our confusion and bewilderment about life. Meditation reveals the truth of life to us, helps us understand the meaning of living, and teaches us how to live. Because in meditation, we come to see how meaningful it is to carry the weight of life, how wonderful living is, how peaceful and orderly the world is. It is meditation that fills our lives with the power of love and wisdom.