Let’s start at the beginning.

My relationship with meditation has spanned the last 6 years when I read Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac, inspired by the introduction of Japanese Zen Buddhism in the USA, and the German influence from the book Siddhartha by Herman Hesse.

“Yeah man, you know to me a mountain is a Buddha. Think of the patience, hundreds of thousands of years just sittin there bein perfectly perfectly silent and like praying for all living creatures in that silence and just waitin for us to stop all our frettin and foolin.” – Jack Kerouac

In 1975, Lama Yeshe was approached by Zina, a Romonav Princess turned hippie, for spiritual guidance after the decadence of American life became unrewarding. She, like many at the time, was traversing the “Hippie Trail” in search of deeper meaning. Despite the conservative nature of Tibetan Buddhism and against the critique of the monastic aristocracy Lama Yeshe accepted Zina as his first western student and so the introduction of Tibetan Buddhism into the west began. Thus, with Zina’s financial investment and Lama Yeshe’s unwavering support in teaching westerners Tibetan Buddhism, Kopan Monastery was built on a hill overlooking the Kathmandu valley.

Tibetan Buddhism…

The Buddha Shakyamuni, whose actual name was Siddhartha Gautama, was a spiritual teacher and the founder of Buddhism. He was born a prince of the Shakya Clan in Lumbini (in modern-day Nepal) around the 6th century BCE, left his royal life to find the cause of human pain, and achieved full awakening (enlightenment) under a tree in Bodh Gaya, India. His original teachings are divided into two core extant traditions: Mahāyāna and Theravāda. As of 2010, Theravāda is the second largest branch of Buddhism, with 36% of Buddhists belonging to Theravāda, compared to 53% to Mahāyāna. Theraveda is practiced in Sri Lanka (Ceylon), Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos while Mahayana is practiced worldwide but primarely in India, Mongolia, Nepal, and Tibet. Buddhism later evolved into Chang Buddhism in China and Zen Buddhism in Japan.

Theravāda (meaning “Doctrine of the Elders”) strictly follows the Pali Canon—the earliest recorded teachings of Siddhartha Gautama (the man who became Buddha Shakiumuni). Its practice is oriented toward achieving personal enlightment by the permanent cessation of all suffering (liberation) and exiting the cycle of rebirth (saṃsāra) by completely eliminating mental defilements like greed, hatred, and delusion through self-directed practice (meditation) and deep insight. Primarely this is conducted by following the Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path.

Mahāyāna Buddhism is also goal-oriented toward enlightment but through Compassion and Inner Wisdom the practitioner chooses to gain enlightement for the benefit of not only liberating themselves from samsara but to liberate ALL sentient beings from the cycle of rebirth. This is known as the bodhisatta path.

Following Atisa’s introduction of Buddhism to the Tibetan Plateau though his Bodhipathapradīpa (“Lamp for the Path to Awakening”) and Tsongkhapa’s Tibetan revival through his Lamrim Chenmo (“The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment”) Tibetan Buddhism flourished until the Chinese Invasion in 1950. Tibetan Buddhism through the ages became divided into different schools of thought, yet still in the Mahāyāna tradition. The dominant Gelug School, of which Kopan Monastery is a part of, utilizes both the Indian sutras (normal path) AND the tantras. The Tantras, or tantric path, is a highly accelerated yet secretive journey to enlightment. Practitioners must take vows of secrecy and undergo an initiation with a dedicated guru or teacher. What limited knowledge we have is that the Tantric path uses mantras, mandalas, deity yoga, and the directing of desires to “accelerate” one’s path to elightenment.

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Day 1 – Buddhism Basics

These are some of the questions we asked ourselves and below was our schedule for the next week.

Morning Meditation – seated breathwork	6:45 am SILENCE
Breakfast	7:30 am SILENCE
Mid-Morning Meditation Part I – seated breathwork	9:00 am SILENCE
Mid-Morning Meditation Part II – walking meditation	10:00 am SILENCE
Mid-Morning Meditation Part III – seated breathwork	10:30 am SILENCE
Lunch	11:00 am SILENCE
Discussion Groups	2:00 pm
Afternoon Teachings	3:30 pm
Tea	5:00 pm
Evening Meditation – seated breathwork	5:45 pm
Dinner	6:30 pm
Teaching/Q&A/Meditation	7:30 pm SILENCE
Sleep	8:30 pm – 6:00 am SILENCE

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Core TEACHINGS:

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TYPES OF MEDITATIONS

There are two meditation types – Placement and Analytical.

• Placement: Uses Objects of Concentration (breath, abdomen, nostrils, movements, etc…) to create balance between an uncontrolled overthinking mind and a dull lethargic mind.
• Analytical: Uses Contemplation to improve one’s life and progress through the Lamrim.

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What I learned…

• The FOUR Immeasurable Thoughts towards all living beings:
  • 1. Happiness and it’s causes.
  • 2. Freedom from suffering and it’s causes.
  • 3. Imparting joy selflessely… rejoicing as an antidote tojealousy.
  • 4. Equinanimaty for all living beings.

These are considered the highest value thoughts to exhibit Compassion and Inner Wisdom in your life.

• Manifest these through the Tibetan Mantra of Compassion:
  • OM MANI PADME HUM

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DAY 2 – Realization

Realizations through Meditation:

• The only way to help people is to assist them in recognizing their own compassion and inner-wisdom.

• The best way to not harm others is by firstly not harming yourself.

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DAY 3 – Teaching

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Realizations through Meditation:

• By developing compassion with wisdom for myself and all living beings I can give my greatest contribution to World Peace.

• The best way to not harm others is by firstly not harming yourself.

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Core TEACHINGS:

• Enlightenment is a state of mind that has abandoned Perfection, Attachment, Physicality, and Cultivations. It is a state of pure EMPTYNESS.
• Abandon your afflictions caused by the 3 Poisons: Ignorance, Attachment, and Aversion
  • Ignorance leads to unaware attachment and aversion
  • Obscurations of the Mind cause
    • Ignorance of how one or the world suffers and suffering’s causes.
    • Attachment and Aversion through the 8 Worldy Concerns

Attachment	Aversion
Pleasure	Pain
Gain	Loss
Reputation	Defamation
Praise	Criticism

Removal of Ignorance and understanding of Karma is called Liberation.

• Definition Reminders:
  • Suffering is defined as: “Any undesirable experience“.

• Karma is defined as “the simple LAW of Cause and Effect inherent in all phenomena including our own minds“.
  • I find Karma to be very simple to Chaos Theory or the Butterfly Effect in that we cannot fully understand the intricacies leading to the results of our lives but we can at the very least recognize how we contribute.
• The best way to measure one’s path to enlightement, or emptiness, is by observing their ability to Respond with Wisdom rather than React with the 3 Poisons.

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DAY 4 – The Morning Puja

I can only describe the Puja as…

• “A symphony of experience. Tibetan Chants. Gongs, Symbals, and Instruments. Incense and Offerings. A synchronistic harmony of human beings. Beautiful with pure motivation.“

The breakfast following the Puja I had a deep realization. During my washing of the dishes I realized that it was a meditation. That Life is a Meditation. Every moment, every task, every thought is an opportunity to manifest a meditation.

DEBATE

Debate is an important aspect of Tibetan Buddhism. It allows the philsophy to be predicated on logic, which is continually sharpened like a sword at the whetstone.

• Tibetan debate is taught and practiced by all from the young kids of the school to the older monks. In fact they debate each other. It’s a caucophany of claps as a clap signifies an illogical statement. The response to a statement is answered in “Yes”, “No” (with a clap), “No pervations”, or “Unknown”.

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DAY 5 – Mind Training

Core TEACHINGS:

• There are certain Objects of the Mind:
  • Thoughts
  • Feelings
  • Dreams
  • Decisions
  • Perceptions
  • Experiences
• Mind Training, through meditation, is a lifetime of familiarizing your mind with values.

• My 6 main values…

1. Serendipity
2. Discipline
3. Confidence
4. Gratitude
5. Honesty
6. Resilience

Realization – Each moment, every experience, is different in our impermanent ever changing universe.

• Values -> Motivations -> Intentions -> Decisions -> Actions -> Experiences -> Values -> ……..

• Mind Training is based on the foundational awareness of our value cycle.
• Life can either come FROM you (truth) or AT you (deception)

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DAY 6 – A Choice and the Reincarnated

We all have a choice. The choice to either attach and avert life circumstances into a cause of suffering OR to transform your experiences into phenomena of colour, intricacy, and wonder.

• Your Homework: Transform the seemingly mundane. The simple. Into the Complex. The Exquisite.

Reincarnation

The night of Day 6 saw me meeting a reincarnated Lama. A young boy was indentified to display the qualities and attributes of dead venerated monk. He was identified as a reincarnation. Thus he was raised and formed to become the dead monk. His beliefs, his life, his deeds, his family, his wants. Do I believe spiritual reincarnation to be true? No. I do not believe that there is a transmutable element to the human experience that can transfer between entities. I do believe that we construct our own subjective reality – so if a young mind is formed in the image of an identity it is formed to become it. In essence, reincarnation is as real as we believe it to be. That’s a scary and beautiful experience. To continue someone else’s legacy and the potential expense of your own.

The boy after completing university, left the monastic community, entered the lay life, and rejected his reincarnation.

Day 7 – The End