by Lama Thubten Yeshe
We always use the word, "ego." But although we're all the time saying,"ego,
ego, ego," we don't
realize the ego's psychological aspects, its mental attitude. We interpret
the ego as some sort of
physical entity. Therefore, it is necessary to discover that the ego is
mental, not physical. That's so
worthwhile.
We have such a short time to realize egolessness, but searching for it
is what differentiates us from
animals. Otherwise, what's the difference? Animals enjoy the sense world
and conduct their lives
to the best of their ability. Just like ourselves, they like those who
feed them and dislike those who
beat them, isn't it? What's the difference?
Perhaps you think, "Rubbish! I can intellectualize, I can write; I can
make money to support and
enjoy my life." But even rats and mice can look after themselves with ego
and attachment. They
can collect and store food many times their own weight. Look at the bees:
even though their lives
are so short, they collect enough honey to last for maybe hundreds of years.
So, what difference
is there between bees and so-called intelligent humans if the mental attitude
is the same, where
both are living only for sense pleasure? Perhaps bees are even more intelligent
than us -- they live
such short lives but still accumulate vast amounts of what gives them pleasure.
Therefore, I think it's so worthwhile and so important that while we occupy
these precious human
bodies, with all our intelligence and where everything has come together,
we use our ability to
seek our inner nature and release ourselves from all the problems of mental
defilement, which
come from our ego. Everything we've done since the time we were born until
now has come from
our ego, but it's all been so transitory and our pleasure has been so small.
But don't think, "Oh, I'm too bad; my mind is completely dominated by my
ego." Don't put
yourself down. Instead, be happy to realize such things.
Realizing that only your own mind and effort can bring you release from
your ego is so
worthwhile. For years and years, ages and ages, all you've done is build
up your ego, and under
the influence of its hallucinated projection of he sense world, you've
run, run, run from one thing
to another, as if you'd lost your mind. So to now have just one flash of
recognition of all this is
most worthwhile; it really is worth putting in the effort.
Don t think that without your own effort, without your own wisdom functioning,
you can stop the
schizophrenic mental problems that result from the energy force of your
own ego. It's impossible.
Lama doesn't believe that he can solve your problems without your own effort
and action. That's
a dream; if that's your attitude, it's a complete misconception. "God can
do everything for me;
Buddha can do everything for me. I'll just wait." That's not true! "I don't
have to do anything."
That's not true! You did everything, now you have to experience the powerful
consequences. You
can see now, with your own experience, can't you? Just one meditation session
is all it takes.
What Lama wants is for you to become a wise human being instead of one
who is dominated by
the energy force of a super-sensitive ego. At the end of a meditation course,
I'd like you to be
thinking, "Well, that was my own meditation course, given by my own wisdom."
If you feel like
that, the course was worthwhile. Otherwise, if you just go, "A high Tibetan
lama gave a meditation
course; I went," it's just another ego trip. What's the purpose? Your old
habits, your
schizophrenic mental attitudes haven't changed a bit. So what meditation
did you do? Lord
Buddha is already enlightened; through his own effort, with his own wisdom,
he freed himself from
his schizophrenic mind, but here we are in a still agitated condition.
So you can see, realization is so individual. It depends upon each individual's
mind, effort and
wisdom. Realization is so personal. From morning until night, you all have
different experiences,
even though you're all trying to meditate on the same thing -- different
experiences according to
the individual level of the individual mind.
If you think, "Oh, I have so much to do at home ... my house, my family,
my friends ... it's difficult
to sit and meditate," it means your mind is ensnared by the worldly life.
You've been like that from
the time you were born until now, and if you keep going that way, you'll
end up dying with
nothingness. How can you ever finish anything like that? Work in the materialistic
life continues to
pile up, one thing after another, then another, another, another, and you
can never say, "Ah, at last
I've finished everything, now I can sit and meditate." That time will never
come.
You can see, when your mind is occupied ego energy, it's like constantly
having needles stuck into
your body. That would be pretty uncomfortable, wouldn't it! It's the same
thing, exactly the same
thing. So you can realize how Important it is to release attachment and
ego. When you do release
them, you will experience everlasting joyful realization, inner freedom,
inner liberation, nirvana ... it
doesn't matter what you call it. But instead, all we do is try to please
our ego; it's like we're
praying to our ego. We dedicate all our energy to our ego, and what we
get in return m mental
pollution; there's such a bad smell in our minds that they can't even breathe.
So from now on, instead of welcoming your ego's energy force, stand guard
against it with
mindfulness and wisdom, watching with penetrative attention for the first
sign of its arrival. And
when it comes, instead of welcoming it, "How are you, ego? Come right in!
Have a cup of tea,
have some chocolate," examine it with a big wisdom eye, a wisdom eye bigger
than your head!
Just watch it. When you give your ego the big wisdom eye, it disappears,
all by itself.
source:www.fpmt.org/