The Mahamudra Lineage Prayer by Khenchen Thrangu

Author:Khenchen Thrangu
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shambhala
Published: 2018-09-24T16:00:00+00:00

QUESTIONS

Question: I constantly tell myself that I don’t have time to meditate, but I am practicing during my daily life. So, I try to be aware. Sometimes I wonder if I am not being too proud.

Rinpoche: I don’t think that pride is an obstacle in this practice because it is natural to think, “I am practicing during my daily activities.” That is what one is doing. It is not really a question of pride. Even if there is a tiny bit of pride, it can be like confidence, by thinking, “I am able to meditate during my daily life.” So, it is more a question of confidence, which does not create an obstacle. However, what is an obstacle is to forget to do it. That’s the biggest obstacle, so we need to remember to actually do it in the morning, afternoon, and evening whether we are happy or sad. It is important to always have the mindfulness and awareness while doing this postmeditation practice.

If we are very happy, then happiness often overpowers our meditation and we lose it, causing an obstacle to practice. Even when we are very happy, we need to be able to maintain mindfulness and awareness, not forgetting the practice. Sometimes we can be very unhappy, and then unhappiness overpowers the practice and we then forget to practice. We should be able to remember and maintain the practice even when unhappy. We should be able to remember and to maintain that practice at all times, whether we are happy or sad.

Question: Because the mind is always outside your body, do you always keep some of your mind in your body? Sometimes you can leave your body completely, and you don’t have any awareness of where you are. Is it that you keep a little bit in your body?

Rinpoche: Because the nature of mind is luminous clarity, it isn’t exactly correct to say that some of it is inside the body and some of it is outside the body. The nature of mind is always to know what is going on. When we talk about the mind resting within the body, we are talking mainly about sustaining mindfulness and attentiveness so that we know what we’re doing and where we are. It is mindfulness that brings our thoughts back so that our mind achieves some independence. That’s what we mean when we talk about mind resting in the body. It doesn’t mean that we won’t see things or won’t hear things that are going on outside our body, because we will. What it means is that we don’t lose it completely so that we really have no idea where we are or what we’re doing; we’re just completely distracted.

Question: I have a question about the factor of mental clarity. When we think about the clarity of mind, we might think of it in connection with sensory consciousness, like clarity of sight or clarity of sound or even clarity of thoughts. But when we talk about the clarity of

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