Healing The Body and Mind

by Tulku Thondup Rinpoche

To find true well-being, the best place to look is close to home. We could travel around the globe a hundred times, turning over every stone on earth in the quest for happiness. Yet this would not necessarily give us what we seek. Money does not necessarily grant well-being either, nor does a youthful or healthy body. Health and money can help us, of course. But the real source of peace and joy is our minds.

The mind wants to be peaceful; this is really its natural state. But there are so many distractions and cravings that can obscure our peaceful nature. A characteristic of our time is the speed of our daily lives, especially in the West. Everything is a rush. Meditation can slow us down so that we touch our true nature. Any meditation can help us.

The object of our contemplation could be a flower, a religious image, or a positive feeling. Or it could be our own bodies.

One especially rich way to develop a peaceful mind is to meditate upon the body. By doing this, we promote the welfare of our whole being.

Through meditation, we can learn how to encourage our minds to create a feeling of peace in the body. This can be as simple as relaxing and saying to ourselves, “Let my body be calm and peaceful now,” and really feeling that this is happening. It is the beginning of meditation — and of wisdom, too.

This approach is a kind of homecoming. We are reintroducing ourselves to our bodies and establishing a positive connection between mind and body. Quite often, we have a rather strained and distant relationship to our own bodies. We think of the body as unattractive or ugly, or maybe our health is poor. Or else we like the body, cherish it, and foster cravings around it. But even if we cherish the body, we worry that it could be better than it is or that it will get sick or grow old. So we are conflicted and ambivalent. The body is an object of anxiety.

The meditations in this book will help us approach the body with a realistic attitude, accepting it as it is. Then we will practice how to see the body as very peaceful, a body filled with light and warmth. So many mental and physical afflictions are associated with the body, and meditation can help to heal them.

Mind and body are intimately connected, and die relationship of mind to body in meditation is very interesting. When we see the body as peaceful and beautiful, who or what is creating these feelings? The mind is. By creating peaceful feelings in the body, the mind is absorbed in those feelings. So although the body is the object to be healed, it also becomes the means of healing the mind — which is the ultimate goal of meditation.

When our minds are peaceful in meditation, there is no other mind. Even if the peaceful feeling goes away, we are developing the habit of a peaceful mind. Our minds are becoming accustomed to their true nature. Really, it all comes back to the mind. This is where our true happiness is. The Buddha said:

Mind is the main factor and forerunner o f all actions.

Whoever acts or speaks

With a pure thought

Will enjoy happiness as the result.

Like a physician treating a patient, Buddhism deals with mental, emotional, and physical afflictions by diagnosing the cause and treating it.

In this world of ceaseless change, the mind tends to develop a grasping quality and gets attached to all kinds of illusory wants and desires. This is at the root of our suffering. We heal ourselves to the extent that we can release that grasping.

As it was first practised in the ninth century, Tibetan medicine viewed the body as composed of four elements — namely, earth, water, fire, and air — and as having hot and cold temperatures. Western medicine has given us a wonderfully detailed and up-to-date knowledge of the body and how it works, and we can take advantage of this. Yet even today, the ancient Tibetan picture of the body is very useful, both as an aid to meditation and as a way to understand the various qualities of the mind.

According to this view, when the four elements are in balance, we are in our natural healthy state, but when there is disharmony, emotional or physical disease can take root and flourish. The third Dodrupchen writes:

The ancient masters said that if you do not foster dislike and unhappy

thoughts, your mind will not be in turmoil. If your mind is

not in turmoil, the air [or energy of your body] will not be disturbed.

If the air is not disturbed, other physical elements of your

body will not experience disharmony. Harmonious elements [in

turn] will help the mind stay free from turmoil. Then the wheel of

joy will keep revolving.

The mind is the source of true well-being. So before we get to the guided meditations upon the body later on, we would do well to consider the qualities of the mind and how we can improve our lives.

THE PEACEFUL MIND

When I was ten or eleven years old, my personal tutor, some friends, and I made a rare excursion from the monastery. I looked forward to visiting the great adept Kunzang Nyima Rinpoche in a valley two days away. Though I enjoyed my life in the monastery, it was so exciting to ride a horse across the spacious Ser Valley. For miles and miles, we rode through, this untainted land, enjoying the sight of peaceful and beautiful animals. Butterflies dotted the air over the green carpet of grassland, and birds played and sang freely, in a timeless scene of natural beauty. It was the greatest feast for the senses of a little boy to enjoy, an unforgettable adventure for someone who had lived for years within the sanctuary of a monastic compound.

Arriving in the evening, we reached a small, peaceful gorge walled by gentle green hills. In the distance, the majestic mountain of Ser Dzong seemed to preside over all of existence.

We camped in a beautiful field at a distance from Rinpoche’s big black tent. Early the next morning, we crossed the meadow to meet Rinpoche. He had a beautiful and powerful face with wide, smiling eyes, a brownish complexion, and long hair tied around his head and wrapped in a silk turban. He might have been in his fifties, and he had a strong, vital body. With a blossoming, flower-like smile, he welcomed us as if he had just found his long-lost friends. He kept his treasure of writings close at hand, about forty volumes, most of which were his mystical revelation. I remember the feeling of unconditional and unpretentious love in his heart, which wasn’t only for me but for all around. Although his voice was powerful and far-reaching, he spoke in a stream of gentle and soothing words. He was someone who enjoyed the simple gifts of life with deepest contentment. I was a guarded and shy boy, but in the sunny presence of Rinpoche, I became so natural. There was no place to harbour darkness or anxiety anymore.

Rinpoche’s joy and calm seemed pervasive. Immediately upon meeting him and for all the time I was there, die world appeared to be a very peaceful place. As I looked around, I vividly felt that his presence had somehow transformed my surroundings, that nothing was separate from this wonderful peacefulness. The trees, the mountains, my companions, myself — everything was united in calm and peace. It wasn’t the mountains and people that changed, but my mind’s way of seeing and feeling them. Because of the power of his presence, my mind was enjoying a greater degree of peace and joy, almost a state of boundlessness. That feeling enabled me to see all mental objects through those qualities. For a while, no attractions or disappointments mattered.

Even today, when I remember that experience from more than four decades ago, I feel joy and completeness. The heat of that memory helps me to melt the ice of obstacles as they come up on life’s journey. The mind creates peacefulness. In this case, my mind had focused on an object outside itself — this benevolent spiritual teacher — and expanded the feeling of peace. We can benefit from such experiences, because they offer a taste of peace and show us how our mind would like to be. And we don’t have to go to the Ser Valley to experience such peace. We can feel happier and more peaceful in our everyday lives and encourage this feeling of peace through meditation.

True healing and well-being come down to enjoying an awareness of peace, the ultimate peace of existence. The mind is not passive in the sense of being half-asleep. Instead, the mind is open to die thought and feeling of total peace. An unrestricted and uncontaminated awareness of peace is the ultimate joy and strength. When we are truly aware of peace, our nature blossoms with full vigour.

Some people are so fully open to the true nature of existence that they are peaceful no matter what the circumstances. For die enlightened mind, peace does not depend on any object or concept. Awareness of die absolute nature of things, the universal truth, is not limited or conditioned by concepts, feelings, or labels such as good and bad. A mind that is free can transcend dualistic categories such as peace versus conflict and joy versus suffering. The enlightened mind does not discriminate between a subjective or an objective reality or between liking and disliking. Time is timeless, and everything in existence is perfect as it is.

Before this begins to sound too theoretical, I should say that there are many people who are enlightened, to one degree or another. Some Tibetan lamas I know were imprisoned for many years, and they almost enjoyed die experience. I try to avoid talking about the political upheaval in Tibet, because it is too easy for blame to arise. This can lead to a cycle of resentment, which could embitter the mind and is neither helpful nor productive. Suffice it to say that prison is not necessarily a pleasant holiday. Yet I have a friend who got out of prison only after twenty-two years and had felt quite at home there because of a very peaceful mind. When I asked him how it was, he said, “It was nice there. I was treated very nice.” When you ask one of these lamas to explain, he will say, “Alive or dead, it doesn’t matter. I’m in Buddha pure land.”

We can be inspired by tales of enlightenment, where peace is everywhere and even turmoil is OK. But for most of us, the goal should be to work with our ordinary minds and just try to be a little more peaceful and relaxed in our approach to life. If we can become a little more peaceful, it will help us handle everyday problems better, even if big problems are still difficult. Even so, it can be helpful to remember that die enlightened mind and the ordinary mind are two sides of the same coin. The mind is like the sea, which can be rough on the surface, with mountainous waves stirred up by ferocious wind, but calm and peaceful at the bottom. Sometimes we can catch sight of this peaceful mind even in times of trouble. These glimpses of peace show us that we may have more inner resources to draw upon than we had realised. With skill and patience, we can learn how to be in touch with our peaceful selves.

THE MIND AS A SOURCE OF NEGATIVITY

If we lack peace of mind, then what good does it do us to have youth, beauty, health, wealth, education, and worldly power?

We can find many reasons to be miserable. Somehow, even if we experience some happiness or excitement, we feel haunted by a void in our lives. We all know of people who appear to have everything but fall victim to darkness and pain and even end their lives by committing suicide. Shantideva, one of the great masters of Buddhism, writes about the snares of the mind that can entrap us:

[The Buddha/, who tells the truth, says

That all fears

And all the immeasurable miseries

Are facilitated by the mind?

In India about twenty-five years ago, a Tibetan acquaintance of mine struggled to survive, as a lot of refugees do. After a few years, he made some money, enough so that he could live comfortably. But he never felt content with anything. From the time he woke to when he fell asleep, his mind was occupied with money. He constantly talked about money, lamenting that he did not make enough, worrying that he would lose what he had. He had no life. He was a slave of almighty money. He worried about getting sick, not for the sake of his health and well-being but because he would lose the opportunity to make a little more money. It sometimes seemed as if he were a grotesque apparition, for even his facial expression and body looked crimped, so tightly did he cling to the idea of money.

Unfortunately, he is not the only person who functions as a mere shadow cast by material goods. Many of us are more or less sucked into the same kind of existence. We take no time to cultivate true happiness and may not even be sure what that is. Many writers are occupied with mere word games and theories. Many politicians promote their ideas only to gain power. Many rich people are trapped by the drive to amass more wealth or the fear of losing what they have. Many intellectuals are blinded by arrogance or intolerance. Many spiritual teachers run a business show or go on an ego trip to gain power over others. Many poor people, in their hard struggle for survival, are unable to take any pleasure from life. The wonderful skills and achievements of the modern age often end up as fuel for greed, obsession, bondage, pressure, worry, and pain.

All these miseries could be healed by our minds, but without practice in cultivating the peaceful mind, we are too vulnerable and weak. The fault lies not with the wonderful material objects but with our own attitudes. Many of us are spellbound by our wild emotions and cravings, slave masters created by our minds. Caught up in these attachments, many of us even find it painful to be alone or experience silence.

According to Buddhism and many of the world’s other wisdom traditions, the root of all our problems is the grasping of the mind. The Buddhist term for this is grasping at “self.” This can be somewhat tricky for Westerners to comprehend. For one thing, the common understanding of “self” is an “I” or an “ego.” In the Buddhist view, “self” includes “me” and “mine” but is also very much broader and encompasses all phenomena arising in our consciousness. However, according to the highest understanding of Buddhism, there is no “self” that truly exists as a solid, fixed, unchanging entity.

We normally think that a person is a subject who perceives and is separate from objects, and we tend to treat objects as if they were solid and dependable in some kind of absolute way. Yet mental objects — wealth, power, a house, a television show, an idea, a feeling, whatever phenomenon you can think of — are really not so absolute but instead are relative, arising and passing away, and seen only in relation to other phenomena.

But how can this be, you may ask? Surely as “I” read a “book,” they both exist, since there seems to be an “I” who holds the book in my hand. The answer is that all things exist in relation to one another, and existence is marked by change. Perhaps the best way to clarify this a bit would be to use the example of the body. The body is changing all the time. In babies, we can see this more vividly because they grow so quickly. But we all know that everybody changes, even from day to day — for example, according to what we eat or how much we weigh. Even our moods can affect the body and be reflected in how we look, perhaps crestfallen or haggard or else bright and vital. Above all, we know that the body ages and eventually passes away. The body is a vivid illustration of the transitory nature of existence. If we think of the body as solid, fixed, and unchanging, and cling to this notion, that is grasping at the body as “self.”

To the extent that grasping at self becomes tighter, all the mental and emotional afflictions — such as craving, stress, anxiety, confusion, greed, and aggression — will be intensified, and physical and social problems will be magnified. Shantideva writes:

All the violence, fear, and suffering

That exist in the world

Come from grasping at “self”

What use is this great evil monster to you?

If you do not let go of the “self ”

There will never be an end to your suffering.

Just as, if you do not let go of aflame with your hand,

You can't stop it from burning your hand.

The Buddha himself said:

When you see with your wisdom

That all the compounded phenomena are without a “self”

Then no suffering will ever afflict your mind.

This is the right approach, the approach that cuts off all the pains of craving.

According to Buddhism, grasping at self can be the source of physical disease as well as mental anguish. Many Western scholars agree that negative emotions, anger, and anxiety can cause many diseases. Daniel Goleman writes:

Both anger and anxiety, when chronic, can make people more susceptible to a range of disease.

People who are chronically distressed —  whether anxious and worried, depressed and pessimistic, or angry and hostile — have double the average risk of getting a major disease in the ensuing years. Smoking increases the risk of serious disease by 60 percent; chronic emotional distress by 100 percent. This makes distressing emotion almost double the health risk compared with smoking. Loosening the grip on “self” is our best remedy for all problems, and to the extent that we can do this, that much happier we will be. This is healing in its truest sense. A common Buddhist scripture, or sutra, puts it this way:

What is healing from sickness?

It is the freedom from grasping at “I” and “my” [egoism and possessiveness].

In Buddhist scripture and commentary, sickness often refers to die ills of both mind and body. Vimalakirti said, “As long as there is ignorance and craving for the existents, there will be sickness in me.”

So much of our troubles are created by not realising who we are and what our true place is in the ever-changing universe. The physicist Albert Einstein, pioneer of the theory of relativity, knew something about the place of the human being in the universe. While the self in the following quote probably was intended to mean “ego,” Einstein clearly was aware of the merit in loosening the grip upon narrow mindedness and cherished concepts when he wrote, “The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self.”

If common sense and religious tradition tell us to loosen our grasping attitudes, how can we do this? One way is meditation. In die guided meditations that come later, a primary technique is to visualise die body as filled with light, which shines outward to the universe. It can be very positive to imagine the body as boundless. This can help ease the grasping of the mind.

However, sometimes we are so mired in our suffering that it's hard to see a way out. We need to find a focus point, any positive feeling, image, or idea that can light the path before us and give us a glimpse of peace.

THE PATH TO PEACEFUL FEELINGS

The poet William Wordsworth said, “The world is too much with us.” Some of us are so busy and absorbed in worldly activity that we lose perspective on our feelings and state of mind. We cannot even bear peace or silence. We find it painful and scary not to have something active going on, such as talking, playing, digging, building, writing, counting, or worrying!

Some people aren’t even aware of how unhappy they are because of their enslavement to excitement, cravings, and worries. Grasping at “self” can be like scratching at psoriasis: it almost seems enjoyable, but it only inflames the irritation. Although we have the capacity to be peaceful, our true nature has become so obscured that peace of mind is now an unknown commodity.

There’s a famous story about the mother of one of the Buddha’s main disciples. After she took rebirth in hell, her son, through the power of his spiritual feats, went to that realm of suffering to rescue her. He patiently gave her the teachings that could change the negative conditions of her mind. She was able to free herself from the infernal realm but was so attached to her place in hell that she pleaded with the other inhabitants, “Please don’t let anybody take my place.” It was not because she enjoyed the hell realm but because it was the only place she remembered or was familiar with, so she clung to what she feared losing.

It can seem daring to open the door to healing. And yet cultivating peace of mind is actually not so strange or alien. It can help if we rekindle a memory of some quiet time when no outside pressures or worries were bombarding us. Such memories give us a clue about the mind in its true, peaceful nature and can become the focus of meditation.

If we can recall a peak experience when we felt whole and complete, it’s possible to bring the feelings of this recollection forward to the present. The key is to remember the image, in all its details, then expand the wonderful feeling in our minds. This memory could be something triggered by a religious experience or a meeting with a joyful person, as in the story I told about my visit with the Rinpoche when I was young. Tibetans often employ memories of their spiritual master as focal points for spiritual training, for the culture breeds a deep respect for die truly wise teacher.

There are so many possible candidates for such a contemplation. It could be a visit to a beautiful garden or being in mountains that are blanketed in snow or experiencing the silence of vast open fields.

One memory that has inspired me over the years took place during the difficult escape from the political upheavals in Tibet in the 1950s. My companions and I were passing through Lhasa, the capital, when we came upon some farmers tailing after their horses and donkeys on the way to market. They were singing some folk songs in their simple, natural voices. The singing seemed to rise up from the primordial earth. It had a sky-bursting quality of sincerity. I don’t think any great professional singer could have surpassed the naturalness of those rough-hewn melodies sounding forth in that moment.

Perhaps my heart was more open to this beauty because I had just made a brief pilgrimage to the ancient, ageless monuments of a holy city. Whatever the reason, this felt different from other music that I enjoy greatly. It touched a deep level of my mind and awakened a state of heightened awareness in which any trace of fear or sadness melted in the air that rang with sweet voices. I t is interesting, too, that this happened at a time of great change on a dangerous journey. So even during turmoil (or maybe because of it!), it’s possible to taste serenity.

Happy childhood memories are another doorway to tranquillity of mind. Some of the silly and simple experiences back then gave us more joy than any of today’s entertainments. I can remember at a very young age roasting sweet potatoes with some other boys in a small cave. It’s an utterly simple memory but one that can fill me with a sense of warmth and freedom when I contemplate it. In childhood, the mind tends to be fresh and clear, able to feel things nakedly and intimately, before being numbed and insulated by all the excitements and burdens that come later. A day seemed to last forever then; we often felt a greater sense of space in ourselves.

If you relax and think back to those days, you might be able to remember something inspiring. This can be like discovering a beautiful piece of a picture puzzle: just coax the memory gently, and then all the details of the experience may come back.

Focus on the positive feeling and rekindle it, as if you were returning to your old, cosy home after a long and tiring journey. Allow the feeling to expand and blossom until it opens up your whole being as you are today.

It’s best to choose a very positive memory or to focus only on the positive aspects of a memory. Stay with the warm feelings; rest in them until you feel complete in this contemplation. If a memory has some stain or darkness associated with it, it’s possible to heal this negative aspect by bringing the light of positive feeling and energy to it. During a pause in your daily routine, it can help to recollect or touch any warm, spacious feeling. The open quality can ease stress, as sunlight can melt away troubling nightmares.

AWARENESS OF THE PEACEFUL MIND

Peace of mind is not something we save for meditation or for the contemplation of past experiences, as if it were some special feeling separate from everyday life. We can encourage the mind to be more peaceful all the time. This is how to improve our outlook and assure our well-being. In the ups and downs of life, there is always an opportunity to cultivate an awareness of positive feeling.

When I talk about peace, people sometimes mistakenly think that this means detaching yourself from the stream of life. They view peace as if it were something strange, maybe a numbed or sleepy feeling, or being spaced-out and in a different mental zone. This couldn’t be further from the truth. You can be “peaceful” when you are asleep, but that is only the absence of consciousness. The way to truly heal your life is to be awake to its simple joys and to develop an open, welcoming attitude toward all your activities and encounters with other people. You should enjoy yourself and be fully engaged in what you do.

Notice when you feel open and peaceful. Be aware of any feeling of freedom. Awareness is the key. I f you are aware of peace, it has a chance to become part of your life. When you feel peaceful, enjoy it. Don’t force your feelings or chase after them or stir up false excitement. There’s no need to grasp. Simply be aware and let the feeling blossom and open. Allow it to expand. Stay with any positive feeling; allow your mind to relax in it. You may find your body feeling peaceful, too. If your breathing feels more relaxed, or you feel a sensation of warmth, pause to notice that as well and enjoy it.

The occasion for peace arising could be anything. It could be the sight of a toddler proudly taking a few awkward steps under the watchful eye of a parent. It could be the appearance of the evening star or die glow of the afternoon sun on the side of a city building or the soothing sound of rain in the morning as you’re lying in bed. Maybe an openhearted person has said hello with a cheerful smile, or you might have freely done someone a small act of kindness. Simple activities like taking a walk or enjoying a cup of tea can grant you contentment, and even joy, if your attitude is open and receptive. Develop an attitude of appreciation.

It is possible to feel calm and joyful for no reason at all, or under challenging circumstances. The enlightened mind needs no object or sensation for peace to spontaneously arise. For the ordinary mind, however, it is better to use positive feelings as a starting place. Here’s how you can do so:

Be aware of the positive. At first, focus on positive situations and images and rejoice in their healing power.

See the positive side of the negative. After gaining some strength in your mind, focus not only on positive objects but also on-die positive qualities of negative objects. Look for the positive side of negative situations, the silver lining to the dark cloud. One excellent commonsense approach is humour, which can shift your perspective and suddenly turn a supposedly negative situation on its head!

Many people have overly sensitive minds and therefore feel the negative more strongly,' which allows anxieties to take root and grow. The remedy is to develop a less sensitive mind. You can actually decide “not to mind so much” when negative situations come up — in which case, they will be easier to handle. The third Dodrupchen writes, “ If we are not sensitive, then because of our mental strength, even great pain will feel easy to bear, light and flimsy, like a piece of cotton.”

See everything as positive. See the positive in everything, and everything as positive. Then it is possible to realise true peace beyond positive and negative. Ultimately, everything can be a source of healing, without discriminating between so-called positive and negative.

For most people, the main support of healing should be to focus on positive situations and images. However, if you immerse yourself in the positive, you can gradually but spontaneously embark on the second and third ways, first indirectly and then directly.

POSITIVE PERCEPTION

Pessimism can be so deadly. The habit of worrying about problems or seeing only the negative aspect of a situation leaves hardly any room for healing. When the mind becomes encrusted and rigid with this attitude, then everything that happens appears tainted by pain and negativity. The mind can choose between positive and negative: it’s all in the perception. A central practise in Tibetan Buddhism is positive perception. It’s an approach that has proved over the centuries to yield an amazing harvest of spiritual realisation as well as happiness and health in everyday life. The third Dodrupchen is a great champion of this approach. Here he explains how true healing depends not on our external circumstances but on how we perceive and use them:

From animates or inanimate, whenever any harm comes to us, if we build a habit of identifying them with suffering, then even a small circumstance could bring great pain to us, as it is natural that whether in happiness or suffering we establish our habits, they will increase....... Being invincible against enemies and negative circumstances doesn’t mean that we will be able to drive away all our problems or prevent them from ever arising again. But the key is not to let die problems become obstructions to our journey to the [spiritual] accomplishments. For that, we must abandon the thought of absolutely not wanting to have sufferings come to us and [instead] develop the thought of joy over whatever suffering comes to us.

Problems can become stepping-stones on the path to freeing your mind. Even if you are not a great spiritual master, you can start by seeing small problems as acceptable. Try to see difficulty as an interesting challenge. Then, if you can solve it or learn how to tolerate it, be sure to congratulate yourself on having done so. Feeling the satisfaction can bring a surge of joy, which has a positive ripple effect in the rest of your life.

A spark of peace and joy is present in every situation if you care to find and apply it. Even if you are having a hellish life, there will always be some moments of peace that you could certainly use as the source of healing.  

On the other hand, even if you are in joyful circumstances, if you grasp at happiness, trying to hold fast to what you’ve got and greedily craving more, the experience will transform into the ashes of unfulfillment. In a life of great pains, a little pain can be felt as joyful. In a painless life, even a little pain can be felt as great pain. Everything is relative, and it depends on the state of mind in which you are viewing and measuring things. In great difficulties, the hope of survival can be the focal point. Many innocent prisoners have survived torture and starvation because of the hope and belief that one day they’d be free. Hope can be a powerful focal point.

So even if your life is painful, you can find something to use as your focal point of healing, the best out of the worst situations, if you care to look for it.

Dr. Viktor E. Frankl, a psychiatrist who survived Auschwitz, counselled his patients that a kind of human dignity can transcend the most terrible real-life nightmare. His striving for meaning, tested by extreme conditions, became the guideline for his therapy practice of healing others. Frankl believed that one’s attitude is a matter of choice and that affirmation is still possible under the worst circumstances, even if that means focusing on such a thought as being “worthy of suffering.”

In his memoirs, published after World War II, Frankl reflects on his experiences in a concentration camp and how he was able to find the spark of hope and joy in the darkest night of tyranny:

Somebody showed me an Illustrated Weekly with photographs of prisoners lying crowded on their bunks, staring dully at a visitor. “Isn’t this terrible, the dreadful staring faces — everything about it?”

“Why?” I asked, for I genuinely did not understand. . . . We were sick and did not have to leave camp for work; we did not have to go on parade. We could lie all day in the little comer in the hut and doze and wait. . . . But how content we were; happy in spite of everything.

When I related this story in one of my workshops, a gentleman objected to Viktor Frankl’s observation and adamantly insisted that any positive emotion in a concentration camp was impossible because of the unimaginable suffering. I totally understand his feelings, since concentration camps were true living hells on earth. With deep respect for this point of view, I also believe that the human mind is capable of remarkable resilience even in the most horrible situation. Perceptions and feelings are so subjective and relative. Certainly, Frankl’s attitude is unusual given how dire this chapter of history was. But then, that’s what makes his story so inspirational.

As one of many refugees from Tibet who fled to India, I saw a fair amount of suffering. The training in positive outlook I had been lucky enough to receive helped me through this time. For most people, it will be best to start now on a positive approach, and then if a crisis comes along in their lives, it may be easier to handle.

STEPS TOWARD BEING HAPPIER

Some people say, “I want to be happy, but I don’t know how.” They have little glimpses of happiness but feel unfulfilled or lonely or experience a sense of emptiness a lot of the time. The best starting point is to try to feel better about where you are right now. Cultivate an appreciation for whatever gifts life sends your way, even if they appear to be tiny.

According to Buddhism, the nature of the mind is enlightened. So your nature is good. The big problem is the negative habits of the mind, how you look at everything. These mental patterns can get quite built up and rigid, and they colour and influence your perspective. Everyone has the capacity to be happy, but you have to change your mental habits and way of perceiving things.

A very good approach is to notice any peaceful feelings and encourage them, as I have already suggested. Nurture whatever peaceful and happy moments you have now and allow them to blossom.

Also, if you’re unhappy and you want to be happy, that in itself could be an obstacle. It might sound strange, but a certain kind of wishful attitude could be limiting and restrictive. You compare yourself to others, which is counterproductive. Or even though you hardly know what being happy is, you keep insisting to yourself that you should have some kind of terrific happiness. It’s like setting die bar too high rather than taking a gradual approach. Instead of helping you get there, it causes trouble because you can never seem to live up to some ideal.

If you can learn to be more tolerant of your unhappy condition and minimise your minďs sensitivity toward it, that in itself will become a stepping-stone toward happiness. I f you don’t mind as much whatever it is you perceive as painful or depressing, you will lighten your burden. Try to reduce the degree of resentment toward the so-called unhappiness; that will be a big achievement. Change what you can to improve your situation and don’t worry about what you can’t change. Be more accepting of things at this very moment. Find humour or a spark of enjoyment wherever you can. That begins to move you toward greater happiness.

Don't make happiness an obsession, like some object you simply must get hold of and keep. If you can relax the obsession about happiness just a bit, then you might spontaneously become happier. Finally, when you deal effectively with a problem, it’s important to acknowledge this to yourself. In daily life or meditation, anytime you heal some suffering you have felt, you must recognise this. Such recognition can enable the powerful energy of joy to flare up. That could be a great focal point for farther healing. The third Dodrupchen writes, “You must recognise that the suffering has actually transformed as die support of the path. Then you must feel a strong and stable stream of joy that is brought about by that recognition.”

THE INTERCONNECTEDNESS OF MIND AND BODY

The mind is most important in determining our well-being and happiness. If our peace of mind is very deep, we can be happy even if our body is ageing or sickly. Of course, we would all like to be as healthy as possible, in both mind and body. What, then, is the relationship of mind to body that people seem so curious about?

In die West, scientists and philosophers have sometimes talked about the two as if they were separate, with the intellect and thought processes distinct from the physical body. That view may be changing in recent years, as Western medical science has begun to notice a “connection” between the mind and the body’s well-being.

In Buddhism, mind and body have always been viewed as intimately related. Buddhists are very interested in the mind. So if we asked a Tibetan Buddhist scholar, we could get a rather complicated explanation of mind and its various qualities, with lots of divisions and categories (six, twenty, or fifty-three).

All that is not too important for our purposes here. The main point about the mind is that there is no division between thinking in the brain, emotions in the heart, and feelings in the body. These are considered different functions of mind. Someone might cook, write, or drive a car, and these activities are being performed by the same person. In the same way, the mind feels with the heart, sees with the eyes, and hears with the ears.

The aspect of awareness is the mind. For example, if I say that it warms my heart to think about some act of kindness or a positive sentiment, both the act of “thinking” and the “warming of the heart” are the mind in various aspects of awareness. Awareness is a very important quality of the mind, and it is crucial in meditation. When we bring awareness to the body, we can call forth powerful positive energies. There are three reasons to meditate upon the body:

1. Our own bodies are a very effective support in regaining the healing energies of the mind, since the body is so intimately connected to the mind.

2. Much of the time, the goal is to heal the ills of the body. So choosing the body as the object to be healed is practical. Meditation can be an effective remedy for these problems, depending on the skill of the meditator and the particular illness. It is also true that compared to emotional problems, physical ills can be difficult to heal through meditation, especially for a beginner. But even if our physical ills don’t vanish, they can often be eased. At the very least, our minds can learn to better tolerate the woes of the body and carry them more lightly.

3. By bringing healing energy to the body, we can also improve our lives. The mind, the main actor in healing meditation, is absorbed in positive healing energies. This loosens the grasping of the mind. It becomes easier to develop a more open and relaxed attitude toward problems, including how to get along better with others.

USING THE BODY TO LEAD THE MIND

The mind is your main source of happiness, but sometimes the body can lead the way. Mind and body are so interconnected, it’s important to take care of your body. If your body is healthy, it’s easier for the mind to be healthy, too. You need to eat the right food, exercise, get enough rest, and try to stay healthy. But beyond those obvious steps, you can also help yourself by the attitude of the body — the way you carry yourself. Unhappiness and negativity can be held and retained in the body, in your gloomy face, your tight and tense muscles, your slouching posture. Simply by relaxing the body and shifting the posture so that it’s as straight as is comfortable, you can shift your burdens so that they suddenly seem to disappear or feel lighter.

Smiling is a very simple way to feel good. It’s amazing how you can lift your mood instantly just by smiling. It may sound too easy or simplistic, especially if you’re someone who mistakenly believes that the wisdom of life should always be somehow obscure or unattainable, but the simple act of smiling makes uncommonly good sense. It also fits into the Buddhist practice of positive perception. By smiling, the body is giving your mind and heart a positive message. You feel more lighthearted, as if the world had suddenly become more enjoyable. Not only does smiling lighten your outlook, but your open, cheerful face brings joy to other people. The Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh, a contemporary Buddhist teacher, advises us to smile all the time. If you are not ready to do that, you could at least smile more often. That’s a good beginning.

You don’t have to force a smile and actually shouldn’t. Smiling takes so little effort: it’s as if the muscles controlling the smile were just waiting for their chance. Notice any instant mood lift and enjoy it. It can be just a little smile; often that feels the most natural. Feel as though you have an inner smile, like sunshine within you, and that you’re smiling inside without needing a reason. You may discover that your unhappy mood or mind-set is not so rigid after all.

A MEDITATIVE VIEW OF THE BODY

Your physical body is a precious treasure. It’s an amazing machine: elegant, complex, and beautiful. It is also yours for a limited time. Buddhism talks about the body as a guest house for the mind and takes a quite realistic view of the body’s ageing and decay. Mind and body are together only for a while — all the more reason to treasure their true well-being while you can.

A common meditation long prescribed as part of monastic training in Tibet focuses on the impermanence of the body. Sometimes monks would actually meditate in a cemetery, the better for the mind to understand how ultimately unreliable and subject to decay the body is.

The focus here is simply for you to become more accepting of your body as it is. In the West, the body tends to be worshipped unrealistically. Even “perfect” supermodels seem to worry that their bodies should be better than they are, ever more perfect, and never changing. In die East, the body tends to be viewed more as something filthy and unworthy. Asians are not friends with their bodies, either. In both East and West, so much negative energy is attached to the body, and negative perception blocks the healing of body and mind. It’s better to take a more balanced view.

Many people don’t even want to think about their bodies. Being peaceful is so strange to them. In my workshops, they find it difficult enough just to relax and sit still. Then when I ask them to imagine the parts of their bodies, including their internal organs, it’s too much to bear. Always, you should only do what you can without straining yourself. At the same time, though, a little bit of struggle isn’t bad. You can learn how to accommodate yourself slowly, in a relaxed way, to what at first seems so difficult or even shocking.

By making a practice of meditating upon the body, gradually and after many sessions, you can move beyond attachment to or resentment of the body. Most people are so attached to their bodies that they identify very closely with them. It can help in meditation to see your body as boundless, like die sky. You don’t necessarily get attached to the sky. The sky is there, and when you think about it, you accept and appreciate it. If you began to see the body with something like this kind of relaxed appreciation, you could genuinely approach all of life with more enjoyment.

During the meditations, we first contemplate the body and its parts. Then we visualise the body as boundless and blossoming with lovely healing energies. At this point in my workshops, people usually start enjoying the meditations a lot more!

Sometimes meditation can be enjoyable, and sometimes it can feel like a bit of a struggle. Your body may not like sitting so long, or your mind may wander. My experience is that if you are patient with your struggles in meditation, if you can relax and accept the rising up of “dislike,” then obstacles tend to diminish or transform.

The difficulties can actually deepen your meditation if you stay relaxed toward them instead of resenting or fighting them. For one thing, you learn how to concentrate better rather than going off into some dreamland where everything is easy all the time. This kind of meditation eventually bears fruit. By gradually encouraging yourself, you are learning to let go of grasping. This is the way to heal yourself and enjoy a more peaceful life.