- The Dalai Lama Meditation
- BY THE MEDITATION SOCIETY OF
AMERICA
The Dalai Lama has been acknowledged
by Tibetan Buddhists to be a reincarnation of the God of Compassion
and by the world in general to be a Nobel Peace Prize winner
but few know him to be a practicing meditator. All his life,
he has been surrounded by masters of meditation and has been
initiated into many different techniques. It is therefore appropriate
that we pay attention when he points out one method so valuable
that he does it everyday:
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Remember when you were a kid
and they often had cartoons where someone had a devil on one
shoulder and an angel on the other and they were whispering into
an ear -- one encouraging doing "bad" and one doing
"good". In a way, that's the basis of the Dalai Lama
Meditation technique.
Sit quietly, calmly with eyes
closed, as relaxed yet aware as you can be. Visualize yourself
on the left side of your minds eye as you would appear to yourself
and others in a moment of impatience. Really see this inner vision.
Watch your face, observe your body language. What does your impatient
self look like? On the right side of your minds eye, see yourself
when you are very patient. What do you look like when you have
a lifetime of time. As tense as you appeared on the left as your
impatient self, see yourself as relaxed in your patience on the
right. Now on the left side, see yourself as you appear when
you're depressed. Look carefully. How does that make you feel?
Can you be aware of the aura of doom and gloom you're radiating?
And then, on the right side of your minds eye, see yourself as
you are when you're joyous. Merge with that happiness. Know how
others would see you. |
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Continue seeing all the seemingly
negative feelings and behaviors on the inner left-hand side of
your minds eye and the opposite on the right. On the left, see
yourself as jealous and on the right as how you appear when you
are truly glad for someone else's sucess or happiness. On the
left, see the bigoted you and on the right, the all-embracing.
On the left the mean, on the right the sweet. See the stupid
you and the brilliant. See the clumsy and the graceful. On the
left, see the unsatisfied and on the right, the contented.
Go on and on, becoming familiar
with the "you" on the left and the opposite "you"
on the right. Then see the total "you" who would be
there on the left if none of the characteristics of the right
side were present.
Now see the "you" who
would be the totality of yourself with the right side only if
none of the behaviors and feelings of the left side "you"
had ever appeared.
The Dalai Lama tells us that
there is nothing else necessary because just by seeing your negative
left-side self, you will become so disgusted with yourself when
you witness yourself acting in any of the left side ways that
you will automatically cease any of those actions and start doing
and feeling the right-side actions. Eventually, you will become
the right-side you exclusively. Eventually, you will have peace,
compassion, wisdom, good health, patience, and all the other
glorious aspects of life.
This technique has the potential
to change your life profoundly for the better. It is one of the
best antidotes for negativity. It is consistent with his unlimited
compassion that the Dalai Lama has shared it with us.
reprinted with permission
©Copyright 2002 |
