Einstein said that in our age there has been a tremendous growth in knowledge, but absolutely no growth in wisdom. To transform the Earth, we need to transform our inner world and free ourselves from the prison of our own mind and thoughts, writes BHIKKHUNI TENZIN PALMO
One time when I was living in the cave I had a dream. I dreamed that I was in an enormous prison without end. In this prison, there were many levels. There were the penthouse suites where people were laughing and talking and dancing and making love and working. There were the levels all the way down, until you got to the dungeons where people were writhing in agony and despair of mind.
But whether we were in the penthouse or in the dungeons, we were all in the prison.
I suddenly realised it was so insecure; people in the penthouse today could be in the dungeons tomorrow. We were all trapped together. We had to get out.
So I spoke to a number of my friends: "Look, this is a prison, we have got to leave." They all said, "Oh, yes, it's a prison, but it's okay, it's not bad." Or they said, "True, it's a prison, but it's so difficult to get out. It's better to accept the fact that we are here." Eventually I found two friends who agreed to try to escape with me, and the dream went on.
The question is, why do we regard our ordinary life here as a prison, and how do we get out? This is basically the question in Buddhism. But why is it a prison? "My life is okay, it's not a prison. I can more or less do what I want to do."
It is not dealing with the physicality; it is dealing with the mind. Our minds are imprisoned, not by external gates, but by ignorance. This is so universal, and it is why I am troubled for the future. Despite all our external learning, our research and science, we are still absolutely ignorant. Spiritually, we are as ignorant as we were when the Buddha walked this Earth.
What are we ignoran
Ignorance has nothing to do with education, nothing to do with external brilliance and genius of mind. What are we ignorant of? We are ignorant of our true being and what is really the nature of this world. Because we are clinging to all the wrong things governed by ignorance, we are enslaved.
Buddhism is always concerned with how to become free. It is always concerned with liberation, liberation of mind. The problem is that normally we live within a world of time, past, present, future, and in a subject/object dichotomy. There is the subject "me" and the object "everyone else" out there. We cling to this sense of "me" and "mine-ness".
Some people think "I" when they think of their gender, their race, their country, or their religion. They think, "This is who I am. I am my personality. I am my memories. I am the sum of all these things."
Some people are more subtle, and they say, "No, behind all that there is something else. There is an 'I' which is unchanging, which has always been there since I was born up to now." But when you look to find this "I" which separates "me" from all the "you" out there, where is it?
Buddhism is not just to make us calm and quiet, and feeling happy. It is to peel off the layers of our onions of individuality. If you peel off the various layers, the first layer race, then the layer gender, then nationality, then education, then one's level in society, one's profession, where is this "I"? Eventually you get to something else which is totally beyond "I". This intrinsic awareness, this primordial awareness, which is at the very basis of our being, has nothing to do with "me" and "you".
Read and continue next Part
One time when I was living in the cave I had a dream. I dreamed that I was in an enormous prison without end. In this prison, there were many levels. There were the penthouse suites where people were laughing and talking and dancing and making love and working. There were the levels all the way down, until you got to the dungeons where people were writhing in agony and despair of mind.
But whether we were in the penthouse or in the dungeons, we were all in the prison.
I suddenly realised it was so insecure; people in the penthouse today could be in the dungeons tomorrow. We were all trapped together. We had to get out.
So I spoke to a number of my friends: "Look, this is a prison, we have got to leave." They all said, "Oh, yes, it's a prison, but it's okay, it's not bad." Or they said, "True, it's a prison, but it's so difficult to get out. It's better to accept the fact that we are here." Eventually I found two friends who agreed to try to escape with me, and the dream went on.
The question is, why do we regard our ordinary life here as a prison, and how do we get out? This is basically the question in Buddhism. But why is it a prison? "My life is okay, it's not a prison. I can more or less do what I want to do."
It is not dealing with the physicality; it is dealing with the mind. Our minds are imprisoned, not by external gates, but by ignorance. This is so universal, and it is why I am troubled for the future. Despite all our external learning, our research and science, we are still absolutely ignorant. Spiritually, we are as ignorant as we were when the Buddha walked this Earth.
What are we ignoran
Ignorance has nothing to do with education, nothing to do with external brilliance and genius of mind. What are we ignorant of? We are ignorant of our true being and what is really the nature of this world. Because we are clinging to all the wrong things governed by ignorance, we are enslaved.
Buddhism is always concerned with how to become free. It is always concerned with liberation, liberation of mind. The problem is that normally we live within a world of time, past, present, future, and in a subject/object dichotomy. There is the subject "me" and the object "everyone else" out there. We cling to this sense of "me" and "mine-ness".
Some people think "I" when they think of their gender, their race, their country, or their religion. They think, "This is who I am. I am my personality. I am my memories. I am the sum of all these things."
Some people are more subtle, and they say, "No, behind all that there is something else. There is an 'I' which is unchanging, which has always been there since I was born up to now." But when you look to find this "I" which separates "me" from all the "you" out there, where is it?
Buddhism is not just to make us calm and quiet, and feeling happy. It is to peel off the layers of our onions of individuality. If you peel off the various layers, the first layer race, then the layer gender, then nationality, then education, then one's level in society, one's profession, where is this "I"? Eventually you get to something else which is totally beyond "I". This intrinsic awareness, this primordial awareness, which is at the very basis of our being, has nothing to do with "me" and "you".
Read and continue next Part
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