{"id":788,"date":"2011-04-04T08:20:02","date_gmt":"2011-04-04T07:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/?p=788"},"modified":"2011-04-04T08:24:55","modified_gmt":"2011-04-04T07:24:55","slug":"sikkim-conference-part-three-science-art-and-meditation-by-annie-dibble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/sikkim-conference-part-three-science-art-and-meditation-by-annie-dibble\/","title":{"rendered":"Sikkim Conference: part three Science, Art and Meditation by Annie Dibble"},"content":{"rendered":"
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sunset over Gangtok<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

On day 4 of the conference, Robert Thurman took the chair for the topic: ‘Science, Art and Meditation’<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The term Meditation is used in dozens of contexts by many different types of people and for many\u00a0 different reasons – from healthcare professionals in body spars to those masters in the search for the most profound truth.\u00a0 So it is recognised as something good.\u00a0 Jetsun Khandro Rinpoche spoke of the different levels and meanings, and of the obstacle that youngsters put in the way by equating meditation with religiosity, and she said we lose our balance through making these assumptions.\u00a0\u00a0 It is our inherent potential to be awake, but how many of us would practice meditation without the \u2018promise of chocolate\u2019 (enlightenment) as the incentive that keeps us in there.<\/p>\n

The secular approach to meditation, which is to stabilise the mind without the promise of chocolate,\u00a0 is one of simplicity \u2013 with no expectation of anything;\u00a0 stillness \u2013 which slows down the body and movement;\u00a0 silence \u2013 which reduces the amount of speech we use (helps settle the mind) and\u00a0 non thought \u2013 nothing will have changed, just free the mind, taking a break from judgement.<\/p>\n

She said we constantly overshoot the mark as we are too busy, too proud, too arrogant. Within Tibetan Buddhism there are many complicated methods that bring us to this very simple place. Suffering caused by the craving mind is our downfall.\u00a0\u00a0 This point she played with for a while. Speaking about the chocolate \u2013 shamatha –\u00a0 she made the point that it has a name, and lineage and sitting in shamatha has a lot more to offer than simply sitting in silence.\u00a0 There are many forms of shamatha meditation and the most essential thing is that it has the power to introduce us to our own inner potential.\u00a0 Mostly we are deprived of the actual wisdom and we lose the confidence of inner knowing, so shamatha gives us the window to recognise the vastness of awareness of our own intrinsic power – which is our own potential and until we have seen that, we crave external satisfactions.<\/p>\n

Vipassana is analytic, a broad subject that further strengthens what you learn through shamatha, when you are first introduced to the notion that suffering and happiness is created by mind.\u00a0 When we see that, then confidence will come with our own experience, so this personal investigation is essential.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The fieldwork to be engaged with is the ‘Four Immeasurables’[1]<\/a> that show the resultant state of meditation, so whether or not we can hold loving kindness, joy, equanimity, is a measure of our meditation practice.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Jetsun Khandro Rinpoche generated a lot of response from the audience, one questioner asked about meditation as a secular means, asking if renunciation is required in order to become a proper meditator. She replied that from a Buddhist point of view, religion itself must be given up in order to obtain enlightenment but, she said, \u201cComing from a Buddhist this could be seen as propaganda, so what can you do?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Geshe\u00a0 Lobsang Tenzin Negi, PhD.\u00a0\u00a0 Co-Director of the Emory Collaborative for Contemplative Studies[2]<\/a> followed, speaking on the causal links between stress, disease\u00a0 and\u00a0 depression and the research being done at Emory that investigates the\u00a0 links between stress reduction and the relaxation response.\u00a0 He said that the fundamental paradigm between science and meditation is very different, but both are searching for happiness,\u00a0 he asked how we as human beings can enrich our lives and promote flourishing when we are so ignorant of what happiness fundamentally is?\u00a0 He reminded us that maintaining a moment by moment awareness is an intervention that can minimise stress.\u00a0 His Holiness responded by saying, \u201cCompassion and love are not mere luxuries, but are fundamental to our continued survival\u201d.<\/p>\n

Joseph Le Doux[3]<\/a> shared his research on the ’emotional hijack’ that creates negative situations in our otherwise everyday affairs.\u00a0\u00a0 He explained that meditation will develop neural pathways from the prefrontal cortex to the amygdala, and that lojong as a practice will enhance empathy and compassionate responses.\u00a0 He suggested a top down approach using rational mind to influence emotional mind and transform the actual physiology.<\/p>\n

If the effort of meditation is continued, the experience will become uncontrived, as the physiology of the brain, the actual behaviour, changes.\u00a0 Meditators are thus able to gage their own psychological response as both immune function and cortisol release change after meditation practice.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Pain, he pointed out, is unavoidable \u2013 but suffering is optional.<\/p>\n

To study the twelve steps of interdependent origination backwards is the key to understanding the process of becoming enlightened, according to Dr Khenpo Ngawang Jordan who gave a wonderfully clear delivery of the 12 causal and resultant links.\u00a0 He spoke on the importance of understanding the skandas as not truly existing\u00a0 and said that until then, we\u2019ll remain in samsara.<\/p>\n

Session 7 :\u00a0\u00a0 Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) and Education<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Paul Eckman was to have presented a paper on his work on behavioural science, but ill health prevented him from making the journey. Instead\u00a0 we watched a live video cast of Eckman speaking to us from the US on \u2018Emotions revealed\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0 His life\u2019s research has been to study facial and bodily expressions and detect what is really being said, over and above the actual words. The emphasis of his talk was on the appropriate processing of emotions,\u00a0 and the need to bring conscious awareness back into the arena.\u00a0 We must practice raising awareness of an emotion as it arises, every day.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Evolution sets many of our automatic responses – such as fear, however the majority of those are learned as we grow up and these, he said, require conscious awareness training through education.<\/p>\n

Geshe Dorji Damdul gave a wonderful heartfelt talk on the urgency of ensuring that whatever comes of this unique conference will reach the school curriculum.\u00a0 He made the point that his use of the word human includes all of us, without exception, because we have a oneness, a sisterhood, and common sense tells us to be aware of human values.<\/p>\n

In the area of Social and Emotional Learning, we have to cultivate 3 qualities :\u00a0\u00a0 Self awareness, Self discipline, Caring for the environment and for others. These three qualities are of course mirrored in the Buddhas teachings, but why do we need these in particular? It is he says because we become socially adjustable when we obtain them.\u00a0 He explained this very simply :\u00a0 Wisdom has the connotation of being learned, because the mind that knows reality must be very sharp.\u00a0 If you have compassion you will attract everything to you and have confidence and joy within yourself, it will also make you harmonious with others, and self discipline brings consistency.<\/p>\n

As with Ringu Tulku Rinpoche and Khandro Rinpoche before him, Geshe Dorji Damdul really addressed the kernel of the conference, presenting eloquent and profoundly simple perspectives on the essential issues to be addressed.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dorji Damdul has for many years been translator to the Dalai Lama, and when, at His Holiness\u2019 public teachings at Gangtok football stadium, westerners found themselves in privileged seats at the front but with no translator, the Geshe spontaneously offered himself, and was seen to be surrounded by a large huddle of non Tibetan speakers, giving continuous translation of the 3 hour teachings.<\/p>\n

The last speaker of the afternoon was Professor K P Pandey who is director of the Society for Higher Education and Practical Applications\u00a0 (SHEPA) in Varanasi and he told us that we learn in four ways:\u00a0 through interaction with a teacher, by our own talent, through our peers, and through the passages of time and challenges of life.\u00a0 The mystery of learning and how it takes place is not yet known, but a \u2018pedagogy of the heart\u2019 was taught by the Buddha.\u00a0 Professor Pandey had\u00a0 prepared a highly detailed\u00a0 teaching programme, the implementation of which he said would radically reorient the content of education and begin the process of restoration and healing that has been referred to throughout the conference.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Professor had volumes of relevant information, but this was the last session and frustratingly there was simply no time for him to complete his delivery.\u00a0 However there was a strong sense that what had been presented during the four days of dialogue would initiate the next step – that of application.<\/p>\n

We missed the final presentations given by respondents to the afternoon talks, as Khandro Rinpoche had been invited by the Sikkim Buddhist Association (Founding President Ringu Tulku) to give a talk in another part of town. We nearly missed it, as word didn\u2019t spread very fast, and the venue was hard to find, at the top of a community centre building beside the football stadium.\u00a0 She was introduced by Ringu Tulku, and there was rather comical moment as they each tried to place themselves below the other, but an agreement was eventually reached and we were able to settle into sofas and listen to her wonderful talk.<\/p>\n

She was addressing the Tibetan community, who she felt were lacking in interest for their heritage, remarking on the drive for material things, but the point of overwhelm has not yet been reached and this must happen before the process can be reversed. She said she felt that Tibetans tended to be complacent, as if being Tibetan was enough, but she said you cannot be Buddhist by name alone, there must be a depth of understanding of the philosophy. It is the most complex philosophy in the world, Christianity is easier, she knows because she attended both catholic and protestant schools.\u00a0 It should not be simplified, the challenge is to be able to come up with an intimate relationship with Buddha Dharma, not to pay lip service.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She spoke about karma, saying we are responsible for our own environment, we will walk to the edge of our roof and stop at the point of falling, so we have discriminating wisdom –\u00a0 why not use it?\u00a0\u00a0 But she said we should not try to be more philosophical than we are, just be aware of the fact that you are walking, be mindful of each action, watch yourself be initiated – you can\u2019t be aware of yourself unless you know yourself well enough – then you can transform.\u00a0 You cannot renounce your anger until you are aware of it.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Complicated deductions and theories are not for us, they are for specialists – just watch the mind and see the patterns of repetition, the ones that are your own. Why spend hours counting the trees when you can just take a shortcut and eat the fruit.\u00a0 Youngsters, she said, have to realise that the topic is endless, but Buddhism makes sense when a person is aware that the material world does not give the answers.\u00a0\u00a0 Easterners are in the middle of a shift to wealth and are not yet satiated. The core essence of Buddha Dharma, she said, is to know that you are awake – how you shake hands with another person.<\/p>\n

Sikkim is booming, on the steep hillside that is Gangtok, new buildings are erupting in every spare corner of land as more and more green space is developed. There are enormous hotels under construction in impossibly precarious locations and the Prince and Princess Royal, children of the Crown Prince of Sikkim and his American wife Hope Cook, are building two very large homes in the town centre just above Mahatma Ghandi Marg, with splendid views of Kanchenjunga Mountain range.\u00a0 The wonderful Rachna Bookstore is a gallery and meeting place for the local artists and film makers and musicians,\u00a0 keen to bring an intelligent creativity to the rapid changes that are taking place all about them.\u00a0\u00a0 Walking through Gangtok is guaranteed to keep you fit, there are two directions, up or down, and funnels of stairways direct you without mercy to or from the central shopping area, where this time we found that Nestles coffee machines have taken over even the sweet shops that only two years ago sold really good masala chai.\u00a0\u00a0 Parallel with this, valleys across the north and west are being lost to hydroelectric schemes which will provide water for India, a road to the east will soon connect China (Tibet) and a new airport is under construction only one hour from Gangtok.\u00a0 Travelling about the countryside the narrow cliff edge roads are continually being repaired after landslides and heavy rain.\u00a0 The work is being done by families, mainly of woman and children, breaking stones with hand held hammers, sharing shovels and bearing baskets of rocks on their backs. We didn\u2019t see one JCB.\u00a0\u00a0 One of our cars had it\u2019s windscreen smashed by a falling rock as the road fell precipitously away on the outside lane. There was no option but to continue the journey for 3 more hours through the choking dust that is everywhere – it seeps into the nostrils and lungs causing chronic ailments.<\/p>\n

And yet there is so much beauty,\u00a0\u00a0 the ever present distant mountain snow reflecting the sunlight from dawn until dusk, the tea plantations, the dripping fern filled forests, fields of cardamon, and fast flowing turquoise rivers that tumble over stones, carrying an icy blast from the glaciers above.\u00a0\u00a0 Rumtek Monastery is protected\u00a0 by armed guards who refuse entry to those without a passport, to the most sacred and desolate memorial to the 16th Karmapa and young monks ask for money in return for entry to the reliquary room.<\/p>\n

But then of course there is the beautiful Meditation Retreat Centre, Himalayan hub of Bodhicharya International, sitting in the sowa rigpa garden across the valley from Gangtok under the eaves of Rumtek.\u00a0\u00a0 And Dilip the cook, with a welcome smile for all who dare to make the journey.<\/p>\n

Everything is perfect.<\/p>\n

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About the Author:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Annie Dibble is currently co-ordinator for Bodhicharya Ireland, and a Tara Rokpa Therapist. In another life she recently retired from teaching 3rd level art and design and is now working to create supportive links between weavers in India, Nepal and Dublin.<\/p>\n


\n[1]<\/a> \u2018THE FOUR IMMEASURABLES\u2019\u00a0 PRAYER<\/em><\/p>\n

May all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness, <\/em><\/p>\n

May they all be free from suffering and the causes of suffering, <\/em><\/p>\n

May they never be separated from the great happiness that knows no suffering, <\/em><\/p>\n

May all beings dwell in equanimity free from attachment and aversion. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\n[2]<\/a> http:\/\/tibet.emory.edu<\/em><\/a>\/<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\n[3]<\/a> www.cns.nyu.edu\/home\/ledoux\/<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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