The Exchanges

Q Who have been your teachers that you admire?

A Um, well, in, within Buddhism, my first teacher was, ah, Geshe Jampa Gyatso, a Tibetan Lama, who was my teacher for the seven-year study program that I attended in Italy, and I think he was the first teacher that really had a big impact on me, because he was not only my teacher, but he also gave me a lot of personal guidance as well. After that time, ah, then I was spending quite a lot of time in India, And I was very fortunate to be able to attend a lot of teachings from his holiness, Dalai Lama. And, um, not only what I found his teachings very clear, but I also found him a very inspiring teacher, very inspiring person. So he also had a very big influence on me. Then more recently in India also, I was following another teacher, uh, Mingyur Rinpoche, who was introducing me to a practice called Mahamudra, which is like a, Nature of the Mind practice, which is really the practice that I resonate with a lot now. So he, he also had a lot of positive influence on me, and I continue to follow his guidance today. And then more recently, in the last few years, um, I've been connected with and following, um, Alan Wallace, who, um, he's also introducing me to a system of practice called Zogchen, which is very similar To Maha Mudra. Also, nature of the mind practice. So, um, in fact, in the next couple of days here, he'll be coming here to Tashita and leading a retreat. I'm very much loo…

AI assessment note: “my first teacher was, ah, Geshe Jampa Gyatso, a Tibetan Lama”

Q There are 50 people who want to do a retreat for every person who is doing one. And these are not able to attend retreats because of many circumstances. What would be your advice to these people? How they can become regular meditators?

A Well, as I mentioned already, I think that if we want to become regular meditators, uh, we need help. Uh, we need to find other like-minded people in our community. And of course, if our partner, our husband or wife, um, then, uh, is also wanting to do that, then that's already something very good. But at least I think to find, uh, some like-minded people and get connected with them and meditate together. And I think here, It's much better to get some, uh, direct guidance rather than just trying to pick it up from a book. So fortunately now with the, uh, improving of modern technology, then often a lot of these meditation retreats are streamed live. So even though maybe you can't physically go to the retreat place, um, you could actually in real time Ah, you could follow the retreat at home, and often these are streamed not only audio, but video as well. So you can really even get, nearly even a sense of being actually in the retreat. So I think this is going to be very, very helpful. Um, and if you can't watch it live, then a lot of these retreats are recorded, and so then you can use these sort of retreats as a basis for learning the practice. Because very often in these retreats, Is not only is the teacher explaining the practice, but they're leading the guided meditation, but also often in these retreats there's a lot of Q and A from the people attending. So you can really …

AI assessment note: “find other like-minded people in our community... a lot of these meditation retreats are streamed live”

Q What purpose kept you going through these challenges?

A Again, I think what really helped was those initial courses I did here in, um, in Tushita and in Copan, because that enabled me to see the bigger picture in life. What is the, really, the true purpose of life? Um, and the true purpose of life, of course, is not just to try and chase after lots of money and try and have some pleasurable experiences, but the true purpose, of course, is to strive for this genuine happiness, this inner well-being. And to try and to really then benefit others. And of course the gateway to that is meditation. So that's what really sort of kept me going and inspired me to meditate because I could see that meditation was the doorway to that.

AI assessment note: “strive for this genuine happiness, this inner well-being. And to try and to really then benefit others.”

Q What books would you advise for beginners on the path of meditation?

A Um, So again, my latest, the person who's really my latest, my latest teacher is Alan Wallace, and particularly I find that in terms of meditation, there are many types of meditation, of course, and all of them can be very helpful, but I find that generally in the modern world, um, our attention skills are very poor. Uh, we're not very focused. We're distracted, agitated, dull, drowsy. And so a lot of the meditation practices won't work very well because we're so distracted and dull. So what I recommend to most people, ah, as a beginning stage is to really, ah, work on improving their attention skills, to improving their ability to focus, to single pointed attention. And in Buddhism, this is often called shamatha practice. And so, um, what I recommend for that There's a book from Alan Wallace called Attention Revolution, which really describes this in a very clear methodical way. So this is the book that I often recommend, ah, in the beginning stages of meditation practice.

AI assessment note: “There's a book from Alan Wallace called Attention Revolution, which really describes this”

Q What were the initial challenges you faced when you started meditating?

A So again, um, um, we have very strong habits, um, so even though there is, I was in a Buddhist community and so forth, then of course our mind is full of craving and attachment for pleasurable things, and so focusing on the breath is not so exciting, and so our craving and attachment mind says, what, what are you doing? You know, I need to, I need something more stimulating, more interesting. So it was also always a struggle with this, is that our, my craving and attachment was Was pulling me, trying to pull me out of that. But, um, of course, like anything in our life, if we want to change something, it takes time. So we need to just be persistent, and the more persistent we are, and the more we practice, the more things will improve and change.

AI assessment note: “my craving and attachment was Was pulling me, trying to pull me out”

Q You mentioned about a period of struggle between leaving your job and attending that course at Tushita. What did you do during this period and how long was this period?

A Yeah, when I, um, left my IT job in Switzerland, um, I didn't know what I wanted to do. I knew I had to look for something different and I ended up, um, back in Australia and, uh, I knew I didn't want a desk job, and so actually I ended up, ah, becoming a dive instructor on the Barrier Reef, and that was good for me in that it was outdoors, and actually it was teaching people to scuba dive, and so I enjoyed teaching, and I think I enjoy trying to help others, and so I was doing that, but that was not my, ah, direction I really wanted to go. That was just something to do while I was really looking for the, The deeper meaning in life, and it was during that period that I was doing quite a lot of traveling, and that's at the time where I, ah, ended up here in India, ah, at Shishita Meditation Center, and that's where I did my first course in Buddhism, and that's where a lot of things clicked, and then I followed that up with, ah, two of these well-known one-month meditation courses at Kopan Monastery in Kathmandu, And so I did these, and then that really deepened my understanding and my aspiration to make my life meaningful. Um, and that's when I went back to Australia and thought, okay, I really want to change the direction of my life. And so, um, I wanted to meditate every day. I wanted to transform my life. I wanted to change my life. But, um, the difficulty was that, of course…

AI assessment note: “ended up, ah, becoming a dive instructor on the Barrier Reef”

Q Many people start meditation but give up after initial few days or months. Their reason is they are not getting enough time. What would be your advice to them?

A Yeah, this is something I hear very commonly, you know. Often people say, oh, I'd like to meditate but I simply don't have time. And it's true that most of us in the modern world are very busy. Ah, we have very busy lives. That's very common. We have, many of us work many long hours, family responsibilities, and then we tend to fill up our day with lots of other activities as well. And some of those, for many of us, are essential. Some of us have to work a certain amount to have enough money to have a roof over our head and so forth. And some of us have some family responsibilities as well. But then what we tend to do is we tend to fill up our day with lots of other things, which often don't really bring us much. And often that's, we do that for two reasons. One reason is that often in the modern world, it's felt like if you're not doing something, you're not being productive. So therefore just do something. Um, and then the other reason that we often fill up our day is that with things is if we're not really doing anything and we're sitting quietly there, It often forces us to look at the state of our mind, which is often a mess, and we don't like to see what is going on in our mind, so we just busy ourselves to distract ourselves. So I think what's very helpful here is to, you know, of course we can forcibly cut things out of our life to have some time to meditate in that, bu…

AI assessment note: “I think a better approach is just to reflect on our life”

Q How did you convert meditation into a habit when you started practicing?

A Um, again, I think the key when we start meditation is, as you mentioned, is the, the important thing is to, to begin to develop the habit. And if we try to meditate too long in the beginning, we're just going to give up because it's too difficult. So I would recommend that just start very short, maybe even 10 or 15 minutes. And to begin to develop a habit, I think it's important to pick a time That works for you to meditate and stick to that time. Because if we meditate at the same time each day, then it's going to be easier to develop a habit. Because if you keep changing the time when we meditate, we're not really developing a habit. So pick a time that works and then stick to that time and then it's going to be much easier to develop a habit.

AI assessment note: “I would recommend that just start very short, maybe even 10 or 15 minutes.”

Q What time do you sleep and what time do you wake up?

A Um, personally, I like to go to bed quite early and, and, and, and sort of get up, get up, ah, more quite early. I mean, I think the, the, it's not so much whether we should, you know, when we get up and when we go to bed, because everyone's different, but I think the key is that we really need to get enough sleep. Because unfortunately in our modern society, with our busy lifestyle, we never have enough time for everything. What we tend to do is we tend to cut sleep from eight to seven to six to five to four hours. Um, and then somehow we manage to get by with that. But I think that if we really want to meditate and develop ourselves and, and, and also to really have a meaningful life, I think we really need to get enough sleep. Because I, I just saw an article today actually that said that, you know, if we really want to be Creative in our life and really produce a lot of good things, then the place where we can really get that is when we have enough rest and sleep. Otherwise, that really sort of, ah, interferes with that.

AI assessment note: “it's not so much whether we should, you know, when we get up”