Give Your Ego the Wisdom Eye
by Lama Thubten Yeshe
From a five-day meditation course Lama Yeshe
taught at Dromana, near
Source: www.lamayeshe.com
We always use the word, "ego." But although we're all the time
saying, "ego, ego, ego," we don't realize the ego's psychological
aspects, its mental attitude. We interpret the ego as some sort of physical
entity. Therefore, it is necessary to discover that the ego is mental, not
physical. That's so worthwhile.
We have such a short time to realize egolessness, but
searching for it is what differentiates us from animals. Otherwise, what's the
difference? Animals enjoy the sense world and conduct their lives to the best
of their ability. Just like ourselves, they like those who feed them and
dislike those who beat them, isn't that so? What's the difference?
Perhaps you think, "Rubbish! I can intellectualize,
I can write; I can make money to support and enjoy my life." But even rats
and mice can look after themselves with ego and attachment. They can collect
and store food many times their own weight. Look at the bees: even though their
lives are so short, they collect enough honey to last for maybe hundreds of years.
So, what difference is there between bees and so-called intelligent humans if
the mental attitude is the same, where both are living only for sense pleasure?
Perhaps bees are even more intelligent than us-they live such short lives but
still accumulate vast amounts of what gives them pleasure.
Therefore, I think it's so worthwhile and so important
that while we occupy these precious human bodies, with all our intelligence and
where everything has come together, we use our ability to seek our inner nature
and release ourselves from all the problems of mental defilement, which come
from our ego. Everything we've done since the time we were born until now has
come from our ego, but it's all been so transitory and our pleasure has been so
small.
But don't think, "Oh, I'm too bad; my mind is
completely dominated by my ego." Don't put yourself down. Instead, be
happy to realize such things.
Realizing that only your own mind and effort can bring
you release from your ego is so worthwhile. For years and years, ages and ages,
all you've done is build up your ego, and under the influence of its
hallucinated projection of the sense world, you've run, run, run from one thing
to another, as if you'd lost your mind. So to now have just one flash of
recognition of all this is most worthwhile; it really is worth putting in the
effort.
Don't think that without your own effort, without your
own wisdom functioning, you can stop the schizophrenic mental problems that
result from the energy force of your own ego. It's impossible.
Lama doesn't believe that he can solve your problems
without your own effort and action. That's a dream; if that's your attitude,
it's a complete misconception. "God can do everything for me; Buddha can
do everything for me. I'll just wait." That's not true! "I don't have
to do anything." That's not true! You did everything, now you have to
experience the powerful consequences. You can see now, with your own
experience, can't you? Just one meditation session is all it takes.
What Lama wants is for you to become a wise human being
instead of one who is dominated by the energy force of a super-sensitive ego.
At the end of a meditation course, I'd like you to be thinking, "Well,
that was my own meditation course, given by my own wisdom." If you feel
like that, the course was worthwhile. Otherwise, if you just go, "A high
Tibetan lama gave a meditation course; I went," it's just another ego
trip. What's the purpose? Your old habits, your schizophrenic mental attitudes
haven't changed a bit. So what meditation did you do? Lord Buddha is already
enlightened; through his own effort, with his own wisdom, he freed himself from
his schizophrenic mind, but here we are in a still agitated condition.
So you can see, realization is so individual. It depends
upon each individual's mind, effort and wisdom. Realization is so personal.
From morning until night, you all have different experiences, even though
you're all trying to meditate on the same thing-different experiences according
to the individual level of the individual mind.
If you think, "Oh, I have so much to do at home...my
house, my family, my friends...it's difficult to sit and meditate," it
means your mind is ensnared by the worldly life. You've been like that from the
time you were born until now, and if you keep going that way, you'll end up
dying with nothingness. How can you ever finish anything like that? Work in the
materialistic life continues to pile up, one thing after another, then another,
another, another, and you can never say, "Ah, at last I've finished
everything, now I can sit and meditate." That time will never come.
You can see, when your mind is occupied with ego energy,
it's like constantly having needles stuck into your body. That would be pretty
uncomfortable, wouldn't it! It's the same thing, exactly the same thing. So you
can realize how Important it is to release attachment and ego. When you do
release them, you will experience everlasting joyful realization, inner
freedom, inner liberation, nirvana...it doesn't matter what you call it. But
instead, all we do is try to please our ego; it's like we're praying to our
ego. We dedicate all our energy to our ego, and what we get in return is mental
pollution; there's such a bad smell in our minds that they can't even breathe.
So from now on, instead of welcoming your ego's energy
force, stand guard against it with mindfulness and wisdom, watching with
penetrative attention for the first sign of its arrival. And when it comes,
instead of welcoming it, "How are you, ego? Come right in! Have a cup of
tea, have some chocolate," examine it with a big wisdom eye, a wisdom eye
bigger than your head! Just watch it. When you give your ego the big wisdom
eye, it disappears, all by itself.
Source: www.lamayeshe.com