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Ven. Thubten Chonyi is one of the
first Americans to be trained and ordained under Ven.
Thubten Chodron (once
the resident teacher of the local Amitabha Buddhis Centre) at Sravasti
Abbey Monastery. She was here last September and Jeffrey found out more
about her meditation technique.
Good afternoon, Venerable and welcome to Singapore.
Can you please tell us what brings you to Singapore here?
For this visit, I am the guest of Kampung
Senang, a charity and education foundation in Singapore
to be a guest speaker for their "Holistic Wellness Symposium."
In your biodata, it was mentioned that
you are a Reiki Master practitioner. Can you share some comments?
Yes I worked and lived as a Reiki Master for 19 years. I think
Reiki is very beneficial and helpful. Besides relieving pain and suffering,
I found that it was also a way whereby people could reach out to help each
other. It is quite beautiful. We all want to do something to help, but what
can we really do? We can pray, of course, but that is not active. Through
Reiki, people can do something to help that is immediate and tangible.
Are you still continuing this practice?
No - I gave up my profession when I entered the monastery,
although I still use Reiki when I or someone nearby is ill or injured. I
realized that, wonderful as it is, Reiki at best offers temporary relief
for the suffering of this life. Practicing the Buddhadharma
eventually eradicates all suffering completely. If my goal is to eliminate
suffering for myself and others, practicing Dharma is the way for me to go.
Did you conduct any meditation sessions when you are here?
I gave some talks, which all begin with some meditation, and
also led meditation sessions in a one-day retreat..
Well, which meditation technique do you usually use?
Generally for beginners we do the simple breathing meditation.
But for those who are in contact with Sravasti
Abbey, our monastery, we did a short retreat on a practice that visualizes
the Buddha of Great Compassion.
Are there reasons for that choice of meditation technique -
bearing in mind that some might want the practitioners to blank off their
mind?
I come from the Tibetan tradition as you know. The Tibetan tradition
is very rich in the visualization practices, and for my spiritual path, I
have found the Tibetan art of visualization very helpful. It is more than
just visualizing the picture, the light, colors and deities. It is a
profound psychological method of getting beyond the analytical thinking -
touching deeply into the emotional level. So the practice of meditating on
the Buddha of Great Compassion, for instance, is to visualize in the space
in front of me a beautiful "light being" with a thousand arms and
a thousand eyes that exists only for the benefit of others. And to really
feel the presence of that deity having all the qualities of love and
compassion and wisdom that can be manifested. We all have these qualities
in ourselves, and we have the potential to cultivate them until we, too, awaken as Buddhas of
Compassion, so this visualization gives us an image to admire and aspire
to. At the end of the practice, we dissolve these qualities back into
ourselves, into our own bodies and minds, feeling that we are inseparable
from them. This helps us to overcome our self image of an inadequate self
who can never do anything right, who can never become a Buddha, and
inspires us to continue steadily doing the many practices that lead to Buddhahood.
What about your students - did they also start with this system
or did they begin with some other techniques and then graduate to that
which you have just explained?
Many times people start with this method of visualization,
though sometimes for the beginners of meditation, we start off with
meditation focusing on the breath. In fact, breathing meditation was much
more difficult for me in the beginning. Visualisation
was much easier, although now I appreciate the breathing meditation too.
Also, we combine visualisation with our
analytical type of meditation that looks at how to retrain our habitual way
of thinking - so that we can learn how to overcome our anger and other
afflictions at the same time.
So would you say that during the meditation period a meditator can also evoke some sort of emotional
catharsis for emotional healing purposes?
I suppose there is some therapeutic element but I would not call
it a "catharsis". I would call it more of a
"transformation" - that through the deeper understanding of the
nature of the mind; the deeper understanding of how ignorance works, we can
start accumulating the tools for the antidotes for the afflictions so that
we can change our ways.
What is the ultimate goal for this transformation process?
Well - enlightenment!
Will meditation help a person during his/her dying moments?
Yes - if we have the presence of mind to apply it. In the
Tibetan language, the word for meditation is "Gom"
which means to "become familiar". You know, our minds are always
familiar with anger, complaining, fear, grasping and so on. The purpose of
meditation is become familiar with other mental states, other ways of thinking, so that when frightening things come up we can
respond differently. Also at the time of death, if we practice well, then
we can face that change with an open mind and with a happy heart. We can
let go of the things that we cling to. If our mind is clear and sharp, we
will be able to do that. We take refuge and meditate right up to and
through the point of death.
Is merely sitting down cross-legged and blanking off the mind
considered as meditation?
We are quite clear that
blanking off the mind is not meditation.
Thank you, Venerable.
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