I want to begin by saying how happy I am that this new centre is opening in Almería – a centre for healing and meditation. It is a centre where people can come, not only for healing or meditation, but also to strengthen and recharge the energies of their mind, body and emotions. It makes me very happy that the centre has been made a reality and I want to thank all those who have collaborated, everyone who has dedicated time to create a place where people can come and learn something useful that will bring significance to their lives.
Almería is a very beautiful place; it has a good climate, pretty beaches and everything sits in a natural setting. However, taking pleasure from these kinds of things is not sufficient in life – we need something more. We are trying here to build our own mandala, our own family, to form a Sangha so that we can meet people who can support us, and with whom we can establish friendships, and be of mutual benefit and company. All these gifts you have achieved with this centre of Entorno de Paz. I thank the owner of the premises, and all the members who have helped in its reconstruction, including those of you who might have come here only once to meditate or do a healing practice, or to ask for advice. I want to extend my gratitude to all of you who have made this possible: what you have done makes me very happy.
So we need to ask ourselves: Why do we need a Sangha? Why is it necessary that this group of people come together? What benefits will it bring me? Are they temporary or lasting?
I try to transmit very complicated teachings using simple words, because if I were to talk in philosophical terms, as I myself studied , you might not understand many concepts and you would get bored. If, in addition, we chant mantras and practise sadhanas that you also don't understand, then our entire day here would be boring for you.
In modern society, all of you want to get hold of things very quickly; people do not want to study over a long period in order to obtain something only at the end – you do not want to have to wait, and it is for this reason that I try to express these profound ideas in a very simple way.
Our programme this weekend is called “How to integrate Self-Healing into daily life”. We could also say “How to integrate the meditation centre into our daily life”. Any useful thing that you do, any new knowledge or skill that you learn, the ultimate objective is to integrate it into your own life.
Perhaps I am wrong, but since I arrived in Europe, I have observed that Europeans have a revolutionary mind, a mind that doesn't like to fit 100% into any system – there is always something that must be changed in one's, life, one's culture or education, etc. And I accept this challenge – I accept this quality of the modern European mind.
However, I want to say that if you use your revolutionary mind in the wrong way, it will always create problems and obstacles, and life will become even more complicated. But if you learn how to use your revolutionary mind correctly, promoting beneficial change, putting a bit more effort in, a little more patience..., if you introduce a little more space, more mindfulness and concentration, then the result will be excellent.
So, how can you integrate this centre into your life? Consider this, for example: You live in a city and share the space with thousands of people, you live in buildings which you share with many other people and yet the feeling you experience is one of loneliness. Neighbours do not talk to each other and people live with a feeling of isolation, even though they are surrounded by others. This happens because, in your European culture, you have lost the culture of sharing, of conversing and making friends; you have lost the idea of helping each other mutually.
Some families have good relationships, but there are a good many more who experience difficult relationships where there is no feeling of friendship or kindness between family members. In a Healing Centre such as this one, we can cure these kinds of problems, we can develop kindly relationships. For example, in the street, when something offers you something to eat, you would not normally accept – because you don't trust it, and so you don't eat what you are offered in the street. If someone talks to you, you feel recelo; you don't strike up conversations with people that you don't know. Here, however, you talk with the people that have also come even though you do not know them at all. There is a feeling of closeness, so that if anybody offeres you something, you would readily accept it. All these kinds of things create a friendly relationship with people new to the centre. If there are difficulties at home or at work, you can take a shower and come to the centre where you can relax, smile, talk or just meditate in silence.
The word sangha is a Sanskrit word that we can translate in a simple way as “a group of friends”. This group of friends helps us to recover from our tiredness and fatigue. By talking about your problems or just meditating together you can recharge your batteries, freeing yourselves of your tiredness; then you can go back to your life your family or your work feeling fresh and renewed. So in this way the centre serves you and is integrated into your everyday life.
I want to emphasize how important it is that a centre like this one develops. It will be very beneficial to find the time to use it. In the future, I want to ask Lama Caroline to come here. Many Tibetan lamas and geshes have already visited Almeria, but Lama Caroline is a young English woman and because she shares your European culture, she has a much more intimate way of explaining Tibetan Buddhism, which might help you to develop your own ideas – because that is the aim, after all, isn't it?
Buddhism should not be taught only by Tibetan lamas: You in the West need to develop it here, you need to develop Western Buddhism, Spanish Buddhism. You yourselves need to become teachers and healers and this requires that you generate your own culture concerning Buddhism. So this is the basic idea – to develop little by little and integrate each aspect as you understand how to apply it in your own culture.
I have taught you the practice called Self Healing II. Maybe for those of you who are new, you are finding it all a little too complicated, or too long, or it contains too many things you find strange. Maybe it would be best, in this case, to take just part of it, to try and understand it well and to understand its implications. Just read the part of Self-Healing relating to Amoghasiddhi and when you have understood it, move onto another part of the practice. This could be a very useful technique. It is not only important to know the symbols and how things are expressed in Tibetan, but to understand how to live them, what the practice means to you and how it relates to the difficulties you experience in everyday life.
The Entorno de Paz Association includes people who collaborate as members, as well as people who have a certain reparo to become members. It is important for all of you to develop this spirit, to learn how to incorporate what we teach here into your life. I want to thank the members of the association who support the centre economically, the people who maintain it and who collaborate in any way.
Modern-day buddhism was developed, in some ways, by Prince Siddharta, by the Buddha Gautama. He was a young and handsome prince who was heir to the throne in the north of India. He had a wife and child, but he became preoccupied by the realities of life of the people who lived outside the palace walls. Each day, he went out to try and help people who were suffering as a result of their cycle of birth, inevitable ageing, physical and mental sicknesses and death. He made an effort to help, but found he had many unanswered questions. In his desire to truly help, he searched for an answer to all his own questions, so beginning a personal trabajo on himself using meditation and self-observation. He developed levels of self-realization, of personal attainments and self-healing, and at last he obtained answers to all his questions.
Siddharta did have a really revolutionary mind – a mind that did not conformaba con cambiar las formas, that wanted to get to the very bottom of things. The methods He discovered 2500 years ago are the same ones that can help us today to eliminate suffering, to eliminate the fears and pain of samsara and attain liberation (wisdom); they are methods that can lead us to overcome these difficulties.
In Tibetan, a buddha is called Sangye.
Sang represents ignorance, darkness, suffering and the causes of suffering. Ye is wisdom, light, love and compassion; it is enlightenment – the ultimate aspiration - as well as the path that leads us to enlightenment. The Buddha was a researcher, a revolutionary thinker who investigated how our Inner World works. He instauró a number of principles of transformation, of inner revolution. He was an Inner Scientist, and what he discovered continues to be useful to this day.
During the last century, particularly in the West, there were huge scientific and technological developments that have resulted in great advances and many of our modern day comforts. We can travel in the Metro, underground, like snakes; we can travel underwater in the sea like fish; we can fly in space and even land on the moon. All this science and technology in our outer world has produced many benefits. Yet still we suffer. Suffering, fear and other difficulties have, in fact, increased. Our lives are more gravosa, more expensive and more complicated. The more development there is, the more complications there are, the more taxes/impositions. Life is actually becoming increasing difficult.
If we could find a way to aunar the ancient methods with modern science, then we would achieve something great. This is our real objective.
reallynseguiríamos realmente un gran resultado, este es realmente el objetivo. Si aprendéis a superar vuestras dificultades mentales, físicas, emocionales y sois capaces de integrarlas con los ordenadores, con la tecnología moderna y con los métodos audiovisuales, entonces se producirá una unión que realmente dará un gran resultado. La cultura antigua mezclándose con la tecnología moderna, ¡eso sería perfecto!, sería cómo las dos alas que necesita un pájaro para volar.
Este pequeño centro os permitirá compartir con los lamas, con los miembros que trabajan aquí, con la dirección del centro etc., desarrollando este tipo de proyectos. Espero que algún día las actividades del centro se amplíen, para que este centro creado de forma externa, se desarrolle internamente.
La pregunta inicial era ¿qué hacéis aquí?, ¿porqué venís a un centro cómo este si tenéis suficiente bienestar económico, material?
Aquí se trabajan los aspectos de la vida que os faltan, los aspectos de vuestra vida que están incompletos, lo que necesitáis para vuestra vida diaria. Eso es lo que se va a desarrollar en este centro. La educación que recibís normalmente en vuestra cultura, es una educación que os ayuda a ganaros la vida, a tener una profesión, a tener un sitio social, pero hay otra educación no formal, una educación fuera de la escuela, necesaria para la vida, que es lo que se enseña en un centro cómo este. Aquí se intentan desarrollar estos aspectos que os ayudarán a tener mejores relaciones en vuestra vida, con vuestro marido, con vuestra mujer, con vuestros hijos. Os ayuda a mejorar vuestro mundo de relaciones, vuestro mundo afectivo. Cada instante de vuestra vida debéis estar atentos a que aspectos son erróneos, que aspectos son adecuados. Esto es algo que os permitirá poco a poco corregir vuestros errores y desarrollar vuestras capacidades. Todo esto se enseña en un centro cómo este.
Si aprendéis verdaderamente entonces obtendréis un grandísimo resultado. Hay amigos que cuando los conocí estaban bloqueados, eran incapaces de cantar, ni siquiera en grupo, una pequeña oración; incapaces de recitar cualquier cosa, la oración del Ñimo Delek. No podían hablar en otros idiomas, se sentían totalmente avergonzados, totalmente bloqueados. Después de un tiempo, son capaces de dar conferencias, hablar en público, recitar estas oraciones sin ningún miedo, recuerdar todos los temas, son capaces de desarrollar delante de una audiencia muchos aspectos de lo que han ido aprendiendo.
