Ra Samye Day 3

Wednesday 3:30 p.m.
I've been reading a book called "Essentials of Mahamudra"by Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche. Totally recommended for anyone interesting in the juju.

I hardly ever do analytical meditations, but the boy in the book was going on about them and since I've got all day to meditate (what a fortunate creature!), you can have a bash at all sorts!

So you walk round a corner and there's a chariot. Wow! A chariot! It seems like a single thing, this chariot. On closer inspection you can see that it is made up of things, like wheels and axles, etc. In fact, if you try to find the chariot itself, it gets a wee bit tricky. You can only put your hand on parts of the chariot, like the carraige. The chariot is really a collection of things. Which appear in your mind as a single thing: a chariot.

Say, you walk round the block and come back. There's Boudicca. It's her chariot. She standing looking at the chariot. You think Boudicca is a single thing. But on closer inspection you can see that Boudicca is made up of lots of things, like arms, legs, eyeballs, senses, etc.

If you look for the essential Boudicca, I don't think you can find her in any of her bits.

This is alright for you maybe, but it spells big trouble for Boudicca. She thinks she has some kind of unchanging self which owns her arms, legs, eyeballs, etc. Boudicca's head is, of course, completely flat.

You probably think you have an unchanging self as well, which you cling to and hope to preserve, etc., for ever. This might be okay for you when things are going hunky dory, but the world around you changes and when it does .... here comes the grief, sorrow, lamentations... suffering in this life!

The trouble with a false sense of self is that it gives rise to afflictive emotions. Boudicca is extremely angry at the Romans, for instance. She should stop and ask herself where it this self that's getting angry. In fact, what is this anger and where the fung is it coming from. Yes, it's coming from a false sense of self.

It's okay having an intellectual grasp of emptiness, but it doesn't really do the business. The afflictive emotions will still arise. If you are, as they say, highly realised, you will have realised emptiness sufficiently so that you can, if you were Boudicca, laugh at the Romans and everything else. You could get on your chariot and head up to Scotland instead of doing what your going to do which is a very big mistake.

The revolt against the Romans might have been because Seneca, who was Nero's tutor, had called in his loans and the British governor started hustling everyone he could to get the dough to pay him back. Seneca wrote a brilliant book, called Letters from a Stoic.

"I will show you a love philtre composed without drugs, or herbs, or witches' spells. It is this: If you wish to be loved, love." The wall. No mug was Seneca!

I was doing the chariot thing up at the temple before I got here. The monks from Sherab Ling were recording. Just negate the false sense of self and sit there. Bliss, bliss, bliss!

I managed about seven hours sitting meditation yesterday, but I slept most of the morning. I slept okay last night. Actually, I conked out at ten and was wakening gradually over a couple of hours as it was dawning, etc. Some dreams check in when you do that.

The D.M. went in another direction and I was lost again. I was in Prague, but it looked awful like a housing scheme in Bellshill. I tried to ask this woman for directions, but, of course, she's not even speaking English (nobody in Bellshill speaks English!) and I'm getting a few afflictive emotions checking. I said: This is a nightmare! and snapped out of it. Not quite as good as Whitby, but we're getting there.

The weather if beautiful here just now. And it was lovely last night too. As the sun was beginning to set (about 9:30 p.m), I was reading my book out on the wee island in the middle of the river. The White Esk runs by the Samye Ling. If you look up the river from the wee island (you have to jump on slippy stones to get there!) , there a wee waterfall and then a stretch of calm river. On the left there are trees and the sun is moving from behind the trees and will soon be in view, and going down behind the hills.

The setting sun was catching the millions of tiny flying things hovering over the river. I mean, maybe fifty feet of them. Trillions of midgies. Where I was, there was only the odd one or two. Looked about. Could hardly see any. Odd.

That's nearly an hour up. Fabulous bliss today. Not much heat, but it hardly matters. Huge expansion of bliss in the top two chakras. How I wish everyone could have the kind of time I'm having here just now! What a fortunate, fortunate creature I am!