Connate: Arising Together
by Michael Erlewine
The Ven. Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche:
“Our meditation may arrive at some degree of insight but lack Shamata. When that is the case, Vipashyana cannot become very strong. In Shamata, our thoughts are pacified right on the spot, and our mind rests evenly and peacefully. Without that kind of meditative skill, thoughts that arise will seem to be obstacles — even very subtle thoughts will seem to interrupt and threaten our meditation.
“It then becomes very difficult to meditate for even a short period of time. Beginners will experience these kinds of problems of the mind and will not be able to rest easily. So, it’s important to train in Shamata to enhance the mind’s stability.”
End of quote
The following the reverse of most accounts about Shamata.
I promised myself that I would only talk about my own dharma experience and not about what I read as to other’s experience. So, the above text, of course I take in, because in my life the Ven. Thrangu Rinpoche is one of the great dharma teachers I have met. And also, because my own dharma teacher, the Ven. Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, early on in his dharma life was selected to be the dharma practice partner for many years with Thrangu Rinpoche in their monastery in Tibet, which I have visited.
Perhaps because these two rinpoches trained with one another for many years, their teaching and teaching style are very similar, so I quite naturally am drawn to them.
In my own case, I had very great difficulty learning Shamata meditation. In fact, I am embarrassed to say I diligently practiced Shamata for 31 years and never felt I learned the first thing about it. I just couldn’t master it, and it boggled my mind. Imagine my disappointment.
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In fact, it was quite late in my dharma practice when I figured out what the problem was for me. It was when I first attained what is called Vipassana (Insight Meditation) for the first time that Shamata (Tranquility Meditation) arose simultaneously and at a significant level. Go figure!
And it was then or soon after that I realized that all those years of my effort to learn Shamata was a case for me of salting the salt. And I also remembered something my dharma teacher said to us, which was “Those of you who program computers may have a leg-up with Shamata on others.”
This turns out to be the case with me, also why I never could get into Shamata practice, because I already knew it because of my 40 years of programming, not to mention archiving all recorded music, all recorded film and movies, and a bunch of other things. That kind of concentrated detail work added up to what Shamata also requires. I did all of that with love.
So, after doing all this tedious work out of love as an archivist of popular culture, when I sat down on the cushion to practice Shamata by rote practice, it never clicked. It was too effortful, and my own Shamata training for all those years was from love. So, it is no wonder that I never got it. Yet, when I needed Shamata because it is connate with Insight Meditation, it was right there.
In other words,, when Vipassana (Insight Meditation) eventually arose, all my actual training in Shamata arose with it, spontaneously and fully present. No one could be more surprised than I was. Humorous story, IMO.
[Photo taken yesterday by me.]
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As Bodhicitta is so precious,
May those without it now create it,
May those who have it not destroy it,
And may it ever grow and flourish.
