Meditation and Transformation

by Jan

Everywhere I look lately, meditation is rearing its quiet, introspective head. I’ve dabbled in strict-postured Zen, fooled around with more lax meditations disguised as "breathing exercises," and tried a guided new age journey to my "sacred forest." My bookshelf is stocked with meditation tomes ranging from the not-so-enlightened-sounding "Meditation for Dummies" to the conspiratorial "Meditation Secrets for Women." So, when the opportunity arose for me to attend a meditation workshop with Buddhist monk Gen Kelsang Sangkyong at my local Borders books, I leapt at the chance.

Settling into my chair in the mystery section on the evening of the reading, I study my fellow attendees. About half of the crowd is made up of college students who, my eavesdropping skills alert me, are attending as some sort of class assignment. The rest of the crowd ranges in age from newly entering the workforce to retirement, with plenty of folks in between. I study the handouts I have received, which tell me that our speaker is a British Buddhist monk who teaches at the Kadampa Meditation Center in Glen Spey, NY.

As Gen Kelsang Sangkyong takes his place at the front of the room, I am struck by his warm smile. As he speaks, welcoming us, I see a flash of a resemblance to Hugh Grant, which is probably helped along by his accent. But his shaved head, wire rim glasses and loving, down to earth demeanor immediately distinguish him from your run-of-the-mill Hollywood type. That, and the saffron and maroon robes he is wearing.

After greeting us, Sankyong explains that he will be giving a talk based upon the writings of his teacher, Geshe Kelsang Gyatso. Geshe Kelsang Gyatso’s newly published book, "Transform Your Life: A Blissful Journey" is his eighteenth work, and the first to fall into the bookstore’s Self-help category as opposed to Buddhism category. Geshe Kelsang Gyatso is 70 years old, and became a Buddhist monk at age eight, a common custom in his native Tibet. Geshe Kelsang Gyatso has spent the last 23 years creating a method of sharing Buddhist teachings in a way that is easy to understand for Western people. He feels he has transferred all of his knowledge of Buddhism to Western people over the course of his writings, and now sees his work coming full circle as he has requests to translate his books into the Tibetan language. He has helped to establish 400 Buddhist centers.

Gen Kelsang Sangkyong himself has been a Buddhist monk for five years. He first became interested in Buddhism when he took a trip to India after he had completed high school. He began to study Buddhism upon his return to England. He came to the United States for college, and received a degree in philosophy. After graduating from college he went on to become a monk, studying under Geshe Kelsang Gyatso.

The theme of Geshe Kelsang Gyatso’s book, Gen Kelsang Sangkyong tells us, is inner peace. "The real source of happiness is inner peace," he explains. "If we think about where we turn when the going gets tough, what we seek, we see our minds chasing after objects that have no power to fulfill us." Sankyong tells us that a Buddhist monk once said that we are like thirsty people in the desert, chasing mirages. He offers an example, "We see a pastry in the café. And we think, ‘This is going to be really good.’ After we’ve eaten five of the same pastry, it looks very different to us because we no longer crave it." But then we go on, chasing after something else. "We’re never satisfied. We never get to that complete satisfaction. Sometimes I think that Mick Jagger might have been a Buddha."

Gen Kelsang Sangkyong tells us that Buddha advised looking within your own mind to find what you are seeking. By cultivating peaceful states of mind, we can attain inner peace, which allows us to live more happily. He goes on to offer a familiar example of how our outside desires cannot be satisfied: car problems. We get upset and frustrated when the car breaks down, but really, that is the nature of a car. At some point, the car (or parts of it) will stop functioning. "The problem isn’t with the car. Our expectations are the source of the problem. We’re expecting the car to deliver things which it isn’t capable of. If we have a peaceful mind, we don’t have car problems, we just have a car that’s falling apart, which all cars do."

The day we are meeting is the day after terrorists have struck in New York City and Washington, D.C., so it seems especially meaningful when Gen Kelsang Sangkyong reads these words from his teacher’s book: "Without inner peace, outer peace is impossible. We all wish for world peace, but world peace will never be achieved without establishing peace in our own minds." You cannot keep peace with guns. "Only by creating peace within our own mind, and helping others to do the same can we experience world peace." Gen Kelsang Sangkyong concludes that the greatest contribution we can make toward world peace is to cultivate our own inner peace with an eye toward helping others to do the same.

When it’s time for meditation, Gen Kelsang Sangkyong leads us through settling our minds by following our breath, and then asks us to contemplate inner peace as happiness and as vital to establishing outer peace. Finally he invites us to resolve to cultivate inner peace and to share this knowledge with others. Throughout our meditation, kids play noisily in the nearby children’s section, mothers watch over them offering an occasional admonishment. I concentrate on inner peace, succeeding in not allowing the noise to divert me from my quest. When the meditation is over, I feel rested and relaxed--peaceful even.

Gen Kelsang Sangkyong offers to take questions from the audience, and we’re full of them. One college student asks how a Buddhist monk would explain the recent terrorist attacks. Gen Kelsang Sangkyong’s response is at once calming and thought-provoking. "We are living in a deluded world and the inhabitants of this world don’t have control over their minds. In such a world, what do you expect? It’s inconceivable what a deluded mind can do. A negative mind can create huge destruction, but this empowers our compassion. In Buddhism we don’t blame people, we blame delusions. We pray for everyone to be free from their delusions. In Buddhism, we believe that those who create suffering are usually suffering the most."

Another attendee comments on how peaceful our speaker seems and wants to know if he was always this way or if meditation changed him." Yes, meditation changed him, as evidence Gen Kelsang Sangkyong explains, "I used to be in a rock band." He advises us that he started out small, meditating five to ten minutes a day and went on from there. Five minutes a day? I can spare that, I think. It’s the least I can do in the name of peace.

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