The Ways of Practitioners – Part 1

If to talk about or communicate your meditation to someone you need to rely on words like ‘the nature of mind’, ‘clear light’, ’spacious’, ‘peaceful’, ‘blissful’, ‘emptiness’, or even need to talk of thoughts and mind, there is probably an issue in your understanding of meditation.

If we were to sit listening to two meditators who both have a high view and practice, they could be expressing their view and meditation and we’d have not the slightest idea that they were talking about dharma or meditation, because they would be using everyday words in a seemingly normal conversation.

My retreat lama, Drupon Rinpoche Karma Sherab, told me a story about his root lama, Lama Tsepal, who is also the root lama of my root lama:
One day, a lama came to visit Lama Tsepal. This lama was from Katok Monastery. It was at the time of the beginning of the cultural revolution, when the Chinese forces came to Tibet. His monastery had been destroyed, and as he was on the road, escaping, he heard of Lama Tsepal, who stayed in life retreat for more than 30 years. He came to visit Lama Tsepal because he wanted to meet and make a connection with him.

The lama was admitted to see Lama Tsepal and was invited to stay for lunch. They had food and tea together, with my retreat lama attending them. After the lama from Katok had taken his leave, Lama Tsepal remarked, ‘Ah, this lama has an extremely high view. He is someone with very advanced practice!’ But on the face of it they said nothing in their conversation about their view, meditation or practice, not a word, in fact not much was said at all.

So we might wonder how Lama Tsepal knew that his visitor (who he had never met or heard of before) had a high view. It is a matter of ‘each knowing their own.’ For example, those of us who are ordinary sentient beings can tell if someone is becoming angry or lustful without them needing to tell us. We can see it in their face. And we can spot these changes in a person so readily because we have vast personal experience of these emotions. It’s the same for those with good meditation and a high view; they can spot it in another just by the look of them.

Another commonplace example from the world is how someone who is well travelled and educated can tell if somebody else is or not; just by talking to them, without needing to hear their life story or read their CV.

Similarly, meditators, practitioners, have their own ways. They do not need to tell people how they are ‘a meditator’, have a high view and how the nature of mind is such-and-such, and so on. They wouldn’t say such things. If someone did talk like that they would only be exposing themselves to be anything but a practitioner. Or, when talking about meditation if you need to stick to the terminology you find in the text books out of fear of getting it wrong, that is equally game over.

The reason for all of this is that when we talk we are expressing our mind and someone who knows their own mind can know the mind of another merely by what they say and, more importantly, how they say it.

Incidentally, my lama later found out that this lama from Katok was deemed to be an exceptional practitioner and highly revered by those of Katok and the surrounding area, but I never caught his name, unfortunately.