February 20, 2007

Here I am in Dharamsala in the Himalayas again touching and being touched by the inner and outer beauty of this sacred place. On this visit more than any before I feel I am here for others as much as for my own work. So here and there I would like to share with you from my diary.

I arrived several days ago and will spend the next 10 days preceding the 10 days of teachings from the Dalai Lama in retreat and meditation.

Slowly I’m feeling my mind move towards a comfort, ease, and stillness that is increasingly emptied of fictitious mental conceptions that are stimulated by daily patterns of experience and invariably and unknowingly densely veil the pure awareness and its richness that lie below.

What is the goal of health if not to liberate oneself from agitated and unwholesome mental activity and move towards a wholesome mental life, and finally to a spiritually centered life. The first requires freeing ourself through training from the fictitious and tenacious afflictive emotions—anger, attachment, confusion, doubt, and so on -. The second is retraining our mind to be centered on wholesome emotions such as patience, kindness, care and so on - allowing the heart to progressively open to life.
Finally, in the clear and obstructed mind and heart we can receive the true understanding of self and life (wisdom) from which the qualities of human flourishing naturally emerge - an enduring health, happiness and wholeness. And it is this transformation that allows us to become authentic healers for ourself and others and know with certainty the possibility of a genuine and immeasurable health. This cannot be accomplished through theory alone. It requires our full committed self.

In the brief time we live in this impermanent form this transformation is our potential, possibility, responsibility, and meaning as humans. It is our ultimate health and salvation.

I am deeply grateful for the time and teachers here and for all of you who share with me the quest for a larger and more meaningful health.