Twenty-five years ago I traveled to northern India. It was the first of many pilgrimages I would undertake in the Himalayas. On my initial sojourn I met a meditation master who lived as a hermit in a cave. He’d been meditating there for over 40 years. His eyes were filled with kindness and a vast spaciousness like the sky above the mountains.
I was a frustrated activist at the time. I didn’t have the patience to remain in America and work within the political system. I blamed the power structure for the many injustices I saw around me. But I was angrier with myself for not being able to enact the change that I wanted to see in politics and in society. I was seeking some kind of refuge in the Himalayas, if only from the tightly bound tension in my own heart and mind.
When I met the meditation master, I asked him, “How can I help change the world for the better?”
He told me, “First, you need to learn to meditate—only then will you know yourself.”
I wasn’t sure how that would help.
“Only after truly knowing yourself,” he said, “will you really be able to help others.”
I didn’t know how to start meditating. But that day I vowed to learn.
The last thing the meditation master told me before I left his cave was, “You have to taste meditation. You have to do it. It’s not enough to know about it. You can have lots of knowledge and read many books about meditation but unless you practice it, it won’t be of any use to you.”
I began studying with various Tibetan Buddhist meditation masters and then lived in Tibet and Nepal for about a decade. It was during this period that I met my principal meditation teacher just outside Kathmandu Valley. He was an accomplished scholar-meditator and served as the abbot of a small hermitage. He lived a very simple life and felt my gifts of maple syrup from America and Swiss cough drops were decadent! I entered into the traditional teacher–student relationship with him and for years he guided me through various meditation texts and commentaries.
He continually checked my learning and experience, oftentimes pointing out my misunderstandings. When I wanted to jump ahead in the step-by-step meditation instructions, he would say something like, “Enthusiasm is as strong as a horse, but as short as a sheep’s tail,” and then counsel me to be steadfast and consistent. To this day I continue to follow his meditation instructions and study his teachings.
During this time in Nepal I also practiced intensively S.N. Goenka’s Vipassana meditation teachings, first in group retreats and thereafter as a daily practice.
In between living in Asia and America, I received a master’s in Indian philosophy from the University of London and trained in modern yoga postures and especially pranayama—yogic breathing practices. I wrote several books about my travels among meditation masters in Asia, including In the Shadow of the Buddha: One Man’s Journey of Spiritual Discovery in Tibet, Fearless in Tibet: The Life of the Mystic Tertön Sogyal, and Roar: Sulak Sivaraksa and the Path of Socially Engaged Buddhism.
While I’ve had the great fortune of training and practicing different techniques with great yogis and masters from various spiritual traditions, I’ve always returned to the fundamental practice of meditation as my rock, my refuge, my daily sustenance. Meditation nourishes contentment in my life. This is why I’ve written this book: to share the essence of meditation practice, with the aspiration that you and others may be empowered and find refuge within yourself—find solace within your own heart and mind.
This life we have is precious. And indeed, it goes by so quickly. Let’s not miss the chance to find the true source of contentment within ourselves—within our mind, for it is through coming to know our mind that we can come to know ourselves. And in coming to know ourselves, we can live a life full of joy and contentment, and be able to benefit others at the same time.
Meditation has been one of the greatest gifts I have been given. I bow down in appreciation to my teachers and the spiritual friends who have taught me. Coming to know my mind has been the most fulfilling and profound path I’ve taken in my life. I look forward to sharing it with you.