Teachings
“Joy in Being” – An Edited Excerpt From Oral Teachings Given by Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, Spring 2009
As we engage in regular meditation practice, we come to recognize our limits as practitioners. We can benefit from trying to understand those limits, and from working with them in a way that helps us to be less conditioned by them. Then, we can work on gradually breaking free of them.
Initially our limitations will continue to affect us, so we can try to work with them so that they affect us in a more positive way. But eventually we want to go beyond all limitations, otherwise they will continue to condition us. Regardless of whether the effects are positive or negative, they are limitations.
A simple example is the joy of having versus the joy of being. The joy of having clearly has limitations — whether it is the joy of having money, possessions, relationships, or other positive external supports. You either have something or you don’t have it. When you have, you are happy; however, it is also the case that when you don’t have, you are definitely unhappy. Whereas for the joy of being – you can never lose your being. When you can discover the joy of abiding in the natural state, joy is not limited by having or not having.
A lot of people are not even happy when they do have. So as a first step, you can try to find a happiness that is based on recognizing that you are already blessed with many gifts. You don’t always have to look at what it is that you don’t have, you can look at what you do have and learn to be happy with it. Then gradually, you can grow to not be so conditioned by what you do have. Now and then, take a moment to imagine that all you have can be gone in one second. In one second, everything you own can disappear. And in the end, anyway, all that you own is guaranteed to not remain yours. Therefore, it is best not to be that attached to things right from the beginning, because just think about it – it’s guaranteed to not be yours one day. Someday somebody else will be enjoying your bedroom; that’s guaranteed. Someday someone else will be remodeling your kitchen that you have put a lot of energy into; that’s guaranteed. So don’t get too attached to what you have created there. Rather, appreciate and enjoy and live fully.
From there you can realize it is possible to move from that place of conditional joy to the place where your joy is found internally in the simple experience of being. This is the joy you are less likely to lose, for you can never not be. Once that shift begins to happen, then you are breaking some conditions. That is called true realization, right?
