One's Beautiful Mind Beyond All Conditions

An Edited Excerpt from Oral Teachings Given by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, Summer 2021

There's a difference between what we know and what we experience, isn't there? What I know is that there is no limit to what I can experience. But what I experience is of course limited. So rather than place our focus so much on what we know, better instead to place more focus on what one's experience is. I have definitely witnessed in my own life many, many situations of breaking through the limits of my experience; of breaking those boundaries by not running away from them, but rather acknowledging and respecting and going closer to them.

That's exactly what we are encouraging here. It's wonderful how many fantastic, beautiful instances people have shared here of the particular breakthroughs they've had in their own experience in this retreat. The only reason they are having those breakthroughs is that they are going closer to a limitation and recognizing it and letting it go. And each time that happens, they experience something more than they have ever experienced before. It might be small, but still that little something more matters.

It doesn't matter how many times somebody says something, or even does something to you. If deep inside, you do care, you genuinely care, then the particular conditions don't matter. They don't matter. Many of you have been sharing your experiences of transformations that before this retreat you thought were impossible. And now you realize that you can do anything. You can love anyone, in any conditions.

There is something that I have been sharing over the last few years that I want to highlight a little bit more, here in this moment. As we are all getting older, we are seeing a lot of grumpy people. It's as if someone has stolen away their smile. As if someone has told them that they are not allowed to speak. As if someone has told them, you are not allowed to laugh again, and if you do, then each laugh will cost you a thousand dollars. It seems like a lot of people, as they get older and older, are becoming like that. You don't want to become like that. You want to grow older more gracefully. Sure, there are some things maybe that you cannot do because of conditions, absolutely. Maybe now you cannot run, you cannot hike as much, you cannot bike as much, you cannot play sports as much. Sure. That's why you should do those things while you can and not wait until you aren't able to anymore.

However, there are certain things that are beyond one's physical conditions. It's about your mind, your beautiful mind. There's no limit to what it can do. How much it can love, who it can love, and in what condition it can love; how much it can give, and to whom it can give. And there's no limit to how much you can feel peace; you can feel peace under any conditions. You are always finding excuses, always having an excuse not to feel peace, right? There are no conditions needed to feel peace. And this is what we are trying to discover here; this is what we are trying to grow into. Then as you get older, you're happy, joyful, playful, more playful even than younger people, more funny than younger people, laughing more than younger people, more graceful than younger people. And that's what the younger people need from us. Because many of the younger people are already miserable.

Whenever you fully open, then others open. Sometimes you might not even believe that they have opened, but they are open. When you open, then a part of them opens even though they may not be conscious of it. When you can open more, then they, too, begin to feel it more. And when you really fully open, then they have no other real choice than to open.

Every day you can experience this. Simply go outside in the morning, and from your deep heart, your open heart, just say, Hi! Good morning, how are you? [smiles] And watch how people respond back to you from that place. For some people it may take some time for them to open up in response to you, but a delay is all right. Others might not express back to you that same big smile, yet they are smiling in their own way, one that maybe you can't see. But still, they're smiling in response. And in their own capacity, at their own level, they have shaken something, they have moved something in themselves because of you. Every day we have this opportunity to change the little circumstances that we are in, and take action. You can take the opportunity to do so in every moment.

We have been saying for the last week, and continuously throughout all the teaching: everything that you are believing as your limitation and condition, you can break it, you can go beyond it; you can do anything. The refuge is there for your support, and this community, this sacred cybersangha, is there as a support. You trust yourself, and then everything's possible. The joy is there, the love is there, the compassion, everything is there all the time, it's just a matter of accessing it. That's what it is. Truly.