The Answer Beyond the Intellect

An Excerpt From Rinpoche's Newest Book, Tibetan Yogas of Body, Speech and Mind

Gaining knowledge is an important part of the spiritual path, and there are endless possibilities for expanding one’s intellectual learning. Yet the conceptual mind has a way of creating a lot of confusion, doubt, and distress, and the entire intellectual path tends to become a question in search of a single answer. Ultimately, the answer itself is beyond the reach of the intellect.

I feel that I have had some success in presenting the quintessential points of the teachings and providing a means to direct experience through effective practice. For me, a successful retreat is when people from a variety of different intellectual backgrounds and levels of meditative experience feel a collective benefit in meditation practice. Their training and intellectual understanding may differ, but in the experiential aspect all divisions are dissolved: Everyone participating arrives at a single place.

Is it possible to have a genuine experience without going through many years of intellectual training? The answer is yes. The process begins with receiving the wisdom teachings known as the dharma. But hearing or reading about the teachings is not enough. Neither is reflecting on what you have heard or having good intentions to practice meditation. Many people feel that because they go to retreats and accumulate knowledge they are good practitioners, but the teaching cannot ripen in you until you actually practice it and your practice begins to deepen. Your ability to experience the great bliss that comes from recognition of your true nature depends on nothing but practice.

By helping you discover a deep source of knowledge and wisdom, meditation practice can bring you to the sense of connection, completion, and fulfillment that you yearn for. Ultimately, it can help you arrive at the more profound sense of peace and happiness that comes only from connecting with your deeper essence.

Ideally, you should be open to the infinite possibility of intellectual learning but not get lost in it. Through study combined with practice, you can gain direct experience of the truth in the simplest of places: within your own body, speech, and mind.

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You can learn more about Rinpoche’s newest book, Tibetan Yogas of Body, Speech and Mind, on Ligmincha’s Facebook page; and you can order it now from Ligmincha Institute's Bookstore & Tibet Shop >