One of the most learned and highly trained American-born lamas in the Tibetan Dzogchen tradition. He is a meditation teacher and author.
Lisa M.: One of my recurring struggles is with loneliness, and understanding that it relates to greed, I would love to discuss some ideas to help open my understanding of this emotion. Thank you for everything you do.
Lama Surya Das: We are all alone together. That’s the secret. One might do well to reflect upon this and see if it’s not true, and furthermore endeavor to unfold various levels of meaning. Are you really alone, cherie?
Another secret is that the small, limited, ego self is inevitably lonely and alone, alienated and disconnected, anxious and insecure— to varying degrees, at various times, for different individuals— having set itself apart and maintaining that illusory sense of separation. This is as foolish as a bubble in the sea thinking itself lost and lone, apart from the greater whole, and so forth. And yet, that is our human condition. May I quote Renee Descartes, the father of our modern existential dilemma? I think therefore I am (separated). Contemplate this.
I don’t mean to say stop thinking. Just notice how linear, left brained and analytical conceptual mind constantly makes intellectual distinctions and leave us separate and apart, all the while overlooking the gestalt, intuitive, sudden wholeness-appreciation possible through the more wholistic right side of the brain.
When lonely alone in the Himalayas during my twenties, I used to pray like this: “May I break down the separation my mind creates between self & other so that I may truly recognize my interconnectedness with all beings.”
Submitted by Lisa M. via Facebook on September 7th, 2010. Photo by Ilke Render.
