Daily Life is the Practice

Well, you know, traditionally much of the teachings in Buddhism was directed towards monastics, especially monks. And so therefore in traditional texts, a lot of it, the first thing you have to do is leave behind your family and your work and go and live up on the mountain. And so even though, even in Tibet, very few actually took that advice, it is not very helpful nowadays. And so when I go and give talks, I see, you know, 99% of the audience are, you know, lay people with families and jobs and professions and social life, but at the same time an interest in walking on a genuine spiritual path and doing something which will benefit themselves and benefit others. And so therefore it's very important, I think, to emphasize the fact that our daily life should be our practice.

It's not just when we're sitting on our cushion or when we go to dharma centers or reading dharma books, that is dharma, that is practice, and the rest of the day is just so much wasted worldly activity, because there are many qualities of the heart that need to be cultivated, such as patience and compassion, loving kindness, generosity, and so forth, taking difficulties onto the path and transforming them, and learning especially how to be aware, how to be more mindful and present under all circumstances. If we can only practice in a retreat environment, and as soon as we come back, we collapse, then it's not very helpful. And so I think that to the appreciation that our family and our workplace and everything which we do is the opportunity to cultivate these qualities of the heart is very important for people, because then our everyday life becomes our dharma practice, there's no separation. So nowadays more and more with this cultivation of mindfulness, even if it is within a very secular understanding to make you lower your cholesterol and be less stress free and therefore more efficient for your organization, still if it teaches people to be more present, more attentive, more aware of what's going on outwardly, inwardly, it's a good thing, nothing lost. And I think once people really begin to understand how to be mindful, they realize the implications of that within their own inner world.

And from that, naturally it will lead to deeper levels of consciousness, even though that is not maybe something which is taught in their particular course of mindfulness.