The Dalai Lama told the speaker that Westerners practice meditation wrong, chasing personal benefits like less anxiety or more productivity. Real meditation, he said, aims to make others feel better and uplift the world. It's an act of love for the present moment, not a tool for yourself.
The Dalai Lama told me that he discourages Westerners from becoming Buddhist. Why? Why? He says, 'Cause they're doing it wrong. I said, 'What do you mean?' He said, 'They want to meditate to feel better.' I said, 'So what should they be doing?' He says, 'You should meditate so everybody else feels better.' The point of your meditation is to lift up the whole world. That's the point of your meditation. Not so that you will lift yourself up, so you'll feel less anxious, so that you'll become more productive, so that your depression will be alleviated. On the contrary, it's completely secondary to this. And that's the point of understanding that right right here is the only time that we can love. And that's why when we have this conversation, you and I are here right now. We're not thinking about the future and we're loving this moment. And that's what we're trying to achieve. Because as we love this moment, we get to have this conversation and we're trying to bless other people. The point is not so that Andre and Arthur feel better. The point is that we're trying to lift up the world. And that's the essence of now. And that's the essence of love.
