Buddha was in search of the causes of suffering, of mental suffering. After he had his «enlightenment», he knew the causes of mental suffering. The causes of mental suffering are the «not knowing» of these causes. If we know the causes we can eliminate our suffering. We can find the causes of mental suffering described in the teachings of the Buddha. Buddha had the knowledge about what are the causes of mental suffering, but also how it can be eliminated, it is written down in his teachings. But we can find this knowledge also in the books «Happiness», «Meditation» and “Brain Research and Meditation” of Matthieu Ricard, Buddhist monk with a PhD. in Cellular Genetics, as well as in other books of Matthieu Richard.
How long does it take to eliminate mental suffering? Which psychiatrist or psychotherapist has a good answer to this?
There is one extraordinary historical example of someone who was in search of «spiritual enlightenment», and is this not the same as having manged to eliminate mental suffering? It is the example is Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. Rinpoche meditated in solitary retreat from the age of 15 to 28:
He spent 13 years in solitary retreat with books of spiritual teachings which taught him how to eliminate mental suffering. After 13 years he wanted to spend the rest of his life in solitary retreat. Did he have his «spiritual enlightenment» there and managed to eliminate his mental suffering? Why else would he have wanted to spend the rest of his life in solitary retreat after this 13 years? Bud Dilgo was not allowed to do.
Did Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche manage after 13 years what some call being able to become happy independently from the outer world as we have described it here:
If this true we have a least one well documented example of someone who managed to eliminate his mental suffering, and we know how long it took him to manage this.
Richard R. Davidson and Daniel Goleman describe in the book «Altered Traits» that a daily practice of 20 min. is sufficient to alter the brain in an objectively measurable way:
But this is not the same as being able to eliminate mental suffering. We suppose that this would take about 13 years as a full-time training, as Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche did it. But for a scientific proof of this around 16 Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche would be required to track them until they have this skill. If we had such scientific data from such mediators, would this not offer new treatments for mental diseases which are not available to this date based on scientific findings?
13 years is a long time. But as the Dalai Lama the 14.th once said who triggered the scientific work mentioned above of Richard Davidsons group, he does not recommend to retreat completely. We can start with 5 minutes of daily practice and then extend it. If we are able to do this we can spend 13 years of our lifetime meditating to reach what Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche has reached which has not to be in one piece.
Would only view do this or would be able to do this even if we had scientific proof for what we write here? But would scientific data not open the door for new ways of life? Or eventually only for those who could afford it? But if scientists would be able to find out what are the causes of mental suffering and how we can eliminate it based on scientific findings would this not be revolutionary? And if such a scientific revolution would happen, could this not change the world and change our society?
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