Last Updated on August 17, 2022 by pg@petergamma.org
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche was born in 1910 in eastern Tibet. According to this source:
Dilgo retreated at the age of 15 for 13 years to train his mind. All he took with him was a handbook of spirituality. He was looking for spiritual realization:
After these 13 years, he was so happy in is solitary retreat, that he wished to stay in retreat for the rest of his life. But Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoches teacher Dzongsar Khyentse Chokyi Lodro answered to Dilgo: “The time has come for you to teach and transmit to others the precious teachings you have received”.
What was Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoches experience, that he wished to to stay in retreat for the rest of his life?
“The special state of conciousness that we see in the highest level meditators is a lot like something described in the classical meditation literature centuries ago, that there is a state of being which is not like our ordinary state. Sometimes it is called liberation, awake, enlightement, what ever the word may be, we suspect there is no vocabulary that captures what that may be».
is a description of what Dilgo might have experienced in retreat. This description is from David Golemann:
Some time ago, we have read in the GEO magazine about meditiation:
“A Zen student asks his Zen master: «master, how long does it take until I got enlightened?». The Zen master answered: «Ten years». Then, the Zen student asked is master: «but master, how long does it take, if I work hard in it to become enlightened?». The Zen master answered: «then, it takes 20 years».
This statement of the Zen master has not been confirmed scientifically, as many statements of meditation masters are not confirmed scientifically, although it would be highly desirable.
Many people are looking for a fast way for liberation from suffering, but is this possible? In 1992, the Dalai Lama asked Richard Davidson, «why are you using the tools of modern neuroscience to study anxiety, fear, and depression, and stress, why can t you use those same tools to study kindness and compassion?»
The Buddhist teachings teach about the causes of suffering and how it can be eliminated. Richard Davidson tested the brainwaves of Buddhist monks who spent years training their minds. One of the guinea pigs in Richard Davidsons tests was Mathieu Ricard. Ricard once said:
“People with more Gamma wave activity on the right side of the prefrontal cortex are more depressed, withdrawn, they don t describe a lot of positive affect, if you suffer from depression, you go to the right side. People with more Gamma wave activity on the left side of the prefrontal cortex have more tendancy to altruism, happiness, curiousity, etc. if you see a comic movie, you go to the left side, if you are happy, you go to the left side.”
David Goleman called the guinea pig monks «olympic level mediators». Mathieu Ricard once said, that Richard Davidsons research group found in the brains of Buddhist mind training practicioners the highest Gamma wave values in the left prefrontal lobe which where ever measured in humans. Mathieu Ricard called those «olympic champions of mind training».
Richard Davidson sometimes entitled those monks as sort of extreme outsiders on a Gamma wave scale. But these outsiders are also olympic champions in the discipline of mind training. Should we not first learn from the best, from the world champions, before we start the research from scratch?
Unfortunately, following Richard Davidsons studies with Buddhist monks, there where hardly any long-term studies which studied these world champions of mind training. To study these practicioners on the long-term which the methods of modern neuroscience might be of great benefit for the society, to find out more about the causes of suffering and how to elimate it. Did not Buddhist practicioniers study this topic for more than 2000 years? What remains to do is a detailed scientific proof of their findings.