What's "meditation," Rinpoche? Tara Brach?

Ellie Askew, Dhr. Seven (ed.), Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; Tara Brach with Waking Up app Host Sam Harris (dynamic.wakingup.com)

Crazy Wisdom: The Life and Times..

"Meditation is not a matter of trying to achieve ecstasy, spiritual bliss, or tranquility, nor is it attempting to become a better person.

"It is simply the creation of a space in which we are able to expose and undo our neurotic games, our self-deceptions, our hidden fears and hopes.

"We provide space through the simple discipline of doing nothing."

— Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

(Shambhala sex scandals)

I do what I want. It's crazy wisdom.

Is this quote true? We asked former American Theravada Buddhist nun Ellie Askew.

"I'd say it's true -- but not the full truth about meditation. So I wouldn't say, 'It is simply.' And 'the creation of a space' is a bit confusing. People might set about making a space or looking for one.

"Meditation does expose our neurotic games and such, but it does much more than that!

Sex, drugs with my students, why not? Lol!

"I've actually come to appreciate the [expedient] explanation of 'doing nothing' more and more. More and more it seems like that's the most effective thing to do [while sitting there rather than building expectations].

"It may be slow, as a long time can go by before it dawns on me what the present moment is, as opposed to what the mind's been doing or expecting. It's quite revealing and powerful.

"I watch the breath lightly because the breath is there, not as a 'method' to do or create something.

Look how rich crazy I am. Ha, ha, ha!

"Actually, for me, it is very uncomfortable to sit there. Or sitting there is [a means of] revealing the discomfort that is perpetually going on.

"So a lot of the time, it just feels like endurance. I can 'get past' that experience when it dawns on me what I'm doing [or expecting] to make it so uncomfortable, which is some kind of tension.

"I can also get sucked into making a lot of the time about seeking that dawning. It's like struggling to breathe, even though I seem to be breathing.

"I found this conversation with [clinical psychologist, yogini, mother, and celebrated American Theravada Buddhist teacher] Tara Brach about non-dual  stuff to be very well expressed — from the Waking Up app."

• Click to listen now: dynamic.wakingup.com/course/C1F486

Neuroscientist Sam Harris has a conversation with Tara Brach (Waking Up Podcast)

I was a Tibetan lama who got to go to school in England. So I married this 16-y.o. rich girl. It was 1970, and I renounced my vows [to have sex?]. I got in sports car accident, which crippled me, so I wed wealthy English student Diana Judith Pybus. It was hot.