Camille Diwata; Steven Borish; April 10, 2011

America is a melting pot of various races, ethnicities, backgrounds, and beliefs,

manifesting itself in the diversity of foods, religions, music, medical practices, arts, legends, and
social behaviors. Yet, these different cultures and people come together to form one living,
breathing society: The American Society. The successes of Americans are great, but they have
created a fast-paced society designed to keep the public busy with different superficial goals. For
example, the critiques presented in this paper are the superficial focus on the external self (the
outward appearance) and the external possessions (the materials we own). From a Tibetan point
of view, I will first uncover the roots of these problem areas. Second, taking excerpts from The
Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, I will use teachings of meditation and impermanence to show
how a trained mind will give deeper meaning to life, free from the chains of unnecessary
responsibilities to our appearance and belongings.
Our American culture is known for its busy, fast-paced lifestyle. It is found in the way
fast-food businesses target busy families; in the way our constant use of the internet trains our
minds against patience; but mostly in the way we view success. In our culture, to be successful
means to have expensive, nice things. There is an emphasis on the external possessions we are
able to call our own. These possessions keep us busy. First, to own them, we must buy them. In
order to buy them, we must make money, and to make money, we must work. Then, when we
acquire this item, we must care for it as long as we own it. Whatever this item is, we think we
own it, when in reality, it actually owns a part of us.
This process is not a one-time cycle, rather, it is continuous. We become obsessed, with
false hopes, dreams, and ambitions, which promise happiness but lead only to misery. (2.21)
The media constantly drives new products into our minds, tempting us with its trendy
appearance, versatility, or wow-factor. Even though all things are inherently empty (5.61), we
are taught to consume these advertisements and buy. Then, we run out of money, and we work to
buy more. In a way, the consumerism of Americans is itself a samsara. It is an endless processes
of hidden suffering and slavery because we are so focused on our materials, we forget to focus
on the personal relationships with our loved-ones and our internal selves. Our responsibilities
like tidying the house, washing the car, or working over-time give us no time to focus on more
important matters. Sogyal Rinpoche once said, If we look into our lives, we will see clearly how
many unimportant tasks, so called responsibilities accumulate to fill them up. We tell ourselves
we want to spend time on the important things of life, but there never is any time. (2.19)
The manner in which we focus on our external appearance is also a form of materialism
that adds to our demanding lifestyle. The American Society has made great progress in the field
of medicine. Simple vaccines for common viruses that continue to kill thousands across the
world are injected every few years in each American. Here, medical advances are so great that
cosmetic surgeries have become the norm in this society, especially since the media shows one,
myopic view of beauty based on youth and thinness. Today, it is common for a birthing woman
to have a C-section followed by a tummy tuck; for the elderly to receive botox injections that
decrease the amount of wrinkles; and for the common to purchase various beauty products to
prevent, fill-in, or lighten skin of spots and lines. Such a view has its limits, simply because we
are always changing, growing, and aging.
A Tibetan might look at this grasp for youth as an attempt to fight death itself. They
would ask, Why should anyone try to fight something as natural as death? Simply answered,
our American society ignores death and aging. From a young age, we are trained to enjoy our
youth, and fear the limits of age. Seen on television, models are young, actors and actresses are
in their twenties, the prime, youthful age, and those that are not have surgeries to reverse the
aging process. In music, lyrics sing about the glories of the young the parties attended, the
friends to hang out with, the first loves. But in reality, when you look deeply, you realize there
is nothing that is permanent and constant, nothing, not even the tiniest hair on your body. (2.25)
To fight death, our consumerist minds buy age-rewind products, invest in gym
memberships, and buy foods from the latest fad diets. Like our external possessions, our external
appearance becomes something to maintain. Much time is spent grooming ourselves to look
presentable. Showering, brushing the teeth, blow-drying hair, shaving, applying make-up,
working out, clipping and painting the nails, these everyday actions take up precious time and
add to our list of responsibilities. Once again, we think we have control of our looks, when our
looks actually have control of us because we are impermanent, the influences are impermanent,
and there is nothing solid or lasting anywhere that we can point to. (3.27)
Because our society feeds us these materialistic goals, it has never been more difficult to
hear the unflattering voice of the truth, and never more difficult, once having heard it, to follow
it. (9.132) Beauty is fleeting, it does not last forever. In the same way, our possessions get old,
or bore us, and we search for something else to entertain us. These materials disconnect us from
our true nature and our true purpose.
To heal ourselves and our societys disconnected, busy nature, we must focus on the
eternal meaning of life that materials cannot replace the significance of love and relationship
that innately connects each of us to one another and to our world. Our fast lifestyle shadows the
fundamental truth that there is only one law in the universe that never changes that all things
change, and that all things are impermanent. (3.29) We spend so much time and effort trying to
make things permanent that we grasp onto them, fearing the moment when we must let go. Our
materials and appearances have become shields to hide behind, because we are scared of our own
potentials. Without our familiar props, we are faced with just ourselves, a person we do not
know, an unnerving stranger with whom we have been living all the time but we never really
wanted to meet. (2.16)
In order to learn what our true potential is, we must let go of the things that stand in our
way and keep us distracted. In other words, learning to live is learning to let go. (3.33) When
we stop grasping at our belongings and superficial ideas, there is a focal shift from external
possessions to the internal life. There are many ways to focus on the health of the internal body,
but a fundamental way to bring the mind home is through meditation.
Meditation simply put is quietly sitting, body still, speech silent, mind at peace, let
thoughts and emotions, whatever arises, come and go, without clinging to anything. (5.64) Its
purpose is to center the mind, to train it to discern what is permanent and not permanent in this
bardo of life, and to discover that the most important thing is human relationships and love and
not materialistic things. (2.24)
When we learn to stop clinging to our external possessions, we will learn to better
understand ourselves and the world around us. Meditation is one Tibetan practice to help us
center ourselves, teaching us that grasping is an unnecessary part of life. As Americans, we are
trained to fear our own potential and view our self-worth based on belongings, looks, and money.
But we cannot truly live through materials and possessions. They do not define who we are. As
Americans, we must learn that it is not about looking like the best, but training ourselves to be
the best we can be.