Effect of Meditation (diminishment of ego, etc.)

Chogyam Trungpa (d. 1987), the Tibetan Buddhist teacher, is arguably the most influential Buddhist teacher in the modern world. In the last ten years of his life, he developed “Shambhala Training,” a program to encourage the practice of meditation among the general population. He felt that meditation had the power to change profoundly a person’s inner self and outer behavior.

Trungpa discusses some aspects of this change in talks published in 2007 in Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior. A major effect of meditation, according to Trungpa, is an eventual sense of the basic goodness of oneself. This is not “goodness” in a moral sense; it is a global acceptance and approval of oneself with shortcomings and flaws included. This acceptance gives rise to genuineness of behavior, being true to oneself in one’s relations with the world.  

In Trungpa’s view, an awakening of the heart accompanies this self-acceptance. The ability grows to extend oneself to others, any sense of barriers between oneself and others gradually disappearing. There is a growing sense of inner richness that can give selflessly to others without feeling diminished.

In Trungpa’s view, egolessness gradually develops in the meditator. The meditator develops the ability to spot ego-motivated feeling or behavior in himself and to renounce it for the sake of others.

Finally, according to Trungpa, in the meditator there is a growing sense of being in command of oneself and being in command of one’s own world. One knows when to go to bed, when to get up, when to work and what to work at, and so on. And one lives with an open heart and shares it with others.

Just on my own, I would like to add that changes such as these come about as a matter of course in the meditator, without any deliberate effort to bring them about. In meditating, it is probably best to leave the developmental process alone and to let others observe any positive changes. Not thinking about them will promote the loss of ego, which is the ultimate goal of meditation.