"When we care for ourselves thoroughly, truly benefiting our world is possible." Lama Kali Ma

In the West, I have heard the idea that for an artist to create, they have to suffer greatly. In the East, the idea is that if one lives life to the fullest and has the greatest states of wisdom, then great art will come from it. Ultimately all art, all creativity is a communication of an inner experience. The more deeply we enter experience, the more
compelling our creativity will be. In Buddhism, we have something called Windhorse:our deepest vitality, well-being and goodness. When our Windhorse is high, we are naturally creative. Work seems effortless. Obstacles dissolve easily or don’t even arise.

We have clarity and energy. When our Windhorse is low, we attract obstacles, the work we do takes twice the effort, with half the pay off. In Yogic Buddhism, Windhorse teachings are a compassionate paradigm for how we get things done – things will be accomplished not just through will power, but also through cultivating the required energy and creativity by caring for our body-mind. In this view, the way one would handle having many things to do is by intensively nourishing oneself into a level of high energy. Westerners often do the opposite; when we have many things to do, we nourish ourselves less and less, so instead of feeling creative and inspired, we work in a dejected, disconnected, distracted state of mind. We separate the ends from the means, a habit of dualism where we prioritize the goal as more important than the journey.

But in reality, the quality of the goal is dependant on every moment of the journey. This is a teaching I have exerted vigorously to share in my school, training people in how to care properly for their body and mind, emotions,obstacles, and aspirations. It has been amazing to see how things do not have to be as hard as we make them, if we would only stop and care for ourselves. Hard times may still be hard, but they would not have that extra quality of suffering - what the Buddha called Dukha: the dissatisfaction we inflict upon ourselves.

When we feel good, our creativity overflows into action. But few people understand how to raise this Windhorse, how to care for their mind and body in a way that causes body-mind to naturally light up with inspiration. What things are known about raising
internal forces, people rarely take time to actually practice. Rather than feel bad about this, it is important to take action immediately, to care for body-mind in whatever way you know how, as part of your daily ritual. As important as it is to look good, it is imperative to feel good, to truly feel good, emotionally, mentally and physically.

This will take work, but it will be the most important work of our life, as we cultivate our own body-mind as the Buddha’s garden.
There is so much fear that if we don’t just keep on doing doing doing, that things will not get done. That is true. If we take the time to care for ourselves, some things will not get done - the things we wouldn’t do if we were in our most creative, empowered, inspired state of being. Also we will have to prioritize and choose what is most important, something that is much easier when we are in a state of high energy and clarity. In the story of Yeshe Tsogyal, the female Tantric Buddha from Tibet, she received initiation and instruction from her Lama and went to the high mountains for
intensive practice. While she was there she faced enormous hardship and heroically adhered to her meditation practices despite obstacles, attacks and near starvation.

When she came down from her retreat, she met with her teacher, Padmasambhava. He told her, “You are too harsh with yourself. You forgot the most important teaching.” He then re-explained to her the teachings of Yogic Medicine and Windhorse, sending her on a pilgrimage with the assignment to nourish her body with herbs, foods, rest and time with her consort. Ultimately, this was a turning point in her life, where she began to understand the road to accomplishment in a new way. She became an extraordinary Lama. To those who needed healing she was a healer. To those who needed teachings, she was a teacher. To those who needed friendship, she was a friend. It is a reflection of what occurs for all of us when we raise Windhorse; whenever we care for our bodymind fully, we overflow with the creativity and wisdom needed to meet the many demands of our life. From that state of being, compassionate action spontaneously arises.  When we care for ourselves thoroughly, truly benefiting our world is possible.

Lama Kali Ma is a Buddhist teacher, humanitarian and author. She is the spiritual director of the School of Yogic Buddhism, a project of the non-profit religious organization founded in 1999, called MahaSiddha Buddhism, dedicated to sharing the original Vajrayana practices and teachings of the MahaSiddhas, the first Tantric Buddhist Yogis and Yoginis. For more information on her teachings visit:  www.YogicBuddhism.org