(Prologue: I’ve got first-hand experience that a real understanding of the laws of karma can substantially change our lives for the better. I created this weblog to share information and personal experience with others. May it be of benefit!)

For me, meditation practice is like coming home.

We’re on overload today. Too much information. Coming from too many directions. Look here! No, look over there! We feel angry. Fearful. Stressed out.

We need some first aid for the mind if we are going to engage life in a clear, knowing, awake way; if we are going to change our own karmic stream. There’s an important ripple effect of which we must now become aware — by changing our own karma, we help to change the world’s karma. This makes life more uplifted for everyone. And it is here that the role of meditation practice is so vital.

There are so many views today about what meditation is and what its purpose is. For example:

• The “self-help,” “self-improvement” genre: e.g. one blog post urged “Be better than yourself.” Or variations like “Be a better person.” (This genre is based on a poverty mentality about ourselves);
• Some say “Go beyond yourself;”
• Scientists who study meditation have outlined many health benefits; and
• Some think of meditation as a day at the beach.

I like to think of meditation as an exercise in focusing. We focus all day long! But on what are we focusing? It’s usually on constant stream of negativity. On our own story line.

To repeat, meditation is a form of focusing. But now we are gently focusing on our breath, and simply noticing the thoughts that arise. And then returning to gently focus on our breath. We can read about mind in myriad books and articles. But there’s only one way to actually get in touch with our own mind: through an exercise that shifts our focus. I call that shift “meditation practice.” It’s the shift that undercuts our habitual patterns, which cuts through our karmic stream.

The Great Fourteenth, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, sums up the purpose of meditation this way:

The main emphasis in Buddhism is to transform the mind, and transformation depends on meditation. In order to meditate correctly you must have knowledge, and communities, too, must be uplifted through knowledge.

Barbara Marciniak puts it this way:

Meditation is a state of communication; it is not a way to go somewhere to get lost. Meditation is a way to get informed and to go to a place that nourishes you.

Once again, meditation is another way of focusing. Actually, we focus all day long. But on what?

Today’s post will present the Shambhala Buddhist view of meditation as presented by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche via a Shambhala Online event held onSaturday, July 18, 2009, broadcast from Shambhala Meditation Centre, Colorado, 09h30 Mountain Time. It is for the most part unedited so that the reader will get the original flavour.

My own comments are put in { }.

Meditation is not removing ourselves from the world. We are engaging our heart.  This makes the practice less conceptual, more heart-felt.

In this sense, meditation is very much an art form. The Chinese people do alot of art, poetry, calligraphy. This makes the heart nimble. We can appreciate a breeze where we may not have even noticed it before.

We have set up the world in a way where we don’t have trust in ourselves. We always have the feeling that we need something. We feel depleted. We have created a materialistic world.

We have so much information coming in. It’s overload. How should we organize our mind? We do that in terms of what is important. What is important? Meditation practice. So now we can make a plan based on what is important. Making a plan creates motivation. No one will make a plan for us. We have to. Decide what is important. Prioritize. The key thing is to have a clear, knowing, awake mind. … Fear sabotages our day. So contemplate what is important. Otherwise, your day will prioritize your mind, rather than the other way around! (emphasis mine)

When practicing meditation, we practice being immediate; being in the NOW (emphasis mine), not in the future. When we are not present in the moment, there is a level of doubt. Whatever we are looking for seems to be somewhere else.

{Meditation practice can cut through anger, fear. How? Anger and fear arise when we think of something in the past, present or future. Being in the NOW cuts through fixation on\grasping at\attachment to these thoughts.}

Meditation is simply an aid. Through it, we can discover our basic confidence, strength. It’s one thing to be good. It’s another to stay good. For that we need strength. When we are present {in the now}, we have more energy.

{Rather than following our discursive thought, our subconscious gossip, and going AWOL, we are “all present and accounted for.”}

Meditation is not going into some zone. It’s about paying attention to the details in the immediate moment, the now. We tend to label the details as a “hassle.” We’re so trained to be anytime but now, that we aren’t fully where we are! Even on a vacation.

Meditation is about details. About paying attention.

{Thought arises. It dwells. It falls away. Another thought arises. We grab onto it. We space out. Then we remember to come back to — focus on —what we’re doing, i.e. following the out breathe}

Again, we have to ask “What is important?” Mind. From mind we create our world.

In Tibet they want monasteries, because they know that from the spirit will come everything else. In the West, the priority is business.  Some paradym shift is needed. We can’t just plug the holes.

As we meditate, we discover our own inherent strength. It’s not just an individual thing. It’s compassion for others. Compassion is a higher, deeper state of consciousness. We are becoming fully human. We can shine light and see others’ states of mind and act in a way that will benefit them.

We have the ability to create the present. We have the steering wheel. That’s meditation. We can take hold of the steering wheel of our lives through the practice of meditation. Letting go of the stick shift is spacing out. We have to keep our hand on the stick.

{That’s how we can change our karma, our future. If we steer our mind in the direction in which it habitually goes, we not only maintain the karma we already have, but we create fresh karma.}

Sometimes we don’t like what see in meditation.

{“I dislike that person. They’re so annoying. I wish they’d just go away. It’s their fault that this bad thing has happened to me.”}

This is where gentleness and compassion to ourselves comes in. Meditation here is simple appreciation. We are naturally less aggressive, arrogant. Then there’s the possibility of a two-way communication.

{We don’t have to beat ourselves up. Just notice what is arising in our mind.}

Our mind has become two-dimensional. But our mind is like space. It is consciousness. We have the ability to look at that mind.

We are so not used to seeing, listening. Even in an environment like the mountains, we still have the speed of our lives. We are trained to “get through” something, rather than enjoy it, or relax into it.

In meditation, we can work moment-by-moment with the technique. That’s all part of the gentleness.

{Thought arises. It stays. It falls away. Thought arises. We grab onto it. We space out. Then we remember to come back to what we’re doing, i.e. following the out breathe}

We sit down to meditate, and then often just think about the next meal.

But we can shift our perspective, re-orient ourselves. In order to respect ourselves, we must engage in the practice. Meditate with your heart. That’s also where the mind is.

{It is interesting to note that the word citta in Sanskrit means both mind and heart.}

Consciousness is now being proven scientifically to be in the whole body, not just in the brain.

Everyday it’s good to ask why you are where you are. It’s you orienting your mind. Let’s take an arrow. The tip of an arrow can represent why you’re here. If you know why you are where you are, the tip of the arrow will go in that direction.

{Just like if we get in the car and we know where you are going, we take the steering wheel and guide the car in the direction that we want to go. If we get into our car, and we don’t know where we’re going, we just drive aimlessly around.}

You might say “I’m meditating to understand why I am confused.” “I’m meditating to relax.” “I’m meditating to directly touch my mind, not just read about it in books.”

In every activity, there are the outer conditions, e.g. going to the office. Then there are the inner conditions which involve the relationship between body and mind.

Why do we meditate? To strengthen and focus the mind. When the mind is focused, our strength will come out. The breathe is connected with the mind. That’s why we follow the breathe in meditation. Breathe is good for reducing the level of agitation, anger.

{We want to be in the present moment. What signifies the present moment? The breathe.}

Like all activities, if we feel that what we’re doing is useless, we give up. When you get caught up in thoughts, remember your motivation for meditating.  It’s important to read and study as well. It’s like researching a place before you take a trip there. We are taking a trip to our minds.

To sum up, meditation is beneficial because:

• it trains our minds to be in something beyond the
  present — the NOW, the fourth moment;
• it slows our minds down so we can actually notice what is happening second-by-second. We can see our thoughts and projections as they arise;
• we see projections as projections, rather than confusing our own projections with reality;
  
• it strengthens and focuses our mind.
• we learn to handle details rather than ignoring them as a “hassle”;
• working with detail in the practice is the seed for our post meditation activity (i.e. daily life);
  • e.g. if you are washing the dishes, you might notice that your mind  is caught up in discursive thought; you can notice the thought, and then return to washing the dishes.
• we can be content, on a simple, basic level. Just be here, breathing, sitting. This bodes well for all our other post-meditation activities;
• we can get in touch with our own minds directly, rather than through books;
• we can change our future by changing our present karmic stream;
• we engage in meaningful activity — so much of our activity is involved with being entertained — especially by our own ego through its endless discursive thought; and
• it exposes our habitual patterns for what they are: bundle of thoughts and emotions strung together. This weakens the patterns so we aren’t as likely to act in terms of them when our “buttons” are pushed.
  

Sources on how to practice mindfulness and awareness:

(1) Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche on YouTube

(2) Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche in Boulder, Colorado, May 2009

(3) Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche in Shambhala Sun magazine, May 2002 – please click here

(4) Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche – Turning the Mind Into an Ally

(5) http://www.shambhala.org/meditation/faq2.php

(6) Multiple sources provided by the Shambhala Sun magazine – please click here

(7) Pema Chodron – The Key to Knowing Ourselves is Meditation

(8) Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche: Meditation 101

(9) Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche – Letter

(10) Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche – series of talks 1974

(11) Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche – Meditation: Catch and Release

(12) various teachers on video re meditation

(13) Sitting Quietly, Doing Something

If you find this post helpful, please share it with a friend. Then consider subscribing to the weblog. Just click on the Subscribe button in the navigation bar and follow one of the three sets of simple, step-by-step instructions. Thank you.

We’re on overload today. Too much information. Coming from too many directions. Look here! No, look over there! We need some first aid for the mind if we are going to engage life in a clear, knowing, awake way; if we are going to change our own karmic stream. There’s an important ripple effect of which we must now become aware — by changing our own karma, we help to change the world’s karma. This makes life more uplifted for everyone. And it is here that the role of meditation practice is so vital.

There are so many views today about what meditation is and what its purpose is. For example:

• The “self-help,” “self-improvement” genre: e.g. one blog post urged “Be better than yourself.” Or variations like “Be a better person.” (This genre is based on a poverty mentality about ourselves);
  
• Some say “Go beyond yourself;”
• Scientists who study meditation have outlined many health benefits; and
  
• Some think of meditation as a day at the beach.

The Great Fourteenth, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, sums up the purpose of meditation this way:

For me, meditation is a way to “come home.”

Today’s post will present the Shambhala Buddhist view of meditation as presented by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche via a Shambhala Online event held onSaturday, July 18, 2009, broadcast from Shambhala Meditation Centre, Colorado, 09h30 Mountain Time. It is for the most part unedited so that the reader will get the original flavour. My own comments are put in { }.

Meditation is not removing ourselves from the world. We are engaging our heart.  This makes the practice less conceptual, more heart-felt.

In this sense, meditation is very much an art form. The Chinese people do alot of art, poetry, calligraphy. This makes the heart nimble. We can appreciate a breeze where we may not have even noticed it before.

We have set up the world in a way where we don’t have trust in ourselves. We always have the feeling that we need something. We feel depleted. We have created a materialistic world.

We have so much information coming in. It’s overload. How should we organize our mind? We do that in terms of what is important. What is important? Meditation practice. So now we can make a plan based on what is important. Making a plan creates motivation. No one will make a plan for us. We have to. Decide what is important. Prioritize. The key thing is to have a clear, knowing, awake mind. … Fear sabotages our day. So contemplate what is important. Otherwise, your day will prioritize your mind, rather than the other way around!

When practicing meditation, we practice being immediate; being in the now, not in the future. When we are not present in the moment, there is a level of doubt. Whatever we are looking for seems to be somewhere else.

Meditation is simply an aid. Through it, we can discover our basic confidence, strength. It’s one thing to be good. It’s another to stay good. For that we need strength. When we are present, we have more energy.

{Rather than following our discursive thought, our subconscious gossip, we are “all present and accounted for.”}

Meditation is not going into some zone. It’s about paying attention to the details in the immediate moment, the now. We tend to label the details as a “hassle.” We’re so trained to be anytime but now, that we aren’t fully where we are! Even on a vacation.

Meditation is about details. About paying attention.

{Thought arises. It stays. It falls away. Another thought arises. We grab onto it. We space out. Then we remember to come back to what we’re doing, i.e. following the out breathe}

Again, we have to ask “What is important?” Mind. From mind we create our world.

In Tibet they want monasteries, because they know that from the spirit will come everything else. In the West, the priority is business.  Some paradym shift is needed. We can’t just plug the holes.

As we meditate, we discover our own inherent strength. It’s not just an individual thing. It’s compassion for others. Compassion is a higher, deeper state of consciousness. We are becoming fully human. We can shine light and see others’ states of mind and act in a way that will benefit them.

We have the ability to create the present. We have the steering wheel. That’s meditation. We can take hold of the steering wheel of our lives through the practice of meditation. Letting go of the stick shift is spacing out. We have to keep our hand on the stick.

{That’s how we can change our karma, our future. If we steer our mind in the direction in which it habitually goes, we not only maintain the karma we already have, but we create fresh karma.}

Sometimes we don’t like what see in meditation.

{“I dislike that person. They’re so annoying. I wish they’d just go away. It’s their fault that this has happened to me.”}

This is where gentleness and compassion to ourselves comes in. Meditation here is simple appreciation. We are naturally less aggressive, arrogant. Then there’s the possibility of a two-way communication.

{We don’t have to beat ourselves up. Just notice what is arising in our mind.}

Our mind has become two-dimensional. But our mind is like space. It is consciousness. We have the ability to look at that mind.

We are so not used to seeing, listening. Even in an environment like the mountains, we still have the speed of our lives. We are trained to “get through” something, rather than enjoy it, or relax into it.

In meditation, we can work moment-by-moment with the technique. That’s all part of the gentleness.

{Thought arises. It stays. It falls away. Thought arises. We grab onto it. We space out. Then we remember to come back to what we’re doing, i.e. following the out breathe}

We sit down to meditate, and then often just think about the next meal.

But we can shift our perspective, re-orient ourselves. In order to respect ourselves, we must engage in the practice. Meditate with your heart. That’s also where the mind is.

{It is interesting to note that the word citta in Sanskrit means both mind and heart.}

Consciousness is now being proven scientifically to be in the whole body, not just in the brain.

Everyday it’s good to ask why you are where you are. It’s you orienting your mind. Let’s take an arrow. The tip of an arrow can represent why you’re here. If you know why you are where you are, the tip of the arrow will go in that direction.

{Just like if we get in the car and we know where you are going, we take the steering wheel and guide the car in the direction that we want to go. If we get into our car, and we don’t know where we’re going, we just drive aimlessly around.}

You might say “I’m meditating to understand why I am confused.” “I’m meditating to relax.” “I’m meditating to directly touch my mind, not just read about it in books.”

In every activity, there are the outer conditions, e.g. going to the office. Then there are the inner conditions which involve the relationship between body and mind.

Why do we meditate? To strengthen and focus the mind. When the mind is focused, our strength will come out. The breathe is connected with the mind. That’s why we follow the breathe in meditation. Breathe is good for reducing the level of agitation, anger.

{We want to be in the present moment. What signifies the present moment? The breathe.}

Like all activities, if we feel that what we’re doing is useless, we give up. When you get caught up in thoughts, remember your motivation for meditating.  It’s important to read and study as well. It’s like researching a place before you take a trip there. We are taking a trip to our minds.

To sum up, meditation is beneficial because:

• it trains our minds to be in the present moment;
• it strengthens and focuses our mind.
• we learn to handle details rather than ignoring them as a “hassle”;
• working with detail in the practice is the seed for your post meditation activity (i.e. daily life);
  • e.g. if you are washing the dishes, you might notice that your mind  is caught up in discursive thought; you can notice the thought, and then return to washing the dishes
• we can be content, on a simple, basic level. Just be here, breathing, sitting. This bodes well for all our other post-meditation activities;
• we can get in touch with our own minds directly, rather than through books.
• we can change our future by changing our present karmic stream
• we engage in meaningful activity — so much of our activity is involved with
  being entertained — especially by our own egos through its endless discursive thought
  

Sources:

Sources on how to practice mindfulness and awareness:

(1) Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche on YouTube

(2) Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche in Boulder, Colorado, May 2009

(3) Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche in Shambhala Sun magazine, May 2002 – please click here

(4) Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche – Turning the Mind Into an Ally

(5) Multiple sources provided by the Shambhala Sun magazine – please click here

(6) Pema Chodron – The Key to Knowing Ourselves is Meditation

(7) Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche: Meditation 101

(8) Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche – Letter

(9) Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche – series of talks 1974

(10) Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche – Meditation: Catch and Release

(11) various teachers on video re meditation

(12) Sitting Quietly, Doing Something

If you found this post helpful, please tell a friend. Then consider subscribing to the weblog. Just click on the Subscribe button in the navigation bar and follow one of the three sets of simple, step-by-step instructions. Thank you.