This evening we began with twenty minutes of mindfulness meditation practice.
To help clear the mind and prepare the body for meditation this simple yogic breath is helpful: Using your thumb and pointer finger hold your right nostril with your right thumb and breath in through the left nostril. Then on the exhale release the thumb and press the finger against the left nostril and exhale through the right nostril. Do this three times. Nice deep breaths. Then do the same with three breaths breathing in from the right nostril and you hold the left closed, and breath out your left. Then do three with both nostrils open. This helps settle the energy body and prepare it for meditation.
Another possibility is to take three deep breaths and on the out breath release a sigh, or the “ahhhh,” sound.
Mindfulness Sitting Practice.
Sit in the meditative posture, either on a cushion on the floor or on a chair with feet uncrossed. The most important aspect is to sit alert, without the back resting upon anything. Alert yet relaxed. Natural. Let the chin drop, and allow the tongue to naturally rest at the top of your mouth. Relax the shoulders.
This is the main and central practice of Buddhist meditation practice — Calm abiding, mindfulness practice.
Once in the meditative posture begin by simply breathing and relaxing. . .
Bringing your awareness to the body. Bring your awareness to all the physical sensations in the body. Just simple awareness. Notice the feeling sensations. Notice all the different sensations in the body. This Buddha body. Your body. Notice if you can discern the quieter and the subtler sensations.
Invite yourself into the moment through the awareness of the body sitting. Being natural, just sitting and practicing presence.
Just sitting – letting it go, leaving it all as it is and simply bringing your awareness to the body sitting. Nothing to do, figure out or achieve.
Let go; relax in the body and breath.
Just sitting and noticing this.
Just breathing and noticing this
Just being and noticing this — are the three points of awareness in basic mindfulness meditation.
Rest in the awareness of breath (the physical sensation of your breath as it moves in and out of the body).
Just sitting, natural body.
Just breathing, let it flow, breathe naturally. Breath is life. Let it all go, and just breathe.
Just Being, Natural Heart/mind, just being, let it go, let it be. Leaving it all just as it is.
Let your innate qualities of compassion, wisdom and presence arise by settling the mind in the breath. Let everything just settle as you rest your awareness on the physical sensation of the breath and the body sitting.
Just sitting
Just breathing
Just being.
Nothing more to do.
Let it all settle into the breath.
Just sitting
Just breathing
Just being
Rest in the breath and your Buddha body. Learning to leave things just as they are and rest the mind in the breath.
When the mind wanders as it typically does, or you feel tired, agitated or bored –
Use the leash of mindfulness to bring you back to this meditation practice, to this moment.
Rest in the breath and the body sitting.
Observe the breath as you breath in; observe the breath as you breath out . . .
Letting everything else go . . .
Ideally have your mindfulness meditation practice be twenty to forty minutes long and early on in the morning.
“When starting to practice, be eager like a deertrapped in a pen seeking to get out.In the middle be like a farmer during harvestNot waiting for anything.IN the end be like a Shepard who hasBrought the flock home.” – Paltrul Rinpoche, Sacred World
Use of labeling in Meditation Practice. When our mind wanders as it often does to thoughts, first bring your awareness into the thought, become aware that you are thinking and then label your thoughts, “thinking, thinking,” and then gently and lovingly return back to the breath and the body sitting. You can also label your breaths “in” on the in breath and “out” on the out breath. But these are not the objects of your meditation. The physical sensation of breath and body sitting are the object of your meditation. Use the labeling of your breath as a means to point to the breath, a means to bring you to the breath.
Open Your Eyes! Meditation
After at least fifteen minutes of your basic sitting practice (above), open your eyes and look softly out in front of you. Have your gaze be natural and lowered, not looking out at anything. Opening your eyes and lowering your gaze can help pacify thoughts (and keep you awake if you are sleepy). The reason is most clearly explained in Dzogchen commentaries, where it is explained that there is a physical connection between the nerves of the eyes and the channel of the heart. The channel that goes from the heart to the eyes is called the crystal kati. Working with our vision (our view) in our practice helps us to breakthrough conceptualizations and “see” reality.
You practice seeing through the appearance of things by gently looking out, bringing awareness to what you see, and then letting go into the experience of presence.
With open eyes, open self, open heart and mind we sit and look out into the world. Imagine opening everything up while holding a soft focus outward. Not landing your view on anything in particular. You allow and open, just looking, seeing and then letting go. Experience freedom and liberation through looking out, then seeing, then letting go . . . Letting things go, and not identifying with anything, not taking everything so personal. Not getting hooked by arising thoughts, perceptions or emotions. Practicing not holding on to anything in the meditation practice. Let go of the desire to analyze or make sense of every thing. Everything passes anyway, so here you tap into the natural flow of life –. Just sitting, breathing and being, you practice seeing through it all – looking, seeing and letting go. Healing the separation through leaving things as they are. Whatever comes up in the mind during meditation is an opportunity to let go of the story line and return to the breath, to being present – to looking out and seeing and then letting go. This helps you to be aware of the sky-like nature of your mind, like the egret showed us. Your thoughts are just like the egret going in and out of the luminous sky, becoming part the sky. Practice letting everything arise in the mind then let it all go. When emotions arise: bring awareness to them, then sit in the experience of this emotion, then let it go, moving on, gazing out, and resting in the luminosity of it all.
For a more complete practice but one that is user-friendly check out Lama Surya Das’s book and CD Natural Radiance. This offers all the core practices of Dzogchen. For further reading, Sogyal Rinpoche’s classic, “Tibetan book of the Living and the Dieing,” and “Natural Liberation: Padmasambhava’s Teachings on the Six Bardos” Nova Spivack And “Dzogchen: The Heart Essence of the Great Perfection” by The Dalai Lama.
For the Week
Continue to practice meditation every day. If you want to come out to meditate in the Gazebo or out in nature, walk the spiral or to write these next couple of Fridays, you are welcome. Give yourself a retreat day, if you like. 9 am till 3 pm. Bring own lunch.
What is interfering with a regular meditation practice? Notice this.
Check out the official site of His Holiness the Dalai Lama at https://www.dalailama.com/
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