Why Formless Meditation can be difficult to relate to at first and why we should keep going
Formless meditation takes time to learn, Often people get discouraged along the way and think that they would rather have something more definite to do. Formless meditation produces shamatha but in a way that opens itself up to vipashyana (insight). It is the insight that brings about liberation at a very deep and complete level. Continue reading Why Formless Meditation can be difficult to relate to at first and why we should keep going
Getting the right touch with meditation: welcoming thoughts as guests
“If you try too hard to let go of thinking, the mind speeds up and more thoughts than ever seem to come up. If you don’t try hard enough it’s business as usual. Nothing changes and you discover nothing of interest. So it’s a matter of getting the right touch. One way of doing this is to adopt toward thoughts an attitude you would have … Continue reading Getting the right touch with meditation: welcoming thoughts as guests
What to do when you feel like you’ve hit a wall with your meditation practice
Don’t think it should be any other way than how it is. But notice, as if you were listening for something coming from deep inside you, so be awake, attentive and relaxed. Just notice what is going on. Continue reading What to do when you feel like you’ve hit a wall with your meditation practice
Meditating with physical pain – how can we make pain our practice?
If you can relate to your present suffering with some kind of sense of it being your path, then the suffering itself becomes your practice. Just being able to let go of negative thinking and struggling with the pain and being more simple about it, that already means you are making the suffering into the path. Continue reading Meditating with physical pain – how can we make pain our practice?
Video: What’s really going on when we feel our meditation isn’t working?
Lama Shenpen answers a question on meditation from a teaching given in 2014. What’s really going on when we feel our meditation isn’t working? Is it really ‘not working’? How should we reflect on this, what insight might we be missing? Continue reading Video: What’s really going on when we feel our meditation isn’t working?
What is it that brings us back to the present in meditation? Is it the ‘Heart Wish’?
You are right when you link what brings you back to the present to the ‘Heart Wish’. It is a completely intuitive movement, isn’t it? You find you can do it and you find it feels good and right and satisfies your heart somehow. Your heart knows this is the right direction… Continue reading What is it that brings us back to the present in meditation? Is it the ‘Heart Wish’?
Video: Working with thoughts in meditation
“The tendency is to think ‘I shouldn’t be thinking, I should be staying with the breath…” In a teaching from 2014 Lama Shenpen points out how to work with our thoughts during meditation and why thoughts aren’t a problem. Continue reading Video: Working with thoughts in meditation
