“A brief answer to this deceptively simple question is that meditation is what we say we are doing when we set time aside to become aware of our experience, so that we can deepen our understanding of it. It’s about learning how to be rather than doing anything.

When we say meditation, we tend immediately to think of sitting still. However, walking meditation and daily life awareness practice are equally important. The reason sitting meditation is stressed is that sitting is where we learn the discipline of using gentle precision to come back to the present experience. Unless we are sitting still doing nothing else it is difficult to notice what our minds are up to.

Meditation could be described as the process of coming home to what it is to be a human being, to our true nature. Through meditation we discover that this nature is extremely deep and meaningful and we learn to trust it. In this course our true nature is described in terms of Openness, Clarity and Sensitivity.” – Lama Shenpen Hookham

The above quote is from the Heart of Meditation book  which can be bought on Amazon, or is sent to you when you join Lama Shenpen’s Living the Awakened Heart Training, which starts with a six week Heart of Meditation course with guidance from a mentor and transmission of the meditation instructions.

Lama Shenpen’s Living the Awakened Heart Training is a structured, comprehensive, supported, distance learning programme. The training, which is open to all, brings the profound Dzogchen and Mahamudra teachings to a western audience in an experiential, accessible way, through spiral learning. Find out more and how to join at www.ahs.org.uk/training