Samsara always was, is and will be uncertain and as long as we cling to it we will be trapped in fear even if we temporarily feel secure sometimes… let the crisis galvanise us into realising it’s true that death can come at any time and be as ready for it as we can with a heart full of love, compassion and confidence in our true nature. Continue reading A Conversation About Buddhist Practice During the Coronavirus Crisis
There are three stages to all Buddhist practice called listening, reflecting and meditating. In fact these three stages are integral to any effective learning or process of discovery, even if usually we do no more than touch on each stage. The art is to give sufficient attention to each stage…For Buddhists, meditation is attentive viewing that opens into a process beyond the conceptual, thinking mind. Continue reading Listening, Reflecting & Meditating – Meditation as Integration and Attentive Viewing
When we talk about meditation in terms of letting go of thoughts, it can seem as if it is a matter of setting oneself up as an observer of one’s mind and to root out thinking. This is a misunderstanding of the whole process. Setting up a watcher in this way perpetuates our false sense of what we are and what our experience is. The observer might well be well intentioned, but the problem is that it is heavy-handed and believes too much in itself. Continue reading Meditation: Recognising ‘the watcher’ as thinking too
The process of Awakening relies on the fact that we already have within ourselves the power to Awaken and that power is none other than the power of the truth. The more open and honest we are, the more that truth reveals itself and the more we experience its inherent wisdom and compassion.
What we do not realize is that all that wisdom and compassion is emanating from the nature of reality itself, the reality to which the Buddha Awakened. Continue reading We already have within ourselves the power to Awaken
Walking meditation can be a way of expressing awake, attentive awareness, a sense of freedom of movement in space, and an opening movement of the heart. It can all be there in the simple exercise of walking calmly up and down. Continue reading How to Engage with Walking Meditation
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?
“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
Having reflected on the heart-wish and decided that meditation is what you want to do, commit yourself to the discipline of a regular meditation schedule. It takes conscious thought and planning to establish and maintain a meditation practice. Our initial resolve to meditate can easily be eroded by the busyness of our daily lives, by our commitments and by the force of habits pulling us … Continue reading How to set up a regular meditation practice
Here, there is nothing to remove and nothing to add. The one who sees the truth of being, as it is, By seeing the truth, is liberated. In our group meditation sessions at the Awakened Heart Sangha, this verse is read out by the person leading the session (the Omzay), about five minutes before the end of each session. It is a verse from the … Continue reading What is The Meditator’s Verse?
Lama Shenpen gave a teaching in November, giving an overview of her Living the Awakened Heart Training, describing how Dharma is taught in the Awakened Heart Sangha. In the video Lama Shenpen explains all the different areas of practice and training, and how they relate to each other and the tradition. Continue reading Video teaching: Overview of Lama Shenpen’s Living the Awakened Heart Training
