Meditation


In his book, Transform Your Life, Geshe Kelsang Gyatso says:
“The purpose of meditation is to make our mind calm and peaceful. If our mind is peaceful, we will be free from worries and mental discomfort, and so we will experience true happiness; but if our mind is not peaceful, we will find it very difficult to be happy, even if we are living in the very best conditions. If we train in meditation, our mind will gradually become more and more peaceful, and we will experience a purer and purer form of happiness. Eventually, we will be able to stay happy all the time, even in the most difficult circumstances. Usually we find it difficult to control our mind. It seems as if our mind is like a balloon in the wind – blown here and there by external circumstances. If things go well, our mind is happy, but if they go badly, it immediately becomes unhappy. For example, if we get what we want, such as a new possession or a new partner, we become excited and cling to them tightly. However, since we cannot have everything we want, and since we will inevitably be separated from the friends and possessions we currently enjoy, this mental stickiness, or attachment, serves only to cause us pain. On the other hand, if we do not get what we want, or if we lose something that we like, we become despondent or irritated. For example, if we are forced to work with a colleague whom we dislike, we will probably become irritated and feel aggrieved, with the result that we will be unable to work with him or her efficiently and our time at work will become stressful and unrewarding. Such fluctuations of mood arise because we are too closely involved in the external situation. We are like a child making a sand castle who is excited when it is first made, but who becomes upset when it is destroyed by the incoming tide. By training in meditation, we create an inner space and clarity that enables us to control our mind regardless of the external circumstances. Gradually we develop mental equilibrium, a balanced mind that is happy all the time, rather than an unbalanced mind that oscillates between the extremes of excitement and despondency. If we train in meditation systematically, eventually we will be able to eradicate from our mind the delusions that are the causes of all our problems and suffering. In this way, we will come to experience a permanent inner peace, known as “liberation” or “nirvana”. Then, day and night in life after life, we will experience only peace and happiness.” Transform Your Life, SMART SIMON

How to meditate

To learn how to meditate, the guidance of a qualified teacher is indispensable. A teacher can take you through the various stages of meditation and answer any questions you might have. This will ensure that the techniques you are developing are correct and effective. First of all you will learn how to meditate by stopping distractions, making your mind clear and more lucid. This can be accomplished by practicing a simple breathing meditation. You will then progress further and learn meditation techniques such as visualization, and analytical and placement meditation. You may choose to supplement the classes you attend with your own meditation practice. First, choose a clean, suitable place to meditate. A clean environment makes the mind clear and lucid. Moreover, if we are going to engage in preparatory prayers or chanted meditations, we should ensure that our room is clean and tidy beforehand as a sign of respect for the Buddhas. If we wish, we can set up a shrine with representations of Buddha’s body, speech and mind. To represent Buddha’s body, we place a statue or picture of Buddha in the centre of the shrine. To its right we place a Buddhist text, representing Buddha’s speech, and to its left we place a stupa, or a picture of a stupa, representing Buddha’s mind. We should feel that we are actually in the presence of the living Buddha and make prostrations and offerings accordingly. When these preparations are completed, we can sit down to meditate. If possible, we should sit in the vajra posture, but if we are unfamiliar with this, we can sit in any posture that is comfortable. If we cannot sit cross-legged, we can sit on a chair. The most important thing is to have a straight back so that the subtle energy winds in our body can flow freely and keep our mind alert. When the body and mind are comfortable, we can proceed with our chosen meditation practice as taught in the classes. At the end of the meditation session, we dedicate the merit we have accumulated from practising the preparations, contemplating, and meditating to the happiness of all living beings.
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For more information about meditation, see Geshe Kelsang’s popular books The New Meditation Handbook and Transform Your Life.
Benefits of meditation

The benefits of meditation can be experienced quickly and easily by complete beginners. If we practice simple meditation – such as a breathing meditation – regularly, gradually our distracting thoughts will subside and we will experience a sense of inner peace and relaxation. Our mind will feel lucid and spacious and we will feel refreshed. When the sea is rough, sediment is churned up and the water becomes murky, but when the wind dies down the mud gradually settles and the water becomes clear. In a similar way, when the otherwise incessant flow of our distracting thoughts is calmed through concentrating on the breath, our mind becomes unusually lucid and clear. Even though breathing meditation is only a preliminary stage of meditation, it can be quite powerful. We can see from this practice that it is possible to experience inner peace and contentment just by controlling the mind, without having to depend at all upon external conditions. When the turbulence of distracting thoughts subsides and our mind becomes still, a deep happiness and contentment naturally arises from within. This feeling of contentment and well-being helps us to cope with the busyness and difficulties of daily life. So much of the stress and tension we normally experience comes from our mind, and many of the problems we experience, including ill health, are caused or aggravated by this stress. Just by doing breathing meditation for ten or fifteen minutes each day, we will be able to reduce this stress. We will experience a calm, spacious feeling in the mind, and many of our usual problems will fall away. Difficult situations will become easier to deal with, we will naturally feel warm and well disposed towards other people, and our relationships with others will gradually improve. We should train in this preliminary meditation until we gain some experience of it. Then we can progress to more practical forms of meditation, such as the cycle of twenty-one Lamrim meditations explained by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso in The New Meditation Handbook.
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Further information on the benefits of meditation can be found in Geshe Kelsang’s recent books, The New Meditation Handbook and (from tharpa.com) Joyful Path of Good Fortune.

reathing meditation

When you first attend your local Kadampa meditation class you will learn how to stop distractions and make your mind clear and more lucid – this is accomplished by practising a simple breathing meditation, which is described in The New Meditation Handbook by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso:
We sit with our eyes partially closed and turn our attention to our breathing. We breathe naturally, preferably through our nostrils, without attempting to control our breath, and we try to become aware of the sensation of the breath as it enters and leaves the nostrils. This sensation is our object of meditation. We should try to concentrate on it to the exclusion of everything else. At first our mind will be very busy, and we might even feel that meditation is making our mind busier; but in reality we are just becoming more aware of how busy our mind actually is. There will be a great temptation to follow the different thoughts as they arise, but we should resist this and remain focused single-pointedly on the sensation of the breath. If we discover that our mind has wandered and is following our thoughts, we should immediately return it to the breath. We should repeat this as many times as necessary until the mind settles on the breath. If we practice patiently in this way, gradually our distracting thoughts will subside and we shall experience a sense of inner peace and relaxation. Our mind will feel lucid and spacious and we shall feel refreshed. We should stay with this state of mental calm for a while. The New Meditation Handbook by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso
This initial stage of meditation acts as a basis for practicing more advanced techniques which will be introduced as the classes progress.