Why is sitting and doing nothing the most difficult, mysterious, joyful, painful, profound, and life-changing thing we can do?
Because it is the radical opposite of what we usually do to try to make ourselves happy. Yet, it works! In this selection of articles from the Shambhala Sun, we present teachings on the various techniques of meditation from all the major schools of Buddhism.
A perfect companion to our September 2010 "How to Meditate" issue. (Click here to browse the magazine online.) Just click any article's title to start reading.
How to Meditate
Basic Buddhist mindfulness/awareness meditation instructions from Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche.Getting Started
Norman Fischer proposes a short trial run to get your meditation practice started. Take note, beginners: it doesn't get any clearer than this! From our special 2010 "How to Meditate" issue.Tonglen: Bad In, Good Out
Pema Chödrön teaches a practice for connecting with suffering — ours and that which is all around us — everywhere we go. From our 2010 "How to Meditate" issue.A Mind Like Sky: Wise Attention and Open Awareness
In Buddhist meditation wise attention—mindfulness—acts like a zoom lens. Our meditation ranges from close attention to the details of our body and breath, to open awareness as vast as the sky. Jack Kornfield, presents a meditation from his book The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness and Peace.Going at our Own Pace on the Path of Meditation
“Our mind is like hard ground that has not seen water for a long time. As meditation practitioners, we begin to till that ground so that we can grow the mind of enlightenment.” The first of three teachings from Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche on basic meditation.How to do Mindfulness Meditation
“Mindfulness practice is simple and completely feasible. Just by sitting and doing nothing, we are doing a tremendous amount.” The second of three teachings from Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche on basic meditation.
Shamatha Meditation: Training the Mind
“The process of undoing bewilderment is based on stabilizing and strengthen our mind. Shamatha meditation is how we do that.” The last of three teachings from Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche on basic meditation.Returning Home
Thich Nhat Hanh offers a guided meditation to relax our body and mind and return to the here and now. Fully present, fully alive, we find we are already home.
Mindfulness, Compassion, and Wisdom: Three Means to Peace
Joseph Goldstein on how three principles of meditation can be applied to the world's conflicts. The method is mindfulness, the expression is compassion, and the essence is wisdom.
Mahamudra and Dzogchen: Thought-Free Wakefulness
The ability to dissolve thoughts is essential to attaining liberation, says renowned Dzogchen teacher Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche. Devotion and Pure Perception are two principles that lie at the root of Vajrayana practice that lead beyond confusion to thought-free wakefulness.
Riding the Crest of the Wave
“In subtle and in more obvious ways, the experience of birth and death is continuous," says Judy Lief. "All that we experience arises fresh, appears for a time, and then dissolves. It is as if we were riding the crest of a wave in the middle of a vast ocean. That arising and falling of experience is our life; it is what we have to work with.”
Yoga Body, Buddha Mind
A complete spiritual practice—or even just a healthy, satisfying life—requires working with both body and mind. Cyndi Lee and David Nichtern explain why yoga practice and Buddhist meditation is the perfect mind-body combination.
The Power of Positive Karma
Rebirth and karma are the Buddhist beliefs that Westerners find hardest to accept. Yet are they really so foreign to us? If we look at our own experience, we find that thoughts, emotions, and self-images are continually arising, ending, and being reborn. We see that the seeds we plant in our consciousness in one moment will determine what we experience in the next. This is also what we experience as we go from lifetime to lifetime. Therefore, says Tulku Thondup Rinpoche, we should be concerned above all else with creating positive karma to lay the ground for our future enlightenment.Beyond Present, Past, and Future is The Fourth Moment
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche on meditation, the spiritual path, and a sense of basic being beyond relative timeGoing Nowhere
The Zen practice of just sitting, says Lewis Richmond, doesn’t help us to reach our destination. It allows us to stop having one. But how do you “go” nowhere?Sitting Meditation Step by Step: Being in the Body, Labeling, and Opening into the Heart of Experiencing
Zen teacher Ezra Bayda discusses three aspects of the Buddhist practice of sitting meditation. Being in the body is the ground of practice. Labeling our thoughts breaks our identification with them. Opening into the heart of experience awakens us to love and compassion.How to Practice Vipassana Insight Meditation
Step-by-Step instructions on how to do this important meditation practice, the foundation of all Buddhist meditations, from the famed Vipassana master Sayadaw U Pandita.Vipassana Meditation
Vipassana Meditation aims at personal transformation. Through understanding and awareness we retrain the mind and life becomes a glide instead of a struggle. A teaching from Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Henepola Gunaratana.Taming the Mind, Transforming Ourselves
Traleg Rinpoche describes the techniques of Buddhist meditation. Taming and transforming our wild passions involves the meditation of paying attention to the body and paying attention to our thoughts.Building Your Mental Muscles
Meditators and musclemen don’t seem to have much in common, but Thanissaro Bhikkhu says meditators can learn a lot from the techniques of strength training.More related articles:
• Awakening in the Body, by Phillip Moffitt
• The Key to Knowing Ourselves is Meditation, by Pema Chödrön
• Buddhist Meditation is Relaxing with the Truth, by Pema Chödrön
• Counsels from My Heart, by Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche
• The Universal Meditation Technique of S.N. Goenka, by Norman Fischer
• Nine Stages of Training the Mind, by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche
• True Stories About Sitting Meditation, with Charlotte Joko Beck, Joseph Goldstein, Sylvia Boorstein and Sharon Salzberg
• How We Get Hooked and How We Get Unhooked, by Pema Chödrön
• How to Live a Genuine Life, by Ezra Bayda
• Loosening the Knots of Anger, by Thich Nhat Hanh
• The Practice of Looking Deeply Using Three Dharma Seals: Impermanence, No-self, and Nirvana, by Thich Nhat Hanh
• Meditation: The Four Foundations of Mindfulness, by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche
Links:
• Zen Mountain Monastery• Shambhala
• Insight Meditation Society
• Cambridge Insight Meditation Center• San Francisco Zen Center
