Buddha taught with “upaya” which means “skillful means” using that most powerful of mechanisms of consciousness, the “imagination.”  Skillful means is not a fiction, but rather a way of comprehending truth through illustrations, imagination and imagery. This is why both Buddha and Jesus taught in parables — bridging imagination with intellect. The ability to use “story” to convey truth is as old as the most ancient of myths. It is also why creativity is vital to Buddhist practice.

Throughout history, mankind’s great philosophers, scientists, religious thinkers, artists — and Buddhist Yogis — tended to be those with active imaginations and the ability to visualize creatively. Da Vinci was both an inventor and an artist. Inventors are, by definition creators. Scientists may be rational, but breakthroughs come from going beyond what we know already and asking “what if…” It is no different in spiritual practices.

Proving the power of imagination — watch a movie, read a book?

The great Buddhist teacher Gelek Rimpoche once described the best method to prove the benefits of visualization is watching a gripping movie— or reading an intense novel. When we watch a “horror movie” and feel a visceral, too real fear arise, our knuckles clench, we clench our teeth, and sometimes we yell out loud “don’t go in there!” to the imaginary protagonist about to be “eaten” by the monster.

How does that work? Our mind temporarily suspends disbelief. This doesn’t work if the first scene of the movie is the monster eating a victim. The writer has to “build up” a credible world, and work on creating emotions and suspense so that we are “invested” in the character.

Let’s face it — we know the monster in the movie or novel is not real. It’s makeup and FX or words. So, why do we actually feel tangible fear — or other emotions in the case of, for example, a romance story, a stirring adventure or a tragic biography? It starts with “investing” in the journey.

In the case of the spiritual journey, this is an even bigger challenge than the one faced by the novelist or scriptwriter. Basically, we take a journey in our own mind and imagination. And, what is mind, exactly? It’s easier to explain what mind “is not” than what it is. Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche explained:

“You cannot say the mind is something; you cannot say the mind is nothing; you cannot say it is substantial; you cannot say it is nonexistent and utterly insubstantial. Its nature cannot be described by anyone.” [3]

Buddha, Jesus, Lao Tzu — the visionaries

Some may dismiss this concept of imagination as a vehicle as “too New Age,” but we only have to consider our great spiritual leaders, from Buddha to Jesus to Lao Tzu, who retreated into the depths of their minds to find revelations to dismiss this claim. Buddha battled “Mara” under the Bodhi tree; Jesus famously faced temptation alone in the desert. Lao Tzu, the founder of Taoism (Daoism), likewise crossed a desert, in his case on a water buffalo, leaving behind the corruption of the world on a heroic quest for truth.

Most of the great Buddhist Yogis — from Atisha in India to Milarepa in Tibet — the great visionaries of the Vajrayana tradition of Buddhism, faced not only gruelling, isolated visionary experiences, they ultimately encountered their Buddha or Yidam or inspiration through hardships and inner retreat. Likewise, for the great Catholic saints — visionaries who experienced visions, rather than relied on towering intellects. Of course, there is a fine line between visionary and “madness” — which is why we still need the teaching and guidance of a spiritual guide, guru, or teacher.

Does deeper understanding arise from imagination?

Self-experiencing retreats and meditations are critical aspects of most spiritual paths — and certainly in Vajrayana Buddhism. This is why in Buddhism we call our meditations “practice” rather than “study.” Even reciting sutra is a “practice” — we recite out loud and try to envision what is happening, rather than simply “learn it.”

Imagination allows us to see beyond the limits of our limited knowledge, and can help us to reach a deeper understanding of what is real and true. By using visualization techniques in meditation and retreat, we can unlock hidden truths within ourselves that are otherwise inaccessible. So while Buddhism may espouse rationality and logic as its methods of inquiry, it is imagination — through visualization and creativity — that ultimately leads us down the path to Enlightenment.

While such imaginative visualization may seem esoteric or out of the ordinary, it is actually a form of Buddhism that has been practiced for centuries. By engaging in deep contemplation and visualizing our deepest truths and desires, we can tap into a source of wisdom and enlightenment that transcends study alone. So while many religions focus on dogma and strict adherence to rules, Buddhism encourages us to be creative and let our imaginations guide us to the truth.

Waking up — stirring the mind to see beyond

In Buddhism, Enlightenment is often translated as “to awake” or “waking up.” In Zen or Chan Buddhism we try to shake up our minds to see beyond our conditioning, with Koans (unsolvable riddles) and long sessions of Zazen. In Vajrayana Buddhism — which seems “strange” or irrational to some Buddhists — we try to shake up our perceptions; we try to recognize “the true nature of reality” and embrace the emptiness of illusory ego. In the elder schools and Pali Suttas, we are taught methods and meritorious conduct — learning from the visionary experiences of Shakyamuni Buddha.

Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, explained, “The nature of the mind of all sentient beings, irrespective of any obscurations that may obscure or conceal it, has from the very beginning been buddha. There is an inherent wakefulness and perfection to the mind of each and every being.” [3]

What motivates us to try to “wake up” and see the nature of the ultimate truth? Herbie Hancock, the great jazz musician (who was famously a Buddhist) described the motivation this way: “fear, pain and suffering” but also, as he pointed out “joy, desire, humor and observation.” [2] Hancock actually went so far as to claim Buddhism specifically “expands our creativity.”

Suffering teaches us to “directly experience”

Buddhism views suffering as the root of all our troubles — and Buddhism’s focus is on overcoming suffering and attachments.

Can Buddhism be considered “rational”? Yes, Buddhism does embrace rationality and logic as a means to an end — which is why meditation and retreats are important aspects of Buddhism. But Buddhism is not simply about understanding or intellectual inquiry; it involves a direct experience of the truth that surpasses mere rational thoughts or deduction. And that experience often comes through using the power of imagination — using visualization techniques to unlock hidden truths within ourselves, and letting our imaginations guide us towards Enlightenment.

So while some may argue that Buddhism relies too heavily on intuition or creativity, there is no doubt that it also embraces rationality and logic as tools for understanding the truth. While visionary Buddhism (i.e. Vajrayana) may seem “strange” or “esoteric,” it is this combination of reason and imagination that ultimately leads us toward our ultimate goal: a deeper understanding of ourselves and the world around us, free from suffering and pain.

Buddhism embraces the “Emptiness” and discard preconceptions

Some scholars incorrectly associate Buddha’s teaching on Emptiness (Shunyata) with negativity and nihilism — when, in fact, Buddhism embraces Emptiness as a vehicle of creative inspiration. By removing the artificial, psychological construct of ego — that binds us to our notions with attachments and perceptions — Shunyata, or Emptiness embraces the totality of concept, creativity, and “the possible.”

In Vajrayana deity practices, for example, at all levels of practice, we first “dissolve” ourselves into emptiness, then recreate our “non-self” as an idealized icon of Enlightenment — a deity such as compassionate Avalokiteshvara. We then dissolve this once again. Why go to these elaborate lengths to visualize the deconstruction of our artificial selves? To “show” the mind that we are not just our fragile egos and to demonstrate that we are something much greater — none other than potential Buddhas ourselves. Rather than “nihilistic” or depressing, it is inspiring, although it tends to be me the most uplifting for those who tend to have creative minds.

Creativity is a “vehicle of experience” in Vajrayana practice

Whether the Vajrayana teacher advises us to “visualize” a deity with 1000 arms to symbolize the endless compassion of the Bodhisattva — or uses the language “imagine” — there is no doubt that these skillful means are vital as a method. It’s not about making practices “exotic” or alluring. While sutra study and commentaries are vital as foundations, ultimately we have to experience them for ourselves.

Gelek Rimpoche explained (a full nutshell explanation!):

“We have five skandhas, or the five aggregates [form, sensation, perception, mental formations, consciousness]. The essence of the Vajrayana is to transform these five aggregates into five wisdoms through visualizations and other techniques. We play with our emotions and work with them. It is a very quick path. In the Theravadin tradition, the goal is the arhant level, total freedom from pain, sufferings, and delusions. The goal in the Mahayana tradition is the buddha state, or buddhahood, which is the one state beyond the arhant level—but it takes aeons to reach. And in the Vajrayana, the goal is Buddhahood, which is considered reachable within your lifetime, whatever short amount of life you have left.” [4]

What is the “vehicle of experience?” Inevitably, it is a visionary journey. Consider Buddha sitting under the Bodhi tree ready to wrestle Mara in his own mind. Did Mara manifest his armies around Buddha, assailing him with arrows in our discernable reality — or was it a visionary journey in Shakyamuni’s vast mindscape? It doesn’t matter, in Buddhist terms, since our perceptions are illusory or misunderstood.

One easy way to “step in” to visualization of a deity as a practice is to follow a guided meditation of an experienced teacher. Here is an example, of a short Green Tara guided visualization teaching (in this case Green Tara):

Rely on imagination, but trust in the Three Jewels

What separates the visionary meditation of a Buddhist from a romp through the mind and imagination or a New Age trend? While imagination and visualization may be the vehicle, Buddhists have a destination and a Refuge. The destination is Enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings — the Bodhichitta mission — while the Refuge that we rely on are the Three Jewels: Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. The visionary paths, and notably Vajrayana, rely on the guidance of a Guru — who represents the refuge as the teacher, teachings and supporting friend. Blind imagination without the guide is simply a wild ride or a dream. Imagination and visions, in Buddhism, are in service of the mission — no more than a tool.

So, while imagination may be the “fast path” secret to accomplishing the Bodhichitta mission — it remains in service to the compassionate Dharma mission.

Buddhism encourages us to use our own creative imagination — for it is that same imagination that can open the doors of perception, and lead us to Enlightenment. Yet, it is not unguided, unbridled, whimsical fantasy, even when we visualize 1000-armed Bodhisattvas or enlightened beings who manifest as mythical images.

Buddhism encourages you to tap into your power of imagination. Let your creativity drive you on the journey toward truth, and unlock the wisdom and compassion that lies at the heart of all beings.

What about those who cannot visualize?

Everyone can visualize. If you couldn’t visualize, you wouldn’t be able to enjoy a movie or a novel. Usually it’s just our own obstacles that “block” our apparent ability to visualize.

Alexander Berzin, in an excellent feature on “How to visualize,” explains it this way:

“Many people say, “Well, I can’t visualize. So how can I use these methods?” Actually, if we take a moment to investigate, we find that we all do have powers of imagination. For instance, try to remember what your mother or your best friend, it doesn’t matter who, looks like. Please do that for a moment. Almost all of us are capable of remembering what our most closely loved ones look like. So, almost all of us are able to visualize.” [5]

Likewise, if we say a name or label out loud — such as “Tara” or “Buddha” — we almost always get a flash of an image of that labelled person or being in our heads. If you think of a “red apple” you know what that looks like instinctively. Therefore, you can visualize.

There are, psychologically speaking, two sides of the human brain. There is the so-called rational mind and intuitive mind. Or the right brain, left brain. Vajrayana and other forms of visual meditation simply recognize that both are important. By generating imaginative images, our mind responds to the symbolism of those images.

What about Aphantasia — the inability to “picture”

There is a term for people who legitimately cannot imagine or visualize. Aphantasia — which we covered in this extensive feature (here) — is certainly a phenomenon, but it’s extremely rare. In most cases, we all visualize, but some people find it difficult to do “on demand” — such as when a teacher says, “now visualize healing light going out to all beings in the world.” We think we don’t “see” that image — but actually, the moment the teacher speaks those words, that image flashes across your neural network. Sustained visualization is more difficult, and requires discipline, which is why in Buddhism, we call our meditations “practice.”

Dr. Bezin explained:

“In order to understand the various levels and usages of visualization, first we need to throw the word visualization out of the window. It is the wrong word because the word visualization implies something visual. In other words, it implies working with visual images and it also implies working with our eyes. This is incorrect. Instead, we are working with the imagination. When we work with the imagination we’re not only working with imagined sights, but also with imagined sounds, smells, physical sensations, feelings – emotional feelings – and so on.” [5]

• In part 2 of this series, we explore: How to Visualize or Imagine in Vajrayana, step-by-step.

Notes

[1] Madhyantavibhaga

[2] In Norton Lecture, Hancock Discusses Buddhism, Sources of Creativity, feature by Joanie Timmins, in The Harvard Crimson.

[3] Vajrayana Explained by Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, feature in Lion’s Roar Oct 21, 2019.

[4] A Lama for all seasons, Trycicle magazine interview with Gelek Rimpoche

[5] Visualization Practice in Tantra, by Alexander Berzin

When meditating, sitting in silence may not feel like the right fit for you. Meditation involves much more than one body position or environment, so you might enjoy a walking meditation practice more. Check out everything you should know about the helpful meditation routine to determine if it might benefit your life.

By Beth Rush
Of Body+Mind Magazine

[Disclaimer: Always seek the advice of your health care practitioners when experiencing pain or other medical issues.]

What Is Walking Meditation?

Walking meditation is the act of increasing your focus on internal and external sensations while walking at a casual pace. [1] Part of your mind focuses on the act of moving, making it easier to guide your thoughts toward your preferred meditative practice without complete silence.

Many people practice other forms of meditation while sitting in a quiet room or listening to background music that reduces their anxiety. [2] Trying multiple forms of meditation practices, like walking and concentrating on positive thoughts, makes it easier to know which is best for you.

When Did Walking Meditation Begin?

Although it’s unclear who first combined meditating and walking, pursuing The Eightfold Path of Buddhism requires right mindfulness (kammanta), right effort (samma vayama) and right concentration (samadhi). [3]

Meditating requires focusing on your breath [4], which is easier when doing an activity that requires steady breathing, like walking. Research shows that walking and doing a second task, like meditating, activates the prefrontal cortex. [5] The prefrontal cortex is responsible for your concentration, resulting in greater meditative focus because it’s more active while you walk. [6]

Who Practices Walking Meditation Today?

Anyone can practice walking meditation whether they consider themselves a Buddhist or not. Meditation is a helpful tool to hone your concentration and feel more connected with your body’s sensations. It also reduces stress effectively by calming the nervous system with steady breathing. [7]

Any time you need to walk somewhere, consider it as an invitation to try meditating. Take slow, deep breaths and focus on what you feel. Name a different physical sensation with each inhale and reflect on your appreciation for it as you exhale. You’ll begin feeling calmer without disrupting your routine.

Quick Facts to Guide Your Walking Meditation Sessions

• Choose a place that’s safe for walking while directing your focus inward. It might be better to try meditative walking over a paved trail than a rocky path with roots sticking out of the ground.
• You can also try this meditation by walking the same path back and forth to maintain your focus, as some Zen Masters do. [8]
• Start meditating with an intention. You could use your time to get more in tune with your body’s needs, emotional state or appreciation for the present moment.
• Give yourself grace. If focusing is challenging when there’s noise around you, use sound-blocking headphones to practice honing your thoughts without external distractions.
• Set a time limit by picking a destination so you don’t exhaust yourself by trying to meditate longer than you’re comfortable with.
• Remember, it’s okay to pause your meditation session. If you want to change settings, get a drink of water or change what your thoughts center around, you’ll still be able to meditate when you’re ready to return to your practice.

Consider Trying Walking Meditation

  Combining meditation and movement might make the practice more manageable for you. Use these tips to enjoy centering your thoughts without disrupting your day.

Sources

• https://ggia.berkeley.edu/practice/walking_meditation – Berkeley Greater Good Science Center
• https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.648062/full – Frontiers in Psychology
• http://www.stat.wmich.edu/naranjo/zennotes/ajahn1.html – Western Michigan University
• https://www.upmc.com/-/media/upmc/Services/integrative-medicine/documents/upmc-cim-newsletter-summer-2011.pdf – UPMC Center for Integrative Medicine
• https://jneuroengrehab.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12984-023-01211-x – Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation
• https://www.aans.org/en/Patients/Neurosurgical-Conditions-and-Treatments/Anatomy-of-the-Brain – American Association of Neurological Surgeons
• https://buddhaweekly.com/meditation-increase-receptivity-activity-sensitivity-why-thats-a-good-thing/ – Buddha Weekly
• https://buddhaweekly.com/cankama-sutta-walking-meditation-sutra-put-mileage-buddhist-practice-formal-mindful-walking/ – Buddha Weekly

Mindful parents often introduce their kids to meditative practices at a young age. Some schools have begun replacing detention with meditation and introducing mindfulness into the classroom. [1] What does science say about this ancient practice’s effects on children’s brains?

Various studies have shown that meditation results in physiological changes in the brain. The minds of children are especially malleable — but does this equate to beneficial results? Should meditation play a more integral role in what children learn in youth, and how does it impact their growth and development? Let’s take a closer look.

By Beth Rush
Of Body+Mind Magazine

Disclaimer: Always seek the advice of your health care practitioners when experiencing pain or other medical issues.

Meditation Benefits for Children

Meditation may benefit children greatly and aid their development. Kids are impulsive by nature and learning how to merge their innate curiosity with the world’s limitations can sometimes result in tearful outbursts and conflicts. Those with neurological differences may have an even tougher time fitting in with outside demands, leading to behavioral issues.

Meditation has shown effectiveness even in those with neurological disorders that affect their development. One recent review of multiple studies shows that meditation is an effective intervention for those with ADHD, who often struggle in family and school settings. [2]

Other studies find that meditation also helps children with PTSD, another common mental disorder among school-aged children. [3] Poverty and parental abuse can affect a child’s entire developmental trajectory, but the mindfulness skills learned through meditative practice, while not a substitute for intervention, can mitigate the damage.

Meditation goes beyond helping children thrive despite challenges. It provides all youth with mindfulness tools that can help them actively manage their wellness for life. Meditation has shown multiple benefits [4] that kids carry with them into adulthood, including:

• Less depression and anxiety
• Reduced stress
• Better social interactions
• Lower levels of chronic pain
• Improved self-awareness

Meditation also builds agency in children, helping them attend to their own needs. For example, children who achieve mindfulness through meditation are more aware of signs of physical discomfort. They may notice when the heat makes them uncomfortable, teaching them to choose appropriate clothing and plan outdoor activities for times when the sun is lower. [5] Less mindful kids may risk heat exhaustion by ignoring their body’s cues.

Are There Any Risks to Meditation for Children?

The preponderance of studies show meditation has benefits for children, even when they don’t result in significant mental health changes. [6] The greatest danger may lie in the lack of guidance and awareness in adults who guide such exercises.

For example, sitting quietly in meditation can sometimes give rise to negative thoughts. The risk increases if the child has a trauma history. If the teacher guiding the practice isn’t alert to signs of distress or lacks trauma-informed training to help the child process the emotions that may arise during meditation, the child could grow wary of the practice, seeing it as something painful.

Those who lead children in meditation can improve the benefits by choosing age-appropriate activities that last only a short time and encourage positive mental outcomes. For example, teach children how to calm themselves by practicing various breathing exercises or increase their awareness by listing what they can see, smell, touch, hear and taste. Movement-oriented meditation, such as drumming and yoga, also work well at this age.

A Quick Guide to Using Meditation for Children

Do you want to expand your knowledge of meditation benefits for children and specific techniques for working with this population? Check out these articles for further insight.

• Meditation for Children: Peer-Reviewed Studies Support Structured Meditation in Classrooms and Homes to Help Children Deal With Depression, Negative Coping and Self-Hostility
• Tips for Teaching Children Mindfulness and Meditation — Ideal Practice During Lockdown
• 21 Mother Taras: The Unlimited Forms of Compassionate Activity With Mantras and Visualizations
• Sutras: Seven Benefits of Reading Sutras Daily; and 10 Ways to Learn More and “Deep Dive” Into Buddhist Sutras

Meditation Benefits for Children’s Brains

The preponderance of available research cites considerable benefits of meditation for children’s brains. Teaching this skill earlier in life may aid their mental and emotional development.

Those who teach this practice to kids should employ mindfulness themselves, using age-appropriate techniques and monitoring those who may need extra help. With the right guidance, all can reap the benefits of meditation for children.

References:

[1] “School Proves Meditation Works Better Than Detention.” Sept 2023. Retrieved from>>

[2] Gonzalez, Natalie, et. al. “A Systematic Review of Yoga and Meditation for Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Children.” NIH. March 2023. Retrieved from>>

[3] Laplaud, Nina, et. al. “Management of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms by Yoga: An Overview.” NIH. July 2023. Retrieved from>>

[4] Nolan, Josephine. “Ten Confirmed Health and Wellness Benefits of Meditation: The Science of Mindfulness With 17 Cited Research Studies.” Buddha Weekly. N.d. Buddha Weekly Feature>>

[5] “Staying Safe During California’s Extreme Heat.” Modern Urgent Care. June 2023. Retrieved from>>

[6] Berger, Erika. “Mindfulness May Not Benefit Mental Well-Being in Children and Adolescents.” VeryWell. August 2022. Retrieved from>>

Avalokitesvara is the metaphorical rock star of the Bodhisattvas. “Avalokitesvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, is one of the most important and popular Buddhist deities,” writes Karen Andres in Tibetan Contemplative Traditions. [1] “Avalokitesvara is the personification of compassion… Even the Buddhas cannot estimate Avalokitesvara’s merit. It is said that just thinking of him garners more merit than honoring a thousand Buddhas.”

Now, aside from his sheer popularity, some scientists and scholars believe the practices of Buddhist compassion, and particularly of Avalokitesvara, may help in clinical work with depression and trauma.

• Related Story: “Putting Compassion on the Scientific Map”: Compassion Boosts Happiness/Health; and Research Indicates That Practicing Buddhists Are Happier than Average.” [ Story here>>]

Two Wings of a Bird: Compassion and Wisdom

“Buddhist traditions see wisdom and Compassion as interrelated—two wings of a bird,” writes Christer Germer and Ronald Siegel in an unlikely source—a psychotherapy-medical text. [3] In the book, various scholars, scientists and clinicians describe how Buddhist compassionate practices can “enhance the treatment of anxiety, depression, trauma, substance abuse, suicidal behaviour, couple conflict and parenting stress.”

In other words, the practice of Compassion and Wisdom can change lives. Nor is this a lightweight study on this topic. One reviewer, a PhD at the University or Kentucky reviewed this illuminating book:

“This book examines the nature of wisdom and compassion in psychotherapy from every conceivable perspective. Buddhist psychology, neurobiological foundations, psychological research, and clinical applications all receive thoughtful and comprehensive treatment. Clinicians, scholars, teachers, and students

interested in the alleviation of human suffering will appreciate this volume, especially its emphasis on the cultivation of mindfulness and loving-kindness skills as paths toward the wisdom and compassion that are so essential to effective psychotherapy.”–Ruth A. Baer, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky.

In the foreword, the Dalai Lama was equally enthusiastic:

“I am very happy to see that ancient teachings and practices from the Buddhist tradition can be of benefit today when they are employed by Western scientists and therapists. In today’s world, many people turn to psychotherapy to understand what is making them unhappy, and to discover how to live a more meaningful life. I believe that as they come to understand compassion and wisdom more deeply, psychotherapists will be better able to help their patients and so contribute to greater peace and happiness in the world.”

Compassion Flowing into the Self

In Wisdom and Compassion in Psychotherapy, an entire section on clinical applications is dedicated to visualizing compassionate Buddha images (normally Avalokitesvara). It is noted that the visualization should be of a compassionate figure “who embodies the qualities of unconditional acceptance, quiet strength and wisdom… beyond human fallibility.” The example they used was Avalokitesvara or Guanyin (the female Chinese form). [3, page 262]

Compassion is One of the Defining Practices

Putting aside clinical benefits in medicine and psychotherapy, compassion is one of the defining practices of Buddhism (see Karaniya Metta Sutta at the end of this feature.) All schools of Buddhism emphasize compassion, although “in Mahayana traditions from India, practitioners train extensively in meditations of compassion to empower their minds to realize nonconceptual wisdom, and as nonconceptual wisdom emerges, it is harnessed to strengthen compassion.” This famous Buddhist tradition is idealized and perfected in the living essence of the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Avalokitesvara.

Avalokitesvara, the Top-of-Mind Bodhisattva

For most people, if you asked them to name only one Bodhisattva, the majority would inevitably identify Avalokitesvara (Chenrezig). The great Bodhisattva is the metaphorical rock star of the Buddhist world because he literally embodies Compassion (with a capital “C”). His popularity is easy to understand in the context of his unlimited, unending compassion.

“Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of infinite compassion and mercy, is possibly the most popular of all Buddhist deities, beloved throughout the Buddhist world. He supremely exemplifies the bodhisattva,” write the Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. [2]

Avalokitesvara Synonymous with Compassion

For Mahayana Buddhists, one name is virtually synonymous with the practice of compassion: “Avalokitesvara could be described as the quintessential Bodhisattva, for he is the Bodhisattva of Compassion, and compassion is the distinguishing mark of the Bodhisattva,” writes Vessantara in his book, A Guide to the Bodhisattvas.[4] Perhaps the most beloved meditation deity amongst Mahayana Buddhists, Avalokitesvara (pronounced Avah-low-key-tesh-vah-ra) is also known as Guan Yin (Kuan Shi Yin) in China, Kanon in Japan, Chenrezig in Tibet, Natha in Sri Lanka, Lokanat in Burma, Lokesvara in Thailand, and by many other names. There are at least 108 forms of Avalokitesvara.

“Avalokitesvara is the figure who embodies this compassion raised the highest power,” Vessantara continues. “As the family protector, the chief Bodhisattva of the Lotus family, he represents the active manifestation in the world of the boundless love and compassion of Buddha Amitabha.”

For many people, who first get to know Mahayana Buddhism, Avalokitesvara is often the first meditation they practice. His mantra, Om Mani Padme Hum, is often the first mantra people think of. In meditating on the Lord of Compassion, we meditate directly on the nature and importance of compassion.

It’s important to understand that Avalokitesvara’s compassion is equally the nature of Wisdom. It is compassionate Avaolokitesvara who expounds in that most important Mahayana Sutra, the Heart Sutra:

“Avalokiteshvara

while practicing deeply with

the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore,

suddenly discovered that

all of the five Skandhas are equally empty,

and with this realisation

he overcame all Ill-being.”

[Full Heart Sutra in End Thoughts]

Famous Mantras

Om Mani Padme Hum is one of the best known mantras, chanted daily by millions around the world. This famous mantra is also simply called “the six-syllable mantra.” In Shinon Buddhism his mantra is On Arurikya Sowaka.

Another important mantra of Avalokitesvara is the Mahakaruna Dharani, the Great Compassion mantra in 82-syllables, which is a treasured mantra chanted in different languages.

Avalokitesvara’s six qualities, which are said to break the hindrances in the six realms of existence are:

1. Great compassion
2. Great loving-kindness (metta)
3. Universal light
4. Leader of all humans and devas
5. Courage of a lion
6. Omniscience.

Avalokitesvara, Like Tara, Considered a Savior         

Nearly as popular as Avalokitesvara is Tara, who is the embodiment of the activity of compassion, and who manifested—in one lovely origin story—from his tears. In fact, most of the activities we now tend equate to Tara, are also performed by Avaolokitesvara. Or, we can think of Avalokitesvara as the “dynamic duo super heroes” of Compassion.

“As compassionate action is Avalokitesvara’s essence, he is supremely helpful,” writes Karen Andrews in Tibetan Contemplative Traditions. “He can assume any form in order to help sentient beings, and there are descriptions of him appearing as buddhas, brahmanic gods, humans, and animals. In all these forms he does wonderful things to help alleviate the suffering of beings and bring them towards enlightenment. He rescues his followers from fires, from drowning, from bandits, from murder, from prisons. He gives children to female followers who want children. He helps release beings from the three mental poisons of passion, hatred, and delusion. He helpful both on the physical, worldly plain, and on a more psychological or spiritual level.” [1]

Avalokitesvara Embodies Light

All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are typically visualized during sadhanas as beautiful “bodies of light”, glowing and radiant and often emanating rays of healing or protective or wisdom light. Avalokitesvara, even more so embodies the true, ultimate nature of this compassionate light. This connection is emphasized in his own origin story, as “a ray of light which emanated from Amitabha Buddha.” [1]

Even today, when there are power failures in urban centres, the fear of the dark rises up unconciouslessly for most people. Walking down a dark alley automatically generates a rise in heart rate, a feeling of imminent danger. It’s the “prey” instinct.

In this context, it is natural that Avalokitesvara would be characterized as light. Light brings safety, comfort, nourishes plants, gives us growth, heat and prosperity.

“Avalokitesvara is a luminous being of light, and is repeatedly described as radiating light which shines over all sentient beings and over all corners of the universe, explains Karen Andrews. [1] “Similarly, he sees everything and everyone in all corners of the universe, a fact that is emphasized by his name.” The root meaning of Avaloki is “to see all, to see, to be seen.” Vara means lord.

His ability to be everywhere in the nature of light, allows him to instantly manifest compassionate activity. 

Sutra References to the Compassionate Bodhisattva

Avalokitesvara is a prominent and key character in many sutras, including, importantly, the Prajnaparamita Hrdaya, or Heart Sutra. It is He who expounds the Perfection of Wisdom in its most concise and profound way: “Form is emptiness and emptiness is form; emptiness does not differ from form, form does not differ from emptiness, whatever is emptiness, that is form…”

One of the earliest sutras translated in to Tibetan, the Karanda Vyuha Sutra, is focused on Avalokiesvara, and his mantra Om Mani Padme Hum. He is found in the following Sutras:

• Saddharma Pandarikia (Lotus Sutra)
• Karandavyuha Sutra
• Prajnaparamita Hrdaya Sutra (Heart Sutra)
• Avaolokitesvara Ekadasamukha Dharani Sutra
• Cundi Dharani Sutra   (18-armed Avalokitesvara)

Popularity of Compassion

In China, Avalokitesvara (known there as Guan Yin or Kuanyin) is, perhaps, by the numbers, the most popular deity in all of Asia. In Tibet, devotion to Chenrezig is so deep that he is considered to be the guardian of the whole country. The Dalai Lama is considered to be one of his many incarnations. “A Tibetan,” Vesantara explains in A Guide to Bodhisattvas, “upon meeting His Holiness [the Dalai Lama], feels himself to be in the presence of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara.”

In keeping with the relative nature of form, as expressed in the Heart Sutra, Avalokitesvara can appear in countless forms: male, female, and wrathful. In most of China and Japan Guanyin manifests clearly as a female deity. In Tantric Buddhism he appears in many fierce and wrathful forms, notably Sita Mahakala (White Mahakala).

1000-Armed Chenrezig

The most “famous” form of Avalokitesvara is his 1000-armed form, symbolic of his vast compassion, so immense that he needs a 1000 arms to reach out and care for sentient beings (symbolic of unlimited compassion). His visualization is very powerful, as streams of healing and compassionate light flow from the thousand arms, reaching out to all sentient beings everywhere—in every world and realm.

He is “one of the most extraordinary figures in the whole field of Buddhist meditation practice,” writes Vessantara. “The form we see emerging from the blue sky of sunyata is brilliant white, standing erect on a white lotus and a moon mat, and holding to his heart the wish-fulfilling gem of the Bodhicitta. As we look, we see that the figure is surrounded by a vast aura of what appears to be white light. Looking more closely, however, it dawns on us that we are really gazing at a figure with a great many arms which form a tremendous white circle as they stretch out in all directions.”

Importantly, Vessantara adds, “Each of the arms is reaching out to help suffering beings, and from the palm of each hand a beautiful eye gazes down compassionately.”

Although we visualize 1000 arms, we really mean unlimited caring arms reaching out to sentient beings. He also has eleven heads, various forms and colors that symbolize he can manifest in endless forms to suit our needs. There is even a wrathful face at the top, surmounted only by the serenity of his spiritual guru Amitabha Buddha, symbolizing the totality of his compassionate actions, and hinting at his many forms.

The Vow of Avalokitesvara

The 1000 arms, and the many other forms of Chenrezig all came about because of a great vow the Compassionate Buddha made to deliver all beings from suffering. The origin of the arms and heads is explained in an origin story. Avalokitesvara strived for aeons to free sentient beings from suffering. After aeons of freeing sentient beings, he found the realms were still full of endless suffering. His compassion was so great that his peaceful form was symbolically torn apart, transforming into thousands of arms and many heads and eyes.

In another symbolic story, his tears spontaneously gave rise to Tara, the Mother of Compassionate Action. Together with their spiritual guru Buddha Amitabha, they work tirelessly to benefit all beings.

Practicing Avalokitesvara: Universally Approachable          

Kindness is by nature, approachable. Avalokitesvara’s compassion is available to anyone who suffers, even those who are not his followers. It is said that Avalokitesvara cares for all equally, and that he can manifest instantly to anyone in a form they can understand. This may be in the form of an inspirational thought, or as a vivid dream. Or, as a nagging worry in your mind warning you to “turn around it’s not safe.” Or, as a neighbor who sees your house on fire and calls emergency. Or, literally as anything, anywhere, anytime.

Meditating on, or visualizing Avalokitesvara can bring compassion into your life: compassion for others, but equally, compassion for you from others. No special empowerment is required to visualize and meditate on this spectacular being, although it is always useful to obtain meditational instructions from someone who as “realized” the practice. This is normally a qualified teacher, or guru.

In Tibetan Buddhism, empowerment or initiation is often offered “to one and all.” The entirely benign and wondrous loving energy of Avalokesvara carries no risk, even in Tantric practice. Since it is often available, meditators truly interested in bringing the power of compassion into their practice and lives — and, after all, compassion is one of the “two wings of Buddhism” — are encouraged to seek out empowerment from a qualified guru with a proven lineage. (For example, this Tuesday is a rare opportunity to take initiation from the most Venerable Zasep Tulku Rinpoche if you’re near Toronto>>)

Preparations to Practice

In absence of instructions from a qualified teacher, here is one of the simpler, visualized meditations (sadhana) — a nice visualization only loosely based on formal Tibetan sadhanas.

Note: The visualization of Chenrezig is “in front” of you, and very basic, thus not requiring empowerment. Someone who is initiated might visualize themselves as Chenrezig, or other variations as instructed by their qualified teacher.

It is helpful to undertake some preliminaries to set your frame of mind, and to build a little merit. This would normally include:

• Taking of Refuge in the Three Jewels, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha
• The Four Immeasurables prayer to establish Bodhichitta
• Some kind of offering, either a stick of incense, a candle, fruit offerings or mentally transformed (imagined) offerings you visualize. (NOTE: it is NOT appropriate to offer meats to the Lord of Compassion, who values all life.)
• It is helpful to recite the Seven Limbs as well, as within that prayer is contained the “entire path.”
• At this point you would begin your visualization and meditation, usually accompanied by mantra recitation. Some people recite the visualization, then close their eyes and imagine it while reciting the mantras. Other people mentally note the visualization, then half close their eyes and visualize. Some people I know even record the guided visualization and allow it to play while they meditate.
• It’s important at the end to “dedicate the merit from the meditation to the benefit of all sentient beings.

Preliminaries

Refuge

Until I reach enlightenment I take refuge in the Three Jewels: The Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. By the virtues of practicing generosities and other perfections, may I attain Enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings.

Four Immeasurables

(Note: some people substitute “they” for “we” but usually we are instructed that we must also have compassion on ourselves. We covers both others and ourselves.)

May all beings have happiness and its causes.

May we never have suffering nor its causes,

May we constantly dwell in joy transcending sorrow,

May we dwell in equal love for both near or far.

Offerings

I like to place out seven bowls of clean water, symbolic of purity and compasion as an offering. Otherwise, mentally visualize offerings at the feet of Chenrezig (Avalokitesvara).

Seven Limbs

I prostrate in faith with body, speech and mind;

I make each and every offering, both those actually performed and those mentally transformed;

I declare every non virtuous act since beginningless time;

I rejoice in the virtues of all Holy and Ordinary beings;

Please, Avalokitesvara, remain as our guide through samasara;

Please turn the wheel of Dharma for all sentient beings;

I dedicate my own virtues to cultivate Enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings.

Visualization and Meditation

This is a visualization of the four-armed Avalokitesvara. Try to visualize as realistically and three dimensionally as possible. However, the deity is always visualized as “the nature of light”.

NOTE: If you have trouble visualizing, just “know” that he is there as described—and see as much as you can, even if it’s only a fleeting glimpse. If all you can see is a glow of white light, this is already a glimpse of the Bodhisattva of Infinite Light. Feel his presence rather than see him if you are not yet able to vividly visualize.

Here, the visualization is written in the first person. If you are pre-recording and playing back, or doing group practice out loud, you could change the “I” to “you.” You can read aloud, or silently, then visualize:

I am floating in an area with nothing but a vast blue sky, spanning all directions, unnaturally clear and vibrant and radiant. Intuitively, I feel this is symbolic of the emptiness of self-nature.

I enjoy the blue sky, allowing my non-senses to reach out to infinity—vast, unending, and horizonless. It is comforting in this non-place— empty of self nature. In this empty, serene sky we can let go of the nightmare of samsara and suffering, for here there is nothing fixed or limited, and nothing to grasp.

Then, in the nature of numinous light, and area in front of me glows brighter and brighter, but it doesn’t hurt to stare at it. The light begins to take form, and I see that it is a stunningly beautiful lotus flower, absolutely perfect in every way, pure white and glowing with unnaturally beautiful light. I can see, as I adjust to the new image, a glowing circular area of white, that seems as luminous and wondrous as an autumn moon. The glow of the moon intensifies again, and in the bright light I see the shape of an even brighter form. This blossoms into the shape of a perfectly-shaped man — a being so beautiful I feel instant and radiant joy.

I know that this is Avalokitesvara, the Bodhisattva of Infinite Compassion. His body resolves, sharper and sharper, the glow fading to reveal a splendid being made entirely of brilliant white light, different shades of white that define a beautiful youthful man, ageless rather than young, of perfect appearance. He has long tresses of blue black hair that cascade over his wide shoulders, although even this glows with light. He has four arms which only add to his appearance of perfection. Brilliant jewels and silks adorn his perfect body.

His two inner hands are clasped near his heart, grasping a astonishing jewel, vast and glowing with it’s own light. I know this is the wish-fulfilling gem. The outer left hand holds a perfect lotus, an achingly beautiful blossom. His outer right hand holds a glowing white crystal mala.

Light is all around the Bodhisattva, beautiful light that heals and reassures everyone it reaches. Nowhere in the universe is out of range of this wondrous light.

Most captivating of all are his eyes. I have never seen more caring eyes. They are eyes that laugh and cry at the same time. His smile is as radiant as the sun.

Then, over his head, I see another figure. A glowing red Buddha. I know this is Amitabha, his spiritual guru-father, the Buddha of Infinite Light. His light is warmer, like a setting sun, but in the nature of boundless love.

As I penetrate the light, at Avalokitesvara’s heart, I see a hotly glowing red light, the red of his father Amitabha. On a lotus and moon throne, is a syllable. A single syllable, representing the essence of Avalokitesvara. This bija mantra is also glowing from Amitabha’s heart. It’s penetrating ruby light shoots out in gentle rays in all directions. Around this seed syllable I can see more letters. It is the mantra Om Mani Padme Hum, each syllable of a different colour, representing the six realms.

Comforting light rays project out from his heart, from the shining syllables and bija letter, and penetrate to all of the six realms. Nothing can escape this compassionate light. I can hear a sound. Om Mani Padme Hum, over an dover. I begin to chant along.

The light and the sound go out to every sentient being in all the universes. The light warms me, empties me of tensions and feelings of negativity. I feel lighter. I know instinctively that all my past negative karma has been extinguished by this nectar light. I am filled with a blissful feeling.

Ending the Meditation

You should hold this meditation in bliss and visualize the cleansing light blessing all beings continuously. Allow your mind to stay in this place free of suffering, free of attachment, free of samsara.

When you are ready to end your meditation, you can visualize making another offering to Avalokitesvara. Most people absorb Avalokitesvara back into themselves. Since this visualization was the nature of your own mind, this peaceful being stays with you, a reassuring, calming, loving, compassionate presence.

End Thoughts: The Heart Sutra

This is my favorite translation of the Heart Sutra, by the most Emminent Thich Nhat Hanh:

Avalokiteshvara

while practicing deeply with

the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore,

suddenly discovered that

all of the five Skandhas are equally empty,

and with this realisation

he overcame all Ill-being.

“Listen Sariputra,

this Body itself is Emptiness

and Emptiness itself is this Body.

This Body is not other than Emptiness

and Emptiness is not other than this Body.

The same is true of Feelings,

Perceptions, Mental Formations,

and Consciousness.

“Listen Sariputra,

all phenomena bear the mark of Emptiness;

their true nature is the nature of

no Birth no Death,

no Being no Non-being,

no Defilement no Purity,

no Increasing no Decreasing.

“That is why in Emptiness,

Body, Feelings, Perceptions,

Mental Formations and Consciousness

are not separate self entities.

The Eighteen Realms of Phenomena

which are the six Sense Organs,

the six Sense Objects,

and the six Consciousnesses

are also not separate self entities.

The Twelve Links of Interdependent Arising

and their Extinction

are also not separate self entities.

Ill-being, the Causes of Ill-being,

the End of Ill-being, the Path,

insight and attainment,

are also not separate self entities.

Whoever can see this

no longer needs anything to attain.

Bodhisattvas who practice

the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore

see no more obstacles in their mind,

and because there

are no more obstacles in their mind,

they can overcome all fear,

destroy all wrong perceptions

and realize Perfect Nirvana.

“All Buddhas in the past, present and future

by practicing

the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore

are all capable of attaining

Authentic and Perfect Enlightenment.

“Therefore Sariputra,

it should be known that

the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore

is a Great Mantra,

the most illuminating mantra,

the highest mantra,

a mantra beyond compare,

the True Wisdom that has the power

to put an end to all kinds of suffering.

Therefore let us proclaim

a mantra to praise

the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore.

Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha!

Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha!

Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha!”

 

End Thoughts: Compassion is Universal

One of the early Pali Sutta’s, the Karaniya Metta Sutta, expounds concisely on the Buddha Shakyamuni’s words on Loving-Kindness (Metta)—thoughts which are universal to all schools of Buddhism (and to many non-Buddhists):

This is what should be done

By one who is skilled in goodness,

And who knows the path of peace:

Let them be able and upright,

Straightforward and gentle in speech,

Humble and not conceited,

Contented and easily satisfied,

Unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways.

Peaceful and calm and wise and skillful,

Not proud or demanding in nature.

Let them not do the slightest thing

That the wise would later reprove.

Wishing: In gladness and in safety,

May all beings be at ease.

Whatever living beings there may be;

Whether they are weak or strong, omitting none,

The great or the mighty, medium, short or small,

The seen and the unseen,

Those living near and far away,

Those born and to-be-born —

May all beings be at ease!

Let none deceive another,

Or despise any being in any state.

Let none through anger or ill-will

Wish harm upon another.

Even as a mother protects with her life

Her child, her only child,

So with a boundless heart

Should one cherish all living beings;

Radiating kindness over the entire world:

Spreading upwards to the skies,

And downwards to the depths;

Outwards and unbounded,

Freed from hatred and ill-will.

Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down

Free from drowsiness,

One should sustain this recollection.

This is said to be the sublime abiding.

By not holding to fixed views,

The pure-hearted one, having clarity of vision,

Being freed from all sense desires,

Is not born again into this world.

NOTES

[1] Avalokitesvara and the Tibetan Contemplation of Compassion, Karen M. Andrews, May 1993

[2] Avalokiteshvara, Encyclopedia Britannica

[3]Wisdom and Compassion in Psychotherapy: Deepening Mindfulness in Clinical Practice, Christopher K. Germer and Ronald D. Siegel (Guilford Publications)

[4] A Guide to the Bodhisattvas (Meeting the Buddhas) by Vedssantara (Windhorse Publications)

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Frequently referred to as Chintachakra White Wish-Granting Wheel Tara or simply White Tara, this embodiment of sublime enlightenment beautifully encapsulates all five key activities and wisdoms of the Buddha Families: pacifying, magnetizing, enriching and wrathful actions, plus all-activities of protection – blending in her practice as a comprehensive activity practice.

With other Taras, or other practices, we typically focus on one activity. For example, with a Red Tara we might meditate on magnetizing. For Yellow Tara, we emphasize enriching. Black Taras bring their wrath. With other White Taras, several of which appear in the 21 Taras, for example, we expect Pacifying activities. But, with White Chintachakra Wish-Granting Tara, we practice all of the activities.

The Wish-Granting Wheel Tara

Chintachakra White Wish-Granting Wheel Tara, unique among the other White Taras found in the 21 Taras, is a combination of all the activities. Imagine white light exiting a prism and separating into the primary colors. White Tara does this.

She is the prism, and as we practice her meditation, and her mantra, we rays of colored lights emitting from her prism — not just white, but altogether a prism of six lights:

• First is white, purifying light and intention.
• Then yellow enriching light and intention.
• Third, red magnetizing light and intention.
• Fourth is bright sky blue fierce and wrathful light and intention.
• Fifth is pervasive green light, the light of Mother Samaya Tara, which is the synthesis of infinite activities.
• Last, a startling magenta purple light (some translations call it brown), surrounds us in an impenetrable field of protection.

This is the stunning Wheel of Wish-Granting Tara, the shining light of unlimited powerful activities.

The Fusion of All Buddha Families: The Uniqueness of Chintachakra White Tara

Supreme Chintachakra White Tara encompasses a very unique blend of visualizations. After our initial preliminary practices of Taking Refuge, Purification and Making Offerings, and our initial mantra chanting, we then, one by one,  visualize all of the activities of the Buddha Families as emanated rays of lights of different colors (along with one additional protective color). As we do, we visualize her activities blessing all the realms and all sentient beings.

Even though she is a “so-called” White Pacifying Tara, her distinct meditation fuses all the Buddha families – the five categories that represent the different aspects of the enlightened mind. We consciously meditate on each of the activities of each of the Buddha families in the nature of blessings of empowered light

White Tara is really an All-Tara All-Colour Tara

In some Buddhist practices you hear the term “Rainbow” — referring to a number of things, but in terms of deity colors often meaning the combination of all activities and colors. For example, the Rainbow Padmasambhava. White Chintachakra is actually a White Tara, but this is the prism before it breaks into a rainbow of lights. As we chant her mantra, the prism sends out powerful laser-precise beams of all colors, to perform all the activities. White Tara, in essence, is also a Rainbow Tara, at least in this context.

This embodiment of collective activities transforms White Tara into a comprehensive Buddhist practice. As a practitioner, you engage with all forms of enlightened action, encapsulated in one deity.

This is not just the five activities, but the five wisdoms, as Tara is a Wisdom Mother. Even though we visualize White Tara as White, we see rainbows of colors emitting from her heart. So as we visualize the various colors of light, we also meditate on the wisdom of each Buddha Family:

• First is the White Buddha Family, the light of White Tara, which sends out pacifying activities, pacifying illness, dons and obstacles. This activity helps us overcome the poisons of ignorance and delusion as we meditate on the Wisdom of the Dharma essence, the Perfection of Wisdom.
• Second is the Yellow Gold light of Yellow Tara, the activities of enriching, which overcomes the obstacles of poverty and lack of bounty both in riches and in life-force. This overcomes the poisons of pride and greed with the wisdom of equanimity.
• Third is the Red Light of Red Tara, the activities of enchanting and magnetizing, which overcomes the obstacles of lust and clinging. This overcomes the poison of attachment with the Wisdom of Discernment.
• Fourth is the Blue Light of Black or Blue Tara (they are the same, the color of “space”) , the activities of wrath and power that destroy or nulify agression. This overcomes the poisons of aversion and hate with the Wisdom of Reflection.
• Fifth is the Green Light of Green Samaya Tara, the collective activities of all the Buddha Families in their most “windy” active form. Green Tara is the hurricane of activities, the Super Hero who flies to the aid of people. Her green light emits now from Mother White Tara in this practice, completing all the activities, and overcoming all dangers. This light is supresses the poisons of envy and jealousy and becomes the Wisdom of Perfect Practice.
• Last is the Magenta Purple Light which becomes a “tent of protection” around the practitioner.

While visualizing the different colors of lights as described in your Sadhana (or in the guided meditation below), you chant the White Tara mantra. Here is a 2 hour mantra chanting session:

Through her embodiment of multifaceted activities and the incorporation of these elements in sadhana meditation, Chintachakra White Tara practice sets itself  apart from other practices. While there are other practices that visualize all five activities on the inner body  — in Body Mandala practices — White Chintachakra Tara’s meditation visualizes the activity lights emiting outwards to all sentient beings, engaging in benefiting activities for all beings.

Deciphering the Symbolism of Supreme White Tara’s Seven Eyes

When we envision Supreme White Tara, one of the most striking features is her seven eyes. But what do these eyes mean? In Buddhist symbology, each eye of White Tara is representative of her omnipresent compassion and vigilance in protecting living beings from physical and spiritual harm. They symbolize her ability to see suffering in all realms of existence and her willingness to provide help wherever it’s needed.

Going beyond the basic symbolism of eyes, Tara’s Seven eyes carry special signficance, as explained by Robert Beer:

 “She is adorned with seven bow-shaped eyes, with her three facial eyes representing the perfection of her body, speech and mind, and the four eyes in her palms and soles symbolizing the “Four Immeasurables” of her loving kindness, boundless compassion, sympathetic joy, and perfect equanimity.”

In details, Supreme White Tara has one eye on her forehead, one on each palm of her hands, one on each sole of her feet, and the traditional two on the face. These eyes reflect her omniscient view. The eye on her forehead indicates her ability to see the divine truth, while the eyes on her palms and soles represent her ability to help beings in the human all the realms of existence. They are also symbolic of her attentiveness to those who faithfully practice her teachings and of her readiness to respond to their prayers.

This understanding of White Tara’s seven eyes can be traced back to sutras and commentaries in the Buddhist canon such as The Saddharma Pundarika Sutra, The Sutra of Golden Light and Jetsun Taranatha’s “The Origin of the Tara Tantra.”

By understanding the symbolism of White Tara’s seven eyes, practitioners can deepen their connection with her and cultivate an increased appreciation for her boundless compassion. They can recognize White Tara’s dedication to alleviating suffering in all realms of existence and feel comforted knowing that, like a mother for her children, White Tara is always keeping a watchful eye over them.

In essence, the seven eyes of Supreme White Tara are not just physical features; they are potent symbols of her divine qualities of omniscience, compassion, and vigilance. They serve as reminders of her transformative teachings, her loving-kindness, and her ceaseless commitment to the welfare of all sentient beings.

Chintatakra White Tara’s Other Symbols

Robert Beer, the expert on Buddhist deity symbolism desscribes the rest of her attributes and symbols:

“White Tara sits in vajra-posture upon a white moon disc on the golden centre or sun-disc of an immaculate pinkish-white lotus. She is beautiful, peaceful, graceful and youthful like a sixteen-year-old, with full breasts, a narrow waist, and a sweetly smiling face. Her complexion is radiant and white like a full autumnal moon. In this composition the aureole disc of a full autumnal moon forms both her aura and her backrest, which is encircled by rainbows and radiates beams of pure light throughout the ten directions. ..With her lowered right hand she makes the open-palmed boon-granting varada-mudra of supreme generosity. And with her left hand she makes the abhaya-mudra of protection or giving refuge, as she holds the stem of an immaculate bluish-white utpala lotus blossom in front of her heart. This lotus blossoms at the level of her ear and bears a fruit, an open blossom and a bud, representing the Buddhas of the three times – past, present, and future.

She wears the five divine silk garments and eight jeweled ornaments of a sambhogakaya goddess, with these being her golden tiara; earrings; bracelets, armlets and anklets; and short, medium and long necklaces. Half of her long sapphire-black hair is bound up into a topknot, while the other half hangs freely behind her back. Her golden tiara is adorned with little flowers and five jewels, and from the crown of her head emerge two entwining rainbows that embrace the halo-like sphere or tigle of rainbow light that encircles the form of red Amitabha Buddha, the “Lord of the Padma or Lotus Family” to which White Tara belongs. Amitabha wears the three orange-red robes of an ordained bhikshu or Buddhist monk, and with his two hands joined upon his lap in the dhyana-mudra of meditative equipoise he holds his nectar-filled blue alms-bowl.

In front of Tara’s lotus-seat is a convoluted lotus leaf bearing the five sensory objects of a golden mirror (sight), a pair of cymbals (sound), a conch full of perfume (smell), fruits (taste), and a red silk cloth (touch). On either side of these are two stacks of precious jewels, along with the “seven precious insignia of the chakravartin or universal monarch” – white tusks (elephant); rhinoceros horn (horse); triple-eyed gem (jewel); crossed white lozenges (general) on the left. And coral (wheel); square earrings (minister); round earrings (queen), and tusks on the right. A fruit-laden tree, rainbow, water and clouds appear in the background landscape.”

“White Tara practice for compassion, long life and peace is an equally widespread Tara practice in Tibet and the Himalaya region,” wrote Venerable Zasep Rinpoche in his new book Tara at your Lotus Heart, a sequel to his popular Tara in the Palm of Your Hand.

 

White Tara and Yanfen

A recent, typical anecdote of White Tara’s activity — typical, because you’ll find thousands of these true stories — is a recent Facebook post by Amrita Nadi.

Amrita Nadi posted, with a picture of Yanfen and Garchen Rinpoche:

“There is a story behind this picture that HE Garchen Rinpoche wanted shared with everyone.

Yanfen, the lady in the photo was very ill 28 years ago and her doctor told her and her family that they should prepare for her death. She came to see Rinpoche and Rinpoche instructed her to visualize White Tara and do her mantra everyday.

She is shown here greeting Rinpoche on his recent trip to Tibet at age 88. HE Garchen Rinpoche told Yanfen that she should share this story so that people understand the result of White Tara practice and if you supplicate White Tara she will help and protect you.

Om Tare Tutare Mama Ayu Punya Jhana Puktrim Kuru Svaha!”

Tara as the Mother of All Buddhas

Tara is often called the Mother of all the Buddhas. She represents the wisdom of the Buddhas. It is wisdom that is the mother of Enlightenment.

Venerable Zasep Rinpoche explains: “Prajnaparamita or Mahamata, the great mother, manifested as Tara; almost all female deities are emanations of Tara, the most beloved and best known of them. Emanations of Tara include the powerful female deities, Vajrayogini, Kurukulla, Sarasvati, Machig Labdron, and Palden Lhamo.”

The Power of Tara

In his new book, Tara At Your Lotus Heart, Zasep Rinpoche, describes many of his own experiences with Tara throughout his life:

“I myself have had many experiences of the power of Tara, starting from when I was a boy in Tibet. When I was six or so, my grandmother and I, along with an attendant, were riding on a mountain path. Suddenly we came across a mother bear with three cubs. She turned on us as if to attack. My grandmother quickly recited Tara’s mantra. Instantly the bear turned her back on us and ambled off, following her three cubs, which were wandering away. Just to be on the safe side, my grandmother continued reciting Tara’s mantras all afternoon.”

The practice of White Tara is widespread among Tibetans and Himalayan Buddhists. White Tara is also known as Sitala (“the cool one”), due to her power to heal fevers. White Tara is perhaps the most popular Tara among Western practitioners.

White Tara for Healing

“White Tara is particularly associated with healing, protecting and stabilizing your life-force.” Gelek Rimpoche

White Tara is as much the “swift heroine” as Green Tara—since they’re both aspects of Tara, who is known as the “swift savior.”

How fast is she?

In Tibet, there’s a saying, “For protection, call on your protector if you have time—but call on Tara if you have no time.”

A prayer from the fifth Dalai Lama puts it this way: “Merely by remembering Her feet one is protected.”

Is White Tara the Same as Tara?

“The main characteristic of Arya Tara— Noble Tara— is that she is a Buddha who in earlier times promised to always be born in the pure form of a female body in order to help living beings reach enlightenment. There are many outer and inner impediments that practitioners encounter, so Arya Tara manifests in order to eliminate hindrances and obstacles one runs in to while on the path to liberation from suffering.”

—Venerable Chöje Lama Phuntsok

White Tara is one of the main 21 manifestations of Arya Tara—which means, yes, She is Tara. In Venerable Choje Lama Phuntsok’s words: [White] “Tara protects disciples from one of the main outer hindrances, which is death – she helps practitioners live a long life.”

There’s an old unattributed Buddhist saying—which is my way of demonstrating why White Tara is for healing practice:

“Good Health is the simply the slowest way for a human to die.”— Unknown

Explaining from the point of view of the Kagyu lineage, Venerable Lama Phuntsok said: ” …White Arya Tara, from among the 21 Taras, frees practitioners from untimely death. It is truly possible to extend the span of one’s life by practicing White Tara and this will be very beneficial for one’s Dharma practice.”

Short 30 minute White Tara teaching and guided visualization with animated graphics and beautiful images of White Tara, taught by Venerable Zasep Rinpoche:

How Does Tara Heal?

Again, drawing on the teachings of Venerable Lama Phuntsok, White Tara overcomes the impediment to long life and long Dharma practice: “All problems—sufferings, sicknesses, and diseases arise from thoughts that are based upon attachment, aversion, and ignorance as to the way things really are. It is said again and again that the worst obstacle is the third—concepts and thoughts. We continually think that we want to be happy and be free from suffering; we therefore never stop wanting more and more and as a result increase our attachment and aversion.”

Buddhism teaches that “we are the creators of our own suffering,” said Venerable Zasep Tulku Rinpoche at a recent Lojong Seven-Point Mind Training retreat at Gaden Choling Toronto. “Everything depends on mind.”

From this point of view, all of our problems, including health issues, arise from our mind and concepts. Tara helps us to overcome the obstacles of mind and body. At a relative level, Tara rescues from disease, illness and apparently “external” health factors. At an ultimate level, Tara protects our mind, preventing the rising of attachments, aversion and ignorance.

Famously, Tara protects from the eight fears—fear of fire, lions elephants, snakes, imprisonment, floods, demons, robbers—but these eight fears are also “metaphors” for the cause of our obstacles leading to suffering. The fifth great Dalai Lama wrote a magnificent praise for Green Tara where he illustrated the metaphors of the eight great internal fears: anger (fire), pride (lions), ignorance (elephants), snakes (envy), imprisonment (avarice), floods (attachment), demons (doubt) and robbers (wrong views.)

Practicing White Tara

Sita Tara rescues all, and requires no special permissions or initiations to practice at a basic level. Advanced practices, some sadhanas and advanced healing certainly require a teacher’s guidance and permission, but the meditations and practices I’m discussing here are for anyone.

Meditating on Sita Tara is a good place to start. If you have time, take a half hour and meditate along with Gelek Rimpoche of Jewel Heart—a well-known and highly realized teacher of the Gelugpa tradition.

Gelek Rimpoche of Jewel Heart “White Tara Guided Meditation”:

Mantra and Meditation

Mantra is very effective for protection and healing both. Simply repeating the mantra with focus is enough to bring healing. Visualizing Tara’s blessings entering into your body as purifying light, purging illness and pushing out negativities as black smoke or sludge, is even more affirming, strengthening the blessing.

According to the FPMT Education Department, “This meditation can be done on behalf of oneself or others. It is frequently done to remove the obstacles to our gurus’ long lives and health. If one has experienced many health problems, accidents, depression, or a loss of “lust for life,” the practice of White Tara can be especially powerful.”

Tara Mantra

Tara’s mantra, chanted by millions daily around the world connects with Tara, including the White aspect—since all Tara’s are ultimately one:

Om Tare Tuttare Ture Svaha

Pronounced Aum Tah-ray Tew-tah-ray Tew-ray Svah-ha. Svaha is sometimes pronounced Soha in Tibetan traditions.

The root Tara mantra (above) is as effective as the more specialized White Tara mantra (see White Tara Mantra below)—which adds more specific requests and intentions.

Mantras were given by the Buddhas via Sutra or transmission of lineage, and carry great cumulative, power. Mantra literally can translate as “mind protection.” Since the mind affects health, a Sanskrit mantra dedicated specifically to healing is very effective.

The meaning of the mantra is explained in numerous ways by many great teachers, all of which are complimentary and correct. Lama Zopa Rinpoche taught [2]:

• “TARE shows that Mother Tara liberates living beings from samsara”
• “TUTTARE liberates you from the eight fears related to the external dangers from fire, water, air, earth and also from such things as thieves and dangerous animals. However the main dangers come from ignorance, attachment, anger, pride, jealousy, miserliness, doubt and wrong views.”
• “TURE liberates you from disease”—so Green Tara is equally the Healer as White.

One reason Tara’s mantra is especially meaningful is that it contains within it the entire teachings on the Four Noble Truths. See our previous stories on Tara in Buddha Weekly for more on this:

• Limitless Tara, Beyond the Green
• Mama Buddha Tara: Compassionate Action

Here is one of the most beautiful sung versions of Tara’s mantra by the Internationally famous Ani Choying Dolma at the Rigpa Center Berlin:

Lung or Empowerment

Although Tara mantras can be practiced by anyone—they are more effective when transmitted by a teacher. If you are in need of healing, it would be ideal to seek out a qualified lineage teacher and ask for either lung or initiation. Lung is, broadly speaking, transmission of the mantra itself (or permission to use the mantra), whereas initiation (also known as empowerment) can involve complete deity practice and commitments.

According to the highly realized teacher Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the FPMT, “empowerment of Tara is needed to practice [Tara’s] sadhana in full. However, one can do this practice without such an empowerment as long as one does not generate oneself as the deity. If one does not have the empowerment, one can do the self-generation practice at the crown of one’s head.” Basically, visualize Tara and meditate on her, and receive blessings from her, but do not absorb or merge with Tara—a more advance practice.

With or without empowerment, all mantras carry the blessings of the deity—connecting us with our inner Buddha or Tara (Buddhanature). Mantas are quite powerful in meditation and active healing. If empowerment or lung is impossible, the mantras are less powerful, but still effective. I chanted Tara’s mantra for eight years before a teacher came into my life to guide me and empower my practice of Tara. I believe, in some ways, chanting the mantra for those years created the conditions for me to find my teacher.

Anyone can chant Tara’s mantra. The visualizations and certain other practices are different if you receive teachings from a qualified teacher. In Tibet, some of the first words children learn to speak are mantras, particularly “Om Mani Padme Hum” and “Om Tare Tuttare Ture Svaha.”

White Tara Mantra

White Tara mantra is Tara’s root mantra, but energized with additional intentions and “words of power.” After Om Tare Tuttare Ture—and before the final Svaha—the mantra adds “Mama Ayuh Punya Jnana Pushtim Kuru Svaha, thus becoming:

Om Tare Tuttare Ture Mama Ayuh Punya Jnana Pushtim Kuru Svaha

Pronounced: oṃ tā re tu ttā re tu re ma ma ā yuḥ pu ṇya jñā na pu ṣṭiṃ ku ru svā hā

In Tibetan pronunciation this might sound like:

Om Tare Tuttare Ture Mama Ayur Puney Gyana Puntin Kuru Soha

The three extra words do have multiple meanings, but are generally translated as:

• Mama — “mine” or “I would like to possess these qualities”
• Ayuh —”long life” — for which White Tara is famous
• Punya ­— “merit” — to live ethically
• Jnana — “wisdom”
• Pushtim — “increase”

When added to the root Tara Mantra, the mantra is basically drawing on Tara’s power to increase my long life, merit and wisdom and blessings.

For main healing practice, normally the mantra is recited with visualizations of Tara, however singing or chanting is a very beautiful and effective way to receive the blessings.

Here’s one of the most beautiful “chanted” versions.

Versatility of the White Tara Mantra

Healing and helping others is something we all should all wish to accomplish. Aside from the selfish goal of increasing our own merit and good karma, we engage our compassion as humans and Buddhists when we think of others.

The White Tara mantra can be modified from a “personal” affirmation to one targeted at someone else. “Mama” in the mantra means “mine”, or “I” or “me” meant for self healing. Simply replacing “Mama” with the name of another person sends Tara’s healing power and blessings to someone else.

For instance, if we wanted to practice White Tara for the long life of my teacher or parents, we would substitute Mama:

Om Tare Tuttare Ture [person’s name] Ayuh Punya Jnana Pushtim Kuru Svaha

Wishing your teacher long life would become

Om Tare Tuttare Ture [Your teacher’s name] Ayuh Punya Jnana Pushtim Kuru Svaha

Wishing the Dalai Lama long life would become

Om Tare Tuttare Ture His Holiness the Dalai Lama Ayuh Punya Jnana Pushtim Kuru Svaha

There are also forms of White Tara’s mantra for subduing or pacifying, with somewhat different wording, meant for subjugating fevers, viruses, evil spirits and so on, but those are more advanced practices that should be guided by a teacher. Fevers, evil spirits and viruses are equally subdued by the main White Tara mantra, or even the root mantra of Om Tare Tuttare Ture Svaha.

More Advanced White Tara Healing

Tibetan medicine often makes use of “mantra-blessed water or medicines.” At a basic level, after performing a twenty or thirty minute mantra recitation-meditation, preferably visualizing Tara, blow on your medicine or a glass of water and visualize the mantra’s “power of Tara’s speech” as light coming from your mouth and being absorbed. Then, consume the medicine.

In more intense practices, or when the medicine is for someone else, you can place a week’s supply of medicine on a table or shrine dedicated to Tara with Her Image, some water bowl offerings, perhaps Her mantra written out, and other meaningful objects. Chant the mantra for a week, then use/dispense the blessed medicine.

Finally, mantra’s fullest ripening comes from full performance of a sadhana. These are passed down through the centuries by direct transmission of teacher to teacher, right back to the Buddha or Enlightened Being. These normally require a teacher’s transmission, lung or empowerment. Some sadhanas, such as White Tara’s sadhana written by the fifth Great Dalai Lama can be performed by anyone, provided the uninitiated do not generate themselves as the deity. In other words, substitute simple visualization for generation of oneself as Tara.

White Tara’s Visualization

Visualizing Tara is an important part of mantra recitation when possible. Although the mantra can be recited while walking, cooking, etc, when engaging in a highly focused healing practice, sitting with eyes closed (or half closed) in meditation is best.

“Visualization isn’t the best translation for what we do,” explained Venerable Jigme in her talk during a White Tara Retreat (see video below). “We’re actually working with our imagination. Visualization implies that we’re working with a visual image, and then using our eyes. So, we’re working with our imagination… not only are we working with imagined sights, but we’re working with imagined touch and smells and sounds, physical sensations and feelings.”

“We use our imaginations in a very practical manner to develop the potential we all have to transform ourselves,” Venerable Jigme continued. “So, it’s quite an important piece of our practice! It’s a very creative process.”

Tara’s Image

When you have a teacher’s guidance—the visualization would be as he or she instructs. There are generation practices associated with some initiations, but none of that should be contemplated without a teacher.

For someone without a teacher’s guidance, a basic visualization of Tara in front of you—generally involving healing white light flowing from Tara into you or the person being healed—is simplest. Sometimes you visualize Tara on top of your head, arising from your crown chakra sitting on a lotus throne with 1000 petals.

You can make the visualization simple or complex. More complex and detailed visualizations engage the mind to a higher level, and tend to be more effective for that reason. Visualize what you can of the following details.

White Tara is shining white, the nature of light, a glowing beacon of healing, vitality and perfection. We wouldn’t think of Tara as flesh and bone, but as glorious, spectacular, awe-inspiring (and at the same time) soothing light. Sometimes, what is meant by “body of light” is “uncontaminated body.”

In the same way Tara is visualized uncontaminated and spectacular, we should see Her arrayed in gorgeous silks and shining jewels like stars. Tara, Her name, literally translates as “star.” The beautiful ornaments are not meant to show attachment, but are symbolic of Her transcendence. On the crown of Her head is a crown of five sides representing the five Dhyani Buddhas and on top of Her hair knot is Amitayas Buddha, the Buddha of Long Life. Amitayus is the Long Life emanation of Amitabha. With other Taras we visualize Amitabha as her hair ornament. Amitabha and Amitayus are the same Buddha, different manifestations (similar to Green and White Tara). Amitayas and Amitabha are both red in colour.

We visualize Tara sitting on a thousand-petal white lotus. She is sitting in a position of meditative equipoise in the vajra (full lotus) position. The glorious lotus signifies renunciation, the spontaneous wish to be free from samsara, or cyclic existence. From Geshe Wangdu’s White Tara Commentary: ” So the manner in which the lotus signifies renunciation is that, even though the lotus itself was born out of a pond, what we call a swamp, or a muddy pond, even though it grows out of that, when it blooms on top of the water, there’s not even a bit of mud on its’ petals, and it is free of the mud itself. That is how it resembles renunciation.”

The Lotus and Moon Disc

On the lotus is a moon-disc, representing all-important bodhicitta, and the wish to achieve enlightenment. The deity sits on both a lotus and moon-disc, indicating Tara has achieved enlightenment through renunciation and bodhicitta.

Beautiful Tara Herself has one face, two arms, but—importantly—seven eyes. An eye appears on each of Her hand palms, Her feet and three on Her face (two “regular” eyes and the wisdom eye on the forehead chakra). The eyes represent how the Mother of the Buddhas sees all our suffering.

Seven Eyes of White Tara

Very strikingly, the position of the seven eyes create the shape of the sankrit letter TAM which is Tara’s mantra when you connect the eyes with lines), according to Visible Mantra[3]. Also, they symbolize the special relationship between the five “extra” eyes of White Tara and the five Dhyani Buddhas: Akshobya, Amitabha, Amoghisiddhi, Vairochana and Ratnasambhava.

The right hand of Tara is in the “mudra” (hand gesture representing) Supreme Generosity—the mudra that signifies Tara is ready and willing to grant us the state of Enlightenment.

The left hand of Tara holds a white lotus flower or uptala. Uptala is really a different flower from the lotus, but most people are content with visualizing a lotus. The uptala stems out in three branches, each with a different flower, one in full bloom, one about to open, one just a bud. These represent the Buddhas of the three times: past, present and future.

In advanced visualizations, we’d see a white syllable TAM—Tara’s seed syllable mantra. If you don’t know what that is, it’s best to wait for a teacher. The Tam is normally at her heart. Often, visualizations would—as with other Buddhas—visualize shining seed syllables OM, AH and HUM at her crown, throat and heart respectively. These represent the Holy body (OM), speech (AH) and mind (HUM) of Tara Buddha.

Healing Light Visualization

You might visualize (imagine) white healing light flowing from Tara into your crown chakra (top of your head) or heart chakra, or all of your chakras. The energy fills you as you chant the mantra, displacing negativities, bad karma, disease and other impurities—often visualized as black smoke or sludge dispelled violently from your body. For advanced practices, your teacher would guide your visualization, but for simple practices, the healing light is a safe, effective image.

As a final note, try to imagine Tara as a real, three dimensional being of light, who can move, speak, gesture, transmit—Tara is above all “activity” of the Buddhas and definitely not a static two-dimensional picture.

For a better description on how to visualize during Tara Deity Practice, please refer to Venerable Jigme (Sravasti Abbey’s” teaching video, part of a White Tara retreat (7 minute video):

Simple White Tara Practice

A simple daily practice, or a practice that you could use when you are ill, would normally include some basic fundamentals, such as going for refuge. Many teachers say that Refuge is the first healing. When you take refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, that refuge will help you in all your difficulties, including illness. To the practice of refuge, you might add a simple offering of water bowls, in front of an image of White Tara. Basically, a simple practice, not requiring empowerments, would be:

1. Take refuge and dedicate.
2. The four immeasurables: This prayer affirms your wishes that all beings not suffer and be happy—important to generate loving kindness and Bodhicitta.
3. Make an offering (for example, a water bowl offering—see our article “Buddhist Water Bowl Offerings as an Antidote to Attachment”)
4. Preferably recite the Seven Limbs practice (seven short lines that contain the essence of good practice).
5. Visualize Tara as described above or as indicated by your teacher. Normally you visualize Tara in front of you when you do not have teacher instructions.
6. Recite the mantra (either Tara’s root mantra, or the full White Tara mantra, optionally with the name of the person who is ill replacing “mama” in the mantra. As you recite, visualize white healing light and energy transmitting from Tara to you or the person. In advanced visualizations this might emit from Tara’s heart chakra and absorb into your heart chakra, or as advised by your teacher.
7. Affirmation prayers (optional)
8. Dedicate the merit. (This is generally very important).

Typical Refuge Prayer (normally 3 times)

I go for refuge until I am enlightened.

To the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Supreme Assembly.

By my practice of giving and other perfections,

May I become a buddha to benefit all sentient beings.

Four Immeasurables

May all beings have happiness and its causes,

May they never have suffering or its causes.

May they constantly dwell in joy transcending sorrow;

May they dwell in equal love for both near and far.

Offering

You can visualize mental offerings if you don’t have bowls of water. Buddhas do not need your offering. You are generating merit by this practice.

Seven Limbs

To You Venerable Tara, with my body, speech and mind, I respectfully prostrate.

I offer flowers, incense, butter lamps, perfume, food, music and a vast collection of offerings, both actually set out and emanated through wisdom and imagination.

I declare all my non-virtuous acts since beginningless time.

I rejoice in the virtuous merit accumulated by Holy and ordinary beings.

I request You turn the wheel of Dharma.

I beseech You to remain until samsara ends. Please, with your boundless compassion, look upon all beings drowning in the ocean of suffering.

May whatever merit I have accumulated be transformed into the cause for Enlightenment so that I may help all sentient beings.

Mantra and Visualization

Visualize Tara and healing energy and recite one of the mantras:

Om Tare Tuttare Ture Svaha

or

Om Tare Tuttare Ture Mama Ayuh Punya Jnana Pushtim Kuru Svaha

or, if healing or doing long life practice for another person such as your teacher, substitute person’s name for “Mama”

Om Tare Tuttare Ture PERSON’S NAME Ayuh Punya Jnana Pushtim Kuru Svaha

Dedication

By this merit may I quickly reach

The enlightened state,

So that I may lead all living beings without exception

To the same Enlightenment.

A Praise to White Tara by the First Dalai Lama

Another healing practice is to recite sutras or texts, or to pray to Tara daily. The First Dalai Lama Gyalwa Gendun Drub’s “A Praise of White Tara” is especially powerful—written centuries ago:

Homage to the Female Buddha beautiful with youth

Who sits on seats of white lotus and moon in nature

Spreading with stainless compassion and knowledge,

Who captures the radiance of snow mountains.

Homage to the Youthful One with budding breasts,

Who has one face and two arms, sits in the vajra posture,

Is bold with grace and calm, has a full moon as backrest

And is filled with great bliss.

Homage to the Ultimately Generous One whose right hand,

Showing the mudra Supreme Giving

Easily releases boundless karmas of peace, increase, power and wrath

As well as the eight siddhis and even supreme Buddhahood.

Homage to the Spiritual Mother who gives birth to Buddhas

Past, present and future; whose left hand

Supporting a blue lotus, grants protection

From lions, elephants, fires and all eight terrors.

Homage to the Refuge of the World, who has eyes

In hands and feet gazing at the four doors of freedom

And who leads all living creatures

Toward the isle of blissful liberation.

Homage to she whose face unites

The beauty of a million autumn moons,

Whose wide eyes gaze with compassion

Whose Joyous mouth smiles equally on all.

Homage to she with head adorned by Amitayus, boundless Life,

The mere thought of whom grants life and wisdom,

Whose hand, in the contemplative mudra,

Hold a vase filled with ambrosia of immortality.

Homage to the All-Beautified One whose crown

Steals the light of sun and moon,

Whose sapphire hair is half knotted on top

And half falling freely over her shoulders.

Homage to the Majestic One of precious ornament blazing,

Whose crown, earrings, necklaces, arm-bands,

Bracelets, anklets and belt so elegantly arranged

Surpass the ornaments of men and gods.

Homage to she of celestial raiment,

Whose shoulder-sash and skirt

Hug her body like rainbows

Hug the crystal mountains.

Homage to the goddess before whose lotus feet

Vishnu, Indra, Shiva, Brahma, the antigods, spirits,

Men, semi-humans and all the world

Submit themselves in devotion.

Merely by reciting your mantra,

Those who make offerings at your lotus feet

Gain immortality, wisdom and merit

And attain all desired siddhis; to you I bow down.

The knowledge, compassion and perfect actions of all Buddhas

Appear in the form of the beautiful goddess

I take refuge in you and offer you my prayers;

Pray eliminate all my obstacles and fulfill all my aims.

Quickly release your perfect action of peace,

Calming all interferences to my practices for enlightenment;

Interferences such as the eight terrors,

Sickness, demons and other harmful agents, inner and outer.

Quickly release your perfect action of increase which multiplies

All good qualities, such as life, merit, unapprehending compassion,

The stainless wisdoms of learning, contemplation and meditation,

And the three higher trainings.

Quickly release your perfect action of power,

Which causes gods, men and spirits

To humbly bow before you

And which fulfils all wishes of the mind.

Quickly release your perfect action of wrath,

Which with punishments befitting the evils done

Destroys demons, interferences and hindrances

Hateful opposing Buddhadharma and its holders.

Pray, bestow quick and easy attainment of siddhis

Such as the magic sword, mystic eye-medicine, fast-walking,

The food pill and the precious vase,

And even mahamudra, the highest siddhi.

In brief, from now until enlightenment

I respectfully make offerings at your lotus feet

I need seek no other refuge

Out of compassion gaze upon me and quickly grant protection.

By the meritorious energy of this practice

May the transcended, perfect Tara

Look upon me forever with pleasure

And never leave me, even for a moment.

May all sentient beings after death take rebirth

Before Amitayus in Sukavati, Land of Pure Joy,

May they live in the ways of the great Bodhisattvas

And come to equal Avalokiteshvara, Lord of Compassion.

May I realise the oceans of Sutras and Tantras

To be able to pass them on to others;

And until samsara be emptied may I strive

To uphold the victory banner of practicing exactly as taught.

Mantra: OM TAREE TU-TAREE TUREE MAMA AYU-PUNYE-JANA PUTIM KURU SOHA

The Colophon: This praise of exalted White Tara, supreme mother of all Buddhas, was written by the monk Gyalwa Gendun Drub while he was residing in the Hermitage of Great Awakening at the Tegchen Potreng.

NOTES
[1] Presented at the Kamalashila Institute in Germany, 2005 https://www.rinpoche.com/teachings/whitetara.htm

[2] Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche speaking at Nepal, May 1987. https://www.lamayeshe.com/index.php?sect=article&id=357

[3] White Tara, Tam and the Mandala, Visible Mantra https://www.visiblemantra.org/whitetara-mandala.html

The importance of the human-nature bond has been proven in various studies to be a vital way to promote better health and well-being. Did you know, for instance, that visiting a forest for less than 15 minutes or swimming in the ocean can lower stress, boost your mood, and raise your vitality? As we end one year and start a new one, however, this connection is one worth strengthening for much more than mental health reasons. Research indicates that some 3.6 billion people live in areas that are highly susceptible to climate change. How can Buddhists protect the Earth while also harnessing the benefits of the natural need to spend time in the arms of Mother Nature?

Contributing writer Karoline Gore

The Buddhist View on Nature

The Buddhist view of the importance of nature can easily be gleaned from The Five Precepts, which comprises five practices. The first is the avoidance of harmful actions. This includes not killing or stealing—which is something human beings do when they cull trees, raise the habitats of animals to the ground, and contribute to global warming. The first reminds us to live in alliance with nature instead of exploiting it to our advantage. The second espouses partaking in wholesome actions—including being kind, not only to people, but to all sentient things. The third is the cultivation of a healthy mind, which involves mindfulness—being aware of our actions and choosing what we do wisely. The fourth is right livelihood—earning a living in a way that does not harm oneself or others—including the environment. The fifth involves abandoning negative thoughts and cultivating positive thoughts and emotions.  And nature is the perfect place to instil a mindful state in people.

How Can Buddhists Strengthen Their Bond With Nature?

To leverage the human-nature connection Buddhists can simply head outdoors and aim to spend a few minutes a day in the presence of greenery or bodies of water. Studies have shown that doing so lowers levels of the stress hormone, cortisol. Nature also weaves its magic on children, teaching them vital lessons such as how to take reasonable risks, make decisions, and solve problems.

Nature-Based Home Design

Developing a connection with nature is easy. It can begin with an action as simple as welcoming plants into your home. If you love home design, then you have probably heard all about a true craze in this industry—biophilic design. It involves bringing a host of plants and indoor trees into your home, in an effort to blur the lines between life indoors and outdoors. Even if you have a small space, you can use macrame plant hangers to hang a myriad of plants at various heights. You can also invest in one or two statement plants like Areca palms, Monstera deliciosa, or the Fiddle leaf fig to call attention to a specific part of your home. Choose natural eco-friendly materials (such as bamboo and reclaimed wood) and fill your home with décor inspired on the beauty of nature.

Meditating Outdoors

Meditation often plays a vital role in the life of Buddhists, so if you try to make time daily to take part in meditation, then aim to do so outdoors. You can also engage in breathwork or embrace other holistic pursuits such as Tai Chi and yoga. All these pursuits can be deeply mindful if you concentrate on your technique and utilize breathwork to enhance your practice. After your meditation session, simply open your senses to the beauty of the natural world. Take note of the beautiful sounds of wildlife around you, and of the unique sights and textures that can be found outdoors. Indulge your sense of smell as well, approaching plants and flowers and inhaling their unique aroma. If you have a home garden, you can enhance its olfactory properties by planting a few fragrant herbs and flowers. Plant the latter on raised beds if possible, so they can be easier to smell.

The Buddhist way of life espouses the importance of kindness to all living things. Preserving our planet is a vital way of ensuring that life exists and persists and that no sentient things suffer because of problems like deforestation or global warming. To do your share for the environment, aim to spend time outdoors, invite nature into your home, and consider meditating and exercising outdoors.

For those who are already highly sensitive, the thought of adding to their peceptual intensity and feelings may not sound appealing. With these heightened sensory experiences, meditation increases the body’s response to stimuli and helps you to handle it head-on. Increased Sensitivy can result in decreased stress and inflammation, for example.

By Beth Rush

Of Body+Mind Magazine

[Disclaimer: Always seek the advice of your health care practitioners when experiencing pain or other medical issues.]

3 Ways Meditation Can Beneficially Increase Sensitivity

Meditation affects the body in many ways, but the results are typically amazing. Although feeling your feelings more intensely may not be something you look forward to, increased sensitivity is nothing to worry about.

Essentially, sensitivity is how your body responds to external stimuli. The good news is meditation can help you make better sense of the experience. Here are three ways meditation and sensitivity go together.

1.   Boosts Brain Activity

Meditation stimulates the prefrontal cortex of the brain. It is the part responsible for memory, problem-solving, planning, information processing and social behaviors [1].

This type of sensitivity enhances your ability to focus and process what is happening around you, from objects to people to your surroundings. For example, you might have stronger taste buds, or notice subtle movements or changes in your environment.

2.   Decreases Stress and Inflammation

The best way to increase your body’s mobility is by decreasing inflammation in your joints and muscles [2]. Meditation can induce this effect by reducing stress and increasing sensitivity in the nervous system.

Just 10 minutes of daily meditation can lower cortisol levels, which is your stress hormone [3]. This regulates overactive parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems — or the vagal tone. The vagal tone pertains to your sensory reaction to the physical and emotional stimuli in your surroundings [4].

3.   Raises Awareness of Thoughts and Feelings

Of course, a state of calm raises your awareness of thoughts, emotions and physical sensations more than before you started meditating. Some highly sensitive people might be most wary of this effect. Yet, you might learn to appreciate who you really are.

Self-awareness opens doors to self-compassion, acceptance and growth. It encourages you to live authentically [5].

How to Handle Increased Sensitivity

Certainly, there are benefits of heightened sensitivity as a result of meditation. For instance, awareness allows you to appreciate simple pleasures and the present moment. At the same time, taking care of yourself is critical when stimuli feel like it’s weighing you down.

Interestingly enough, meditation can help ground you and calm your mind again in these moments. Conversely, you could take a break from meditation or whatever is triggering you if necessary.

When you need a break, shift gears to another grounding, relaxing activity like painting, journaling or walking. Talking to someone about your feelings can also help you make sense of your physical, mental and emotional responses to your environment.

Sensitivity Is a Strength

Meditation can increase receptivity and sensitivity, but you can change your perception to make sense of your feelings. Rather than feeling overwhelmed, start viewing sensitivity as a strength. If anything, meditation will create enough of a calm space for you to gain better control of stimuli.

Sources

[1] International Journal of Yoga

[2] IV Elements

[3] Buddha Weekly

[4] Psychosomatic Medicine

[5] Buddha Weekly

You don’t need a physiology course, but understanding a few basics can enrich your experience. Here’s how human design can inform and direct meditation practices.

By Beth Rush

Disclaimer: Always seek the advice of your health care practitioners when experiencing pain or other medical issues.

What Is Human Design?

As a human being, you are inseparable from your physical body, and what happens to it affects your spirit. For example, consider what happens when you fast. During the first day, your body converts glycogen from your liver and muscle stores to create glucose or the sugar energy you typically get through food ^[1]. By the end of the first day, you deplete much of your stores and begin breaking down your muscles for necessary energy.

Humans need more than food for total health. Supporting yourself mentally, physically and emotionally as a complete person requires the following:

• Proper nutrition
• Time spent outdoors
• Physical movement
• Mindfulness
• Rest and sleep
• Stress management
• Healthy boundaries

Unfortunately, few people achieve all of that, at least not daily. As a result, they feel a vague but constant sense of unease, that their life is beyond their control and they have little say in influencing the course of events.

Meditation directs your attention to areas of your life and well-being that lack it. Try it before bed or spend five to 15 minutes outdoors communing with nature ^[2]. When you engage your higher self, you can move beyond rumination, see the situation clearly and determine the best course of action to improve matters based on your resources.

Human Design and Mindfulness

The connection between human design and mindfulness is intricate. For example, most people know when they’ve entered a flow state, where time ceases to exist and they focus completely on the project at hand.

There are many ways to achieve a mindful state, including progressive muscle relaxation, breath focus and mantras. Mindfulness meditation entails observing your thoughts neutrally^[3]. You will know you’ve reached this state when you can reflect upon triggering events that normally cause a heightened emotional reaction with detached objectivity.

On a more prosaic level, human design works with mindfulness by making it comfortable. For example, many practitioners advise sitting in zazen, but this posture might be excruciating for someone with degenerative disc disease of the lumbar spine. Encouraging them to take another pose, perhaps reclining in savasana with a pillow beneath the knees, makes practice possible by eliminating unnecessary suffering.

Using Human Design to Enhance Your Meditation Practice

How do human design and meditation work together to enhance your total well-being? Part of the science lies in brainwaves. Various meditation techniques can alter your brainwaves^[4], taking you into deeper resting states where profound change occurs.

In the past, people widely believed that you could not regrow brain cells. However, recent research reveals this is untrue. You create new neurons in your hippocampus throughout life^[5]. Although the connection between sleep and neurogenesis isn’t fully understood, science shows that sleep disruptions interrupt this process.

Using meditation techniques such as yoga nidra can bring about this state of deep rest. It creates a welcoming nursery for new brain cell birth, perpetuating the cycle of what it is to be human.

How Human Design Can Inform and Direct Meditation Practices

Science reveals how meditation changes physiology. Knowledge of human design can reaffirm your commitment to your practice by producing tangible evidence that it works.

Using human design to inform and direct your meditation practice can enhance it. Mindfully explore how you can enrich your routine and let science and spirit work together to improve your well-being.

References:

1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK534877/

2. https://blog.cefaly.com/how-to-focus-on-your-mental-health-with-a-busy-schedule/

3. https://buddhaweekly.com/how-to-know-which-type-of-meditation-is-best-for-you/

4. https://buddhaweekly.com/scientific-buddhist-5-emptiness-meditation-styles-to-achieve-theta-brainwaves-for-health-and-cognition-benefits-mindfulness-repetition-sound-visualization-mantra/

5. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2022.891713/full

Mokugyo are instantly recognizable by their entirely unique and pleasant penetrating sound that almost seems to hypnotize with its intensity. The use of the fish drum is nearly universally used in ritual and private meditation amongst most forms of Zen or Chan, Mahayana Buddhism and Pure Land Buddhism.

In some ways, practicing drumming — by combining a breathing exercise, or a sutra chant, or mantra or Nembutsu, with repetitious, punctuated wooden drum raps — amplifies our mindfulness practice. The monotonous, hypnotic sound of the drum actually seems to anchor the mind in the present moment faster, with more clarity and riveting focus, than simply watching breath (for some people).

Wakeful Drum — wake up!

Also called the “Wakeful Drum” — because it awakens the mind to its real nature — the drum creates a sense of alertness that keeps meditators from straying into sleep. The fish is symbolic of the wakeful mind — fish never close their eyes. In Chan or Zen, sleeping on the mat could earn you a good wakeup tap. At home, where you have no one to keep you alert on the mat, the drum can help keep you alert but relaxed, in a mindful state, but not with a dull mind.

By whatever name—mokugyo in Japan, muyu in China, mock gnu in Vietnam, moktak in Korea, shingnya in Tibet—the piercing pang, pang, pang of the fish drum can be heard at virtually all rituals. Any chanting of sutras or mantras is likely to accompanied by the trance-inducing wooden fish drum. Taoists and Shinto practitioners have also adopted this powerful little drum.

Drumming while Reciting Sutras

Video of typical practice with drum — recitation of Heart Sutra:

To chant along with Vice-abbot Jason Quinn:

https://www.emptygatezen.com/

The Maha

Prajna Paramita

Hrdaya Sutra

Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva

when practicing deeply the Prajna Paramita

perceives that all five skandhas are empty

and is saved from all suffering and distress.

Shariputra,

form does not differ from emptiness,

emptiness does not differ from form.

That which is form is emptiness,

that which is emptiness form.

The same is true of feelings,

perceptions, impulses, consciousness.

Shariputra,

all dharmas are marked with emptiness;

they do not appear or disappear,

are not tainted or pure,

do not increase or decrease.

Therefore, in emptiness no form, no feelings,

perceptions, impulses, consciousness.

No eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind;

no color, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch,

no object of mind;

no realm of eyes

and so forth until no realm of mind consciousness.

No ignorance and also no extinction of it,

and so forth until no old age and death

and also no extinction of them.

No suffering, no origination,

no stopping, no path, no cognition,

also no attainment with nothing to attain.

The Bodhisattva depends on Prajna Paramita

and the mind is no hindrance;

without any hindrance no fears exist.

Far apart from every perverted view one dwells in Nirvana.

In the three worlds

all Buddhas depend on Prajna Paramita

and attain Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi.

Therefore know that Prajna Paramita

is the great transcendent mantra,

is the great bright mantra,

is the utmost mantra,

is the supreme mantra

which is able to relieve all suffering

and is true, not false.

So proclaim the Prajna Paramita mantra,

proclaim the mantra which says:

gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha

gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha

gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha.

Fish Legend Origin

The fish stands for two things, primarily. The symbolism of the fish is wakefulness — the always open eyes. Fish are also symbolic of wealth and abundance — not necessarily money, but equally the idea of abundant realizations in meditative practice.

In the legend of the fish origin, a monk, on a seventeen-year quest to bring the precious sutras from India to China, found his journey was blocked by a wide, flooding river. A big fish appeared suddenly and offered to carry the monk across the river. He had earned negative karma as a human and was born as a fish. By carrying the monk, he would extinguish the negative karma with a meritorious act. The fish later became a Bodhisattva. However, on the return journey, because the monk had forgotten to make requests of the Buddha, the fish dumped him in the water, sutras and all. The sutras were ruined.

The monk, full of anger, built a wooden fish. When he felt the anger rise up, he would beat the fish’s head. To his shock, when he beat the head, the fish opened his mouth and vomited a character. After years of beating the head, from the fish’s mouth, he retrieved what had been lost in the river.

The metaphor is an insightful one. Beating the fish drum in meditation can lead to profound insights.

When is the Fish Drum Used?

The drum is most often used in temples in China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Nepal, the United States (mostly in Zen temples) at these times:

• when reciting sutra
• when reciting mantra
• when reciting Nembutsu — Amitabha’s name “Namu Amida Butsu”
• during breathing or mindfulness practice where the alert mind is key
• during rituals, including rites for death or rebirth
• during processions
• in group practice, to keep people alert and in time during chanting
• during rituals or prayers for rain or auspiciousness.

Why use a drum?

We use a drum in meditation to keep us wakeful, mindful, alert. At the same time, the stimulating sound, entirely unique in percussion, has a trance-like effect, allowing something of an altered state of meditation. The sound’s uniqueness also instantly evokes sacredness. The sound travels, apparently on forever, penetrating all of the illusion we call our world, and carrying our mantras and sutras along.

Fish drum doesn’t always look like a fish

The fish drum is hand-carved out of a single block of wood, then hollowed out, smoothed, carved with symbols, then lacquered. Small mokugyo sit on a cushion to make sure the sound is pleasant. Larger temple muku normally rest on a temple stand. When struck by a wooden mallet, with or without felt or rubber striking tips, the sound is entirely unique.

The fish drum doesn’t always resemble a fish. Large fish drums, suspended in Chinese temples, are elaborately carved into fish and painted with gold and red. These giant fish are struck each morning and evening to help us remember all the fish in the sea, and to remind us to be wakeful.

Full Fish Symbolism

Because the fish never sleeps, it becomes a symbol of awakened meditation and even enlightenment. Since most fish adapt to have large eyes, to see in the murky waters, they also represent penetrating sight, overcoming illusion and attachment.
Fish is one of the eight auspicious symbols in Buddhism
The fish is one of the eight auspicious symbols in Buddhism, accepted by all streams of Buddhism. This auspicious symbol is normally two golden fish, symbolic of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, and represents good fortune in general. Striking the drum reminds us, with each piercing strike, to remember the lessons of the eight auspicious signs.

Hannya Shingyo by Shodo Harada Roshi:

The other symbols are:

• the Lotus, one of the most recognized symbols, standing for the beauty and clarity of enlightenment and the true nature of all beings because the beautiful flower reaches out of the muck
• the Parasol, symbol of royal dignity and protection
• Conch Shell horn representing the sound of the Dharma penetrating the universe to release all beings
• the Banner of Victory: symbolizing Buddha’s victory over Mara, who represents passion, fear of death, pride and lust
• the Vase, filled with sacred items, the never emptying vase is always full and represents long life
• the Dharma Wheel: the eight spoked wheel representing the eightfold path taught by Buddha
• the Eternal Knot: a never-ending symbol that signifies that all phenomena are linked.

Well-being, happiness and prosperity

The fish is a universal symbol of well-being, happiness, prosperity in freedom in all of Asia. This symbolism is partially because fish are always active and a source of a good life, but also because in India—the well-spring of enlightenment—the Ganges river (and its fish life) are sacred.

Good fortune fish are a major part of Feng Shui in China and aquariums are often prominent in homes to bring happiness and prosperity.

By Beth Rush

Managing Editor, BodyMind.com

What Is the 100% Quiet Mind Meditation Myth?

The 100% quiet mind meditation myth is well-meaning but inaccurate. It’s the idea that you must quiet your mind and stop any stream-of-consciousness thoughts to meditate successfully.

While quieting your mind is essential, meditation isn’t just sitting in silence. You only need to focus on your tools, like breathwork or guided awareness.

Ways to Know You’re Successfully Meditating

Since your thoughts will still flow through your mind during meditation sessions, you might wonder how you’ll know if your meditation is working or not. Use these tips to understand when you’re in a meditative state and feel confident about your practice.

1. You’re Aware of Your Breathing

Slowly inhale and exhale as you begin meditating. Focus on each breath and how your body feels as your heart rate slows. Meditation does require silence to accomplish this kind of focus. When you’re more aware of your breathing than the events or challenges happening in your life, you’ve begun to meditate successfully.

Focus is a primary component of any mediation practice. Research shows that focusing on elements like breathwork improves your attentional processes if meditation is a long-term habit.[1]  You should feel confident in your ability to focus on tasks or conversations if your meditation routine is working.

NOTE: As always, seek the advice of your healing professionals. Buddha Weekly offers no therapeutic advice. You should consider these ideas as you decide what’s best for your well-being alongside your doctor or therapist.

2. You’re in Touch With Your Emotions

Center your thoughts on your feelings during meditation. Ask your mind and body what they’re feeling and what those emotions are trying to tell you. Listening with your entire sense of focus enables you to process your feelings more effectively than if you set them aside for later.

This meditation benefit is significant if you’re one of the 16.2 million U.S. adults with depression. [2] Accepting negative thoughts and feelings with gentle curiosity and compassion is a healthy way to unpack heavy emotions.

If your depression is too overwhelming, combining meditation with cognitive behavior therapy from a licensed therapist could be more helpful. It’s a recommended way to avoid sinking into dark thoughts because the therapist would guide you through each reflective session. [3]

However, always seek the advice of your healing professionals. Buddha Weekly offers no therapeutic advice — only ideas to consider along your life journey.

3. You Feel More Compassion for Yourself

Meditation helps you gain a healthy distance from yourself by disconnecting from your stream of consciousness and considering your feelings like a curious observer. That distance will make you feel inner peace and a sense of clarity. [4]

Maintaining compassion is an excellent way to support yourself as you face life’s challenges. You’ll look at mistakes as learning opportunities and become your biggest cheerleader, which everyone deserves.

Enjoy Your Meditation Sessions

Meditation isn’t just sitting in silence for the sake of a quiet environment. It’s a practice that requires you to focus on your emotions, physical sensations and self-compassion. A soothing space can strengthen that focus, but it’s not the most important part of inner reflection.

As long as you can garner compassion for yourself and process emotions or physical sensations through breathwork, you’ll have successful meditation sessions whenever you quiet your mind.

Disclaimer: Always seek the advice of your health care practitioners when experiencing pain or other medical issues.

Resources

1. Sumantry, D., & Stewart, K. E. (2021a, February 2). Meditation, Mindfulness, and Attention: A Meta-Analysis – Mindfulness. SpringerLink. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12671-021-01593-w
2. Advpsychiatry. (2022, November 10). Healthy Ways to Cope With Depression: Advanced Psychiatry. Advanced Psychiatry Associates. https://advancedpsychiatryassociates.com/resources/blog/healthy-ways-to-cope-with-depression/
3. The Role of Meditation in Mental Health, Depression, Cognitive Decline, Delusional Behavior and Trauma: Also, What To Do When Teachers Fail in Issues of Ethics: Interview With Teacher Theodore Tsaousidis. Buddha Weekly: Buddhist Practices, Mindfulness, Meditation – Spread the Dharma. (2018, October 25). https://buddhaweekly.com/role-meditation-mental-health-depression-cognitive-decline-delusional-behavior-trauma-also-teachers-fail-issues-ethics-interview-teacher-theodore-tsaousi/
4. Rush, B. (2023, June 20). How Do You Know When You’ve Entered a “Proper” Meditative State? Buddha Weekly: Buddhist Practices, Mindfulness, Meditation – Spread the Dharma. https://buddhaweekly.com/how-do-you-know-when-youve-entered-a-proper-meditative-state/

By Beth Rush

Managing Editor, BodyMind.com

It Means You Reduce Your Stress

Dealing with stressful situations is part of life, but it isn’t great for your cells long-term. Stress keeps your nervous system operating at total capacity. The constant activation creates oxidative stress that damages your cells’ lipid linings that help them function properly. [1]

Meditation reduces your stress by calming your mind and heart rate. [2] Using it as a daily practice begins the work of building a cellular utopia. Cater to your body’s needs by prioritizing meditation and your cells will relax without the high stress levels.

This may mean changing your meditation practice to make it more effective. Try meditating at a different time of day or in a new environment. Soothing background sounds like white noises may also boost your focus so you find stress relief more easily.

It Means You Eat Healthier Foods

Verse four of Gesha Langri Thangpa’s Lojong mind training teachings reminds Buddhists to treat those who are suffering as though they are priceless treasures. [3] While you can use this mindset to extend kindness to others, it can also apply to how you view your own cells.

Your body may suffer internally from a diet that causes high cellular inflammation. Changing what you eat to strengthen your cells doesn’t start with the action of putting food on your plate. It begins when you decide which foods you’ll consume.

Harness the power of your mind to eat healthier foods that reduce oxidative stress. While you enjoy foods like sugar-free, vegan yogurts, you’ll reduce stress in your body while improving your mental health with vitamins. [4] Your mind and body will become stronger along your spiritual journey, making your meditation practice more fulfilling.

It Means Rejecting Negative Influences

Your mind controls which forms of negativity stick with you long-term. Gaining greater control of your willpower means it will be easier to remain in situations that benefit your cellular utopias.

Meditating on your power over your mind is an excellent way to reject anything that causes stress for your cells. It also grants you time to consider how you could do things differently, like defeating toxicity in your workplace by extending kindness through actions or soothing your cells with inflammation-fighting foods. [5]

Work alongside your cells to promote their well-being by advocating for your mind and body. If you use them purposefully, spiritual values and practices are tools to make that happen.

Start Creating Your Cellular Utopias

Anyone who relies on meditation and Buddhist teachings to better their lives can create cellular utopias within their bodies to further their spiritual journey. Soothe your cells to promote healing, health and happiness. You’ll use a megaverse perspective to care for yourself so your body thrives along with your spirit.

Disclaimer: Always seek the advice of your health care practitioners when experiencing pain or other medical issues.

Sources

[1] Science Direct

[2] Ten Benefits of Meditation

[3] Eight Verses of Training

[4] 10 Foods to boost mental health

[5] Body Mind: Positive Workplace Culture

Time is a fundamental dimension of our existence, yet its perception is often an intriguingly subjective experience. One minute can feel like an eternity in a tedious meeting, while an hour can fly by during an engaging conversation. This fluid nature of time perception has been a topic of fascination among psychologists and neuroscientists^[1], who aim to unravel the complexities of our internal clocks.

Enter mindful meditation, a practice rooted in ancient traditions but finding relevance in contemporary research. Mindfulness encourages individuals to anchor their attention to the present moment, to experience the ‘here and now’ fully. But how does this focused attention influence our sense of time?

In this article, we will delve into a recent groundbreaking study^[2] exploring mindful meditation’s impact on time perception. More intriguingly, we will journey back 2500 years, connecting the insights from this study with the profound teachings of Buddha on the nature of time^[3]. As we bridge modern science with ancient wisdom, we might just discover that our experience of time is far more malleable than we ever imagined.

The Timeless Wisdom of Buddhism on Time Perception

In the grand tapestry of Buddhist philosophy, time does not follow the arrow we’re accustomed to. Instead, it is depicted as non-linear and infinite, transcending our everyday understanding.

Buddha’s profound teachings found in key sutras provide significant insight into this unique conceptualization of time. In the Agganna Sutta, for instance, Buddha outlines an eternal cycle of universes’ birth and death, proposing a timeline far more cyclical than linear. The Avatamsaka Sutra takes us further, unfolding the concept of interpenetration and the co-existence of all phenomena in any given moment, rendering a moment as a microcosm of eternity.

The Mahavairocana Sutra offers an intricate exploration of the relationship between the self and the universe. It suggests that a deep understanding of the universe, which encompasses understanding time, can only be gained through personal realization. The Lotus Sutra brings this idea to life with the principle of a single moment containing eternity, highlighting the potential for enlightenment within any given moment.

Mindfulness — Essential Buddhist Practice

At the heart of these teachings is the practice of mindfulness, an essential tenet of Buddhism. Mindfulness, or ‘Sati’ in Pali, implies ‘remembering’ or ‘recalling.’ But it is not a mere memory exercise. Instead, it’s a conscious and continual effort to keep one’s mind in the present, fully experiencing each moment as it comes and goes.

Buddhist practitioners, through mindfulness, learn to see time as a succession of present moments rather than a relentless continuum. By training the mind to stay ‘here and now,’ they create a shift in the perception of time, making it feel expansive and unhurried. This cultivation of present-moment awareness could hold the key to why meditators often report a slowed-down perception of time.

The Science of Time Perception

The perception of time is a complex psychological process that varies greatly among individuals. We are not simply passive observers to the ticking of an objective cosmic clock. Instead, our brains construct our sense of time, molding it through various cognitive processes and environmental influences.

Scientifically, time perception is thought to rely on the so-called “internal clock” model. This model suggests that our brain has an internal counting mechanism, similar to a metronome, which ticks at a certain rate. Changes in our physical and emotional state can alter this ticking rate, which in turn influences our perception of time. For instance, under conditions of fear or high adrenaline, our internal clock might speed up, causing external events to appear to slow down.

Individuals also display vast differences in their time perception abilities. Some people are able to accurately estimate time intervals without the aid of a clock, while others have a skewed perception of time, often overestimating or underestimating elapsed time.

In the realm of cognitive neuroscience, numerous studies have been conducted to unravel the intricacies of time perception. The research study that forms the foundation of this article is one such endeavor. This study, highlighted in Psychology Today, delves into the intriguing influence of meditation on time perception.

The study posits that mindfulness meditation can alter our perception of time, making it seem to pass more slowly than it does for those not engaged in such practices. What is fascinating about this research is not only its implications for understanding human cognition but also its potential to bridge ancient Buddhist wisdom and contemporary science.

Mindful Meditation and Time Perception: The Study

The study in question, published in the journal “Timing & Time Perception,” ventured into the uncharted territory of meditation’s impact on time perception. The team of researchers, led by Dr. Marc Wittmann, based their investigation on two main participant groups: regular meditators and non-meditators.

The methodology of the study was quite straightforward yet effective. Participants were asked to judge the duration of time intervals that were neither too short (in the range of milliseconds) nor too long (more than a few minutes). The rationale was to study the perception of the “psychological present,” a time frame which is said to span between 2-3 seconds, extending up to a minute.

Participants in the study were exposed to a range of time intervals and were asked to estimate the duration of each. The researchers found that, compared to non-meditators, regular meditators were more accurate in their duration judgments, particularly for longer intervals.

These findings underscore the influence of mindful meditation on time perception. But what explains this effect? The researchers posit that it may have to do with the heightened attention and awareness that regular meditation cultivates.

Meditation, particularly mindfulness-based practices, fosters an increased focus on the present moment. This enhanced attention to the ‘now’ might be influencing the perception of time, making meditators more attuned to its passage. Furthermore, by reducing mental clutter, meditation might be freeing up cognitive resources that then improve the accuracy of duration judgments.

These findings provide a remarkable insight into the subjective nature of time and how practices like meditation can modify our experience of it. Next, we will delve into the implications of this study and the connection it forges between the fields of cognitive science and Buddhist philosophy.

Buddhism and Science: Intersections and Insights

The intersection between the tenets of Buddhism and the scientific study’s findings creates a fascinating bridge between ancient wisdom and modern understanding. Buddhism, with its non-linear and infinite perception of time, not only shares the fluidity of time perception demonstrated in the study but also underscores the role mindfulness plays in this process.

Just as the study’s findings suggest, Buddhist teachings advocate for a heightened attention and awareness to the present moment — a fundamental principle of mindfulness. By maintaining an acute awareness of the present, we become more in tune with the passage of time, mirroring the accuracy in duration judgments observed in regular meditators during the study.

Mind’s influence over subjective experiences

This fusion of scientific research and Buddhist philosophy provides a profound insight into our perception of time. By understanding time’s malleability through our consciousness, we uncover the immense influence our mind has over our subjective experiences. This confluence emphasizes how much control we possess over our perceptions, painting a picture of potential personal freedom and psychological well-being that we can all aspire to achieve.

In light of these findings, the Buddhist concept of time attains a new level of relevance. The idea that we can actively shape our perception of time through mindful practices presents an empowering perspective. It suggests that the often overwhelming experience of time’s swift passage can be mitigated through dedicated mindfulness practice, enabling a more measured, less stressful experience of life’s temporal rhythm.

In essence, the marriage of scientific research on time perception and Buddhist wisdom on the nature of time provides us with a deeper understanding of our temporal reality. It elucidates the significant role our mind plays in shaping this reality and offers a path — mindfulness meditation — to better navigate our journey through time.

Key Takeaways

In this exploration, we’ve woven together the threads of a modern scientific study on time perception with the timeless teachings of Buddhism. The study’s findings indicate that regular meditators exhibit a more accurate duration judgment, pointing to the power of mindfulness in modulating our temporal experiences. Intriguingly, these conclusions harmonize with Buddhist wisdom on the infinite, non-linear nature of time, and the role mindfulness plays in shaping our perception of it.

However, the exploration does not end here. Further research can delve into other facets of mindfulness meditation and their potential impact on various aspects of cognition and perception. The possible interplay between mindfulness and memory, decision-making, or emotional regulation opens up interesting avenues for investigation.

Examining modern scientific discoveries through the lens of ancient wisdom, such as Buddhism, brings a unique perspective to our understanding. It allows us to see these findings not merely as isolated phenomena but as part of a broader human quest for knowledge and self-understanding, bridging the past with the present, and perhaps, providing a path for the future. It reinforces the idea that wisdom, be it ancient or contemporary, transcends time and remains relevant across millennia.

References

1 – https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/urban-survival/201910/meditation-may-change-the-way-we-perceive-time

2 – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31626645/

3 – https://buddhaweekly.com/buddha-multiverse-time/

Meditation offers multiple benefits for your mind, body and spirit. It is an integral part of Buddhism, allowing you to achieve detachment and see reality as it is. How do you know that your practice is effective, that you’re “meditating correctly?”

By Beth Rush

Managing Editor, BodyMind.com

The answer is implicit in the question. Meditation is, first and foremost, a “practice,” not a “perfection.” The more often you devote yourself to this endeavor, the easier it will become for you to enter an enlightened state of consciousness. Dedicated practitioners can do so nearly anytime and anywhere, even in less-than-ideal conditions.

How do you know when you’ve entered a “proper” meditative state? Here’s how to know you are meditating correctly.

The Many Uses of a Meditative State

If you attached electrodes to a meditative brain, you could see the effects of this practice on its waves. You have four primary brain waves [1], including:

• Beta: Active, focused, at work on a task.
• Alpha: Awake, yet relaxed and resting.
• Theta: Relaxed waves seen in daydreaming or light sleep, linked to inhibition of responses and memory formation.
• Delta: Slow, intense waves occurring during deep sleep.

Meditation aims to take your brain out of the active, focused state and through the alpha and theta stages. Some practitioners engaged in yoga nidra may attain delta waves during their practice.

Entering a meditative state provides necessary detachment. It helps you see situations objectively as a neutral observer. In practice, the goal is to achieve enlightenment.

However, this practice has practical applications as well. It can help patients with medical disorders and chronic pain. For example, patients with overactive bladder can reduce the frequency and urgency [2] of episodes. Those receiving large injections, like cortisone in the knee, can enter such a state to make the insertion less frightening and painful — relaxed muscles provide less resistance.

Steps to Entering a Meditative State

You can know that you are meditating correctly if you follow these steps. Please bear in mind that each experience will be different. Relax and observe.

1. Focus on the Breath

In Buddhism, breathing meditation is called Anapanasati. This process simply refers to counting or observing each breath [3] as it comes. You’ll often find that the simple act of drawing awareness to your breathing patterns makes it deeper and slower.

2. Intention

Each meditation begins with an intention, spoken as a positive statement, not a wish. For example, your intent may be, “I am quiet and observant,” or “I am relaxed and calm.”

3. Turn Inward

The next step is to focus your attention inward. A useful technique for doing so is a body scan or what is called a rotation of consciousness in yoga nidra. Draw your awareness to various areas of your body, consciously relaxing any tension you encounter.

4. Explore Your Feelings

As you begin to feel detached, as if you are a neutral observer looking at yourself, explore your feelings. What is your emotional temperature? Accept these emotions. What are they trying to teach or show you?

5. Observe Your Thoughts

What thoughts attach to those feelings? For example, the sutras teach us that mindfulness is the remedy [3] for fear. Looking at your thoughts with detachment helps you determine your response. For example, if you are nervous about driving, wearing your seatbelt addresses this concern.

6. Gain Clarity Through Detachment

Ultimately, the goal of meditation is to gain clarity through detachment. You can know that you are meditating correctly when you feel a sense of inner peace and calm. In some cases, cultivating serenity alone represents your purpose.

How Do I Know If I’m Meditating Correctly? How Should I Feel?

You will know that you are meditating correctly when you feel a sense of completion upon ending your practice. You should feel a renewed sense of clarity and inner peace.

Please don’t confuse this serene state with finding the ultimate resolution for all your problems. Life is an ever-moving stream which changes with each passing moment. The goal of meditation is to sit on its banks, observing it, not get swept away by its depths. If you attain that state, that of a neutral observer, you know you are meditating correctly.

How to Enter a Meditative State

Many practitioners wonder if they are meditating correctly. Please remember that it is a practice, one that you will get better with over time.

When you emerge from your practice with a renewed sense of calm and clarity, you know you are meditating correctly. Be gentle with yourself and consistent, and you will improve, eventually learning to call on a meditative state as you need it.

Sources

[1]  TMSi

[2] Laborie

[3]  Buddha Weekly: How to know which type of meditation is best for you

By Beth Rush

Managing Editor, BodyMind.com

What Does Research Say About Meditation and Heart Health?

Stress impacts people differently — for some individuals, stress poses significant risks to their cardiovascular health. For instance, one study showed a 10% to 40% increased risk of heart disease and stroke from work-related stress [Note 1].

Another study found a higher prevalence of ischaemic heart disease, hypertension, arrhythmia, and heart failure in people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) [2].

Although doctors have long touted diets rich in omega-3 fatty acids as a healthy approach to reducing cardiovascular risks and conditions, new research indicates that meditation also benefits the heart [3].

One 2019 clinical study that examined patients with depression and anxiety, diabetes, and smoking history showed that after eight weeks of meditation, for two hours weekly, patients had significantly lower blood pressure readings [4].

The possibility that meditation positively impacts heart health isn’t much of a stretch, especially considering its effect on other conditions. For instance, meditating to 40-hertz vibrational acoustics for 30 minutes three times weekly for four weeks helped one Alzheimer’s patient recall the names of loved ones.

Experts also recommend a meditation practice before bed to improve sleep quality. Those with chronic pain or insomnia could benefit from a five-minute meditation for a more restful night.

How Does Meditation Slow Heart Rate?

A 2013 American Heart Association report found that the average heart rate after meditation was lowered significantly — there was a 4.7-milligram (mm) reduction of mercury in systolic blood pressure and a 3.2 mm reduction in diastolic blood pressure [6].

Of course, this phenomenon begs the question, “How does meditation slow heart rate?” Another study found that a weekly 1.5-hour meditation stimulated the parasympathetic nervous system, slowing the heart rate for enhanced relaxation and rest [7].

Fear, anxiety, stress and pain may also cause your heart rate to speed up. However, one study on Transcendental Meditation suggests that meditation significantly affects patients with high anxiety more than most standard and alternative treatments [8]. However, you should always listen to your medical practitioner’s advice before trying something different from your mental health management plan.

A Guided Meditation for Heart Health

Everyone can meditate regardless of their condition or background. Follow these easy steps for a guided meditation for heart health.

1. Sit comfortably with your eyes closed, taking a deep diaphragmatic breath into the belly and allowing your thoughts to disappear.
2. Stay focused on your heart energy, drawing awareness to the heart and the space around it.
3. As you focus on the heart and chest cavity, begin taking long, slow, gentle breaths, imagining every inhale and exhale moving into your heart and out.
4. In your mind, ask the heart what it needs or set an intention for your meditation, such as “My heart is healthy and strong” or “My heart is full of love and light.”
5. Meditate for five to 10 minutes, just breathing silently. Mentally tell intrusive thoughts to go away — this is normal.

Once you’ve finished your meditation practice, slowly open your eyes and take stock of your physical and emotional feelings.

Greater Relaxation for Heart Health

Regularly meditating could have positive outcomes for heart health — even indirectly. Building a more relaxed state could slow down your heart rate and reduce the risk of cardiovascular events.

Disclaimer: No content on this site should ever be used as a substitute for medical advice from a qualified health practitioner

Sources

[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002934322001371

[2] https://www.bmj.com/content/365/bmj.l1255

[3] https://www.mainelobsternow.com/health-benefits-of-seafood

[4] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41371-018-0130-6

[5] https://buddhaweekly.com/drumming-for-mindfulness-drumming-for-healing-mind-and-body-a-simple-way-to-calm-the-monkey-mind-remove-stress-and-heal-how-science-and-different-buddhist-traditions-use-the-drum-for-everything-fr/

[6] https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/mindfulness-can-improve-heart-health

[7] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7142551/

[8] https://buddhaweekly.com/10-benefits-meditation/

Meditation and mindfulness have been practiced worldwide for centuries. Today, nearly 14.2% of American adults meditate [Note 1] or incorporate another spiritual or mantra-focused practice — about 5.4% of children do the same.

Science-backed evidence has shown that meditation provides emotional, mental and physical support, positively affecting one’s overall health. While some people practice meditation to relieve stress and center their focus, others find that it helps relax the muscles, particularly the somatic nervous system.

By Beth Rush

of BodyMind.com

[Disclaimer: Always seek the advice of your health care practitioners when experiencing pain or other medical issues.]

What Is the Somatic Nervous System?

The somatic nervous system is a component of the peripheral nervous system, branching far and wide throughout the body. It’s the part of the nervous system that controls muscle movement and sensory input [2] — taste, touch, sound and smell — that sends messages to the brain.

Many conditions negatively impact the somatic nervous system — for instance, autoimmune disorders, diabetes, infections, medicines or procedures. Trauma also can cause adverse effects.

When the body undergoes chronic or sudden, severe pain, the somatic nervous system indicates “referred pain” — what causes you to feel pain or a physical problem in a specific area that actually comes from elsewhere. A heart attack patient might feel pain in the arm or back, while someone with pelvic floor dysfunction could feel pain in the lower back or upper thighs.

Sometimes, when trauma occurs, it can imprint muscle memory in the somatic nervous system. This is why individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often feel physical symptoms like muscle tension [3] and joint pain.

Meditation and the Body

Trauma imprints and continuous discomfort within the somatic nervous system can make daily tasks and functions more difficult. However, mindfulness meditation has a long history of helping people through their pain [4] from chronic illness or cancer.

You begin to build awareness of your physical, emotional and mental duress when you meditate. Since the brain tends to hone in on the pain, mindfulness can shift your focus enough to make it less consuming [5] and more manageable. For these reasons, Mindfulness can be a reinforcing or complimentary method to Somatic Experiencing.

The deep breathing that occurs during meditation also helps to relax the body, relieving muscle and joint tension.

A Meditative Approach to Somatic Experiencing

Somatic experiencing is one approach people take toward relieving the somatic nervous system — and meditation plays a crucial role.

Many people struggle to overcome traumatic events and the body’s stress response. However, somatic experiencing helps you build an awareness of physical feelings in the body. You might begin to notice your heart beating or whether the muscles tense up or relax. Essentially, becoming aware of the physical sensations allows you to release the trauma imprint [6] and move past the event.

Meditation can improve your self-awareness and gain insight [7] into who you are, enabling you to undergo effective somatic experiencing.

For those with PTSD, studies have shown that somatic experiencing is a practical component of trauma healing [8] — but it’s best to consult with a specialist for further discussion and treatment of your mental and physical pain.

Meditation Enhances Somatic Experiencing

Meditation and somatic experiencing aren’t the same, but meditation does matter. When you meditate, you enhance somatic experiencing by creating a higher level of self-awareness. Therefore, those who intend to try somatic experiencing to heal trauma might consider building a meditation practice.

Sources

[1] NIH>>

[2] Cleveland Clinic>>

[3]  Psychiatry.org>>

[4] UPMC>>

[5] Mindfulness paradox: Buddha Weekly>>

[6]  Verywell Health>>

[7]  10 benefits of meditation: Buddha Weekly>>

[8]  PubMed>>

Chakras, meridians, the central channel, kundalini, and the subtle or energy body. All of these terms, ideas, and words swirl around our current culture like never before. The historical significance and understanding of these differ greatly from our recent usage of them.

By Joshua Reichmann

The cultural containers that nurtured these practices were ones where an entirely different presumption of life, reality, the body and science was integrated. 

These days one is prompted to do kundalini yoga without a guru, without much teaching on the phenomenon, and yet with great promise. The result is a funny mix of dangerously fast tracking our processes, ignoring key instructions and methods, and yet often experiencing the effects. 

• Editor’s Note: It is generally not recommended to undertake serious Kundalini Yoga or other advanced yogas without the guidance of a qualified teacher.

This can be confusing. Without the cultural lineages intact we can often be left afloat, navigating great change and mystical or profound evolutions to our minds and bodies while having no community or teacher to lean into. 

Still, we have to work with what we’ve got. And while we currently mix these ideas into a stew, suited to our industrial time constraints and hyper-individualism we can find the benefits nonetheless. 

Whole body and mind

I’ve seen many yogis and Buddhists either retreating from these esoteric practices or running open arms into them. In truth, the whole body and its senses and relationship to the mind are part and parcel with our practice to become enlightened, or at least evolve. 

Many practitioners are solely interested in the quality of mind they carry from moment to moment. Some see the quieting of the mind as the goal. Looking for samadhi or even layers of surrender and peace as the object of mindfulness.

Single-pointed focus, where the breath, the senses including our tactile sensations, and the quality of mental formations are enough to work with for one lifetime. Perhaps we don’t believe in subtle layers of energy where mind and body interact in the field of emotions stemming from karma. 

But it is this synesthesia of the sense of self that holds an important key to realizing self, emptiness, and interdependence as taught traditionally. 

Riding the breath

The experience of certain practices such as simply working with the body and breathing with intent opens up new states of awareness and those can often showcase for us new realizations of our connectedness with the world we perceive as outside of ourselves, the roots of our ignorance and habits or karma and the pathways to transmute these. 

If we learn with a teacher or through traditional Buddhist text how to navigate or ride the breath while feeling the body’s response and our reactions or responses to this we begin to see how mind permeates far more than what we call thought. 

In our traditional practice, we make no final distinction between mental formations and senatorial impressions. Sort of the way our feelings, big emotions, and our judgments as language or conceptual based thoughts combine to generate our sense of self in time and space —  we can also start to see phenomena as an energetic display like our body — reality is alive and this is where something mysterious opens up. 

That display of energy seems to be occurring within us. But as we sit and move these energies we can begin to touch into our boundaryless natures. 

Ultimate reality

While in the mundane samsaric sense, we are organic sentient beings, and singular minds, we are also entwined with all phenomena in ultimate reality.

The reason our teachers have us work with deities or Buddhas is that by dislocating our sense of unique permanent selfhood we have a chance to “hook into” more evolved states of being that transcend our constrained views and beliefs of self.

 By seeing the Buddha as not separate from or divorced from our natures we start to alter something deep within. The quality of mind and body that a Buddha inhabits is dimensionally far different than the one we humans lock ourselves into. And so, while we are certainly embodied here and now as people, we start to build our bodies. And energy as prime to embodiment links to mind as far as experience goes. 

Quality of I

Our quality of “I”or consciousness itself starts to expand. Perhaps our very existence of consciousness evolves. Where before we saw things through a narrow lens of self and our ideas and suffering we start to integrate more and eventually all experience is altered. 

There is something particular about meditation that incorporates visualizations, energy or physical states with our directed intention that moves us quickly up the ladder of evolution towards some realizations that we couldn’t do while simply concerned with our concentration on the conceptual or thought. 

The hazard is of course that these methods of embracing the chakras, nadis or attempting to open the kundalini and into a self-cycling or awakened state will so quickly purify or alter our view that we won’t be able to keep up with what we are experiencing. Cleansing karma this way seems to accelerate our lives into new frontiers. Those can often be jarring. We confront our own defiled thinking and how trauma, confusion and old habits embedded deep within our psyche have been locking us into samsara. This is a necessary and ongoing process to awakening – but it is not for the faint of heart. 

The groundless state

Who knows how life will change? As Trungpa and many teachers have warned us – the path leads to a groundless state. The parachute that aids us, the container that catches us or softens our process through the illusion of time – is our refuge. The refuge is in the awareness of interdependence. That Buddha Nature is part of interdependence and that we are in no way divorced or separate in any way from that nature. And that as a result we need simply proceed with a healthy caution as we release the shackles of mind and imprints of confusion from within our multidimensional deep energetic selves that entwine with all. At the bottom of that, all is a still point we may meet, this lifetime or perhaps the next. 

Disclaimer: Always consult with your medical practitioner on pain or health issues. 

By Beth Rush

Meditation and Pain Relief Research

Meditation is helpful for many things and dealing with pain is one of them. You can use it to channel different pathways in the brain that deal with pain in a way that differs from other treatments. Over time, meditation can change your brain structure to deal with pain better.

A 2018 study reported meditation and mindfulness practiced long-term could change the brain’s structure. The change happens by the cortical thickness in the brain allows you to be less sensitive to pain.

• See our previous feature with the researched benefits of pain reduction through meditation>>
• See our entire section of features on Mindfulness, including helpful how-tos>>

Mindfulness for Pain Management

Mindfulness meditation can transform your life and help you deal with chronic pain better. Many people suffer from back, neck and other discomforts that disrupt their day. Most pain comes from daily life wear and tear on the body. Aromatherapy, yoga, deep breathing and meditation relieve back pain and stress.

Meditation allows you to observe things beyond the present pain. You become aware of the pain, emotions, thoughts, and how they interact. One thing that happens is the pain is present, but the whole experience is different. Mindfulness gives a sense of mental foundation to change the perspective of the pain.

When the pain you are feeling is constantly on your mind, it acts as a mental lens that only focuses on the pain. Mindfulness meditation allows you to change the lens, which makes the pain seem smaller and more manageable. You see your thoughts as another external part of you instead of internalizing them and freeing yourself from the mental experience of pain.

Mindfulness Reframes Your Pain

Pain is the body’s natural way of letting you know an area of your body needs attention. It plays a crucial role in maintaining your physical well-being. Pain is not the enemy since it is essential to being human.

When the pain goes on for a long time or is intense, it can be hard to remember it’s a normal function. Meditative approaches help you develop a plan to transform the relationship with the experiences. Meditation techniques will help you cultivate an attitude towards situations that lessen the effects. Once you learn how the pain is weighing on the mind, it will make controlling it easier.

When practiced regularly, the physical sensation of pain from the mental and emotional processes becomes just another sensation. The development of mindfulness will bring freedom to chronic pain.

Using Meditation as a Pain Relief Aid

Research supports using meditation to change the brain’s sensitivity to pain. Pain is unavoidable, so learning how to manage it better will help you through life situations when it is inevitable.

By Beth Rush,

Editor, Body Mind>>

Time spent in meditation allows you to connect to the energies and mysteries connecting all living beings. To walk the Eightfold Path, you must practice the Four Noble Truths. What are the four types of meditation in Buddhism and how can you use them to transform your life?

What are the four protective meditations?

The four protective meditations in Buddhism help to reframe your mindset. You might use them in preparation for a longer sitting meditation session or as individual subjects to study deeply. What are these and what is the specific intent of each?

1. Recollection of the Buddha

Recollection of the Buddha is an excellent protective meditation when you have a long and arduous journey. It’s also beneficial when you feel stuck, disappointed, listless and dissatisfied with your progress.

This meditation can bridge the gap between spiritual practice and modern therapeutic techniques. For example, it may comfort people in recovery from substance abuse by reminding them they will face triggers and setbacks, just as the Buddha faced hardships and outside distractions on his path to enlightenment. His journey was not short nor easy — by emulating his example, you, too, can persevere.

• Studying sutra, reciting sutra and meditating on the Buddha’s life are way to engage in “Recollection of the Buddha.” For a feature on the importance or reciting sutra on Buddha Weekly, see>>

2. Metta meditation

Metta is loving-kindness, which serves as an antidote to anger and ill-will, one of the five hindrances. It’s particularly helpful in today’s world, where opposing viewpoints often meet with hostility instead of a sober and curious examination of the deeper issues.

Metta meditation helps you unearth the seed of your anger. Usually, you direct your energy to an outside party, laying the blame at their feet for the suffering this emotion causes you. Metta meditation reminds you your inner experience belongs to you and you ultimately decide how to respond to that emotion. You recall that others have similar internal landscapes and feel inspired to offer them the same compassion and desire for understanding you want to receive from them.

• For a video feature on Metta meditation on Buddha Weekly, see>>

3. Contemplation of the Body

Contemplation of the body seeks to remove sensual desire and lust. However, in modern times, it can also help you find peace and acceptance of who you are. Reducing the body to parts and systems lets you recognize the transience of physical attractiveness while also building a deeper appreciation for the marvel of life. How glorious is it that your cells perform such radically different functions, yet all harmonize to create the mystery of you?

4. Reflection on Death

Reflection on death — meditations on impermanence — helps you overcome idleness. When you remember your time is finite, you understand the need for diligence. You gain a deeper appreciation of mindfulness practices for keeping you balanced in the present and helping you fully experience each moment of this incarnation.

• For a feature “Learning How to Die” on the importance of reflections on death and impermanence on Buddha Weekly, see>>

Four protective meditations in Buddhism?

Although you can use the four protective meditations alone, you can also direct your intent with each. Buddhist meditation may occur when sitting on your zafu or in walking meditation. However, you should know the four types of meditation in Buddhism to concentrate your mental energies.

1. Concentrative

These practices help you regain focus when your mental energies are scattered everywhere. Mindfulness of breathing is a classic example.

• For a full feature on Samatha (with video)  mindfulness of breathing meditation on Buddha Weekly, see>>

2. Generative

Generative meditations direct your attention to what you want to manifest more of in this life. For example, many people who use guided meditations engage in this practice, even if they do not identify as Buddhists.

3. Receptive

Sensory receptive meditations open you to the mindfulness of the present moment. It also allows you to recognize your present experience. For example, performing a body scan tunes you into the physical sensations affecting you outside of your ordinary awareness.

• For a feature on mindfulness of each moment on Buddha Weekly, see>>

4. Reflective

Reflective meditations help you integrate your outside experiences with your internal schema or worldview. For example, seeking to understand the roots of your anger and suffering would be a type of reflective meditation.

• For a feature on advanced Mahamudra analytical or reflective meditation and Vipassana (including a video teaching) see>>

Practice Buddhist protective meditations to change your life

If you hope to transform your life, your journey begins within. Contemplating the four protective meditations in Buddhism can become a powerful part of your path.

Feature by Beth Rush,

Editor, Body Mind>>

Beth Rush is the Managing Editor and content manager at Body+Mind. She is a well-respected writer in the personal wellness space and shares knowledge on a variety of topics related to nutrition, holistic health, and mental health. You can find Beth on Twitter @bodymindmag.

“Mahāmudrā, that which is unified and beyond the mind, is clear yet thoughtless, pervasive, and vast like space. Its aspect of great compassion is apparent yet devoid of any nature. Manifesting clearly like the moon in water; It is beyond all terms, boundaries or center. Polluted by nothing, it is stainless and beyond hope and fear. It cannot be described, like the dream of a mute.” [1]

Mahamudra retreats are famous for refreshing simplicity — and, of course, jaw-dropping depth. You can think of it as Buddhist Retreat where we “retreat into our own mind.” Whether we meditate in a cave, or our bedroom is irrelevant. We stay within our mind — the subject and the object of the meditation are our own mind.

A-Ha moments

We meditate on the concepts such as “ultimate short AH” — and we have Ah-ha moments.

We abide in unobstructed openness — yet we are, somehow, observing ourselves experience that openness.

There’s more meditation than “teaching” at the retreats, yet we are still exploring. Everything seems obscure — yet unobscured.

The entire point is to remove obscurations, yet we are confronted with teaching ideas such as “Mind is emptiness, and emptiness is also mind.”

Session 1 of a Mahamudra Retreat Video Series:

Mahamudra retreat — a little more open each time we meditate

Each time I’ve attended a Mahamudra weekend retreat, I’ve left refreshed, a little more open — and, a little stretched. What do I mean by stretched? Mahamudra has a way of stretching all of your comfort points, all of your past barriers, and most of your concepts. Even when you think you understood everything — from your last two retreats — pow, something amazing happens on the next weekend.

“Unobscured openness” is how Venerable Zasep Rinpoche summarized the experience of Mahamudra.

Video Alert — Please also watch for continuing new series on the Buddha Weekly YouTube Channel, with extensive teachings in several parts from Venerable Zasep Rinpoche, recorded previously at Gaden Choling Toronto. (This is one of the retreats the author attended, and it was wonderful!) Above is video 1 in the series.

Gelug Mahamudra, Eloquent Speech of Manjushri

With permission of the author, H.E. Venerable Zasep Tulku Rinpoche, here is an excerpt from  Gelug Mahamudra: Eloquent Speech of Manjushri, framing the importance of the tradition, why it is so compelling, and the lineage and source of the teaching.

Zasep Tulku Rinpoche explains Mahamudra practice

“Mahamudra meditation is awareness and understanding of the true nature of mind; it is spacious, without beginning or end. It is like observing the sky without the trace of birds, or the criss-cross of jet planes. You can merge your consciousness in the state of Mahamudra, beyond words and thoughts. The true nature of the mind is raw or naked awareness. It is an uncovered, untamed and unaltered state, without fabrication. As the great teacher Gampopa put it, “It cannot be explained intellectually, but follow the instructions of the Guru and practise according to the lineage.

Mahamudra is a practice that leads us to experience the true nature of our own mind, unmediated. The sources of the Mahamudra teaching go all the way back to the Buddha’s Prajnaparamita, or the Heart Sutra, and also to the Samadhi Raja, or the King of Concentration Sutra. In Tibetan it is known as Teng Nye Zin Gyalpoe Do. These Sutras state that the nature of all phenomena is Mahamudra. According to the Heart Sutra:

“Mind is emptiness and emptiness is also mind. There is no mind other than emptiness, no emptiness other than the mind”.

Mahamudra is the method of realizing the clear light wisdom of Shunyata and accomplishing directly and vividly what we call the ‘meaning clear light’. In its Tantric aspect, the clear light nature of the mind is called ‘ultimate short AH’. It means the uncultivated mind, the unspoiled and pure mind. As the Buddha himself said:

“Mind does not exist within the mind, but the true nature of the mind is clear light”.

Buddha’s disciple Subhuti (in Tibetan the name is Rabjor) told one of his disciples, Koshika, that if you wish to cultivate Prajnaparamita , the perfection of wisdom, you need to cultivate the yoga of space and ‘without-roof obscuration’. The yoga of spaciousness he refers to is Mahamudra, and the ultimate Mahamudra is the Dharmakaya.

Arya Subhuti was referring to the experience of Mahamudra as ‘the yoga of no obscuration’. In Tibetan we say, Lagab Medpa. This means no roof, no wall, no floor, nothing to obscure the open space. When you are out there, you see the big sky, the stars at night — unobscured spaciousness. Likewise, when you look at the true nature of the mind, Mahamudra, there is nothing to find other than the observer mind — mind without obscuration.

Generally there are two types of meditation in the Mahamudra tradition, Sutra Mahamudra (which can be divided into Samatha Mahamudra and Vipashyana Mahamudra) and Tantra Mahamudra. Samatha Mahamudra can be described as resting in the nature of mind, and Vipashyana Mahamudra can be described as clear and deep seeing.

Mahamudra practice was introduced from India to Tibet. It is a Mahayana Buddhist method of meditation known for its simplicity. The practice is to be mindful, relaxed, be here and now, accept and appreciate the opportunity for Dharma practice. The practice of Mahamudra is a peaceful experience of our inner mind that is completely free of clinging and rejection. Observing the mind’s true nature, no matter what our life brings us.

Maha means “great” and Mudra means “symbol” or “seal.” The Great Symbol referred to spacious voidness and emptiness—the very nature of our mind and all phenomena.

There are three divisions of Mahamudra 1.Ground Mahamudra, 2. Path Mahamudra, 3. Fruition Mahamudra.

Ground Mahamudra is emptiness of the mind and emptiness of all Phenomena. Path Mahamudra is the actual meditation. Fruition Meditation is the experience.

First, sit on a comfortable cushion or chair in an upright position, keeping your spine straight but in in a relaxed position, eyes look directly into the space in front. Then rest the mind in the present moment, focusing your mind on the breath. As you breath in, feel your abdomen rising and when you breath out your abdomen falling. While feeling the sensation of rising and falling, watch the inhaling and exhaling. Sit quietly for a minimum of ten minutes, gently letting go of your thoughts until you feel a sense of calmness.

Having established the stable present moment, through awareness on the breath cycle as the object of attention, now switch to space. We place the mind’s focus on spaciousness of mind as the object of attention. This space is the domain, the field of awareness in which mental events, memories, thoughts, images and so on occur.

Whatever thought comes up, whether it is negative or positive, emotional or perceptive, keep your focus on it, without judgment or comment. Rest the mind in its natural state and aim for an equilibrium state of the mind.

From time to time, reflect on the three basic characteristics of mind: emptiness, clarity, and awareness.

Tilopa’s song of Mahamudra

The clouds that wander through the sky

Have no roots, no home; nor do the distinctive

Thoughts, which float through the mind.

Once the nature of mind is seen, Discrimination stops.

 

In space, shapes and colours form,

But neither by black nor white is space tinged.

From the nature of mind all things emerge,

The mind is not tainted by virtues or vices.

 

One should not give and take but remain natural, for

Mahamudra is beyond all acceptance and rejection.

Since the consciousness is not born, no one can obstruct it or soil it;

Staying in the “Unborn” realm all appearances will dissolve into the ultimate Dharma.

 

At first a yogi feels his mind is tumbling like a waterfall;

In mid-course, like the Ganges, it flows on slow and gentle;

In the end, it is a great vast ocean,

Where the lights of Child and Mother merge in one.”

NOTES:

[1] Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang; Khenpo Konchok Tamphel (translator), Water Crystal: A commentary on the Ganges Mahamudra.

Leisure and fortune are hard to find, and death strikes quickly,
Actions and their effects do not deceive, and there’s no happiness in saṃsāra.

I take refuge in the Three Jewels, the sources of protection,
And generate love, compassion, and the mind of bodhicitta.

In this particular song, the Song of Practice, the great Shabkar explains the entire Vajrayana path, from beginning to the end: Refuge to offerings, to praise of the lineage Guru, to keeping the Buddha always in mind, to Emptiness, to generation of the deity and the profound true nature of deity, to completion practice and meditation on the channels, to conduct in life, to dedication of merit.

Nothing, not one single element of Vajrayana practice is missed. Reading these words, is like sitting at the feet of the great master Shakbar.

A Short Song of Practice

by Shabkar Tsokdruk Rangdrol

Namo Guru Mañjughoṣaya!

Dharmakāya Samantabhadra, sambhogakāya Vajradhara,
Supreme nirmāṇakāya, Lord of Sages, and the rest—
Along with those who turn the Dharma-wheel for all,
My teachers, direct and indirect—before you all, I prostrate.

Although I have nothing new to say, which hasn’t been said before
By the victorious buddhas and their spiritual offspring,
The learned and accomplished masters of India and Tibet,
I shall sing a little on what they have taught, so listen well!

Leisure and fortune are hard to find, and death strikes quickly,
Actions and their effects do not deceive, and there’s no happiness in saṃsāra.

I take refuge in the Three Jewels, the sources of protection,
And generate love, compassion, and the mind of bodhicitta.

Nectar cascades from Vajrasattva, seated upon my crown,
To purify my illnesses, demons, harmful influences, and obscurations.

I offer my body, my estate, and whatever virtues I have amassed to the deities:
Kindly accept them and bestow your blessings and accomplishment.

Root Guru, who is the embodiment of all sources of refuge,
I supplicate you: bless me, I pray!

Imagine and continually recall the Buddha,
Appearing very clearly in the space in front of you.

The nature of mind is like space, primordially empty;
Rest in this empty cognizance without the slightest grasping.

All that appears within the sky of mind is like a rainbow;
Understand the unity of appearance and emptiness to be illusory.

Meditate upon your physical body as the form of the deity—appearing yet empty;
And your speech as the mantra to be recited—audible yet empty.

Clearly visualize A and HAṂ within the three channels and the chakras,
And increase the blissful warmth by holding the vase-breath.

From time to time, be diligent in purifying the different realms,

To conclude, seal your practice with prayers of dedication and aspiration.

If you are able to give up life’s distraction and practice in isolation
The leisure and fortune you have won will be made truly meaningful.

May this merit cause all my fortunate disciples
To practise the Dharma wholeheartedly.

While we may be on the right track with yoga, finding your spiritual purpose is much deeper than what you can expect from an hour a week at a yoga studio.

Finding your personal path involves introspection and self-discovery, which you won’t get if you’re doing yoga to be trendy or fit. Certainly, this isn’t to say that yoga is bad. The point is that you must also take measures to get to know your spiritual self. When all the pressures of society are stripped away, who are you, really?

Meditation can help you reconnect with your spiritual self. But not every meditation style is right for every person.

Let’s explore the various meditation types.

By Trevor McDonald (Bio below)

Metta meditation

You may also hear this type of meditation called loving-kindness meditation because its main purpose is to cultivate love and kindness towards everything. And yes, that includes your frenemy at work who sabotaged your promotion. This is not an easy concept to master. But just imagine how happy you could be if you looked at everything with love and kindness. Remove all your negative thoughts and reactions, and you just feel good.

The essence of Metta is contained in the short practice of taking refuge and the four immeasurables, here beautifully chanted by Yoko Dharma

How to practice

With this type of meditation, you breathe deeply while opening your mind to receive love and kindness. Then, you’ll actively send messages of love and kindness out into the world.

Like all forms of meditation, Metta meditation takes some practice before you feel like you’re on the right track. You may need to repeat your messages of love many times before you feel the love emanating from your core. When you feel it, you have accomplished a temporary goal. Over time and practice, these feelings of love should remain with you even when you’re not meditating.

Progressive meditation

Progressive meditation is a popular form of meditation for people who are experiencing physical pain or discomfort. The goal of progressive meditation is to notice tension in the body, recognize it and release it. [Similar to body scan meditation or “mindfulness of body” meditation.]

How to practice

Start at one end of your body, whether it’s the crown of your head or the tips of your toes, and work through your entire body. There are a few ways this can be done. Some practitioners tighten and release muscles as they work through the body while others visualize a wave drifting over them, relieving tension as it goes.

If you’re currently suffering from chronic pain, this may be a good style to try. Because of its relaxing properties, it may also help if you have trouble getting to sleep.

Mindfulness meditation — Sati

Mindfulness meditation (Sati in Pali sutta, e.g. Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sutta) has become a very popular form of meditation in recent years, and its benefits have been well researched. One University of Kentucky research review(1) concluded that mindfulness meditation may help alleviate many conditions, including pain, anxiety, stress, depression and eating disorders. [See this feature on the research into meditation’s benefits>>] 

The basis of mindfulness meditation lies in living in the present moment.

So often, we spend our time dwelling on the past or dreading the future. Mindfulness meditation attempts to correct this behavior by helping the practitioner focus on the present moment and become more aware of this surroundings.

How to practice

Most people start their practice in a group setting or in a quiet room where there are no distractions, but once you get the hang of it, you can practice mindfulness meditation anywhere. It’s all about bringing yourself and your thoughts into the moment. When you’re on a nature walk, for example, you will focus on the green leaves and brown tree trunks. Your attention will go to each step you take as you feel your foot hitting the soil.

This is where some people get confused between the forms of meditation because they all involve some form of mindfulness. The other forms simply have a specific route to get there. For example, in progressive meditation, you will achieve mindfulness by focusing on relaxing the body. [For a full feature on mindfulness meditation, see>>]

Breath awareness — Ānāpānasati

You’ve probably heard of this type of meditation before. It’s a common method for beginners because it gives them something constant to focus on. You aren’t going to stop breathing because you’d die. And if you change your breathing pattern or hold your breath, you’ll notice.

How to practice

As you meditate, you can count breaths or simply notice them. As you draw air into your body, notice how it feels. Feel it passing over your teeth and filling your lungs.

With this type of meditation, you won’t try to control your breaths. You’ll simply focus on your breathing instead of the thoughts that drift in and out of the mind. Because it’s a form of mindfulness meditation that’s great for beginners, breathing awareness meditation is often used for treating anxiety disorders(2).

Transcendental meditation — Mantra

As the name implies, the goal of transcendental meditation is to transcend your current state of being. This is a very spiritual form of meditation, and involves using mantra sound as a focus.

How to practice

To practice transcendental meditation, you’ll find a comfortable position, breathe slowly and focus on a mantra. [For a feature on mantras — including their purposes, see>>]

Typically, you would practice this meditation with a teacher who will provide you with the mantra based on your needs.

There’s a more contemporary version that allows the practitioner to choose their mantra. This is very similar to transcendental meditation, but not technically the same.

Zen meditation — Zazen

Sometimes called Zazen meditation, Zen meditation is a Buddhist practice. The practice of Zen meditation involves very specific steps and postures, so if you’re interested in learning, you may want to find a teacher. Check with a nearby Zen Buddhist temple to find out whether they offer group sessions. [For a feature on Zen Zazen, see>>]

How to practice

Although this form is a bit more disciplined, it combines elements from other forms of meditation to achieve mindfulness. Your goals are to find a comfortable sitting position, focus on your breaths and observe your thoughts without judgment.

Like Transcendental Mantra meditation, this is a useful meditation type if you’re looking to connect with a deeper level of spirituality — in addition to the physical and mental benefits(3) you’ll find with any meditation.

To find the right meditation style, you may need to try a few. If you’ve never meditated before, you may start with a simple breathing awareness exercise or a short mindfulness meditation. If you are further along in your practice, you may opt for Zen or transcendental meditation.

NOTES

(1)   Mindfulness Training as a Clinical Intervention: A Conceptual and Empirical Review Ruth A. Baer, University of Kentucky (Note: a PDF download)

(2)   Can Meditation Help Anxiety Disorders?; 12 Keys Rehab

(3)   Now and Zen: How mindfulness can change your brain and improve your health; Harvard [Downloads as a PDF.]

• Settling and calming the mind: mindfulness (of breathing, of mind, of the present moment, etc) — good for general health and well-being
• Activating the mind: visualizations, including visualizing Buddhas and chanting mantras — good for the mind, cognitive development and prevent cognitive decline.

[For more on this topic, as proven in scientific research, see this feature>>]

[Science of Meditation: peer reviewed research>>]

Benefits of Mindfulness Practice

There are manifold benefits to practice, not least of which are abandoning the clinging to the past and the worry about the future, both of which are the path of suffering. Daily practice, inexorably takes us to a place where lofty ideas like enlightened thinking is actually possible.

Personally, I find mindfulness practice has many other benefits beyond the main purpose of practice. It inspires courage by removing the worry about the future. What is there to be afraid of when you are in the present moment? It improves concentration in all tasks, making you more productive at work or play. It makes you much more attentive, making you a real blessing to your family and friends.

Mindfulness Proven to Reduce Stress

The most commonly mentioned benefit of mindfulness training—the very reason it is studied at every major medical university and used in psychiatry practice—is the known link between mindfulness and benefits to health through reduction of stress. To this, I can personally attest. Increased energy, improved self-esteem, ability to relax and sleep, and a general ability to cope with modern life are also often cited.

Science Proves Mindfulness Positively Alters the Brain

Apparently, it goes beyond all these already extraordinary benefits, by benefiting us in terms of bodily and neurological health. A May 2011 study in Neuroimage, which has been making the rounds of lofty publications and the science community, indicates that mindfulness physically changes the brain for the better. According to an article by Carolyn Schatz, an editor at Harvard Medical School publications:

“all this focusing and refocusing is increasing brain connectivity. Researchers in Los Angeles, California compared the brain activity of volunteers who had finished eight weeks of mindfulness-based stress reduction training with that of volunteers who did not do such training. Functional MRI scans showed stronger connections in several regions of the meditators’ brains—especially those associated with attention and auditory and visual processing.”

Many studies support the supposition—based on extensive evidence—that there are substantive health benefits associated with mindfulness meditation. More importantly, from a Buddhist point of view, the research specifically points to an actual alteration of brain function and also body function at a fundamental level. Dr. Herbert Benson, director of Mind-Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital discovered that mindfulness training can actually turn specific sets of genes on and off in people who practice regularly. These genes improve the body’s ability to handle free radicals, inflammation, pain, and even cell death.

Visualization and good “karma” activity: compassion and loving-kindness meditation

On the activity side of the meditation, equations are visualization meditations and mantra. These are well proven to activate the mind, improve the mind and sharpen our faculties — activate more parts of the brain.

• See our previous feature: Visualization activates the mind>>

One of the most precious of meditations is Tonglen, a visualization meditation in the Tibetan tradition, where we visualize taking in the suffering of others (in the form of black greasy smoke or another metaphor) with each breath, and giving back our positive merits. The act of taking in others suffering and giving them our own strength is a strong “merit” practice that not only makes us psychologically feel good, it has many spiritual benefits, such as “good karma.” It is an act of ultimate giving. Here, Tibetan teacher, H.E. Zasep Rinpoche, explains and guides Tonglen:

Mantra Improves Physical Health

Other studies have shown that mantra meditation improves immune system function, can eliminate food cravings and binge eating, reduce stress and improve cardio-vascular health. This isn’t a “magic formula” — it’s the result of coordinating sound, visualization and activating the brain and the body.

So, when I practice White Tara mantra mindfulness meditation, perhaps I am physically changing my body, probably enhancing my ability to prevent cell death (longer life, which is one of White Tara’s manifold blessings), reducing pain and removing free radicals which cause many diseases (also one of the many benefits of White Tara practice.) In other words, science proves that faith alone is not needed, since regardless of faith, mindfulness simply works.

I can also personally attest to the power of White Tara’s mantra in my own life. It simply has helped me overcome major issues relating to health, where medicine failed. Tara’s root mantra — there is also a full mantra meant for those who have empowerment — is:

Oṃ Tāre Tuttāre Ture Svāhā

 A guided White Tara meditation:

Sadhanas unlock and activate our brains fully:

In the ultimate “activity” meditation — formulated Sadhanas — we use multiple skilled methods and all the senses in visualization practice, reinforcing the extraordinary meditational experience, for example:

• sound: words and mantras
• breath: visualizing prana (chi) and the subtle body
• smell: we visualize the scent of wonderful offerings of incense
• taste: we visualize food offerings
• prayers: in psychological terms, affirmations
• offerings: representing our generosity and generating merit
• activity: for example, visualizing purifying light blessing all sentient beings, and other activities.

All of this serves to “activate” our mind, with resulting benefits in cognition, memory recall, and activation of the brain.

A Meditation How-To

At its simplest, meditation is about keeping us in the present, allowing us to shed the clinging to the past and the worries of the future. For this reason, the most common techniques include sitting, standing, or walking meditation involving single-minded focus on either stillness, or activity (depending on your goal):

• the breath
• mantra repetition
• emptiness practice (focusing on nothing—which is an element of all mindfulness practice)
• observing practice — simply observing your own thoughts, your own body, the sounds around you
• focus on any single thought, word or phrase
• martial arts or repetitive physical acts such as archery, Tai Chi, Kung Fu but with single-minded focus.

The key skill, that develops over time—apparently because we are actually altering our neural pathways and brain function, according to these studies—is to allow stray thoughts to happen, observe them, but then refocus on the single-minded focus point. It takes practice. It’s relaxing. It allows you to remove the obstacles to enlightenment. And it’s good for the health.

Breath, as a focal point, however, is just one of many targeted calm-abiding meditations. Breathing mindfulness is specifically recommended for people who are dominated by “conceptuality,” and who are unable to see beyond ordinary appearances.

Many types of calm-abiding focal points

Since modern people, especially Westerners, tend to be intellectual, analytical and “conceptual”, a meditation on the breath is the most frequently taught method. However, the focal point of any calm-abiding meditation, as taught by the Buddha, varies based on the discursive or afflictive emotion the student is “tackling” in their practice. The Dalai Lama writes: “Those dominated by conceptuality can observe the exhalation and inhalation of breath because by tying the mind to breath discursiveness diminishes.”

The Dalai Lama, in his teaching commentary on Lama Tsongkahapa’s The Great Exposition of Secret Mantra (Vol.3), provides significant guidance for students. In this feature, we’ll focus on the advice of Shakyamuni Buddha, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and the great Lama Tsongkhapa on topics for calm abiding meditation that suit your obstructions.[1]

Choosing the “object”

Whether we choose to visualize a Buddha, focus on a mantra, or just on our breath, depends on the result we expect or hope for.

The Dalai Lama explains: “In order to set the mind steadily on an object of observation it is necessary initially to use an object of observation suited to counteracting your own predominant afflictive emotion since its force remains with your mind now and can easily interrupt any attempt to concentrate the mind.”

Afflictive emotions

His Holiness then went on to describe the different afflictive emotions, and which contemplation works best — according to the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha. The afflictive emotions include:

• conceptuality
• desire
• hate
• pride
• obscuration or dullness

There are others, but these cover the primary afflictions. The Dalai Lama pointed out instructions for each:

1. Conceptual  — main focus: breath.
2. Desire — main focus: meditate on “ugliness” such as the organs, feces and blood of the body.
3. Hatred — main focus: “Metta” and “love” meditation, Bodhichitta, loving-kindness.
4. Pride — main focus: a meditation on the divisions of the constituents (fire, water, earth, wind, space, and consciousness: breaking them down to their respective constituents, such as, for the earth: flesh, skin, bone.) By breaking down the constituents to its insignificant components you lose the inflated ego and realize.
5. Obscuration and dullness: meditate on the twelve links of dependent arising of cyclic existence because it sharpens thinking and intelligence.

Buddha body object

His Holiness explains that all meditations can benefit from the “Buddha’s body” object of meditation:

“A particularly helpful object for all personality types is a Buddha body, since concentration on a Buddha’s body causes your mind to mix with virtuous qualities. No matter what the object is, this is not a case of meditating within, looking at an external object with your eyes, but of causing an image of it to appear to the mental consciousness.”

His Holiness then described how the process might work. “For instance, if you are to concentrate on Buddha body, first you need to come to know it well through hearing it described or through looking at a picture or statue, getting used to it, so that it can appear clearly in the mind. Then, imagine it about four feet in front of you at the height of your eyebrows, about two inches high. It should be meditated as being clear, with a nature of brilliant light; this helps to prevent the onset of laxity, a condition in which the mind’s mode of apprehension is too loose. Also, you can consider the imagined Buddha body to be heavy; this helps to prevent excitement, a condition in which the mind’s mode of apprehension is too light. Once the object originally has been determined, you may not change its nature or size; it must be fixed for the duration of generating calm abiding.”

The Buddha body specialists

Typically, a “Buddha body object” would be one’s own Yidam, although there are “specialist” emanations of Buddha bodies for most afflictions. For example, the five Buddha Families oppose or transform the same five major stresses. Although the attributions are slightly different between Buddhist schools, they are, generally:

1. Conceptual: the stress of mental formations and concepts is opposed by the karma activities of Amoghasiddhi (Karma family)
2. Desire: the stress of “desires” and clinging is opposed by the generosity of Ratnasambhava (Ratna family)
3. Hatred: the stress of hatred is opposed by Amitabha (Lotus family), the compassion family
4. Pride: the stress of pride is opposed or transformed by the humility of Akshobya (Vajra family)
5. Obscuration or dullness: the stress of “Ignorance” is opposed or transformed the wisdom of Vairocana and his family

These families and other meditation deities “oppose” the five stresses with their own special emphasis: Desire is opposed by generosity; hatred is opposed by love and Metta; Pride is overcome by humility; and so on. For more specific meditations, there are also many deity practices that focus on these “stresses”:

1. 

   Green Tara (member of Amoghasiddhi’s family) or Prajnaparamita for “conceptual” and also the Heart Sutra teachings. [For a feature on Green Tara see>>] [For a story on Prajnaparamita and Heart Sutra see>>]

2. Jambhala practice is often recommended for “desire” (practicing generosity to overcome greed); also Kshitigarbha (Earth Store Bodhisattva) [For a story on Kshitigarbha see>>]; Vajrayogini is recommended for “sensual desire” [For a story on Vajrayogini, see>>]
3. Avalokiteshvara (Chenrezig) for “hatred” [For a feature story on Chenrezig, see>>]
4. Vajrasattva to help us overcome “pride” through confession of our downfalls [For a feature on Vajrasattva see>>]
5. Manjushri (wisdom deity) for “obscuration and dullness”

If you’re really stuck, go wrathful

Only if you have appropriate initiation and full instruction from a teacher, if you are really stuck, you can also “up” the horse-power in your practice by meditating on the “wrathful” emanation of the same deity (assuming you have permission or empowerment). [For a feature story on wrathful deities, see>>]

For example:

1. Wrathful Dakinis (Wisdom Dakinis) such as Ekajati, Vajra Varahi, even Palden Lhamo (who famously renounced conceptuality in her gruesome story) and is famous for driving off our inner demons and afflictions. [For a feature on Palden Lhamo, see>>]
2. White Mahakala for general “desire”;  Kurukulle, another wrathful emanation of Tara is also recommended for “desire”.

3. 

   Hayagriva as the wrathful emanation of Chenrezig and Amitabha — again for hatred (Hayagriva is also good for many other obscurations). [For a feature story on Hayagriva, see>>]

4. Vajrakilaya, a wrathful emanation of Vajrasattva (famously, the practice that most often involves wrathful Phurba.) [For a story on Phurba, see>>]
5. Yamantaka as a wrathful emanation of Manjushri (the Buddha of Wisdom) — again for “dullness”

Excitement and laxity

Whatever the focus — breath, metta, or a deity — His Holiness advised us to develop:

• clarity of both object and consciousness itself
• staying one-pointedly on the object.

The two factors that prevent this are laxity and excitement. “Laxity prevents the development of clarity, and excitement prevents the stability with the object,” writes the Dalai Lama.

“That which interferes with the steadiness of the object of observation and causes it to fluctuate is excitement, which includes any scattering of the mind to an object other than the object of meditation. To stop that, withdraw your mind more strongly inside so the intensity of the mode of apprehension of the object begins to lower. If you need a further technique to withdraw the mind, it helps to leave the object of meditation temporarily and think about something that makes you more sober, such as the imminence of death…”

When speaking of laxity, His Holiness explains:

“It is not sufficient just to have stability; clarity is also needed. That which prevents clarity is laxity, which is a case of the mind’s becoming too relaxed, too loose, lacking intensity — the tautness of the mind having become weak, caused by over withdrawal inside.

The heaviness of mind and body can lead to becoming lax, which can lead to a type of lethargy in which, losing the object of observation, you have as if fallen into darkness; this can lead even to sleep.”

As a remedy for laxity, the Dalai Lama recommends: “When this begins to occur, it is necessary to raise, to heighten, this excessive declination of the mind by making it more taught, more tight. If you need a further technique to accomplish this, it helps to brighten the object of meditation, or if that does not work, to leave the object of meditation temporarily and think on something that makes you joyous, such as the wonderful opportunity that a human lifetime affords for spiritual practice…”

NOTES

[1] The Great Exposition of Secret Mantra (Vol.3), by Lama Tsongkhapa with commentary from H.H. Dalai Lama

• Series: Exposition of Secret Mantra (Book 3)
• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Snow Lion (May 2, 2017)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1611803608
• ISBN-13: 978-1611803600

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By James Thames

(Bio below.)

The person who meditates has an opportunity to improve his overall physical and mental well-being as well as develop emotional health. There are numerous research studies indicating the significant health and mental benefits of meditation. [See our previous feature on the 10 benefits, with 17 cited studies, covering the benefits of meditation>>]

The benefits are clear, but a lot of people find seated meditation challenging.

In this article, I will discuss five ideas for people who find seated meditation difficult, and possible solutions.

Reasons why people find it hard to meditate

The most pervasive issue is the “monkey mind” — where we are so unsettled in our thoughts that mindfulness meditation feels stressful. [For a feature on monkey mind, see>>] We can also quickly become exhausted if we do nothing for an extended period of time, even if it is only 10 minutes. But why can something as easy as sitting quietly, and observing our breath, create a feeling of  dread or worry? Usually, it’s due to discomfort.

Below are some reasons why seated meditation appears challenging for many people — some are health-related reasons, some are lifestyle — together with some solutions.

I feel uncomfortable sitting for too long

There are a number of people who simply can’t sit comfortably for more than a few minutes. Conditions such as injury, arthritis, or poor posture can make sitting anything but relaxing — especially if you try to sit cross-legged on the surface.

I have no time for meditation

If you have small children or full-time employment, it could be perhaps the main reason — or excuse — to avoid meditation. But the seating meditation requires only ten minutes, and it can help destress you, making your more productive at work, or more patient with the children. If you have time to watch Youtube or television, you can find ten minutes to meditate and destress.

I couldn’t see any benefits

Many people feel the benefits of meditation after only one session, but most of us need more time — a little discipline.  After a daily, short practice, for just a couple of weeks, you could notice a change.  Motivation is the key issue here. Below are several ways to remotivate your meditation practice, from group practice to watching guided meditations on Youtube.

Sedentary lifestyle — we already sit too much!

Statistically, modern “western” lifestyles are among the most sedentary in history. According to a survey by Ergotron, 70 percent of American workers hate sitting, yet 86 percent do too much of it every day. It’s no secret it’s bad for our health.
What’s the average? 13 hours of sitting, combined with 8 hours of sleep — a whopping 21 hours a day of a sedentary lifestyle. Who wants to sit another half hour in meditation? If this is you, there are options, such as walking, standing, Tai Chi, and various yogas. [1]

What can we do if we can’t sit?

There are a lot of reasons people find it hard to meditate, but the above ones are the most common that usually take place.

What can you do — if you want to benefit from meditation, but find it challenging?

5 Ideas for people who find seated meditation difficult

If you overthink, you may believe that you don’t need meditation and it isn’t for you. But, meditation is essentially acquired by people with a busy and stressed minds.

Before we dive into 5 things you can try to motivate yourself to meditate successfully despite these difficulties, there are a couple of things to remember.

You don’t have to sit in a lotus posture on the floor, especially if that’s uncomfortable. Just sit straight on a sturdy and comfy chair. You can also practice yoga, walking meditation, or qi gong, as alternatives. “Moving” or standing meditation can be just as effective as seated meditation.

Mindfulness has many forms

The most popular and, arguably, most useful meditation practiced for thousands of years does not require any special techniques. If they are difficult, forget lotus postures and other challenging methods.

Simply: be. Be mindful. Watch your thoughts. Watch your breath. Stay in the present moment. You can do that sitting, standing, in the car (not while driving!), in your lunchroom at work, in bed. Mindfulness is at the same time, both profound and simple.

It is helpful to have a focus. You can decide to focus mindfully on your breath. You can watch your own discursive thoughts — you’ll be amazed how out of control your thoughts can be once you actually become the observer.

Determine what you’d want to focus on throughout your meditation practice session. When you discover your concentration has strayed from the focus you’ve set, gently bring it back.

There’s nothing wrong with you or your meditation practice if you have a lot of feelings throughout your practice. Mindfulness of feelings is another focus. Consider it an opportunity to learn new ideas and participate in them.

Try group meditation

Although meditation may appear to be a very private practice, there is unexpected power in crowds.

According to Candice Fairoth, a breathwork and meditation instructor in Los Angeles, mutual energy is a healthy thing; there’s no question that meditating with a partner or in a class can intensify your experience.

Making meditation a group activity not only helps us break out from our personal mental patterns, but it also brings both a little perspective and group motivation.

Check out walking meditation

Focus is the potential to pick what you want to think on and hold your attention there until you want to concentrate on something else consciously. Visual integrity is the capacity to follow what’s happening in your senses from moment to moment, separating the many perceptual threads and learning to notice increasingly faint feelings. Immobility is the ability to let feelings come and go, flourish and collapse, without battling them. However, it takes time to develop these abilities.

You may perform them sitting down with your eyes closed and your body steady, or you can do them while walking, running, dancing, cleaning the dishes, or speaking. You may include meditation into your life at any time. What matters is that you set aside some time each day to focus on intentionally directing your thoughts, being clear about what feelings are developing, and letting those sensations dance as they choose with as little resistance as possible.

• Read our in-depth feature on walking meditation and the Cankama Sutta, the Sutra on Walking Meditation>>

Try out virtual meditation

Virtual meditating simply entails combining exclusive technology into your routine. Try using a virtual reality headset to help you relax and get incredible outcomes. Attaching the large gadget to your eyes and choosing pictures like a tranquil forest or a bright seashore efficiently blocks out all exterior disturbances, allowing you to completely relax.

There are other free ways to meditate digitally if a VR headset is not in your budget. Consider watching a YouTube video of your favorite nature location. Consider yourself surrounded by the splendor of your computer screen.

• See our previous feature on virtual meditation and apps>>

Add some music — or chanted mantras

There is no denying that music makes you feel better. What if you add it to your meditation?

The appropriate music helps educate the brain to be more alert. According to certain studies, listening to contemporary music can really calm down the pulse rate faster than silence.

• See our feature on chanting Mantras and their proven meditative benefits>>

As per Neidich, music or background noise may be a fantastic aid for persons with anxiety or for those who are hesitant to start meditating due to a busy mind.

Whatever you connect with peace and focus might be your ideal meditation music. Listen to a variety of music genres to see what you like most.

You can also try meditating with guided visualization videos with mantras. Among the most popular is the Heart Sutra mantra, from the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra:

• Here’s a handy bookmarkable playlist of “Guided Video Meditations” on Youtube where teachers guide your visualization and usually end with mantra chanting>>
• A playlist of chanted mantras with beautiful images>>

Final word — Just be comfortable

So, these were some effective ideas for people who find seated meditation difficult and each of them is based on a one objective: forget about your rigid notions of what meditation should entail. Meditation should be done in a method that is comfortable for you

Get intrigued about whatever comes up. Let every experience be precisely what it is. And you don’t have to go it alone. Other experiencers can provide and receive help. Look for teachers you can trust. Seek information and practice with them to learn from their knowledge. Also, keep in mind that there is no such thing as a terrible meditator.

NOTES

[1] Survey by Ergotron>>

Author Profile — James Thames

James Thames is a professional who is specializes in writing, designing, and developing all sorts of digital marketing content. Thames holds expertise in delivering high-quality writing services to numerous students through Scholarly Help. Besides, he professionally uses contemporary technology to build relationships with clients.

Who are the best practitioners of Zen? Aside from the great Zen masters — probably your cat.

By Josephine Nolan

“In my heart I believe that to practice ‘good-for-nothing’ Zazen is the most authentic Buddhist tradition,”

—Shokuku Okumuru, a Soto Zen priest, and founder of Sanshin Zen Community.

All forms of Buddhism “just sit”

All joking aside, Zazen (sesshin) is one of the most important practices! All traditions of Buddhism incorporate elements of this sitting. Yet, it works best when you have no goal. When you do not consciously direct your session. “No effort” is the key to Zazen. At the same time, it is one of the most difficult disciplines in Zen or Chan — and all forms of Buddhism. It was a core practice taught by Shakyamuni Buddha more than 2500 years ago, and still relevant —

Shohaku Okumura explains, “We usually think this form of meditation is to attain some kind of Enlightenment or awakening, but Dogen said we should just sit, without any expectation. Because, if you practice to attain Enlightenment, then that is a desire. Desire, or egocentric desire is still working there. So, from the very beginning we just to use Dogen’s expression just ‘throw ourselves into the way’ without expecting any reward.” In Dogen’s teachings of Soto Zen it is called Shikantaza.

Shokuku Okumuru, a Soto Zen priest, and founder of Sanshin Zen Community, explains Zazen:

Zazen is Good for Nothing from Interior Mythos Journeys on Vimeo.

Discovering the true nature of suffering — and the nature of the very Universe — requires “emptiness.” Empty does not mean “nothing” as you’ll quickly find when you try to sit for twenty-five minutes. Your mind zooms here and there — anything but empty. It is among the most difficult of practices.

“Good for nothing” in Zazen means “empty of goal, empty of purpose, empty of expectation — just be.” Arguably, Zazen is more difficult in our modern world than it might have been a few hundred or thousand years ago. “Just be” is a very big “expectation” in Zazen.

Images of Gautama Buddha most often show him seated in meditation. He attained Enlightenment — by sitting. He sat under the Bodhi tree, searching for the answers to our suffering in a heroic meditative journey. Although sitting may be easy, Zazen is far more challenging — but, we can make the same heroic journey. By emulating not only Buddha’s seated mediative posture, but the heroic quest for Enlightenment, you, too, can attain realizations.

It may seem counter-intuitive that “sitting” Zazen is challenging — but have no doubt that it is. How hard can “just sitting be.” If you have never undertaken the practice, you’d be surprised. Two or three minutes is a breeze… then the clock seems to slow down, you get itchy in hard-to-reach places, you fidget, your leg goes to sleep, your mind starts to wander, your eyes dry out, you have this unmistakable urge to scratch your nose — how is all of this a Buddhist practice?

Worst of all, if you’re undertaking formal Zazen in a group, when your mind starts to drift, or you get sleepy, you may get a whack on the shoulder from the meditation master! (It’s called Keisaku Slap — but never fear — it really doesn’t hurt, it just wakes you up!) — and in solo practice, there’s no risk of that!) One thing seems certain, “just sitting” is hardly relaxing, despite what the research shows about stress-reduction! Or, is it?

A student receives a Kaisaku Slap — looks painful — but not really, it’s to wake you up!

Fortunately, getting started is easy. In this feature, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know to get started with profound Zazen (Sesshin), with tips on how to do it correctly.

We’ll also provide some tips for beginners who may be struggling with the practice. So if you’re interested in learning more about Zazen, keep reading!

Introduction to Zazen in your home — although, granted, your garden likely isn’t quite as lovely as this garden in the video — from Taizo-in Zen Buddhist Temple :

Where Does Zazen Come From?

It helps to have some context before diving into a new practice. Zazen literally means “seated meditation” in Japanese, a central part of the Zen Buddhist tradition. Buddhism originated in India over 2,500 years ago and eventually spread to other parts of Asia. Zen Buddhism is a particular school that developed in China and Japan.

Zen Buddhists believe that meditation is a way to see things as they are and to let go of the false beliefs that cause suffering. Zazen is one tool that can help us achieve this goal.[1]

The benefits of Zazen

Meditation has been shown to offer various benefits for both the mind and body. Studies have shown that regular meditation can help to reduce stress, anxiety, and depression. It can also improve focus, concentration, and memory. [We covered 17 cited  research studies on this in this previous feature>>]

For some people, meditation can even lead to increased feelings of well-being and happiness. In the Buddhist tradition, Zazen is also believed to help us see the world more clearly and to live more fully in the present moment.[2]

Many great Buddhists, including Nichiren, Dogen, and Hakuin, all practiced Zazen regularly and attributed reaching Nirvana to the practice.

The different seated postures for Zazen

Zazen is traditionally done while seated on a cushion called a zafu. The zafu is placed on top of a larger cushion called a zabuton, which helps to keep your legs and feet comfortable. It will slightly raise your hips above your knees, which helps to keep your spine straight. Your breathing is affected by the position of your spine, so it’s essential to sit up tall.

Several different seated postures can be used for Zazen. The most important thing is to keep your back straight, and your chin tucked in slightly. This will help you to breathe deeply and remain alert.

Here are some of the most common seated positions — and don’t worry if you can’t sit a lotus posture (many of us can’t!) — as there are many choices, all perfectly valid for Zazen.

Full-Lotus Posture

The Full-Lotus is known as the most stable of all the Zazen positions. For this position, your legs are crossed, with each foot resting on the opposite thigh. This can be difficult to achieve at first, but it’s worth practicing if you can.

Once you’re in position, place your hands in your lap with your right hand resting on top of your left and your palms facing up. You can also place your hands, one on top of the other in front of your belly button.

Take a few deep breaths and relax into the posture.

Half-Lotus Posture

The Half-Lotus is a variation of the Full-Lotus that is slightly easier to achieve. For this position, you will cross one leg over the other and rest it on the opposite thigh. Once you’re in position, you can place your hands in the same way as the Full-Lotus position.

This posture is easier because you don’t have to lift your second foot as high. It’s a good option if you’re just starting out or if you have trouble getting into the Full-Lotus.

Burmese Posture

Next, we have the Burmese posture. To assume this position, sit with your legs folded in front of you and your feet flat on the ground. Once again, place your hands in your lap with your right hand resting on top of your left.

It is similar to the Full-Lotus, but your feet are placed differently. This is a good option if you have trouble sitting in the Lotus position or if your knees are painful when raised off the ground.

Seiza Posture

The Seiza posture is the traditional Japanese way of sitting. To assume this position, kneel on the ground with your legs tucked underneath you and your feet pointing behind you. Then, rest your hands on your thighs with your palms facing up.
This posture can be tough on your knees, so it’s a good idea to sit on a cushion or folded blanket if possible. It’s also important to keep your back straight, and your chin tucked in, just as with the other positions.

Chair Posture

Lastly, you can also sit in a chair with your feet flat on the ground and your hands resting in your lap. This is a good option if you have trouble sitting on the floor or need to get up quickly.

What to do if you can’t sit

There are plenty of reasons why you might not be able to sit in traditional Zazen positions. Maybe you have an injury or a chronic condition that makes it difficult to sit on the ground. Perhaps you’re pregnant or have young children, so you can’t be away from them for too long.

Whatever the reason, there’s no need to worry. You can still practice Zazen and reap all the benefits; you just might need to sit in a different position. If you can’t sit on the cushion on the floor, you can sit in a chair with your feet flat on the floor and your hands resting in your lap. (See chair posture above.)

You can also use a meditation stool or bench if you prefer, where you are partially kneeling or partially sitting.

Standing Posture

If you have trouble sitting, but can stand, try the standing poses. In Zazen, and certainly in Zen, both walking and standing are acceptable poses for mindfulness. (Although mindfulness isn’t strictly Zazen, you do what you can!) To some extent, you can do Zazen while standing if you have a relaxed posture, usually feet slightly apart with very slightly bent knees.

Shavasana and Prone Posture

You can lie down in the so-called “corpse pose” or lie in a reclining position — don’t be frightened by the name, but do be aware of sleepiness. To counteract the relaxed prone posture, you may have to open your eyes further. Light is a remedy for “sleepy mind.”

Prone posture is sometimes helpful for people with breathing issues. In this posture you lie facing down.

The important thing is to find a position that you can maintain for a prolonged time without pain or discomfort.

To do the corpse pose, or Shavasana — a yoga poses where you lie on your back with your legs and arms extended — you can place a pillow under your head if you like, but remember to avoid total comfort. Sleeping is relaxing, but it’s certainly not Zazen!

All about Zen in Japan —

How to Breathe Correctly During Zazen

Now that we’ve gone over the different seated positions let’s talk about how to breathe correctly during Zazen.
Zazen is traditionally done with what’s known as “natural” or “abdominal” breathing. You should breathe deeply and slowly, allowing your abdomen to expand as you inhale. [3] The breath should be smooth and even without pauses in inhalations and exhalations. You can count your breaths if it helps you to keep a steady rhythm.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you should be aware of your breath without trying to control it. Just let it happen naturally and don’t force anything. The mind has a tendency to wander, especially when we’re trying to focus on something as seemingly simple as our breath. But with a bit of practice, it’s possible to bring our attention back to the present and focus on our breath.
Here are some tips for how to do this.

Find a comfortable, peaceful place

Although experts at Zazen can do it anywhere — and clearly ordinary mindfulness can be undertaken anywhere, even a busy subway train — for beginners to Zazen it’s best to have a peaceful refuge, even if it’s your little bedroom. Let people know you’re meditating or resting — do not distrub please! Turn off the phone or mute!

This is important for less advanced practitioners because you are attempting to still the busy mind; you don’t want to be interrupted while meditating. Humans have an innate bias toward novelty, which means that our attention is quickly drawn to new things.

For example, a sound in an otherwise quiet room will likely catch our attention and pull us out of our meditative state. So, it’s crucial to find a place where you won’t be disturbed by things like this.

Set a timer

A timer is helpful because it allows you to relax and not worry about how long you’ve been meditating. If you’re constantly wondering how much time is left, it will be harder to focus on your breath.

If you’re new to meditation, start with a short-timer (5-10 minutes) and gradually increase the length of time as you get more comfortable with the practice.

Half – close your eyes

Since meditation is all about embracing mindfulness — and to a less extent “seeing” emptiness — it’s recommended to half-close your eyes. Dont’ think of this as cutting off or separating from the “waking world” but rather an signal to your mind to be mindful.  This will help you to focus on your internal experience and prevent distractions. If half-closed is still distracting, beginners can fully close their eyes.

People react differently to half-closing their eyes. You might see pure darkness, colorful patterns, or images of things you’re thinking about. Whatever you see, just let it be and don’t focus on it too much. The important thing is to focus on your breath and not get caught up in the visuals.

Just breathe

Inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth.

Try to practice abdominal breathing. Inhale slowly and deeply through your nose, then exhale slowly and evenly through your mouth. As you inhale, allow your abdomen to expand, and as you exhale, let it contract.

Inhaling through your nose helps to slow down your breathing and makes it easier to focus on the breath. Exhalation is also important because it lets you go of any tension you might be holding in your body.

It’s common for people to hold their breath when they’re anxious or stressed, so exhaling fully can help to release that tension.

How To Deal With Thoughts During Zazen

If you’re like most people, your thoughts will naturally wander during Zazen. It is perfectly normal and nothing to worry about, as it happens to everyone. It can be helpful to think of your thoughts as clouds passing through the sky.

They’re there for a moment, and then they’re gone. Don’t try to hold on to the thoughts nor push them away. Just let them pass and focus on your breath. It won’t be easy at first, so here are a few techniques that you can use to help you focus.

Monkey Mind? Focus on an object instead

Strictly speaking, in Zazen, we face a blank wall to avoid distractions. The focus is normally just breath. But — again for we beginners — a common beginner practice is to focus on an object, where breath or mindfulness doesn’t work for your busy “monkey mind”. This normally should be a sacred Enlightened object, such as a statue of Buddha.

If you find it difficult to focus on your breath, you can try focusing on an object instead. It’s best to choose something small and not too distracting, i.e., without too many colors or details. This could be anything from a candle flame to a pebble.

Focus on your body: Another option is to focus on your body. You can feel the sensation of your breath as it enters and leaves your nostrils or the rising and falling of your abdomen. You can also try to feel the sensation of your feet touching the ground.
It’s important to be patient with yourself and not get discouraged if your mind wanders frequently. Meditation is a practice, and it takes time and effort to improve.

Still, have trouble with Zazen?

For those of us with major monkey minds — an unofficial Buddhist term for “busy mind” — as a last resort try focusing on  a mantra. It’s not strictly Zazen, but — hey, I won’t tell if you don’t.

A mantra is a word or phrase that you repeat to yourself during meditation. It can be anything that you find meaningful. The important thing is that it’s short and easy to remember.

An example of a mantra is “Om Mani Padme Hum,” a Buddhist chant that means “praise to the jewel in the lotus ” — the mantra of the Bodhisattva of Compassion Avalokiteshvara.

You can speak gently, or chant along (for example with this video) if you find your mind too unsettled:

Ending Your Zazen Practice

When your timer goes off, slowly open your eyes and take a few deep breaths. Allow your body to adjust to the outside world before you get up and move around. Take your time getting up, so you don’t feel dizzy or lightheaded. You can also try doing some gentle stretching exercises to release any tension remaining in your body.

That’s it! You’ve just completed a session of Zazen. Aim to do these exercises every day, and you’ll start to notice a difference in your mind and body. You’ll find it easier to focus on your breath and let go of thoughts with regular practice. And remember, there’s no right or wrong way to meditate. Do what feels comfortable for you, and don’t be too hard on yourself.
Meditation is a journey, not a destination.

Zazen is — good for you, too

Zazen is an ancient, simple, but powerful practice that can help to improve your spiritual, mental and physical health. It’s a holistic form of healing that is easy to learn and can be done anywhere, anytime. So why not give it a try? You might be surprised at the impact it has on your life.

If you found this guide helpful, please share it with others who might benefit from it. We also have several other articles and resources on Buddhism and meditation, so be sure to check those out.
Namaste.

SOURCES

[1] Art of Asia>>

[2] Healthline>>

[3] Meditation Instructions on ZMM>>

Although mindfulness necessitates ongoing work, it requires a specific sort of effort, natural and effortless, similar to meditation. It’s merely a matter of noticing when your ideas or feelings cause you to divert from the present moment. Simply, redirect your focus to where it’s needed. Whether you’re focused on the taste of the food you’re eating, the movement of your hands opening or closing the door, the weight of your body perched on a chair, the feel of water washing over your skin in the shower, bodily contact with your baby, the smell of toothpaste while brushing your teeth, or simply the glass of water you’re drinking right now.

Feature by Angela Johnson

(Biography on bottom)

Mindfulness applies to all senses — and all activities

Without exception, mindfulness applies to anything that is presented to you in the form of sensations. It makes no difference whether you engage in active or passive activities, whether at home or on the street, at work or in pleasure, alone or in the company. All of this can be confusing at first if you’re new to the concept of involvement.

Remember that involvement means being completely aware of the present moment, where you are, and what you are doing. You will act in the same manner as before. All you have to do is stay involved at all times, and the easiest way to do so is to concentrate on a single thing.

Returning to the present

You simply return your thoughts to the object of your attention whenever you discover your distraction. Brushing your teeth is one good example.  This action is recognizable to everyone, takes less than two minutes, and requires no explanation. It’s apparent what you’re concentrating on, and you’ll most likely be able to complete the procedure while remaining involved.

With mindfulness, the will be a significant change — from how most individuals usually perform this easy hygiene activity, on full autopilot — is to remain on the activity of brushing. Up. Down. Up. Down. Rinse.

It is necessary to feel the differences between the two scenarios in order to completely comprehend them. Feel what it’s like. Perhaps you can easily concentrate on your physical sensations, making them a focal point. Any activity can be a subject of mindful focus. For example, brushing your teeth:

The sound of a toothbrush cleaning your teeth, the sensation of a continuous back and forth motion in your palm, or the taste or smell of toothpaste are all options. Your mind will feel calmer if you concentrate on a single sensation.

After you return to the present moment, you may discover that you’ve developed a pattern of being sidetracked by unrelated thoughts or moving from one thought to the next. Perhaps you’ll realize that brushing your teeth requires too much or too little effort.

The obstacle of boredom

There’s a possibility you’ll feel a sensation of boredom. All of these discoveries are valuable in their own right because they help you to perceive your own consciousness for what it is. The contrast between a steady, peaceful consciousness and one that is out of control is reflected in this focus.

Let’s have a look at an example. Assume you’re about to take a sip of water:

Try focusing on the experience rather than drinking the water in one swallow. When was the last time you actually tasted the water you drink? You get information regarding the temperature of the water and the material used to make the glass as soon as you hold it in your hand. You can concentrate on the way your hand goes toward your mouth and the flavor of the water as it fills your mouth.

You’ll be able to follow the water as it flows down your neck and into your stomach if you learn to listen to your senses. Simply redirect your attention to how you’re drinking if you notice your mind wandering elsewhere.

With clarity comes calmness

You will discover that this strategy efficiently calms the mind as you begin to apply it in various situations. You are not only fully aware of the impressions you are receiving at any given time, but you are also calming down. Clarity comes with calmness.

You begin to comprehend how and why you think and feel, as well as why things happen the way they do. You start to observe patterns and trends that are unique to your state of consciousness. As a result, you can once again choose how you want to live your life. You can react to what is going on in the way that feels best to you, rather than mindlessly rushing through a stream of harmful, useless ideas and emotions.

Managing mindfulness in “public”

Another popular question is how does this technique work in the presence of strangers? Wouldn’t such concentration in the company of others seem rude? These worries appear absurd: after all, such a question suggests that we are normally so preoccupied with the words, feelings, and emotions of those around us that we have no time for anything else. In actuality, this is quite rare. We are usually so preoccupied with our own thoughts that we are unable to hear what the other person is saying.

Assume you’re strolling down the street with a friend. In theory, walking is a self-contained activity, but you must focus some of your attention on avoiding accidents with other walkers, avoiding entering the roadway by accident, and so on. You can only redirect your focus to dialogue with a friend when you are not preoccupied with important observations.

This does not suggest that you pay less attention to the person with whom you are talking than usual; rather, it just means that you switch from one object to another at the right intervals, in this case from your surroundings to your conversation with a friend. Your focus on your own thoughts and sensations will not be as full as it would be if you were sitting and meditating alone—at least at first—but the key thing is to stay involved. The more you practice, the easier it will be for you to maintain your focus and the more successful you will be.

Remaining fully in the moment

Involvement in the present will allow you to remain fully “in the same room” with the person you are talking to. The beauty of mindfulness is that it does not require any additional time. All you have to do is learn to thoroughly immerse yourself in the action you are performing right now, rather than wandering off into the distance. This is for those who believe they don’t have enough spare time to practice mindfulness.

Ask yourself a few questions

How often are you mindful through the day?

What happens when you stay in the present moment for an entire morning? How does it feel? How did this acuity of senses change your perspective on the ordinary and every day. Every moment is a present moment. We can remain mindful throughout every moment.

The good news here — aside from reinforcing Buddha’s teachings — is the benefits are broad spectrum. All sorts of people — who live incredibly diverse lives and have very different problems — can find the same benefits and wonders in meditation.

By Josephine Nolan,

Contributing Editor

There is plenty of science to support the objective, positive effects that meditation has on people, enough to help even the most doubtful see that there is value in the simplicity of meditation. This evidence, in the form of studies, reports, meta-analyses, and research projects, find that (and in some cases explains how) meditation simply, truly works.

[Note: normal disclaimers: this feature reports only. Always seek the advice of your health practitioners.]

Although there are many, many confirmed benefits to meditation and mindfulness, in thisfeature we will focus on the top ten.

1. Reduced stress

One of the most common reasons for people to try meditating is to try and reduce stress. Mental and physical stress cause the body to produce higher levels of the stress hormone called cortisol. Cortisol can cause a lot of the negative effects that stress is associated with because it triggers the release of cytokines, which are inflammatory chemicals.

These effects include increased tendency toward depression and anxiety, affected sleep, increased blood pressure, and fatigue and cloudy thoughts.

An 8-week study by researchers found that mindfulness-based meditation decreased stress-caused inflammation responses in subjects. The mindfulness training was “a better buffer of the effects of psychological stress on neurogenic inflammation” than a well-matched control condition. [Note 1]

2. Reduced pain

Meditation can also decrease pain, in any of its forms. This is especially true when that pain is caused by disorders that are often (but not always) stress-related. Some examples are irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and fibromyalgia.

IBS is a gastrointestinal disorder that is found in many people. Its symptoms include diarrhea, constipation, abdominal pain, and bloating, but these symptoms are easily attributable to many other diseases and can therefore often be difficult to diagnose and manage. A literature review found that meditation provided sufferers relief from their IBS symptoms. [2]

The same goes for fibromyalgia, which (after osteoarthritis) is the second most common rheumatologic pain disorder. A review found that mindfulness meditation was helpful in improving sufferers’ pain symptoms and pain perception. [3]

3. Reduced depression and anxiety

Meditation also positively impacts anxiety and depression. This is because these disorders feature stress as a factor affecting their severity, but also because mindfulness helps to break the harmful cycles of negative thought that these disorders feature.

A meta-analysis of a studies done on 1,295 subjects found that a type of meditation called Transcendental Meditation was “more effective than treatment as usual and most alternative treatments, with greatest effect observed in individuals with high anxiety”. [4]

A trial involving 93 subjects found that mindfulness-based stress reduction helped individuals with generalized anxiety disorder experience significant reductions in anxiety and an increase in positive self-statements. [5]

A review of available literature on the subject concluded that mindfulness-based interventions “demonstrated efficacy in reducing anxiety and depression symptom severity in a broad range of treatment-seeking individuals”. [6]

4. Improved social interactions

Emotional wellbeing extends beyond just feeling happy. It also involves managing negative thoughts, low self-esteem, and insecurity. Emotional wellbeing isn’t just important for personal satisfaction, but also for social interaction. Loneliness and social isolation are some of the most impactful factors on poor health and even a shorter life span.

A study of 153 adults found that when using a mindfulness meditation app for 2 weeks, there were reduced feelings of loneliness as well as more social interactions than a control group [7].

This finding corroborates the line of thinking that in order to be a better friend/partner/child/parent etc., you need to work on yourself first. When someone works on their emotional well-being, it is easier for them to find meaningful connections in the world.

5. Improved self-awareness

Self-awareness helps people to be more aware of and understand who they truly are, leading to better self-growth, acceptance, and love. They can grow into the best version of themselves. Meditation is an excellent tool in the journey of self-awareness, especially certain forms like self-inquiry meditation.

There is evidence that meditation can give a person the tools they need to be more self-aware [8], as well as positively affecting “the involvement of the attentional networks, and, likely, the cingulatecortex, particularly in the process of bare attention (ie, awareness without thought). This highest level of nonjudgmental awareness may help in obtaining a better-adjusted resilient self.” [9]

6. Longer attention span

Meditating is one of the best things to help lengthen a short attention span for people of any age, similar to how physical exercise helps muscles increase their strength and endurance.

There was a study found that just a couple of weeks of meditating increased people’s focus and memory [10]. Another study stated that people who meditated regularly had longer attention span and performed better on a visual task than those that didn’t [11].

A review published that meditation even has the power to reverse brain patterns that lead to mind-wandering, poor attention, and worrying [12].

The best part is, it doesn’t even take that much time for the benefits of meditating to show. A study showed that just 13 minutes of meditation daily can show enhanced attention and memory retention after only 8 weeks [13].

7. Improved sleep

Having trouble falling asleep is one of the most common nighttime issues that people face, and it can be caused by any number of reasons. Stress is most often the culprit, though. The cytokines mentioned earlier in this feature disrupt sleep and sleep patterns, and so meditation can help to relieve stress-sufferers from insomnia.

A study showed that people who used mindfulness-based meditation programs stayed asleep longer and had less severe insomnia than those who didn’t [14].

8. Volume changes in the brain

Meditation can physically alter the brain to make positive changes to it. A team at Harvard found that just eight weeks of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) increased cortical thickness in the hippocampus. This area of the brain is responsible for learning and memory.

MBSR was also found to increase other areas of the brain that contribute to emotional regulation as well as self-referential processing. There were also volume decreases in the amygdala which is where fear, stress, and anxiety are regulated [15].

Interestingly, the subjects self-reported exactly what the findings were before being told them, indicating that meditation doesn’t just change how the brain looks, but accompanying feelings and perception too.

9. Improved control over addiction

Since meditation has positive effects on the parts of the brain that govern self-control, it can be a powerful tool for those struggling with addiction. Meditation also helps a person to be more aware of the negative cycles that they partake in, and might therefore find it easier to break these cycles.

There was a study that had two groups of smokers try to quit smoking, either by learning mindfulness or by using the American Lung Association’s Freedom From Smoking (FFS) program. Those that learned mindfulness were more likely to have quit by the end of their training. In the 17-week post-study follow-up, they were more likely to have quit than those that used the FFS program [16].

10. Improved age-related memory loss

The improvements in clarity and attention can help keep a mind young. Many people who are more advanced in age have a tendency to rush through or over things, but meditation helps to teach them to remember to go through things with care and live in the moment.

A UCLA study published that people who meditated long-term had brains that were in a better condition than participants who didn’t meditate long-term. 
On average, participants who had meditated for 20 years (on average) had a higher volume of grey matter in their brains than those who didn’t [17].

Conclusion

These are just some of the ways that science has echoed what Buddhism has known for many years.
Meditation might be the single most impactful thing that a person can do for themselves if they wish to change their life for the better. The benefits of meditation are well-known and in modern times, well-proven scientifically.

Sources

[1] Science Direct feature>>

[2] Science Direct feature>>

[3] Pubmed feature>>

[4] Pubmed feature>>

[5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3772979/ – PubMed Central

[6] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5679245/ – PubMed Central

[7] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6397548/ – PubMed Central

[8] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26231761/ – PubMed

[9] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25141355/ – PubMed

[10] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797612459659 – SAGE Journals

[11] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5962705/ – PubMed.gov

[12] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23643368/ – PubMed.gov

[13] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30153464/ – PubMed.gov

[14] https://academic.oup.com/sleep/article/37/9/1553/2416992 – Oxford Academic

[15] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3004979/ – PubMed Central

[16] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21723049/ – PubMed.gov

[17] https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01551/full – Frontiers in Psychology

Buddha told them:

“Those who know, they know, even without my saying, and those who do not know, they will not know by my words. Any description of life to a blind man is of no use. One who has not tasted the ambrosia of existence, of life, no point in talking to them about it. So I am silent.”

Of course, ultimately, Buddha emerged from silence and taught the Dharma for decades to follow, to thousands of followers.

Still, the importance of silence and personal space remains fundamental to Buddhist practice today. Sacred space — whether churches, temples or meditation rooms — tend to frame sacred sound and meditation with silence.

By  Sally Keys

The benefits of calm-abiding mind and meditation is well documented and supported by science and psychiatry. Never has the sacred art of meditation been as vital and empowering as it is now in the current stressful climate. People are working more hours than ever before, stress is quite literally killing individuals and time seems to be a scarce resource we struggle to hold onto. As such, we need to make our meditation practice as easy to undertake as possible by building a meditation or yoga space in our homes.

Personalize Your Space

Once you have decided where, you need to think about how to make the space as relaxing as you can for you. The important part here is to personalise it, make sure it is a space that can give you the optimum experience you require.   This might be having a set of candles that assist your meditation, or it could be a selection of cushions and pillows that you associate with calmness and serenity. If you are heading outside, you may want to invest in a rockery or beautiful tiered water fountain, to help create the atmosphere you require.

Godon Hempton, in his book One Square Inch of Silence, put it this way:

“Good things come from a quiet place. Study, prayer, music, transformation, worship, communion. The words peace and quiet are all but synonymous, often spoken in the same breath. A quiet place is the think tank of the soul – the spawning ground of truth and beauty.

“A quiet place outdoors has no physical borders or limits to perception. One can commonly hear for miles and listen even farther. A quiet place affords sanctuary for the soul, where the difference between right and wrong becomes more readily apparent. It is a place to feel the love that connects all things, large and small, human and not; a place where the presence of a tree can be heard. A quiet place is a place to open up all your senses and come alive.”

Setting

Another major factor is setting. Do you have a space in your home which lends itself to darkness and solitude? Is there adequate space to take up some meditative contemplation or indeed to practice Yoga? Depending on your climate, you might want to think about creating your space outside. There is nothing more calming for the soul than the breeze on your face and being amongst the beauty of nature if you can.

Think also about the energy of the space you might wish to use. If it is somewhere where your toddler plays or is next door to a noisy bedroom, perhaps think again. Pick somewhere that is quiet and calm. The energy needs to fit the activity, so you are going to want to return and meditate regularly and you will not be put off by any other distraction.

Benefits of your home space

It is fitting that our home is a place where we relax and are able to escape the fast-paced buzz of the outside world. As such, it makes sense to bring our relaxation practices indoors. At home you have the freedom to create the space you want to; candles, meditation pillows, and incense can be used as you wish without any fear of angering others. As if the benefits of meditation were not enough, science is beginning to prove the long-held belief that a zen lifestyle has increased health benefits. Meditation can help with high blood pressure, IBS, smoking, depression, and insomnia. Research shows that using incense in the home can have a significant impact on emotional well-being too.

Unlike a gym, where some may find it easier to outsource your work, try bringing a little slice of enlightenment to your home, and hopefully the benefits will follow. Using these guidelines can help to create an ideal place to enjoy and relax, so maximize your meditation and start reaping the benefits now.   

Despite the science, Theta is notoriously difficult to achieve. According to one study it occurs “more frequently in highly experienced meditation practitioners.”[3]

[Five mini how-tos on the five meditation methods at the end of this feature.]

NTNU joint study on Theta waves benefits

“During meditation, theta waves were most abundant in the frontal and middle parts of the brain” reports NTNU in Science Daily. [3]  Jim Lagopoulos, of Sydney University (Australia) comments: “Given the popularity and effectiveness of meditation as a means of alleviating stress and maintaining good health, there is a pressing need for a rigorous investigation of how it affects brain function.” He is one of the principles of a joint study between his university and researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) on changes in electrical brain activity during nondirective meditation.

Unfortunately, the health and cognitive benefits of Theta escape many meditators. As Lagopoulous explains:

“Previous studies have shown that theta waves indicate deep relaxation and occur more frequently in highly experienced meditation practitioners. The source is probably frontal parts of the brain, which are associated with monitoring of other mental processes.” Less experienced meditators usually attain an Alpha wave state — relaxed and reflective, but not necessarily as deeply beneficial as Theta.”

Theta is not beyond reach, but why do it?

There are many proven ways to achieve Theta — and ultimately altered states of consciousness (ASC or Altered States) — but the question is why do it? Isn’t it just some nostalgic hippie trip, or a detached-from-reality buzz, or a new-age trend? On the contrary, ASC — also called non-ordinary state — is vital to human health, and is the body-mind mechanism for relieving stress, and — according to Psychologists — highly therapeutic. Christa Smith (Psy.D.) explains in Psychology Today [1]:

“Altered states of consciousness, sometimes called non-ordinary states, include various mental states in which the mind can be aware but is not in its usual wakeful condition, such as during hypnosis, meditation, hallucination, trance, and the dream stage.* Altered states can occur anywhere from yoga class to the birth of a child. They allow us to see our lives and ourselves with a broader lens and from different angles of perception than the ordinary mind.”

Meditation, which inspires Theta brainwaves, also inspires insight and ideas. According to Ned Herrman in Scientific American [2]:

People experiencing Theta “are prone to the flow of ideas… The ideation that can take place during the theta state is often free flow and occurs without censorship or guilt. It is typically a very positive mental state.”

Five Main Styles of Meditation to Achieve Theta or the Altered States

The study from NTNU (cited above), used “Acem Meditation, a “nondirective method developed in Norway. They were asked to rest, eyes closed, for 20 minutes, and to meditate for another 20 minutes, in random order. The abundance and location of slow to fast electrical brain waves (delta, theta, alpha, beta) provide a good indication of brain activity.” [3]

Main methods and practices

The main methods fall into various “practice styles,” which could loosely be tagged as:

1. Mindfulness.
2. Guided meditations and visualization.
3. Mantra.
4. Sound: binaural sounds, drumming, rattling, singing.
5. Repetitive tasks (for example, the Zen practices of sweeping, archery, martial arts).

Each of these breaks down into more detailed methods, for example, mindfulness of perception, mindfulness of breath, and mindfulness of body. Under guided meditation, there are innumerable methods. Shamanistic-style drumming and rattling are just two of many approaches to sonic methods.

But NOT Analytical meditation

Analytical meditation, logic, debate, and other forms of spiritual meditation are not necessarily ideal for generating Theta. They tend to push the mind into either Beta or Alpha. They have their place — as a method of developing wisdom — but they are not the focus of these studies.

A “non-ordinary state” of mind — Theta — is the goal of people pursuing creative insight, health benefits or cognitive development. One healthy mechanism for “non-ordinary state” is built into our daily lives: dreaming and day-dreaming are altered states, and vital to our health. Advanced practitioners often engage in lucid dreaming.

Aside from natural and lucid dreaming, the main “learned” methods are various forms of “non-directed” meditation, which has the added benefits of insight, reflection and blissful mind.

In this feature, we explore these five mains styles of meditation — mindfulness, guided, mantra, sound, and repetitive tasks — all proven methods to achieve altered states of consciousness, without drugs, fasting or other unhealthy tricks. They are so diverse; one is bound to appeal to you.

Emptiness: the common element of the five styles

Clearly, there is some common element in these five styles. The research from NTNU identified it very precisely:

“Several studies indicate better relaxation and stress management by meditation techniques where you refrain from trying to control the content of the mind. These methods are often described as nondirective, because practitioners do not actively pursue a particular experience or state of mind. They cultivate the ability to tolerate the spontaneous wandering of the mind without getting too much involved. Instead of concentrating on getting away from stressful thought and emotions, you simple let them pass in an effortless way.”

All of the five styles generate a form of “non directed mind.” In Buddhism, this is somewhat akin to the concept of Emptiness. Emptiness does not mean nothingness or non-existence. It means empty of ego, empty of direction, empty of stress — it is also a sense of “fullness” and unity with everything else. When you are mindful, your mind expands. Distant sounds become clear. Your mind expands beyond logical Beta thought.

Expansive Theta mind becomes One with everything, no longer censored or constrained by logical mind and ego.

Five methods of self-hypnosis

How can these five methods — including guided visualizations — all be non-directed meditations? All of them have an element of “hypnosis.”

1. Mindfulness: clearly non-directed mind applies. You become the observer. You do not try to think, but if you do have thoughts, you observe them. [For more on the science of mindfulness, see the BW feature: “The Science Behind Stilling Your Mind with Mindfulness.”>>]
2. Guided meditation and visualization: you allow your mind to be guided — you do not direct, you follow direction. [For the science behind visualization, see: Science: Research proves visualization improves cognitive performance…>>]
3. Mantra: sacred sounds repeated over and over until they become “emptiness” of mind. Yet, because a “meaning” is subtly attached to each mantra, it has the hypnotic effect of implanting desired “goals” in the subconscious. (Or, if you don’t accept this definition, it’s still repetitive sound.) [For a story explaining the benefits of mantra, please see “No time for daily practice? Chant a mantra…>>]
4. Sound: notably binaural rhythms, but one of the most effective proven methods in various studies are drums (as in shaman drums pounded at a high repetitive beat) and rattles. [See this story on studies reinforcing the “drumming for mindfulness” and its benefits for health, support for cancer, Parkinsons and depression.]

5. 

   Repetitive Tasks: ever wonder why Zen masters assign novices to sweep repetitively? Are they clean obsessed? Assigning the dirty work to someone else? No, they are engaging in skilful means. Repetitive chores such as sweeping, memorized martial arts routines such as Tai Chi, and even waxing the car can be meditative: “Wax on, wax off” (Mr Miyagi in the Karate Kid movie.) Even skate-boarding can be considered repetitive meditation. [See this unique story on the Zen of skateboarding>>]

All of these are non-directed meditations can induce Theta.

Ordinary mind (Beta) deliberately induces stress

“Ordinary mind” — in brainwaves classified as BETA, the stress-inducing frequency of our survival “awake” mind — evolved to help keep us alive. It motivates us to act, to work, to gather food, to cope with danger. The ordinary, awake mind induces wakeful stress to help us survive — an evolved stimulation that has its evolutionary roots in our hunter-gatherer beginnings. Ordinary mind also evolved ALPHA brainwaves — the relaxed and reflective mind — once we evolved enough to seek refuge in caves, to build castle walls, or houses with locks.

Only at night, in the safety of our caves — our homes — did the mind release the high-alert ordinary mind, and allow a little stress-reducing downtime, in the form of THETA and DELTA brainwaves: THETA during relaxing escapes such as napping, story-telling and song (today, movie watching and stereo) and DELTA during dreaming and sleep — both achieved, mostly, in the relative serenity that comes from a rampart (today, an alarm system.) This is why it is often difficult, for instance, to achieve relaxing THETA or DELTA as a stressed-out patient in the hospital.

Mindless thrillers as meditation?

Ever wonder why silly action-movies and mindless thrillers and comic-book adaption movies are so popular? It’s not that they are “relaxing” in tone and manner; it’s simply because they are a form of escapism. It’s so far removed from our stressful BETA lives, that it genuinely induces an ALPHA state in many of us — relaxed mind— probably similar to the feeling the ancient Greeks must have experienced when they listened to the exciting tales of the gods and heroes. On the other hand, a gritty, artsy, true-to-life biography or war history movie might inspire the opposite — triggering BETA — simply because it resonates with our day-to-day stress-mode.

In fact, going one step further, an over-the-top adventure or comedy movie or novel, while it usually induces an ALPHA state, can trigger THETA. (Yes, that’s you, the movie-goer who drowses slightly during the action movie.) In meditation, the goal is usually either a deep ALPHA (highly relaxed and reflective mind, for instance in Samatha meditation) or light THETA (visualization meditation.) So, although an escapist myth, movie or novel will not replace meditation, it’s certainly “good for you.” Just avoid the too-real, too-historical, too frightening stress-inducing stories unless you’re ready to jump back up to stressful BETA.

Feeling safe and secure helps change our wave pattern

A sense of safety and security helps coax the BETA brain to release its “red alert” state. Laughter, song, silly movies, good food, friends — all these help us feel safe and secure and encourages a wholesome ALPHA relaxed mind. Ultimately, for real health benefits, we hope to achieve a deep ALPHA or a light THETA. Meditation, in a safe environment, is certainly one of the surest ways to induce stress-relieving brainwaves. With mindfulness, you might also accidentally slip into DELTA (sleep mode) but if you’re doing formal Zazen retreat watch out! — whack on the shoulder from the teacher might wake you back up.

Meditational Altered States: THETA mind

From a meditational point of view — and certainly from a Buddhist perspective — ASC is the mechanism that makes meditation valid as both a stress-reliever and a doorway to insight. Altered States — specifically THETA brainwaves — is not the goal, it is only the mechanism. The goal of meditation can vary: health, stress-relief, insight (in Buddhism, “wisdom”), relief from depression, and, specific to Vajrayana and Buddhism: achieving “bliss and wisdom in union.” But the mechanism for achieving most of these is a state of THETA.

In Vajrayana, it is sometimes said that altered state is the horse, and insight is the destination. In other traditions, such as shamanism, the drum might replace the horse — the drum being the audible mechanism helping achieve ASC — and “meeting” a spirit guide might be the goal. In real yoga — not the one-hour gym class — the mechanism and goals are similar.

Office Mindfulness: Theta helps cognition

Although we’re tuned to BETA brainwaves in work and survival mode when out of our safe-places, many problems are best solved when the mind is at least in “reflective” mode — ALPHA brainwaves. This is why office workers often engage in short mindfulness sessions throughout the day. Not only for work problems but for “healing” and therapy, Altered States of Consciousness is often superior. Christa Smith, in Psychology Today, explains [1]:

“I often witness clients relying too heavily on the ordinary mind. They painstakingly analyze themselves and their problems with little payoff, as if the ordinary mind is the only and best tool for healing. Adele was one such client. She was a 45 year-old mother of two who suffered from depression related to aging. She was highly intelligent and could articulate perfectly why being in her forties bothered her so much. But as much as she tried to convince herself it wasn’t true, she could not shake the idea that her life was essentially over, that all of the good times were in the past. She struggled to overcome this belief, which was at the heart of her depression, but made little progress.”

Explaining brainwaves: electrical power?

One way to explain brainwaves is with electricity. In Scientific American, Nedd Herrman explains brainwaves this way[2]:

“Even though this electrical power is very limited, it does occur in very specific ways that are characteristic of the human brain. Electrical activity emanating from the brain is displayed in the form of brainwaves. There are four categories of these brainwaves, ranging from the most activity to the least activity. When the brain is aroused and actively engaged in mental activities, it generates beta waves. These beta waves are of relatively low amplitude and are the fastest of the four different brainwaves. The frequency of beta waves ranges from 15 to 40 cycles a second. Beta waves are characteristics of a strongly engaged mind. A person in active conversation would be in beta. A debater would be in high beta. A person making a speech, or a teacher, or a talk show host would all be in beta when they are engaged in their work.”

He goes on to describe ALPHA as the opposite of BETA:

“Where beta represented arousal, alpha represents non-arousal. Alpha brainwaves are slower, and higher in amplitude. Their frequency ranges from 9 to 14 cycles per second. A person who has completed a task and sits down to rest is often in an alpha state. A person who takes time out to reflect or meditate is usually in an alpha state. A person who takes a break from a conference and walks in the garden is often in an alpha state.”

THETA: “ideation mode”: ideas flow without censorship

When those frequency cycles per second drop to between five and eight, we move into THETA, at first a light day-dream-like state, what Nedd Herrmann calls “ideation” mode. Repetitive tasks — drumming, mantras, watching or counting breath, jogging and running, or even driving long miles of monotonous straight highway — can induce THETA. (Obviously, not desired when driving those highways!)

This is why some of your best ideas occur when bathing, showering, jogging, or meditating. The relaxed mind, slower than ALPHA is “prone to flow of ideas,” according to Herrmann. Even brushing your hair, or sweeping the floor, or any automatic, repetitive task can inspire your most creative moments. Hermann describes THETA:

“It is a state where tasks become so automatic that you can mentally disengage from them. The ideation that can take place during the theta state is often free flow and occurs without censorship or guilt. It is typically a very positive mental state.”

Importantly, formal meditative practice is specifically designed to quickly induce THETA — or in some cases light DELTA.

DELTA: dream mode

Lighter DELTA could be thought of as daydream mode, but in meditation is associated with visualization practice and LUCID dreaming. While THETA is ideal for stress-reducing and idea/insight, DELTA has a more specialized meditative mission: deeply altered states of consciousness that allow us to see beyond conventional reality biased by conditioning.

What Buddha Taught

Buddha taught many methods for loosening the grip of conditioning on our fragile psyches. We grew up conditioned by pain and suffering — from our wailing emergence from the safety of our mother’s womb to the often-traumatic experiences that follow. We also develop attachments to those things we enjoy. The Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path provide the initial teachings on overcoming this conditioning that keeps us in a “suffering” state of mind.

Other methods include meditative methods, including visualization, that helps us see the world without the lens of our “conditioning.”

In the dream world, we can fly; when awake gravity takes hold. When we visualize the merit field of Enlightened Beings, we see a Pure Land as it could be if we removed attachments, conditioning and clinging; when awake, we see endless pain and suffering.

Even pragmatically, when our therapist coaches us with a guided meditation, to help us overcome some specific trauma, we are experiencing Theta.

Quick How-Tos

Although we have more extensive “how-tos” on these various practices, here is a quick “cheat sheet” to inducing Theta through the Five Styles of Altered States Meditation.

1. Mindfulness

It might seem that mindfulness is the “easiest” of these practices. In fact it is a practice that eludes many, including some experienced meditators. While guided meditation and drumming can be quickly approached, mindfulness is — by definition — not easy to instruct. Basically, you sit, stand, walk and try to “disengage” the Beta and Alpha mind by “observing.” As indicated in the above NTNU study, the “observing” mind engages the “frontal parts of the brain, which are associated with monitoring of other mental processes.”

So, by way of instruction, sit, stand or walk (in all three cases in a situation where your mind doesn’t have to intervene) and then try to simply observe. Not only do you “observe” what is happening around you — the ticking of the clock, the chirping of the bird — but without engaging with it.

The great teachers would say, “simply be.” Be mindful. Be observant. Be there but not participating. Attempt this for at least 1o minutes. Don’t try to “empty” the mind of thoughts — some meditators try to force this — but simply, instead, observe them. Even if they are stressful, nasty, hateful thoughts. No judgment. Simply observe.

The basic steps could include:

1. Sit or stand in a way that is non-involving (comfortable).
2. Adopt an upright but comfortable posture.
3. Simply observe.

Some people add in additional steps — also a bit counter-intuitive for a process designed to disengage mind. For example:

1. Sit comfortably.
2. Initially, count your breaths and relax.
3. Correct your posture, but remain comfortable.
4. Half close or fully close your eyes.
5. Watch your breath. Feel it. Observe it. Do not participate.
6. Begin to notice, without participating, what is going on around you: sounds, feelings, heat, cold, dampness, itchy skin.
7. Observe your mind and its thoughts, but do not participate. Simply let it be. Watch.
8. Expand your observation. Try to listen beyond your immediate space.
9. Continue observing, without participating as long as you can. If you start participating or correcting random thoughts that bother you. Simply cease and observe. Do not correct.

2. Guided Meditation and Mindfulness

By releasing control (Beta mind) to a guide, we can experience a most intense Theta session. The objective of Vajrayana visualization is to help induce this “open and empty” mind to introduce our minds to the concept that the true nature of reality is not what we think. This idea was first expressed by the Buddha in the great Maha nidana Sutta:

“If this exists, that exists; if this ceases to exist, that also ceases to exist.”

By removing the “eyes” from the observer role, the mind becomes the observer — which changes everything. The guru of Quantum Physics, Niels Bohr explained why science and Shakayamuni see “eye to eye” (so to speak):

“Observations not only disturb what has to be measured, they produce it… We compel a quantum particle to assume a definite position.” In other words, as explained by physicist Pascual Jordan: “we ourselves produce the results of measurements.”

[For a full exploration of this concept, supported by both science and Buddhist thought, see “What does quantum physics have to do with the five Buddhas>>]

You don’t have to involve spiritual visualization to achieve some benefits from this method, but for a Buddhist, Vajrayana visualized meditation is the pinnacle of technique.

The easiest way to experience the power of Vajrayana deity visualization — where we visualize ourselves as perfectly Enlightened beings (a form of positive-reinforcement role play) — is to follow along with a meditation master. Here’s one of our most popular guided visualization videos for visualizing Green Tara, as guided and taught by H.E. Zasep Tulku Rinpoche:

Or for those seeking “healing” reinforcement, here is another popular video with guided visualation of Medicine Buddha:

3. Mantra

Any collection of sounds can become a mantra, but in Buddhist meditation, many are profound and meaningful — expressing in sound and rhythm deep truths. Some are open to everyone; others are restricted practices because they require instruction.

The goal of mantra is a little more specific. Although the “mind” is still observer and detached from calculated thought, the repetitive or hypnotic element is a repeated mantra. The sound is repeated hundreds of times. Often, this is combined with visualization — even something simple, such as healing blue light filling your body. Other times, it’s just the sound and a mindful, watching mind.

Mantras in serious practice are usually intoned at a very low, rhythmic pitch, like the beat of a drum. They go beyond the role of rhythm and sound, however. Mantra contains within it a “stated intention.” If you chant the Medicine Buddha mantra, you are likely planting the seed of healing in the mind.

When mind is in Theta, it is highly suggestable. This is why, in psychotherapy, for example, hypnosis is used. Hypnosis, like all of these techniques, opens the mind — not only the “observing mind” and the “learning mind” but also the “receptive mind.”

It is said you can’t implant a hypnotic suggestion that the recipient doesn’t agree with. It’s still your mind and will. But mantra reinforces the positive intention to heal, or live a long life, or receive protective energies.

To experience a mantra anyone can practice, try singing along with the amazing Yoko Dharma, chanting the Amitabha Buddha mantra Om Ami Dewa Hri:

4. Sound: drumming, rattling, chanting

Aside from mantras, which include the added purpose of implanting an intention, other repetitive sounds also induce Theta, notably drums, rattles and chants.

The benefits of sound go beyond some other Theta techniques. Although Theta mind is one of the reasons drumming works in meditation and healing, several studies have revealing benefits:

1. Reduces blood pressure, anxiety and stress: a 2014 study published in the Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine.
2. Improves cognitive function: 2014 study in the Journal of Huntington’s Disease.
3. Pain Reduction: 2012 study published in Evolutionary Psychology
4. Improve Immunity: 2011 study published in Alternative Therapies and Health Medicine
5. Induces Theta; enhanced meditation: 2004 study published in the Journal Multiple Sclerosis
6. Depression and Emotional Disorders: 2001 study published in the Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine

How to drum

Drumming, or any form of percussion provides a strong focus on mindfulness. It’s as simple as taking your favourite meditation technique and adding the drum as the focal point, rather than the breath. You can either drum for yourself (which has extra benefits: the live sound of a drum is very moving), or use a drumming MP3 or recording.

The steps are literally 1,2,3:

1. Sit and get comfortable. Alternately, some people prefer to stand or even dance while drumming.

2. Using any drum, beat a regular, monotonous beat. You can beat quickly, which tends to induce a Theta response (helpful for visualization practices in Vajrayana, for example), or slowly. A heart beat, ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump has also been identified as therapeutic.

3. Drum for at least 15 minutes. I find 30 better. Simply focus on the beat (rather than your breath). Become the sound. As always, with mindfulness, if the mind drifts, just refocus gently back on the beat. If images appear, just observe. Be the listener (observer).

[For a more detailed exploration of drumming, see “Mindfulness of Drumming”>>

5. Repetitive tasks: wax on, wax off

There is serenity in the broom, the mop or the clothesline. Many people, when they are furious — say, a fight with a significant other — will take refuge in cleaning the house. The repetitive tasks, such as brooming, mopping, vacuuming can be highly therapeutic.

More formally, in Zen traditions, repetitive tasks are often assigned, such as “sweeping the temple” or weeding the garden. However, instead of simply saying “Go clean the floor” the teacher will actually show a specific hand motion to be used, a direction to sweep and a speed to employ. The mindless repetition is the meditation. It unleashes the Theta mind, in the same way, a monotonous curve-free highway does for a drowsy driver.

To make this work, either receive instruction, or create your own “ritualized” repetitive task. Clean the floor, yes, but do it with a precise, memorized pattern and speed.

Any repetitive task can be therapeutic, but to rise to the standard of meditation and Theta requires an element of ritualization.

NOTES
[1] “Altered States of Consciousness” Psychology Today, Christa Smith Psy.D.
[2] “What is the function of the various brainwaves” Scientific American, Nedd Herrmann
[3] “Brainwaves and meditation” Science Dailey, NTNU research source.

Can Vajrayana tummo practice really generate body heat? Can deity practice actually heal? Are Deities real? If they are real, why do we have to visualize them? Why do we imagine deities at all? What is the process that allows our imagination to connect with the true nature of the Enlightened Deity? What are the benefits of visualizing deities — as compared to simply meditating, praying or chanting mantras. In this Buddha Weekly feature, we try to explore some of these questions.

Healing power of visualization

In a different demonstration of the transformative power of Vajrayana meditation, various peer-reviewed clinical trials have shown that meditation practices, such as visualization, have specific healing properties. (Full story here>> ) In particular, Vajrayana deity visualizations have been shown to improve cognitive abilities and help with the treatment in Alzheimers. (Full story here>>)

Is this the real healing energy of Medicine Buddha, or our own mind triggered by the visualization? Or both? We could say it is both — and ultimately — it doesn’t matter.

Tummo demonstrates visualization power

One of the most intriguing demonstrations of the power of Vajrayana visualization is Tummo. By visualizing heat in the tummo center, an expert practitioner can actually meditate for hours on an icy winter day — without clothing or discomfort. The meditation requires teacher-guidance, and years of practice. Essentially, we visualize heat being generated around our navel chakra, through a complex visualization. By investing deeply in the visualization — by focusing on feeling heat in one point in our body, our mind — after training and practice — can appear to generate actual heat, sufficient to ward off an icy winter’s day. (Not recommended for beginners! This is an advanced completion practice.)

Although most of us are not capable of this advanced completion practice, it demonstrates the power of the mind over the body — and the power of imagination over mind. The method used to “trigger the mind” is visualization of the inner body.

Imagine deities — what’s that about?

Aside from healing, or generating body heat, what is the real purpose of visualizing deities in advanced Vajrayana practice? Why does Vajrayana visualization almost always imagine deity images? And, why are there so many deities in Vajrayana Buddhism — some of whom are so ferocious they would send demons running for cover? Are these real beings or symbolic? If the ultimate realization of “reality” is Emptiness, why visualize forms at all? What makes Vajrayana so effective in transforming the mind?

Deities in Many Forms — More Than Just Symbols

A thousand arms of caring — instantly a Mahayana Buddhist thinks of Avalokiteshvara. A loving mother, who would sacrifice all for the safety of her children — brings to mind Tara, with her one leg poised to spring into action.  The pure white light of purity and cleansing — immediately invokes images of Vajrasattva. Then, there are the ferocious faces of Enlightenment, most recognizable in the terrifying fanged-face of Mahakala — who is none other than Avalokiteshvara in his wrathful form.

These are much more than archetypes. Yes, they are visual language, but they also trigger a “connection” in our mind to the Buddha.

Those who only see the outer form, might jump to the conclusion that Vajrayana Buddhists are superstitious. In fact, Vajrayana practices are powerful for helping us overcome “our self centered thoughts and habitual storylines.” [3] In other words, potentially, visualization engages the mind fully in change. Either change in the form of healing, or change in the form of perception — which is a key purpose of deity practice.

The Power of Visualization to Heal

Caregivers for many chronic illnesses know the power of visualization meditation.  A patient with cancer might be provided with guided visualization meditations — visualizing the cells of their own body attacking and destroying the cancerous cells.

Famously, David Seidler, who won an oscar in 2011 for his screenplay “The King’s Speech”, a play about King George VI who had cancer, recovered from his own cancer through the power of “imagination.” As reported in CNN Health: “Seidler, 73, suffered from cancer, just like the king did. But unlike his majesty, Seidler survived the cancer, and he says he did so because he used the same vivid imagination he employed to write his award-winning script. Seidler says he visualized his cancer away.” [4]

“The mind has the power to heal,” explains Christiane Northrup, a best selling author.  The mind also has the power to overcome pain and create the conditions for success. Explains Dr. Bernie Siegel, author of Love, Medicine and Mircles: “When an athlete visualizes success, their body really is experiencing success. When you imagine something, your body really feels like it’s happening.”

Likewise, Vajrayana practitioners, who practice Tummo, can be seen comfortably meditating outdoors without clothes in the winter — using the power of mind to control body heat. For centuries, Vajrayana practitioners have understood the power of visualization, not just to heal, but to transform our own minds.

A modern-day demonstration of Tummo. In real-time, this practitioner seems comfortable with no clothes in winter for the 20 minute video:

Symbols — the Language of the Mind

Teacher Stephen Batchelor explains: “In contrast to the approaches of conventional religion, Tantra does not attempt to soothe the turmoil of existence with consoling promises of heaven or salvation. The Trantric practitioner chooses to confront the bewildering and chaotic forces of fear, aggression, desire and pride, and to work with them in such a way that they are channeled into creative expression, loving relationships, and wisely engaged forms of life.” [1]

Rob Preece, author of The Psychology of Buddhist Tantra lecture:

By definition, “when we enter the world of Tantra, we may need to loosen some of our preconceptions about the nature of reality,” wrote Rob Preece, in The Psychology of Buddhist Tantra.   “We begin to inhabit a twilight world where the distinctions between the material and symbolic are less defined…” [2]

Stephen Batchelor puts it this way: “Tantra evokes a sense of the dark, esoteric underbelly of Eastern religion … mysterious rituals undertaken at night by initiates, terrifying gods and goddesses, as well as breathtakingly beautiful mandalas and deeply moving chants intoned by brocade-draped Tibetan monks to the syncopated rhythms of bells and drums.” [1]

Esoteric or Clearly Articulated Practice?

Often we see Vajrayana characterized as esoteric and mysterious. Or superstition — among those who don’t follow the profound logic of visualized meditation. On one hand, there is nothing hidden or mysterious about a meditation method that clearly articulates its methods in precise and detailed sadhanas. The mystery is not as much in the method, as in the ultimate goal of that method. On the other, most of the instructions for practice are passed on from teacher to student through initiation and teaching — making it less accessible, and therefore esoteric, from that point of view. This isn’t designed to keep it mysterious, but to protect the student from jumping to wrong views.

Profound Goal of Vajrayana: Eliminate the Grasping of “Self”

One of the profound goals of Vajrayana visualization is to break down our mind’s stubborn clinging to the notion of “self and other.” By visualizing mind-realms as Pure Lands, apparently as real as our own “perceived” world, we gradually let go the grasping at our incorrect notions of reality. From the point of view of “I” and “other” even a visualized deity has reality. In fact, during “generation stage” visualization practices, the Vajrayana student repeatedly transforms him/herself into the deity, complete with “divine pride.” Then, we demolish that notion, by dissolving our new deity-body to Emptiness. Then, we rebuild the visualization of self as Deity once more. Over and over again.

Then, are we saying the deities are not real, but a skillful method designed to overcome the mind’s stubborn habits of incorrect perception? That they are no more than imagination? Or psychological archetypes. The answer is emphatically no. Deities are real. Full stop. They aren’t flesh and blood, real. They don’t manifest in front of us as a Blue Buddha or a Green Mother Tara. Those understandings are in the realm of our imagination. But our imagination is connecting us to a the Enlightened Deity.

Deity as “Real”?

“When we refer to the wisdom deities as symbolic, we don’t mean they are mere symbols,” explained Eric Holm in his article, “You are Avalokiteshvara.” [3] So, does that mean the Deity is real, or not real? Depending on your stage of practice, we might realize that the deity we are visualizing is just as real as we are — which is to say we are both ultimately Empty. Empty does not equate to nothingness, and is a profound concept that takes lifetimes to really comprehend (beyond simple intellectual understanding).

So, on one hand Tara is just as real as we are, ready to jump to our aid, an emanation of our mind ready to help us. On the other, at the ultimate level She is no more real than we are. She manifests an image and ego to relate to us. Once we develop realizations of Emptiness, we no longer need Her protection — we understand there can be no fear when we are empty of the clinging to Ego.

BuddhaNature: Deities Help Us See Ourselves

Another way in which we can understand the deity is as a way of expressing our own innate Buddha Nature. Shakyamuni Buddha taught that we all have Buddha Nature, every being without exception. We see it expressed in acts of compassion, and we recognize it in our meditations with glimpses of deeper wisdom. If we can remove the obstacles to practice, such as clinging to ego, anger, impatience, then we can glimpse our Buddha Nature.

The deities help us remove those obstacles. Vajrasattva helps us to visualize ourselves as pure. Tara helps us remove fear, which results from ego-clinging. Avalokiteshvara teaches us compassion. In these ways, they are very real manifestations of our mind, and very potent aid in our practice. Why, then, do these deities manifest in many forms? Because, the language of the mind is image. A thousand arms reaching out to comfort us connotes compassion.

In what ways can deities help us realize our true Buddha Nature? Eric Holm, in a feature in Lion’s Roar, put it this way: “Increased openness to ourselves and to the world comes from letting go again and again of self-centered thoughts and habitual storylines.” [3]

Even Mindfulness Meditation Works with Images

Even with “mindfulness” practices (common to all forms of Buddhism) we are taught to be the “observer” (not the “listener” or the “reader.”) One reason Vajrayana Buddhism is considered an advanced practice requiring teacher guidance, is — that, besides its level of difficulty — it emphasizes powerful visualization practices of deities and their mandalas. Such intense visualization fully engages all three of body, speech and mind in a process of transformation. Prayer or sutra recitation works primarily with speech. Mudras work mostly with body. Vajrayana practices work with all three.

It may seem contradictory, that in pursuit of Emptiness, we create (visualize) fully populated pure lands. In fact, these visualized mandalas and deities, like mindfulness, help us, at least in part, to overcome the habituation of the mind.

NOTES

[1] Stephen Batchelor, in forward to The Psychology of Buddhist Tantra, Rob Preece, Snow Lion Publications

[2] The Psychology of Buddhist Tantra, Rob Preece, Snow Lion Publications

[3] You Are Avalokiteshvara, Eric Holm, Jan 1, 2002, Lion’s Roar

[4] “Can you imagine cancer away?” Elizabeth Cohen, CNN

Editors Note

This lovely recollection of a visualized meditation from our reader/contributor Adrian Hamblin is just too beautiful not to publish. After meditating with two of Buddha Weekly’s volunteer-created videos, he sent these notes (and gave permission to publish.) We’ve embedded the two videos he watched before his meditations. He illustrates well the power of visualization over mind — symbols and image are the language of the mind. He labels them as “experiences” which is very apt. Visualization is the method taught by many great teachers to help us experience Buddha Dharma. [For a feature on the benefits of visualized meditation versus other methods, see>>]

By Adrian Hamblin

My first experience — Parnashavari in the forest

I started this inner meditative journey meeting with Parnashavari in a dense forest. She led me to a circular open space with a small spring/ well/ fountain and two chairs carved from logs in the center. Parnashavari offered me water from the well in a cup from a large leaf. I felt this flowing into me.

This is the video Adrian watched before meditating on Parnashavari in the forest:

I felt green-white energy flowing into my body – both in the meditation and apparently in my physical body – coming from above me, the Earth below me, and from Parnashavari herself. I felt this filling me. I soon felt this pooling in my abdomen…

I looked into this area of my body, seeing this energy connecting and working with old emotional wounds. The energy was wrapping around the emotional energy, separating the energies from my physical body. This comforted me.

I relaxed into the physical and emotional energies present in me. I felt them start to move, leaving my body, drooping into the ground at my feet. I soon felt better, with less discomfort.

Editors Note: Adrian also meditated on the Hayagriva Videos (embedded below) which led to another visualized meditative experience:

Second experience: Hayagriva’s protection

When I listened to this meditation a second time and visualized, I again met Parnashavari in the forest, walking with her to the grove with the spring and chairs. I sat in a chair and the forest around me dissipated to nothing.

I found myself standing in a field of nothing, floating. An image of the essence of the Coronavirus formed in front of me. I did not judge it or fear it, respecting it as it is. It seemed to have the attitude of a young, scared child. When it realized I was not going to attack or react negatively, it moved to cling to my left leg, seeming to try to hide behind me.

Hayagriva’s Mantra video:

I set the intention to see the energy behind the virus, causing people to react in fear and all the way humans have become when facing the virus. A large red cloud/fog formed in front of us, shifting form, seeming to try to threaten or be menacing us. We felt no fear, but I felt cautious and concerned.

I felt and saw a dark shadow rising behind me. The red cloud saw this also, and the attitude it was radiating changed from malicious to fearful. I felt concerned about this shadow rising within me. I managed to control my reaction.

The loud sound of a Horse’s neigh sounded from behind me. The red cloud reacted in fear. The Horse’s neigh told me (and the virus) that Hayagriva is with us, offering his protective promise.

The red cloud fled, retreating into the darkness.

I turned to face Hayagriva and thanked him. He did not say anything. In response to my thanks, he put a hand on my shoulder, giving a gentle, supportive, encouraging squeeze. Then he walked back into the darkness around us.

I turned to face the Coronavirus. We said goodbye to each other.

The forest grove formed around me. I was sitting in one of the chairs. Parnashavari was sitting in the other. I thanked her for this journey, then walked through the forest back into my physical body.

About Adrian Hamblin

Adrian Hamblin started his spiritual journey many years ago. He was introduced to Green Tara and White Tara through an exhibition of Tibetan art at a local fine arts museum in 2019. He discovered Buddha Weekly during a challenging time of life in November, 2021. He has found learning, strength, healing and growth through their videos, including the 21 Taras series.

The great Lama Yeshe said: “Our problem is that inside us there is a mind going, ‘Impossible, impossible, impossible. I can’t, I can’t, I can’t, I can’t’ … Human beings have great potential; they can do anything. The power of the mind is limitless.”

To subdue this “I can’t” mind, many Buddhists — and non-Buddhists — practice mindfulness to still the mind. In Buddhist practice, this stilling of the “monkey mind” has many advantages, and can help us glimpse reality as it truly is — the wisdom path to eventual enlightenment.

Then, to activate the “impossible” mind, Buddhists — and non-Buddhists — practice forms of visualization. Deity visualization in Vajrayana Buddhism is a powerful practice that imagines “ourselves as we would like to be, as an enlightened being, and this enables us to actualize that state much more quickly,” according to Geshe Tashi Tsering in his book Tantra: The Foundation of Buddhist Thought.[1]

Non-Buddhists also often enhance their life with personal visualizations — everything from daydreaming, to positive affirmations, to guided meditations. It’s the same principle in Vajrayana, except with Enlightened Beings as the object of visualization — and the mantra (and what that represents) as the positive affirmation.

Which is Better?

From a Buddhist point of view — neither. Mindfulness, or stilling the mind by bringing us intimately into the present moment, has an immediate advantage of simplicity in today’s busy world. It’s also easily understood, can be self-managed, and requires no major training. Visualization practice pursues the same goal with the opposing tactic: activation, rather than pacification, of the mind—using every sense in the body and every available neuron in the brain. Both styles of meditation have their own set of advantages and disadvantages. There are also separate “health” and living benefits, not related to practice goals.

At a high level, one of the goals of both styles of meditation, in Buddhist practice is to glimpse reality — and realize the wisdom of emptiness. More importantly, according to many teachers, mindfulness allows us to still our mind enough to glimpse our very own Buddha Nature—inherent to all sentient beings.

Deity visualization, on the other hand, allows us to step-by-step activate our Buddha Nature—rather than glimpse it. Using active, guided meditation, it also stimulates “compassion” in addition to “wisdom.” Bodhichitta is a major focus of nearly all visualization sadhanas (in modern speak, “manual” or guided meditation). By activating our “Buddha Nature” we overcome our sense of being “ordinary.”

“The sadhana is like a passport to a new universe,” writes Geshe Tsering. “At first glance it may seem like an arcane ritual, but when we understand the skillful way it can transform the mind, and especially how it uniquely blends the conventional aspects of our practice, such as developing the altruistic mind, with the wisdom realizing emptiness, we can see what a profound psychological tool it is.”

Mindfulness underpins Vipassana meditation methods—seeing things as they are. Deity visualization supports tantric methods — seeing beyond the ordinary.

“Through meditation on emptiness and bodhichitta, we use the visualization of arising as the enlightened deity to eliminate this sense of ordinariness,” explains Geshe Tsering in his masterful book on Tantra.[1] “The practice of generating ourselves as a deity and holding a sense of divine pride or divine identity is an integral part of Vajrayana practice. It is a way to bring the result into practice by feeling that we are already what we will one day be.”

What’s the Same?

All forms of Buddhist meditation share a single goal, no less than ultimate full Enlightenment. The methods differ, but there are at least four aspects that are the same:

• Goal: Enlightenment
• Goal: Bodhichitta (both aspiring and engaged Bodhichitta)
• Living the Six Perfections: generosity, patience, morality, joyous perseverance, concentration and wisdom.
• Wisdom realizing emptiness

Cutting the Ordinary

In addition to the shared traits, Vajrayana visualization cuts through “ordinary appearances” by using intense visualization and identification, and four unique elements, known as the four complete purities:

• Purity of Environment: accomplished through visualization of ideal sacred environment or mandala
• Purity of Body: through visualization of ourselves as an Enlightened deity
• Purity of Resources: visualizing mundane offerings as offerings suitable for the divine
• Purity of Activities: guided visualization on benefiting sentient beings.

Comparing the Two Skilled Methods

Mindfulness                                     Deity Visualization

No focus                                             Focus: Deity, or idealized Enlightened being.

Observe the self in the moment         Observe what we one day will be/can be

Seeing beyond the ordinary               Participating beyond the ordinary

Stills the mind                                    Activates the mind

Stress-reducing                                 Strongly enhances cognitive function

Easy to learn                                     Normally requires a teacher

Self-guided                                        Guided meditation

Non-focused                                      Focused

Enhances wisdom                             Enhances wisdom and compassion equally

Simple and quick                              Complex and requires time commitment

Neurologically parasympathetic        Activates sympathetic system

Immediate stress reduction              Immediate cognitive enhancement

Observes energies and thoughts     Manipulates energies and thoughts

Tends to pacify (relax) energies      Deliberately activates subtle energies

Vajrayana visualization practice opens the mind in an active way. Vajayana and tantric Buddhists tend to practice both mindfulness and active visualization practices. Advanced practitioners may practice only deity practices, but these advanced sadhanas combine the best of both.

Visualizing Deities

The exotic nature of visualizing deities also shifts our mind, helping us move conceptually away from “ordinary” thinking. Deities in Buddhism are not Gods as thought of in theistic religions. Deities are a complicated topic, but from a strictly psychological point of view they tap into universal archetypes. “Each deity in Tibetan Vajrayana is an iconic representation of a particular enlightened energy within us that we are trying to actualize,” writes Geshe Tsering.

The very power of visualization is working with images (as well as sounds, smells, touch and other senses). For example, the image of compassion is Chenrezig (Avalokitesvara), is often visualized with 1000 arms, each arm reaching out to help sentient beings, symbolically expressing His extraordinary caring. Green Tara is visualized as green (symbolizing wind or activity), and she is seen with one leg outstretched — the hero leaping up to help those in need, in Her lovely capacity as a savior.

Since visualizing requires an object of refuge to visualize, deities are reinforcement for our meditation. We tap into an particular aspect of the Buddha Within—for example Manjusri for “wisdom” or Avalokitesvara for “compassion.” The power of sadhanas stems not only from the combination of wisdom and compassion, but also from the use of all the senses to reinforce the “beyond ordinary” experience.

All the Senses Used in Sadhanas

We use multiple skilled methods and all the senses in visualization practice, reinforcing the extraordinary meditational experience, for example:

• sound: words and mantras
• breath: visualizing prana (chi) and the subtle body
• smell: we visualize the scent of wonderful offerings of incense
• taste: we visualize food offerings
• prayers: in psychological terms, affirmations
• offerings: representing our generosity and generating merit
• activity: for example, visualizing purifying light blessing all sentient beings, and other activities.

All of this reinforces the visual symbolism of the deity. Sometimes, even the actual physical (or visualized) location is heavy with symbolism and reinforces our meditational goals. For example, advanced Chod practice is often conducted in a Cemetery, at night.

In The Way of the White Clouds, by Lama Govinda, he describes deities as “not merely beautiful decorations of aesthetic value but as representations of a higher reality, born from visions of inner experience. They were put into as precise a language of forms as is contained in a geographical map or scientific formula, while being as natural and expression as direct an appeal as a flower or a sunset.”

Non-Buddhist Scientific View

From a less spiritual point of view, mindfulness is well accepted in the psychiatric community as a method for reducing stress, and improving health issues that are impacted by stress — arguably all major health issues. A 2011 study in Neuroimage, broadly maps out how mindfulness changes the brain for the better.

On the other hand, Vajrayana Deity visualization practices improve cognitive performance and have a promising impact on patients with degenerate brain disorders, according to a study from the National University of Singapore.

Difference in Perspective

What’s the main difference between non-Buddhist and Buddhist perspectives on the two methods? The goals, clearly. Buddhist practitioners will have taken refuge prior to any meditation, while non-Buddhists likely wouldn’t. As Buddhists, the ultimate goal is nothing less than touching the Buddha within and achieving Enlightenment. Non-Buddhists will be content with either heightened relaxation and stress relief—with mindfulness methods; or, improved cognitive function, conceptual thinking and planning with active guided visualizations.

Which is better? Neither. Both are powerful, and most people can benefit from using both styles of meditation. Mindfulness meditation pacifies, creating space for wisdom—and reducing stress. Visualization, on the other hand, activates mind on the heroic quest for the Buddha Within—and improves cognitive function. Contrary to the notion that they might be opposites—pacification versus activation—they are complimentary.

Some of the images in this article feature Zasep Tulku Rinpoche from the movie Please Come Again:

NOTES

[1] Tantra: The Foundation of Buddhist Thought, Volume 6, Geshe Tashi Tsering foreword by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

[2] Visualizing Yourself as a Deity, Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive

With activities of building the mandala with gems or rice and mudras, we purify our bodies.

With sound and mantra and the offering words we purify our speech.

With visualization — transforming our “mandala set” into an entire Pureland universe as an offering — we purify our mind.

With the complete activity, we offer our transformed body, speech and mind to our Gurus and the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.

Modern life — so little merit

Modern life affords us so little time to practice accumulating merit and purification — and so many opportunities to generate negative karma. Modern life also tends to create many excuses to postpone — just for today. Who has time for daily offerings? It’s all most of us can do to fit in ten minutes of meditation. Isn’t it better to attend the next Vajrasattva Retreat or Empowerment than to take ten minutes a day for offerings?

The solution — a five to ten-minute mandala offering. Done properly, it is a complete merit and purification practice. It purifies all three of body, speech and mind.

Time is the first issue. The second, in terms of modern life, is the seemingly antiquated references in the mandala ritual to continents, elephants and jewels. These are symbols — and they connote not only external cosmos and universe as an offering, but also internal cosmos of our own bodies. For this reason, Mandala can be thought of as one of the supreme offerings.

The second issue is sometimes cost. Many teachers recommend having the “nicest set you can afford” simply because we wish to offer the best to the Enlightened Ones, but gold, gold plated or sterling sets can require a mortgage. Fortunately, there are inexpensive sets on stores such as Amazon (not vouching for this one — please shop around, there are many beautiful ones out there — but I found it randomly, but the price is right at about $69>> (This is an affiliate link. The price is unchanged, but BW may receive a small percentage.)

The mandala offering is actually an offering of all Universes and dimensions — not mythical continents — with Jambudvipa (the southern continent) representing our known perceptual universe. All the other named “continents” and sub-continents are dimensions and universes beyond our world. [More on the “modern mandala of universes” below.]

[A 37-Heap offering mandala ritual below, with activities.]

Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains:

You can also increase the merit of the offering by imagining that you’re offering many universes, as many as you can imagine. After constructing the mandala, imagine beams of light going out in all directions from the mandala. On the end of each beam is another mandala. Then from each of these mandalas emanate beams of light with a mandala on the end of each, and so on. Another way of multiplying the mandala is to imagine another whole universe on each atom of the first mandala, and then another universe on each of those universes’ atoms, etc. You can also imagine a duplicate image of yourself making a mandala offering in each atom of space. The entire space becomes filled with mandalas.

Although the mandala base is small, you must imagine everything in the universe on it. It’s like seeing many objects reflected in a tiny water bubble, or looking at a mountain through the eye of a needle, or looking at a city from an airplane. It’s very important to think that all these objects actually exist. The imagined symbol of the universe does exist as a creation of the mind.

Mandala combines meditation, purification, offerings

Mandala set offerings is a practice that combines the best of meditation, mantra, purification, and offerings in one very powerful act, and many teachers, as early as the great Lama Tsongkhapa, advocate this critical practice as a daily essential. It purifies negative karma and accumulates merit not just for ourselves, but for all beings. (Full Mandala offering method at end of this article.)

Mandala offering is a powerful method for accumulating extensive merit in a short time. The Tibetan word for mandala is kyil.kor: kyil is essence, kor is taking—taking the essence. The term means taking the essence on the base of offering a mandala, and what you get from this is merit—the cause. Therefore the essence you take is the generation of the whole path, from guru devotion up to enlightenment, as well as the result, the unification of the dharmakaya and rupakaya. The cause is merit, the path; and the result is enlightenment. — Lama Zopa Rinpoche [1]

Modern Concepts of Mandala — External and Internal Cosmos

When we offer a mandala, as heaps of rice or gems, these are symbols representing a visualized cosmos, both external universes, and internal cosmos. In the spoken offering of the mandala, we list Mount Meru, Videha, Jambudipa, Godaniya as continents — which can strike some meditators as “quaint” by today’s standards. Only Jampudipa is recognizable to us — this represents our entire universe as we perceive it. The rest — Mout Meru, Videya, and the others — are concepts for other dimensions and realities outside of our experience.

This is what makes the Mandala set offering so striking and profound. We visualize offering not only ourselves, or simple sensory objects to the Buddha, but a vast cosmos of known and unknown universes, times, dimensions, and realities — and our own internal mental cosmos. If done correctly, visualized in this context, the offering merit is vast.

In Tibetan Buddhism, there are many types of Mandalas, which we symbolically purify and offer to the Enlightened Ones, the Buddhas. These include

• Mandala Set with rings, gems, or grains — think of this as the “everything” offering; all internal and external factors purified and offered
• Body Mandala — our internal body cosmos of channels and chakras and sensory organs
• Pureland Mandalas and Sand Mandalas — visualizing the Purelands of the Enlightened Ones as offerings
• Mudra Offerings — using the hand gestures as “symbols” or “stand-ins” for the mandala.

Of these, the most emphasized practice in most Tibetan Buddhist traditions is the Mandala set. It reinforces our visualization with activities and sound, making it a complete offering of Body, Speech, and Mind. It helps us recognize the vastness of all external, unseen, and internal phenomena. It helps us understand the Emptiness of all phenomena.

Many traditions coach students to undertake 100,000 of these offerings as a “foundation” practice. Most Sadhanas, of almost any Englithened Yidam, include one or multiple mandala offerings. This isn’t just “settling the stage” for our minds. This is literally about “offering the entire universe” — purified through visualization and mantra — to the Enlightened Ones. The merit is as vast as the universe we offer.

Lama Tsongkhapa — One Million Mandalas

Even the great Lama Tsongkhapa, an enlightened being, practiced daily, focusing especially on purification and increasing of merit. Manjushri, at one point, advised the famous enlightened scholar to put aside scholarly pursuits and focus on purification and offering of the mandala. It was as a result of this, we are taught, that Tsongkhapa gained the higher realizations.

Lama Tsongkhapa did over one million mandala offerings, but because Lama Tsongkhapa was very poor, he used a stone base and stones. The first purification mandala involves cleaning the base with your forearm while reciting mantras. It is said that Lama Tsongkhapa’s arm was scarred from the constant cleaning of his natural stone base.

Daily Mandala Accumulates Vast Merit

Accumulation of merit and purification are two foundation practices of any Vajrayana Buddhist. We accumulate merit in many ways—following the precepts prime among them—but extraordinary merit is accumulated through the practice of Mandala offerings.

Doing the mandala offering is a way of clearing out all these negative states of mind. Here, “mandala” means the universe and everything in it. Instead of looking at things and saying, “Oh that’s good. I want it!” we train ourselves to think, “Oh, that looks good. I’m offering it to the Triple Gem.” — Venerable Thubten Chodron [2]

Short video offering the Mandala with Venerable Thubten Chodron of Sravasti Abbey. For full teaching, see the second video below:

In doing a mandala offering, we offer the entire world, everything, not just our earth, but every one of the billions and trillions of planets throughout all universes. We visualize we are purifying incorrect motivations and receiving great blessings from the merit field. We offer the mandala from our hearts, to open our minds.

The Golden Ground and Mount Meru

The base of a Mandala set represents the golden ground of the world or universe. The first ring placed on the base represents the iron fence and the continents. The next rings represent Mount Meru. The Mandala top symbolizes all the precious things in all the universes, our own precious virtues.

One of the Most Important Daily Practices

Mandala offerings are considered one of the most important daily practices because the act accumulates different types of merit, but ordinary and primordial wisdom merit. We practice generosity, which overcomes the stingy or greedy mind full of desires and attachments. We then give up these attachments to the material by offering them to all beings in the universe. We visualize we are offering up the wealth of the entire universe to the Buddhas, the Bodhisattvas, the Dharma, and the Sangha. Every day, this reminds us of the importance of good conduct, generosity, and merit activities. Mandala gives us the motivation to achieve our goal of Buddhahood.

Venerable Thubten Chodron explains this merit accumulating practice in a teaching video:

It is both a purification and an offering. In making the daily offering to all beings, to the prosperity of all beings and the entire universe, we accumulate great merit. To advance in our own spiritual lives, we need only lightly shadow the example of Lama Tsongkhapa, being diligent in our daily and weekly practice. Prostrations, mantras, meditation, and mandala offerings all accumulate merit and purify negative karma. An annual retreat, while of great value, is not as potent as a simple, short, daily practice.

Three Types of Mandala Offering

We are taught there are three types of mandala offerings, which fall into the broad descriptions of external, internal, and secret. External is practiced by all Buddhists, a whole-hearted and generous offering based on sutra and suitable for everyone. Internal and secret are both unique to advance tantric practice.

Mandala practice includes all three types of offering. Meditating on the concept of Mandala is a worthwhile activity. Mandala itself is a form of meditation, that illustrates for us the illusory nature of reality. Merit is accumulated by the act of offering benefits to the entire universe.

Each Day a New Offering

Unlike other offerings, we offer the same mandala offerings over again each time. We begin by purifying our incorrect motivations by wiping grain over the base of the mandala. We then draw blessings towards ourselves. Each day we offer the same semi-precious gems, grains and other materials, renewed and pure each time they are offered. This becomes a precious new offering. Important in renewing the offering is intention: the intention to make offerings, to purify negative karma, to offer merits to all beings suffering in the universe.

Lama Lena short teaching and how-to on making a Mandala Offering:

Mandala Universe

The mandala is a microcosmic illustration of Buddhist cosmology — more importantly, a map of our own minds. It need not be taken literally, and, in fact, helps us remember the nature of ultimate reality. It is not a physical representation of reality. Yet the symbolism is rich and worthy of hours of focused meditation. Using modern visualizations is not as valuable as trying to visualize the traditional cosmology.

At its center is Mount Meru, not a literal mountain, but the center of the entire universe. Surrounding Mount Meru are seven golden mountain chains.  There are four levels of ground, four below the oceans and four above. Above all, is the sun and moon. The highest level in the mandala is the domain of the gods in the desire realm. There are four great continents and eight subcontinents on the great ocean surrounding Mount Meru. A great iron fence surounds the ocean, which rests on golden ground.

Order of Offering Mandala Diagram

Modern English Mandala Set Offering

(East is closest to you, regardless of actual direction. This means south is to the right of the ring, West is across from you, North is to the left.)

(Rub your wrist 3x clockwise and then 3x counterclockwise while reciting:)

OM vajra ground AH HUM, mighty golden ground.
OM vajra fence AH HUM, the iron fence around the edge,

First Ring on Base

(Put the first ring on.)

(1 – Offer your gems or rice to the Middle to Mount Meru, numbers on diagram) 

In the center is Mount Meru, the king of mountains,

(2 – Offer in the East (immediately in front of you))

In the east the continent Videha,

(3 – Offer in the South – to the right, see diagram)

In the south Jambudvipa,

(4 – Offer in the West – opposite you, see diagram)

In the west Godaniya,

(5 – Offer in the North, left, see diagram)

In the north Kuru.

(6 to 7 – SE and NE, see diagram 6-7 — or left and right of east)

In the east are the sub-continents Deha and Videha,

(8 to 9 – SW, SE, see diagram 8-9 — or top and bottom of South)

In the south Camara and Aparacamara,

(10 to 11 – NW, SW, see diagram)

In the west Shatha and Uttaramantrina,

(12 to 13 – NE, NW, see diagram)

In the north Kurava and Kaurava.

(14 – E, see diagram)

Here are the precious mountain,

(15 – S, see diagram)

The wish-granting tree,

(16 – W, see diagram)

The wish-fulfilling cow,

(17 – N, see diagram)

The unploughed harvest.

Second Ring

(18 – E of the second ring, see diagram)

Here are the precious wheel,

(19 – S of the second ring)

The precious jewel,

(20 – W, of the second ring, see diagram)

The precious queen,

(21 – N of the second ring, see diagram)

The precious minister,

(22 – SE of the second ring, see diagram)

The precious elephant,

(23 – SW of the second ring, see diagram)

The precious horse,

(24 – NW of the second ring, see diagram)

The precious general,

(25 NE of the second ring, see diagram)

The great treasure vase.

Third Ring — the Goddesses

(26 E of the third ring, see diagram)

Here, the goddess of beauty,

(27 S of the third ring, see diagram)

The goddess of garlands,

(28 W of the third ring, see diagram)

The goddess of song,

(29 N of the third ring, see diagram)

The goddess of dance,

(30 SE of the third ring, see diagram)

The goddess of flowers,

(31 SW of the third ring, see diagram)

The goddess of incense,

 (32 NW of the third ring, see diagram)

The goddess of light,

(33 NE of the third ring, see diagram)

The goddess of perfume.

Top Ring

(34 S of the top ring, see diagram)

Here, the sun,

(35 N of the top ring, see diagram)

Moon,

(36 E of the top ring, see diagram)

Precious parasol,

(37 W of the top ring, see diagram)

And victory banner.

(38  centre – middle)

In the center are the marvelous riches of gods and humans, with nothing missing, pure and delightful.

(Place the top of the mandala ornament.)

I offer these as a Buddha-field to my glorious, holy, kind root guru, to the lineage gurus, to the great Je Tsongkhapa, the Buddha who is the King of Sages, Vajradhara, to my Yidam (name your Yidam), and the entire assembly of deities. Please accept these with compassion for the sake of migrating beings. Having accepted them, please bestow on me and on the mother sentient beings abiding as far as the limits of space your inspiration with loving compassion.

Detailed Mandala Set Offering Practice (Version 2)

Take your mandala set on your lap. Hold the mandala base in your right hand. If you have arthritis or can’t hold the base, place it on a table.

NOTE: Do not speak the (brackets out loud — these identify where to pour the grain on the mandala). Italics are actions, not spoken.

Take some grain in your left hand and hold the mandala base. Take grain with your right hand and put it on the base. Wipe clockwise three times with your forearm, tipping the grain away from you. Visualize that you are purifying incorrect motivation.

Take grain and put it on the base again. Wipe anti-clockwise three times with your forearm, tipping the grain toward yourself. Visualize that you are receiving great blessings from the merit field to open your mind to offer the mandala from your heart.

Spread some grain over the base to symbolize the golden ground with precious jewels.

Say:
OM vajra ground AH HUM, mighty golden ground.

Place the first ring on the base. Take more grain and sprinkle it around the inside of the ring. This symbolizes blessing the iron fence that encircles the universe.

Say:
OM vajra fence AH HUM, the iron fence around the edge,

In the center is Mount Meru, the king of mountains (sprinkle in area 1, centre)
In the east the continent Lupapo  (area 2)

East is toward you if the aim is receiving blessing power from the merit field. East is away from you if your aim is accumulating merit.

Say:
In the south Dzambuling  (3)
In the west Balangcho  (4)
In the north Draminyan (5)
In the east are the sub-continents  Lu and Lupag  (6 and 7)
In the south Ngayab and Ngayabzhan  (8 and 9)
In the west  Yodan and  Lamchog dro (10 and 11)
In the north Draminyan and  Draminyan Gyida. (12 and 13)
Here are the precious mountain (14)
The wish-granting tree (15)
The wish-fulfilling cow (16)
The unploughed harvest. (17)
Place the second ring on top of the grain-filled first ring. Visualize placing the eight precious objects belonging to a wheel-turning king who rules the four continents.

Say:
Here are the precious wheel  (18)

The  precious jewel (19)
The precious queen (20)
The precious minister (21)
The precious elephant (22)
The precious horse (23)
The precious general (24)
The great treasure vase. (25)

Continue on the inner area of the second ring. These eight symbolize the eight goddesses carrying eight different types of offerings:

Say:
Here are the goddess of beauty (26)
The goddess of garlands (27)
The goddess of songs (28)
The goddess of dance (29)
The goddess of flowers (30)
The goddess of incense (31)
The goddess of light (32)
The goddess of perfume (33)

Place the third ring on the grain-filled second ring. Place the grains to your left and right for the sun and moon. Place the banner of victory toward you to receive blessing power from the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. If there is an obstacle, place the parasol toward you to symbolize receiving protecting power from the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.

Say:
Here are  the sun (34)

The moon (35)
The precious parasol (36)
The banner of victory in all directions. (27)

Place 38 the mandala top in the middle to symbolize the offerings of Samantabhadra.

Say:
In the center are the most perfect riches of gods and humans, with nothing missing, pure and delightful.
To my glorious, holy and most kind root guru, the lineage gurus and in particular to the great Lama Tzong Khapa, Buddha who is the king of sages, Vajradhara, and the entire assembly of deities, I offer these as a Buddha-field.
Please accept them with compassion, for the sake of migrating beings. Having accepted them, please bestow on me and on mother sentient beings abiding as far as the limits of space your inspiration with loving compassion.

Final Meditation
•    Visualize an enormous tree on the top of Mount Meru with many branches spreading throughout space. On each branch is Bodhisattva Samantabhadra, creating from his concentration innumerable priceless offerings to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Transform the universe you have just created into a pure universe.
•    Hold the mandala at your heart and offer it. Recite the mantra:

Idam guru ratna mandala kam nirya tayami

•    Having made your request, tip the grain toward you, thinking that you are receiving their blessings. Visualize that from their hearts emanate brilliant white light and nectar which enter through your crown chakra, completely filling your body and mind and purifying all obstacles formed by negative karmas and delusions that hinder us from gaining realizations.
•    The merit field dissolves into Buddha Shakyamuni, who is inseparable from your root guru. Buddha Shakyamuni comes above your head. At his heart, visualize a moon disk surrounded by the syllables of his mantra:

Om muni muni mahamuniye soha. (Recite this 100 times.)

Outside this mantra is the mantra of Lama Tzong Khapa, which represents the mantra of your own guru:

Om ah guru vajradhara sumati kiti siddhe hum hum. (Recite 100 times.)

•    Perform your meditation practice then dissolve the merit field. At your heart is an open lotus, Guru Shakyamuni descends through your crown chakra and sits inside the lotus. Think that he becomes inseparable from your mind.

Collapsing the Mandala

It is important to face the Mandala towards you, with a cloth in your lap, and tip it into your lap so that all the offerings and rings fall towards you (caught in a cloth on your lap. You can then store the mandala by placing the rings inside the hollow of the base, and the grains or gems inside the rings, wrapped in your cloth.

NOTES

[1] “Mandala Offering” Lama Zopa Rinpoche

[2] “The purpose of mandala offering” Venerable Thubten Chodron

[3] How to offer Mandalas, Lama Yeshe Archive>>

The great teacher Thich Nhat Hanh, who passed away at 00:00hrs on 22nd January, 2022, at the age of 95, often wrote about impermanence, with an optimistic take on death:

“When you look a cloud… and then later the cloud is not there. But, if you look deeply, you can see the cloud in the rain, and that is why it’s impossible for a cloud to die. A cloud can become rain, or snow, or ice, but a cloud cannot become nothing. And that is why the notion of death cannot be applied to reality. There is a transformation, there is a continuation, but you cannot say that there is death. Because in your mind, to die, means you suddenly become nothing. From someone, you suddenly become no one… When you can remove these notions, you are free and you have no fear.” [Source video embedded below.]

The Venerable monk also said, “The Buddha did not die. The Buddha only continued. By His Sangha, by His Dharma, you can touch Buddha in the here and the now.”

“Learning how to live”

Leonardo da Vinci is credited as saying, “While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.” This may be a discouraging thought for some, but Buddhists view end-of-life meditation as an uplifting and powerful practice.

“Analysis of death is not for the sake of becoming fearful but to appreciate this precious lifetime.” — Dalai Lama [2]

Recently, at Gaden Choling Toronto, in a broad-ranging interview on many topics [1], I asked the most Venerable Zasep Tulku Rinpoche “Why do Buddhists meditate on death?” This led to a spirited and helpful teaching, especially as I had recently experienced the passing of several family members in one year — long, lingering and painful passings.

Zasep Rinpoche’s answer encouraged me to research what other eminent teachers have to say about death meditation. I’ve brought together some teachings from the Buddha, the Dalai Lama, Stephen and Ondrea Levine, Thich Nhat Hanh, Ribur Rinpoche, and also some helpful guidelines from the Journal of Palliative Care.

[For helpful suggestions for Palliative end-of-life caregivers specific to Buddhists, see the last half of this article.]

Life Without Boundaries — Thich Nhat Hanh

The great Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh’s gave us amazing translations of Sutra to help us contemplate the nature of impermanence. For example [12]:

This body is not me, I am not caught in this body.
I am life without boundaries. I have never been born,
and I shall never die.
Look at the ocean and the sky filled with stars,
manifestations of my wondrous true mind.
Since before time, I have been free.
birth and death are only doors through which we
pass, sacred thresholds on our journey.
birth and death are just a game of hide and seek.
So laugh with me,
hold my hand,
let us say goodbye,
say goodbye, to meet again soon.
We meet today.
We will meet again tomorrow.
We will meet at the source at every moment.
We meet each other in all forms of life.

“So do not be afraid of death. Death is just a continuation, and so is birth. At every moment, death is happening in your body—some cells are dying so other cells can come to life. Death is indispensable to life. If there is no death, there is no birth, just as there can be no left if there is no right. Don’t hold out hope that life will be possible without death. You must accept both of them—birth and death.

If you practice well, you can gain deep insight into the ultimate dimension while remaining in touch with the historical, or relative, dimension. And when you are deeply in touch with the historical dimension, you also touch the ultimate dimension, and you see that your true nature is no-birth and no-death.

Living is a joy. Dying in order to begin again is also a joy. Starting over is a wonderful thing, and we are starting over constantly. beginning anew is one of our main practices at Plum Village, and we must die every day in order to renew ourselves, in order to make a fresh start. Learning to die is a very profound practice.” [12]

Zasep Tulku Rinpoche: “Death can happen at any time… meditating on death is very helpful.”

“Meditating on death and dying is very important,” Zasep Rinpoche said. “Meditating on death and dying helps motivate Dharma practice. Life is too short. Death can happen at any time, you don’t know.”

“I’ve got maybe ten years, fifteen years, maybe twenty years. So, the time goes fast, but death’s going to happen sooner or later. So, meditating on death is very helpful to motivate Dharma practice.”

Rinpoche added that “meditating on death and dying is helpful for other people. For instance, you know someone is dying, like family members — or, maybe you work around people who are dying, like a palliative nurse or doctor — so it’s good to know more about how to be helpful in these times.” [The full transcript of the 2 hour interview with Zasep Rinpoche is featured here>>]

This brought to mind, the memorable words of Chagdud Rinpoche, a Tibetan lama:

“When you have to go to the bathroom, it’s too late to build a latrine.” [6]

Preparing to die, it could be said, is a key meditation and concept in Buddhism.

Stephen Levine: “We are all going to die… live as if the present year was our last”

Stephen and Ondrea Levine became well known for their book, A Year to Live, [3] “which explores the practice of living the present year as if it were our last.” Stephen famously wrote,

“Death is just a change of lifestyles.”

Although Stephen has since passed away,  so profound was his message, that he inspired many people to meditate and practice as if they had one year to live. In an interview in Tricycle Magazine [4] — in answer to the question ” Why is it important for us to think about dying?” — he replied:

“Because we are all going to die. If we could bring that reality into our heart, that would be a practice unto itself. The last time Ondrea and I spoke with the Dalai Lama, he asked us what were working on. I told him we were writing a book called A Year To Live, which explores the practice of living as if the present year were our last. He wondered whether people who started this practice would run amok. In other words, if they imagined the end was coming, wouldn’t they just grab a lady or a guy and a bottle of tequila and head for the beach? And that’s what we thought as well. But the truth is, when people know they are going to die, that last year is often the most loving, most conscious, and most caring — even under conditions of poor concentration, the side effects of medication, and so on. So don’t wait to die until you die. Start practicing now.”

Dalai Lama: “Facing Death and Dying Well”

As with everything, the Dalai Lama teaches out of an abundance of compassion. He also manages to sneak in a laugh, even on a talk about death. “Many people just want to forget about death, and then try to seek protection in alcohol.” (See Video “His Holiness the Dalai Lama talks about “Facing Death in a peaceful manner” Meridian Trust, embedded below.)

“There are two ways to deal with suffering and problems. The one, is simply to avoid the problem. That’s one way… The other way is, they look directly at the problem and analyze. And make it familiar to oneself.”

He explained that sickness and dying “are just a part of nature ­— a fact of life… There’s birth. So, logically, there’s death. So, that is part of our life, whether we like it or not.”

His Holiness explained that “sometimes through difficult experiences, sometimes life becomes more meaningful…” Facing and accepting death is one of these difficult experiences. “I notice that the elder generations, those people who lived through the second world war, that these people, their mental attitude becomes much stronger.” He described some suffering as “good lessons.”

“I think of my own experience. In one way, I lost my own country… and there is a lot of unhappiness and a lot of suffering… But through that I had an opportunity to meet different people… so, I think that experience enriched… those tragic experiences, also had good affect.”

Dalai Lama: “Be Mindful of Death”

In his book Advice on Dying, the Dalai Lama wrote: “It is crucial to be mindful of death — to contemplate that you will not remain long in this life. If you are not aware of death, you will fail to take advantage of this special human life that you have already attained. It is meaningful since, based on it, important effects can be accomplished.

“Analysis of death is not for the sake of becoming fearful but to appreciate this precious lifetime during which you can perform many important practices. Rather than being frightened, you need to reflect that when death comes, you will lose this good opportunity for practice. In this way contemplation of death will bring more energy to your practice.” [2]

Zasep Tulku Rinpoche: “Think about what is more important… more worthwhile”

The purpose, then, of death meditation is to inspire an “energy to practice” — even if just for ten minutes a day. In our interview with Zasep Rinpoche, he helpfully suggested: “So, think about what is more important for you. What is more worthwhile? Making another ten-minute phone call, or sending text messages, or meditating? Just schedule ten minutes in the morning, ten minutes in the evening, or fit in some mindfulness meditation during the day. Or, you can do walking meditation, standing meditation. Yes, there are some things you have to do. You have to talk on the phone and do text messages. But, you don’t have to be so busy that you can’t find time to meditate for ten minutes.

“Just last week I was on the street car and I saw this man, in his car, sending text messages, and smoking a cigarette, and also sipping on coffee. He was doing four things at the same time, driving, texting, smoking and drinking coffee. I thought to myself, Why? Isn’t that a bit stressful, trying to do four things at once? (laughs) I could see he was stressed out, that’s why he was smoking. Tired, that’s why he was drinking coffee.” Meditation on impermanence, on death, can help us reset our priorities.

Einstein: “Past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”

Einstein had a similar concept of “transformation” rather than “extinction.” After the death of a close friend, he wrote, in 1955:

“Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”

He later elaborated on this notion. ““Space and time are not conditions in which we live, they are modes in which we think.”

Einstein famously wrote, in The World As I See It (1933): “Enough for me the mystery of the eternity of life, and the inkling of the marvelous structure of reality, together with the single-hearted endeavor to comprehend a portion, be it ever so tiny, of the reason that manifests itself in nature.”

All carbon based life is made up of recycled material. Every atom in the universe is recycled. Nothing is every destroyed. Energy becomes matter becomes energy in an endless cycle. Of course that’s not the same as saying our “consciousness” continues after death, but it’s one reason scientists such as Einstein were supportive of many Buddhist concepts — and not fearful of their own deaths. The analysis of death, as suggested by the Dalai Lama, removes that fear.

Venerable Ribur Rinpoche: “people in the west don’t want to hear about impermanence and death “

One reason many Buddhist live fearlessly is a firm belief in the logical doctrine of rebirth, as partially described by Thich Nhat Hanh in his cloud analogy. Ribur Rinpoche — who, himself, lived day-by-day under threat of death under oppression in his Tibetan homeland for 23 years — explained why he thinks Westerners tend to fear death:

“In general people in the west don’t want to hear about impermanence and death… This is wrong. This is very wrong. At the time of death we don’t want to be sad… It is now, while we are alive, that we have to think about it. In this way, we have to think about it correctly, and to make the right preparation…”

[“Death and Rebirth” embedded video below]

He explained the importance of this understanding. “If you don’t understand impermanence, you won’t be practicing anyway. You’ll think, oh yes, I have to practice Dharma, but I can do it tomorrow. Or day after tomorrow. Or next year. As Lama Tsongkhapa said ‘In this way, I say I can do it later, I can do it later, and then your whole life goes by.’ You won’t achieve anything. Therefore, you won’t be able to abandon the fantasies related to this life… Your mind will be trapped within the eight worldly dharmas.”

“There are no methods that will prevent me from dying. Definitely, I’m going to die. That is certain…” He explained that without an understanding of impermanence, karma and rebirth, there is no encouragement to practice morality.

Ondrea Levine: “I think our fear on dying is a loss of control… Those thoughts are your conditioning.”

In their book, A Year to Live Stephen and Ondrea Levine wrote extensively about the key benefit of meditating on death from a palliative point-of-view. Stephen himself recently passed, and Ondrea has cancer, so they speak with authority.

“There’s a great deal of fear of death,” Ondrea said in a LevineTalks Video (embedded below). “People think they can get rid of it… Of course there’s fear of death. I’m not really afraid of death and what comes after. Because of my practice, I know this body will die… but, I do have fear around the process of dying.”

“No one wants to be in pain. No one wants to lose control. I think our fear on dying is a loss of control. This is natural. This is a normal fear… because death is the unknown.” She spoke about how we can rely on our teachers, such as the Buddha, and gain comfort, but that ultimately we have to experience, in our own practice, something “larger than our own little minds. So, whatever your practice is, you have to practice to work on your fears.” She illustrated with mindfulness practice.

She emphasized that those fears, “those thoughts are not you. Those thoughts are your conditioning.” She suggested mindfulness as a helpful method. “Become mindful of the situation. Become mindful.” She illustrated with a trip to her own doctor for test results. “I just examine my body. I try to slow my breath down. I’m sitting in the waiting room, instead of distracting myself by reading magazines… Slow the breath down. In slowing it down, it calms the whole body.” Analyzing your own body and your own fears is “a skillful means of being open to the unpleasant.”

Deathbed Wishes: “I wish I had played… more.”

In an interview in Trycicle Magazine, Ondrea Levine said, “I think the greatest benefit of the year-to-live practice is the opportunity it provides to reassess our priorities. When we worked with people on their deathbed, we would often hear the following three complaints: I wish I had gotten divorced earlier; I wish I had taken a job for love of the work, not money; I wish I had played and enjoyed myself more. So the beauty of the practice is that we can evaluate our lives even before we are on our deathbed. If we are not living the life we wish to live, how can we change that now, while there is still time?

“I can say this, because I have cancer. And I know that once you get that diagnosis, no matter how much you already know, something happens, everything becomes much more real. Ironically, it brings greater permission to be fully alive. I find it very exciting.”

Journal of Hospice and Palliative Nursing: Caring for End-of-Life Buddhists

“Tibetan Buddhism is one of the fastest growing religions in the United States,” wrote Marilyn Smith-Stoner, PhD, RN in her helpful article on Palliative care for Buddhists in the Journal of Hospice and Palliative Nursing. She adds: “The care they request at the end of life is different in many aspects from traditional end-of-life care.”

This helpful guide, specifically written for Palliative caregivers, gave helpful insights for non-Buddhists who might be caring for a Buddhist: “In all Buddhist traditions, four fundamental contemplations compose the foundation of understanding and meditation: first, that a human rebirth is extremely precious and should be used to its highest spiritual potential; second, that all compounded phenomena are impermanent, and whoever is born is bound to die; third, that beings experience relative reality as compared to ultimate nature that arises interdependently with their own actions; fourth, that all beings suffer, and human beings suffer particularly from birth, sickness, old age, and death.”

Buddha: The Story of Krisha Gotami and the Mustard Seeds

In this helpful guide for Palliative caregivers, the author uses the commonly cited story of the Mustard Seeds:

“In all Buddhist traditions, four fundamental contemplations compose the foundation of understanding and meditation:[2] first, that a human rebirth is extremely precious and should be used to its highest spiritual potential; second, that all compounded phenomena are impermanent, and whoever is born is bound to die; third, that beings experience relative reality as compared to ultimate nature that arises interdependently with their own actions; fourth, that all beings suffer, and human beings suffer particularly from birth, sickness, old age, and death.”

From the Sacred Text “The Mustard Seed”:

Kisa Gotami repaired to the Buddha and cried: “Lord and Master, give me the medicine that will cure my boy.” The Buddha answered: “I want a handful of mustard-seed.” And when the girl in her joy promised to procure it, the Buddha added: “The mustard-seed must be taken from a house where no one has lost a child, husband, parent, or friend.” Poor Kisa Gotami now went from house to house, and the people pitied her and said: “Here is mustard-seed; take it!” But when she asked Did a son or daughter, a father or mother, die in your family?” They answered her: “Alas the living are few, but the dead are many. Do not remind us of our deepest grief.” And there was no house but some beloved one had died in it.

Kisa Gotami became weary and hopeless, and sat down at the wayside, watching the lights of the city, as they flickered up and were extinguished again. At last the darkness of the night reigned everywhere. And she considered the fate of men, that their lives flicker up and are extinguished. And she thought to herself: “How selfish am I in my grief! Death is common to all; yet in this valley of desolation there is a path that leads him to immortality who has surrendered all selfishness.” [10]

Tibetan Book of the Dead: “Describes the dying process in detail”

The Journal article cites the importance of palliative workers being familiar with the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and then goes on to summarize high-level understandings that might be comforting to the Buddhist facing end-of-life. Important, especially, is the definition of death, which in various traditions of Buddhism is quite different from the medical definition. Robert Thurman, the respected Tibetan Buddhist teacher, said the Tibetan Book of the Dead “organizes the experiences of the between—(Tibetan, bar-do) usually referring to the state between death and rebirth.” [11]

Leonard Cohen Narrates a Film on The Tibetan Book of the Dead (video):

The author instructs care-professionals from a Tibetan Buddhist point of view, “it is believed that the nexus of consciousness—at its most subtle level of cognizance and movement—can remain in the body for up to 3 days or longer, depending on the circumstances of death. If the body dies by accident or violence, if the body is undisturbed, or if certain rituals are performed to liberate it from the body, the consciousness may exit immediately. In these cases, the body is merely a corpse and nothing unusual needs to be considered. But, after a peaceful death, Tibetan Buddhists are exceptionally concerned about what happens to the body in the moments and days after death, and they try to ensure that the consciousness exits from the crown of the head.”

Helpfully, the article instructs care-givers to inquire who the patient’s teacher may be and cautions the teacher may live far away. The guide also mentions the practice of P’howa, which means “transference of consciousness” as part of the ongoing spiritual training. P’howa prayers may be recited for years prior to the actual time of death.”

Zasep Tulku Rinpoche: “You can do non-traditional Powa … for other people.”

In our extensive interview with Venerable Zasep Rinpoche we did have an opportunity to ask about Powa or P’howa. I asked, “Is Powa practice helpful for the dying (Transferring the Consciousness)?”

Zasep Rinpoche replied, helpfully: “Powa is a Tibetan word, it means “transferring the consciousness.” I usually say, not everybody should practice this. I don’t want to give people the wrong idea. We do Powa practice as a training. When you know you have some illness or you are dying, if you think death come soon, then it’s a good time to practice. But Powa requires instructions. In traditional Powa practice you have visualize chakras and channels and so on.”

Power Meditation guided by H.E. Zasep Rinpoche:

For caregivers, however, Rinpoche had some special advice: “But, you can do a non-traditional Powa—mild Powa, a simple kind of Powa—for other people. Sort of guiding. I call it Powa for the West. For instance if you’re a family member, or in palliative care, and you talk to the patient, you might say as they are dying: ‘You know you are dying now. Let it go. You should go peacefully. As you go, imagine you are going to the Pure Land, or going into the Light, or into Eternal Bliss or Nirvana.’ You could call this kind of help, Powa for the West. It’s not traditional Powa.”

The Zen Master and the Cake

Rinpoche told a story—  illustrating the importance of a peaceful death — during the interview:

“I’ll tell you a story of a Zen Master. He was dying. And he told his attendant ‘Bring me my favorite cake!’ Rice cake. While he was munching the rice cake, his consciousness slipped away. He slipped away while enjoying his rice cake. In a way, this was a kind of Powa. He enjoyed his rice cake peacefully, and no sign of struggling, fear, worry, just passing the consciousness peacefully, happily.”

Venerable Thanissaro Bhikkhu: When dying, “meditation is the one thing that won’t abandon you”

Dying is the one thing we all will face. Buddhists are usually taught to spend their practice hours in one form or another of meditation: mindfulness, analytical mediation (such as on Death), and visualization.

When the time comes to die, explains Venerable Thanissaro Bhikku, meditation is the one thing that will not abandon you:

“What all this boils down to is that, as long as you are able to survive, meditation will improve the quality of your life, so that you can view pain and illness with equanimity and learn from them. When the time comes to go, when the doctors have to throw up their hands in helplessness, the skill you have been developing in your meditation is the one thing that won’t abandon you. It will enable you to handle your death with finesse. Even though we don’t like to think about it, death is going to come no matter what, so we should learn how to stare it down. Remember that a death well handled is one of the surest signs of a life well lived.” [9]

On a more optimistic note, the Venerable teacher told the story of how meditation help keep a woman with cancer alive:

“You should be very clear on one point: The purpose of meditation is to find happiness and well-being within the mind, independent of the body or other things going on outside. Your aim is to find something solid within that you can depend on no matter what happens to the body. If it so happens that through your meditation you are able to effect a physical cure, that’s all fine and good, and there have been many cases where meditation can have a remarkable effect on the body. My teacher had a student – a woman in her fifties – who was diagnosed with cancer more than 15 years ago. The doctors at the time gave her only a few months to live, and yet through her practice of meditation she is still alive today. She focused her practice on the theme that, ‘although her body may be sick, her mind doesn’t have to be.’ A few years ago I visited her in the hospital the day after she had had a kidney removed. She was sitting up in bed, bright and aware, as if nothing happened at all. I asked her if there was any pain, and she said yes, 24 hours a day, but that she didn’t let it make inroads on her mind.”

The Five Powers: Thought Transformation for a Happy Successful Death

Of course no one wants to die. Without question, we will die. In Buddhism, dying without fear, with peace, with a sense of “happiness” is a key teaching. To that end, the teaching on the Five Powers —similar to the Four Powers widely used in Purification practice — can be helpful. These are:

• The Power of Purification
• The Power of Intention
• The Power of Remorse
• The Power of Prayer
• The Power of Familiarity.

For Tibetan Buddhists, this will immediately resonate. Vajrasattva purification practice encompasses similar steps. In fact, daily Vajrasattva practice, keeps the practicing Vajaryana Buddhist ready for a fearless death (even a sudden, accidental or traumatic death.)

1. The First Power, the Power of Purificaiton is basically purification practice (whether focused on Vajrasattva or not.) These are “the 4 powers of regret, reliance, remedy and resolution; give up attachment to your possessions and make offerings of them; meditate upon refuge in the 3 Jewels, give rise to positive thoughts such as Bodhicitta; reaffirm your commitment to whatever spiritual goals and values you cultivated during your life.” [7]
2. The Second Power, The Power of Intention This power is mirrored in the Palliative Care Suggestions from the Journal of Hospice and Palliative Nursing article. The key is developing a strong resolution not to let your mind come under the sway of disturbing emotions, even in the face of pain and suffering, and remaining focused on altruism and Bodhichitta.
3. The Third Power: The Power or Remorse By meditating on these disturbing emotions, as with all focused meditation, we can make ourselves ready for them to “protect yourself from being overwhelmed by them.”
4. The Fourth Power: the Power of Prayer Making strong aspirations and reaffirming commitments not to become separated from the Dharma, Bodhichitta and the prayer to obtain fortunate rebirth in a situation suitable to continue practicing the Dharma.
5. The Fifth Power: the Power of Familiarity P’howa practice is one method to become “familiar” and practice for the time of death. “Taking and Giving” practice is also powerful, where we visualize and meditate on “taking on the suffering of other beings” and “giving our blessings” to other beings. For those not trained by a teacher in these methods, meditation on samsara, compassion, impermanence, and Emptiness.

Buddha: Palliative Care as Taught by the Buddha

“He who attends on the sick attends on me,” said the Blessed One, the Buddha. [8]

The Buddha taught extensively on nursing and caring for the sick and dying. On many occasions, Buddha personally cleaned and tended to dying people, personally washing out their puss and wounds, and staying with them, speaking the Dharma, as they passed.

“The Buddha has enumerated the qualities that should be present in a good nurse. He should be competent to administer the medicine, he should know what is agreeable to the patient and what is not. He should keep away what is disagreeable and give only what is agreeable to the patient. He should be benevolent and kind-hearted, he should perform his duties out of a sense of service and not just for the sake of remuneration (mettacitto gilanam upatthati no amisantaro). He should not feel repulsion towards saliva, phlegm, urine, stools, sores, etc. He should be capable of exhorting and stimulating the patient with noble ideas, with Dhamma talk (A.iii,144).” [8] 

For Care-Givers: Palliative Care Suggestions for Buddhist at End of Life

In the helpful care-givers article from the Journal of Hospice and Palliative Nursing, several useful suggestions are made. [Please see the full article, cited in our notes, for full details.]

In informing caregivers about the importance of a “peaceful” passing, suggestions included:

• Allow for uninterrupted periods for religious practice, and consider playing meditative audio recordings that are reassuring to the patient, such as mantra or sutra recitation where appropriate.
• Provide an altar with religious photos and relics and keep it in the line of vision of the patient.
• “Specifying who the patient would like to be present at the time of death. The preference may be for no one to be present, especially if family and friends are very emotional or unsupportive of the religious practices.”
• Importance of the attitude of caregivers and visitors: peaceful visits, turn phones off, be relaxed and peaceful.

The article emphasizes the importance of a peaceful environment several times and notes that managing disruptive or upset visitors might be important. During the dying process, the article suggests:

• Do not disturb the patient
• For Tibetan Buddhists especially, leave the body undisturbed for as long as practically possible after death. “Buddhists believe the dying process continues for 3–4 days after what is usually accepted as “dead.” Although many laws do not allow for the body to remain in a natural state for 3–4 days, remain mindful of this to be supportive as the family is approached about the death.”
• “You may want to help the patient sit up in order to practice, or to lie on the right side, which was the position of the Buddha at his death deceased has sometimes been reported as 100 days; however, in the Vajrayana.”

Of special note the author wrote: “the period for special rituals and prayers for the tradition, the period is generally 49 days. Although this may seem like a subtle difference, it is highly relevant in the provision of individualized bereavement services in hospice.”

NOTES

[1] Two hour interview with Venerable Zasep Tulku Rinpoche at Gaden Choling, fall teaching session 2015, full interview to be published in Buddha Weekly.

[2] Advice on Dying: And Living a Better Life, Dalai Lama

[3] A Year to Live: How to Live This Year as If It Were Your Last, Publisher: Harmony; 1st edition (April 14 1998), ISBN-10: 0609801945, ISBN-13: 978-0609801949

[4] Tricycle Magazine: Interview with Stephen Levine

[5] Levine Talks website.

[6] Journal of Hospice and Palliative Nursing article: “End-of-Life Needs of Patients Who Practice Tibetan Buddhism”

[7] “A Buddhist Guide to Death, Dying and Suffering” — Urban Dharma.

[8] “Ministering to the Sick and Terminally Ill” by Lily de Silva, Urban Dharma

[9] “Using Meditation to Deal with Pain, Illness and Death” Venerable Thanissaro Bhikku, Urban Dharma.

[10] Sacred Text “The Mustard Seed”

[11] Open Culture “Leonard Cohen Narrates Film on The Tibetan Book of the Dead”

[12] Cited from “Thich Nhat Hanh on Dying” — Shambala

The COVID-19 crisis brought us a sense of just how interconnected we really are. In a matter of weeks, it became clear that a challenge experienced in one locale of the world was quickly moving across waters. This emphasized that we are closer to one another than we might think. In an article published by Time Magazine after it became clear that the virus was a global concern, the Dalai Lama wrote:

“This crisis shows us that we are not separate from one another – even when we are living apart. Therefore, we all have a responsibility to exercise compassion and help.”

Feature by Gillian Sanger

[Bio below.]

When fear takes root

This call for compassion is essential in a time when fear and panic are causing many to forget or lose sight of our shared humanity.

When fear takes root, the fight-or-flight mechanism takes over and we begin defending ourselves – not only from the virus but from all other perceived threats.

The energy of the heart closes as we figure out what steps we want to take in the name of survival. Though the pursuit of survival is understandable, this fear response has led to many secondary challenges of this virus, such as hoarding of goods, aggression, and judgment of others.

The Benefits of Compassion

Yet if we are to effectively navigate this time of crisis, we will need to harness the loving energy that rests beneath our shared humanity – that is, the energy of compassion. Those of Buddhist and other spiritual traditions have long understood the power of compassion, but modern science is now also able to revel in its benefits.

Research has found that compassion meditations can help to reduce stress-induced subjective distress, and that both compassion meditation and loving-kindness meditation may be useful strategies in helping people to manage psychological challenges such as anger, social anxiety, and marital conflict (all of which may be on the forefront for many due to these recent events).

Metta increases social connectedness

Another study found that both mindfulness meditation and loving-kindness meditation can help to increase one’s sense of both social connectedness and nature connectedness. And when it comes to self-compassion, research shows that kindness and compassion towards ourselves can help to reduce both perceived stress and the physiological response to stress while also promoting better physical health.

Practicing compassion is, therefore, a direct and practical response to the understandable rise in fear so many are currently experiencing. Entailing more than just ‘kind thoughts’, it is a practice we can commit to in an effort to bring greater wholeness and healing to this world.

How to: Metta meditation

We can practice this simple technique by taking ten minutes each day to cultivate our connection to the heart space. Once grounded in this core of our being, we can begin silently offering kind and loving wishes to ourselves and to others.

Going through a standard sequence of individuals and ending with an image of the entire world can help us to soften the divides we perceive between us and others – even between us and those we have great difficulty with.

This practice invites us to repeat the following words to, in sequence: ourselves, a loved one, an acquaintance, someone we have difficulties with, and then the whole world as one living being. The words we might choose to use during this practice are:

May you be safe.

May you be healthy.

May you be loved.

May you be at peace.

As we begin to offer these wishes to ourselves and to others in the silence of meditation, we begin to soften our attachment to the surface-layer differences we experience. At the root of who we are is more commonality than our beliefs, opinions, and personalities give credit to.

As we realize our shared humanity, it becomes more natural – more effortless – to offer ourselves in compassionate, supportive ways. By grounding our thoughts in compassion, our actions follow suit.

Coming Back to the Heart 

By grounding ourselves in the heart – in its energies of love, compassion, kindness, and patience – we start to soften the mind that so easily becomes entangled in fear. Compassion practices like metta meditation do not impede with the need to make decisions about what actions we will take in the outside world. Taking certain action is indeed a part of our response to this crisis. Rather, compassion uplifts our actions, helping us to move in ways that benefit us, others, and the planet as a whole. One heartfelt moment at a time, we contribute to the collective movement beyond this time of difficulty.

From single-pointed zazen mindfulness — facing a blank wall — to mysterious cyphers called Koans — “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” — Zen pursues the same Bodhisattva goal as other Mahayana Buddhists, with a distinctly focused method. That focus might be breath, art, caligraphy, archery, or riddles (koans) — but it’s all about focusing singularly.

By guest writer Lee Clarke

Zen is a style of Buddhism most commonly practised in and associated with Japan, although originating from India, then transmitted to China via the monk Bodhidharma as Ch’an. Although this article are my thoughts on the Zen Buddhist tradition from the perspective of a Western Buddhist who practices Zen, I try to cite sources for all of my points. I will focus on its unique methods; I don’t want to call them differences, because both its focus on single-pointed meditation and its emphasis on Buddha Nature are equally important to all Mahayana Buddhists. Let’s call them unique methods.

Shrouded in Mystery

Let’s face it — Zen is mysterious. Ask a Zen master to define Zen and he or she would likely say nothing. The point is made. Zen is about “figuring it out on your own” — although only after some instruction and foundation in the sutras. The Zen master might pose an “unsolvable riddle” or puzzling phrase — the famous Koans — or instruct you to face a blank wall and focus on your breath and nothing else — with an occasional whack with a stick to wake you up. Discipline plays a vital role in Zen.

Certainly, these are unique methods — at least the Koans and the stick are. Also unique is the simplicity of single-focus. You are unlikely to be taught five different methods; simplicity and clarity are important. After the basics — understanding the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, and so on — you will be guided to a single-focus method: most famously, zazen — “just sitting” — and koans. Basically, any disciplined means that can bring “insight.”

Part 1 of a documentary “Living in a Japanese Zen Monestary”:

Zen retreats are famous for their silence. There might be instruction, but practice is a solitary method (at least most of the time), and even meal times are a disciplined ritual. Discipline and ritual plays a role, but mostly in the sense of simplifying and codifying actions. Mystery is a good, general description of Zen.

Still, Zen isn’t about only one method. Different Zen schools practice different methods: single-pointed ritual concentration (chanting, sutra recitation) — but with single-pointed concentration; single-pointed archery or martial arts — again with acute mind-focus; zen gardening, cooking, art, caligraphy. What unites all the diverse techniques is extreme simplicity, single-pointed focus, mind-training, and — ultimately — satori-like moments: glimpses of reality just as it is. (Even skateboarding can be a Zen technique. See our  early feature on the Zen of Skateboarding>>)

Origins of Zen

Zen formally organized in China where it is known as Ch’an Buddhism, although it was brought to the Chinese by the famous Indian monk, Bodhidharma who defined the word “Zen” as

“A direct transmission of awakened consciousness, outside tradition and outside scriptures”. [1]

Bodhidharma’s definition sums up the Zen perspective perfectly. Zen, like all other schools of Buddhism seeks the attainment of enlightenment and liberation from the cycle of birth, death and rebirth. It also though, seeks the recognition that each individual is a potential Buddha, recognizing our ineherent Buddha nature common to all sentient beings. Like other Mahayana schools, it is a primary doctrine in Zen.

Buddha Nature

Hakuin Ekaku, one of the most important Japanese Zen masters defined Buddha Nature:

All beings by nature are Buddhas,
as ice by nature is water.
Apart from water there is no ice;
apart from beings, no Buddhas.

Here’s where the similarity to other Mahayana schools is singular. Zen bases its foundation in Buddha’s teachings and sturas, but emphasizes that we cannot gain enlightenment solely by studying scriptures and reciting mantras alone — not even by examining teachings logically and rationally. Though this may seem bizarre to our cultural mindset, Zen teaches that we have to do his through our own direct action with only ourselves as a guide. Other schools also teach method and self-realization, but Zen is emphatic on this point. As the BBC article on Zen Buddhism states on the tradition:

Human beings can’t learn this truth by philosophising or rational thought, nor by studying scriptures, taking part in worship rites and rituals or many of the other things that people think religious people do. The first step is to control our minds through meditation…to give up logical thinking and avoid getting trapped in a spider’s web of words.[1]

Skilful means and no Sutras?

This may seem strange to Buddhists and non-Buddhists who are not Zen practitioners: how can one ignore the Buddhist scriptures (Sutras) which contain the word and teaching of the Buddha or recite mantras and sutras — and only pursue self-insight? Of course, Zen doesn’t ignore Sutra; it fulfils them. In those very Sutras, Buddha teaches “right meditation” which includes focus on breath, mindfulness and other insightful techniques — so it’s simply not the case that Zen ignores Sutra. But, Buddha taught many methods, customizing methods to the students he encountered, and one of these methods was the Ch’an / Zen approach:

“When Buddha was in Grdhrakuta mountain he turned a flower in his fingers and held it before his listeners. Everyone was silent, only Maha-Kashapa smiled at this revelation, although he tried to control the lines of his face”.[2]

Buddha demonstrated the direct insight that is the main Zen “focus”. In other words, Zen derives from Buddha as one of his many “skilful means.”

Enlightenment requires self-insight

All Buddhists paths — including Tantrics and Theravadin — teach methods for self-insight, ultimately leaving to the goal of Enlightenment. Buddha Himself sat under the Bodhi tree and went deep into his own mind to achieve Enlightenment. In this, Zen is not unique. It is unique mostly in emphasis and method.

In the Dhammapada, Buddha teaches that we must reach nirvana ourselves and we must do so alone, no one can complete the process for them:

“All the effort must be made by you; Buddhas only show the way. Follow this path and practice meditation. Go beyond the power of Mara.”[3]

This does not mean that we are being selfish. The Mahayana goal is to attain Enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. But, the Buddha’s teaching clearly emphasizes the Zen position of ultimately going “outside scriptures” To use a school metaphor, Sutras are the metaphorical “course textbook”— and our professor is our guide — but, we still have to study, learn and develop insight on our own.

Koans are entirely unique

A singularly unique feature of the Zen tradition is the use of what looks like strange and illogical riddles — known as Koans. These are more associated with the Rinzi school of Zen but find their place in other schools too, especially in the modern age where traditions tend to mix. Trying to examine them with reason and logic will not lead you anywhere — which is the point, in a way. Rather, you have to let go of all pre-conceived notions in order to understand what the Koans are saying.

One of the most famous and striking Zen Koans is as follows:

“If you meet the Buddha, kill him.”

If this is taken literally, this koan, attributed to Zen master Linji Yixuan, can seem incredibly shocking. That is also the point. Shock and confusion and puzzles are used to “shake up our rational mind” and inspire the creative, conceptual mind.

Killing the Buddha?

What does it mean, this crazy riddle that seems to tell us to kill the very person who founded Buddhism?

Of course, you are not supposed to interpret this literally. As Barbara O’Brien says “

In Zen, it’s generally understood that “When you meet the Buddha, kill him” refers to “killing” a Buddha you perceive as separate from yourself because such a Buddha is an illusion.”[4]

When taken in this context, it can be seen clearly that the Koan is talking about Buddha Nature and can be seen as incredibly profound and even liberating when its true meaning is realised.

Other interpretations include “No matter what you think you understand about Buddha’s teachings, chances are you are wrong.”

One hand clapping? Exploring non-duality

Another famous one is ‘What is the sound of one hand clapping?’

The story goes that a young boy Toyo finally managed to persuade the Zen master Mokurai, to give him a teaching. Mokurai said to Toyo

“You can hear the sound of two hands when they clap together. Now show me the sound of one hand.”

Toyo returned to his room to try and consider the problem and he returned to Mokurai with many suggestions of what the sound could be, from Geisha music, dripping water and the sound of an owl. It is then written “at last little Toyo entered true mediation and transcended all sounds. ‘I could collect no more’, he explained later ‘so I reached the soundless sound’ – Toyo had realised the sound of one hand.[5]

To find the sound of one hand, Toyo had to rise above normal rationalisation because as we saw, this didn’t bring the answer. It’s only when he ‘let himself go’ in meditation that he finally found the answer.

According to Victor Hogen (Zen Sand: The Book of Capping Phrases for Koan Practice),

Koan after koan explores the theme of nonduality. Hakuin’s well-known koan, “Two hands clap and there is a sound, what is the sound of one hand?” is clearly about two and one. The koan asks, you know what duality is, now what is nonduality? In “What is your original face before your mother and father were born?” the phrase “father and mother” alludes to duality. This is obvious to someone versed in the Chinese tradition, where so much philosophical thought is presented in the imagery of paired opposites. The phrase “your original face” alludes to the original nonduality.

Lightbulb moments

One of my favourite things about reading Koans is the little ‘lightbulb moment’ that you get in your mind when you finally gain some insight. One of the main schools of Zen, Rinzai teaches that you can gain realizations instantly, for a very brief period, known as Satori – it isn’t true and final enlightenment but a brief look at what it’s like. As a Zen website states, Koans are made to “trigger enlightenment” and “designed to force and shock the mind into awareness.” Satori are the big lightbulb moments?[6]

Mindfulness through activities

Zen Buddhism though didn’t stay confined monasteries; it had a massive impact on Japanese culture and society – on lay people in everyday life and activities as much as it did on monastic culture. As Ninian Smart describes:

“It wove together meditation and the martial arts, archery and swordplay could be developed in a Zen way…feminine arts such as flower arrangement and tea-making were also given a Zen mode and flavour. Zen ideals – sparseness, cleanness, control and spontaneity – came to be influential in all the main arts, such as painting, arranging gardens and calligraphy.”[7]

Buddhism in general as well as the Zen mindset also had a massive impact on the famous Samurai warrior caste of Japan and Zen Buddhism, along with Confucianism and the Indigenous Japanese Shinto religion all informed the Samurai Bushido ethos. As Ben Hubbard says:

“Buddhism taught a warrior not to fear death, as he would be reincarnated in the next life. Zen helped a warrior to ‘empty his mind’ and maintain clarity in battle’.[8]

Haikus

Zen Buddhism had a major cultural impact on Japan. As part of this, it also had a big impact on Japanese literature which can particularly be seen in the form of some Haiku. Haikus are a form of Japanese poetry, now known around the globe for their brevity (traditionally composed of three lines of 5, 7 and then 5 syllables) and their ability to intensely capture a single moment in verse. While they are not specifically ‘Buddhist poetry’ or even ‘Zen poetry’, many of the most famous Haiku masters were Buddhists and many of the poems, which are in many cases about the beauty of nature do have a ‘Zen feel’ and many are about Zen outright.

Matsuo Basho – considered the supreme Haiku master of Japan was a wandering Zen Buddhist, references the Buddha in many of his Haiku and inserts his Zen mindset into many more. For example

“Not one traveller

braves this road

Autumn night”[9]

Another Buddhist Haiku was a death poem – normally the last statement of a poet – by Gozan just before he died at the age of 71.

“The snow of yesterday
That fell like cherry blossoms
Is water once again”[10]

In my opinion, this represents the cycle of Samsara, an opinion also shared by John Asano but as it says, the snow turned to water and melted (death) and then when it’s cold, the water will eventually become snow once again – a perfect representation of rebirth!

Zen in the West

Zen Buddhism has had a major impact in the west. Many zen-like phrases have become “sayings” and the word “zen” has taken on a meaning somewhat akin to “mystery”: “I’m Being Zen” or “That’s really Zen”

Zen is popular in the West due to its simple but profound spiritual methods; they seem less “restrictive” than more rigid religions in the eyes of many. Like other forms of Buddhism, it doesn’t require a belief in a God or a higher power.

Profound Method

I think Zen is a profound method — that ultimately could lead to profound truth. Sometimes sitting down to meditate and taking a deep breath is all that we need to reveal the essence of the Buddhist path.

This is illustrated in a last Koan that I will share. A university professor wanted to learn about Zen from the Japanese Zen master Nan-In. (A scene that has been copied in movies.) The master served tea and kept on pouring until it was overflowing from the cup:

“The professor watched the overflow until he could no longer restrain himself: ‘It is overfull, no more will go in!’

‘Like this cup’ Nan-In said ‘You are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?’

As Buddhists, we must remember from time to time, no matter what tradition we follow to “empty our cups”.[11]

NOTES
[1]BBC ‘Zen Buddhism’ at https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/buddhism/subdivisions/zen_1.shtml [Accessed 22nd June 2018]
[2]Paul Reps (editor) ‘Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings’ (Penguin Books: England, 1971) P.100
[3]Eknath Easwaran (trans) ‘The Dhammapada’ (Nilgiri Press: California,United States, 2008) P.205
[4]Barbara O’Brien ‘Kill the Buddha? A closer look at a confusing Koan’ at https://www.thoughtco.com/kill-the-buddha-449940 [Accessed 22nd June 2018]
[5]Paul Reps (editor) ‘Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings’ (Penguin Books: England, 1971) P.p. 34-35
[6]Zen Buddhism ‘Rinzai Zen (Rinzai-Shu) at https://www.zen-buddhism.net/two-schools-of-zen/rinzai-zen.html {Accessed 22nd June 2018]
[7]Ninian Smart ‘The World’s Religions’ (Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge: Victoria, Australia 1989). P.145
[8]Ben Hubbard ‘The Golden Age of The Samurai’ (Amber Books: London, UK 2017) P.137
[9]Basho ‘On Love and Barley’ – Haiku of Basho’ (The Penguin Group: London, UK, 1985). P.56
[10]John Asano ‘12 Haiku that reflect on Zen Buddhism’ at https://theculturetrip.com/asia/japan/articles/12-haiku-that-reflect-on-zen-buddhism/ [Accessed 22nd June 2018]
[11]Paul Reps (editor) ‘Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings’ (Penguin Books: England, 1971). P.17

— Lotus Sutra, Chapter 12

More than 2500 years ago, the drum was an important component of various Buddhist traditions. “In Buddha’s time, the gong and drum were used to gather everyone to announce the precepts, meal times, Dharma talks.” [1] Today, most Buddhist temples and monasteries of most traditions use drums in practice, and increasingly — and, significantly, in meditation practice.

“The first sound everyone on Earth heard was the sound of our mother’s heartbeat,” writes Jennifer Tarnacki in her feature Your Brain on Drumming. “Our relationship with rhythm began in the womb.” [16]

Psychology and science have identified both drumming and mindfulness meditation as helpful therapy for everything from stress to memory loss to supportive cancer care. The first person to explicitly identify drumming and music as a healing practice was likely Pythagoreas, around the time of the Buddha. This is not new science. Since the time of Shakyamuni Buddha, we have known about the stress-reducing benefits of both mindfulness and drumming.

Bringing the two together — mindfulness and drumming — can be life-changing. Even one session of meditation, focused on a drum’s beat demonstrates how powerful this ancient meditation method can be in our stressful modern lives. The powerful and compelling rhythm of drums can still and focus the mind — the quick path to mindfulness.

Drumming for Mindfulness: Near-Instantaneous Results?

Lately, I’ve been personally using the drum as an assist for “mindfulness” — to help still my overworked monkey mind. The driving beat of a drum provides a sharp focus that brings instant mindful clarity. For me, personally, the practice of traditional mindfulness, while simply focusing on breath hasn’t been very successful, due to my over-active mind and stress levels. Alternate meditations, such as active body scanning, or logic meditation invariably doesn’t work well for my busy mind either. Vajrayana visualization practices, under the guidance of my teacher, helped considerably, giving me a sacred focal point — but my mind still constantly wanders off on its own.

Last year, I attended a teaching meditation weekend, focused on Mahamudra, taught by the most Venerable Zasep Tulku Rinpoche. The weekend was spiritually inspiration in more ways than one. I reported in Buddha Weekly, at that time:

“In a nice surprise for the many attendees of a much-anticipated Mahamudra retreat, Venerable Zasep Tulku Rinpoche—an internationally respected Buddhist teacher—was joyously “drummed in” by people from the local native community. Kathy Hopson, who helped organize, explained: “it is customary to Drum in an Elder or Healer out of Respect.”

I found the drumming-in tradition, and the magnificent chanting mesmerizing — which put me in a great frame of mind for a full weekend of meditation with Rinpoche. Since then, the drum has found its way into my daily meditations. I found “drumming for mindfulness” transformed my practice overnight.

With the powerful, monotonous, punctuated sound of a regularly beating fish drum, chod drum, damaru drum — or even an upside-down pot — I can achieve a mindful state almost instantly. With other methods, for me, it can take half an hour just to get “in the mindful zone.” I was first introduced to the drum through chod practice, but I later found that if I used the drum also in my mindfulness sessions — or even as a precursor to visualization and sadhana — my sessions become much more intense and fulfilling.

Of course, it’s widely accepted that mindfulness meditation in any form is beneficial to mind and body. Before I suggest a couple ways to easily use the drum for mindfulness, it’s worth summarizing what science says about drums. Many independent studies demonstrate drums may be a viable therapy for everything from stress and depression, to assistance with memory loss in Parkinsons, to actually encouraging the growth of cancer-fighting killer t-cells. And, as an aside, I find drumming beneficial in my personal situation: for pain reduction of arthritis.

[For tips on using drums in mindfulness meditation, please refer to last section of this feature article.]

Science and Psychology: Drumming as Therapy for Both Mind and Body

In Psychology Today, therapist Gary Diggins is quoted as saying: “We moderns are the last people on the planet to uncover what older cultures have known for thousands of years: The act of drumming contains a therapeutic potential to relax the tense, energize the tired, and soothe the emotionally wounded.” [10]

Michael Drake, an advocate of daily drumming, also highlighted the health benefits of drumming: “Furthermore, recent studies demonstrate that the innate modules of rhythm, like percussion or dance, provide a secular approach to … applying spiritual perspectives. The American Journal of Public Health reviewed drum therapy in its April 2003 edition concluding … drumming directly supports the introduction of spiritual factors found significant in the healing process.” [9]

Evidence-Based Benefits of Drumming for Health

An interesting article on the 16 benefits of playing an instrument, which include: reducing stress, strengthing the immune system, using every part of the brain, and increasing memory capability. Worth a read>>According to a well-cited article on Green Med, there are six evidence-based benefits to drumming (beyond the enhanced mindfulness aspect):

1. Reduces blood pressure, anxiety and stress: 2014 study published in Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine.
2. Improves cognitive function: 2014 study in Journal of Huntington’s Disease.
3. Pain Reduction: 2012 study published in Evolutionary Psychology
4. Improve Immunity: 2011 study published in Alternative Therapies and Health Medicine
5. Induces Theta; enhanced meditation: 2004 study published in the Journal Multiple Sclerosis
6. Depression and Emotional Disorders: 2001 study published in the Journal Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine [15]

Psychology: Drumming for Depression

Since depression is one of the fastest growing problem areas in psychological treatment, drumming may be a particularly easy and helpful treatment option for mild cases of depression, possibly even reducing reliance on drugs.

In a story in the Telegraph, drumming was described as viable therapy for depression: “Researchers found that adults who were given music therapy sessions, in which they played drums or instruments such as xylophones, showed fewer symptoms of depression or anxiety than those who just had standard counselling.

They suggest that it helped patients express their emotions as well as well as being a pleasurable activity in its own right.” [12]

Drum Body Response: Production of Cancer Killing T-Cells

Rober Muller, Ph.D, writes: “Neurologist Barry Bittman, who co-developed a program for REMO called Health Rhythms with music therapist Christine Stevens, found that group drumming and recreational music making increases the body’s production of cancer-killing t-cells, decreases stress, and can change the genomic stress marker. Bittman says drumming “tunes our biology, orchestrates our immunity and enables healing to begin.”

Even a bucket or garbage can works fine, as demonstrated by stickStoff:

Professor Muller also emphasizes the benefits in treating depression and trauma: “For individuals coping with depression, anxiety, or trauma, there is something more intuitive and liberating about communicating through music. Some find the combination of group therapy and drumming effective as it brings more contemporary approaches to mental health together with creative and non-judgmental expression of emotions.”

The long list of health benefits also includes: “… eating disorders, children with autism, cancer patients, war veterans living with PTSD, individuals with anger management issues, people with addictions, and even Alzheimer’s patients, drumming offers physical and emotional benefits.” [10] Drumming therapy is now available in major hospitals and clinics.

The Professor ended with some good advice: “For many seeking the benefits of therapy, an hour spent creating music and an hour spent in therapeutic drumming is an hour well spent.”

Drumming for Memory: American Psychological Association

In addition to concrete health, stress reduction, and pain-relief benefits, the American Psychological Association has identified drumming and sound as promising therapy for memory loss, especially Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s: “Since the rhythmic pulses of music can drive and stabilize this disorientation, we believe that low-frequency sound might help with these conditions,” Bartel says. He is leading a study using vibroacoustic therapy with patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease. The hope is that using the therapy to restore normal communication among brain regions may allow for greater memory retrieval…”

The article identified a specific case: “We’ve already seen glimmers of hope in a case study with a patient who had just been diagnosed with the disorder,” Bartel says. “After stimulating her with 40-hertz sound for 30 minutes three times a week for four weeks, she could recall the names of her grandchildren more easily, and her husband reported good improvement in her condition.” [11]

Drumming for Theta: The Relaxed Mind Through Rhythm

Drumming repetitively at about four beats per second, has been proven to relax the mind, inducing either Alpha or Theta in nearly all participants in studies on the effect of drumming. [13]

An abstract from the US Library of Medicine by Professor Winkelman, concluded, from a study: “Research reviews indicate that drumming enhances recovery through inducing relaxation and enhancing theta-wave production and brain-wave synchronization. Drumming produces pleasurable experiences, enhanced awareness of preconscious dynamics, release of emotional trauma, and reintegration of self. Drumming alleviates self-centeredness, isolation, and alienation, creating a sense of connectedness with self and others. Drumming provides a secular approach to accessing a higher power and applying spiritual perspectives.” [14]

Our normal awake mind is in Beta. Alpha is a more relaxed state, 9-13 Hz, characterized by “relaxed, calm, lucid, not thinking.” Not thinking sounds distinctly useful in mindfulness practice. Theta is one level of relaxation lower, at 4-8 Hz, which is characteristic of very deep meditation and mental imagery. The Theta state, is normally only achieved by very experienced meditators. However, with a drum, even novice meditators can obtain the state of total relaxation and lucid not-thinking.[13]

Buddha’s Drum: Sutra of the Great Dharma Drum

To put drums in context, I thought it might be important to emphasize how important drums were in the time of Shakyamuni Buddha. Of course, the “Dharma Drum” is the name of a sutra, “Sutra of the Great Dharma Drum.”[5] A Zen organization that adopted the name Dharma Drum for their meditation centres, described why they chose the name: “The term “dharma drum” comes from the Lotus Sutra.” From the Lotus Sutra, chapter 12: “I beat upon the Dharma drum, announcing my search for Dharma in the four directions” [6]

In another example, Buddha described a time when his cycle of teachings would fade. Not surprisingly — and indicative of the cultural prevalence of drums in Buddha’s time — he used a drum metaphor in the teaching:

“Imagine a gigantic drum where if someone drums it, it can be heard for miles around, it is so awesome. But suppose this drum, over time develops little cracks in the drum skin (the drum head) from being hit all the time. So the cracks get repaired but the head of the drum is never the same – it’s like it’s got a scar where the skin has been cracked. And over time from all the relentless drumming, more and more cracks appear. As the skin gets repaired, more and more scars appear in it. It finally reaches the point where when you bang on the skin of the gigantic drum, rather than a huge reverberation that can be heard miles around, only a dull thud that can barely be heard a few meters away. This is an analogy of how the Buddha said that his teaching will start disappearing. We are starting to see this happening right now.” [4]

For a metaphor to be powerful and resonant, it must be a universally accepted image. Clearly, drums were very important in Buddha’s time.

The Many Roles of Drums in Buddhism

The drum has a long history in Buddhist traditions: from the mindfulness support of the big drum in Mahayana Buddhism to the “wakefulness” support of the fish drum in Zen, to the hauntingly beautiful use of various drums in Tibetan ritual. Drums play an important role in Buddhist Chod, Tantra and other esoteric practices. Sound is also considered one of the eight sensory offerings to the Enlightened Beings and playing the drum or the bell are considered to be very profound offerings.

Through the centuries, the drum was also central to many other spiritualities and religions, from ancient shamanism — documented use of more than 25,0000 years ago — to Medieval Catholic ritual, to ceremonies in numerous religions. The earliest known spirituality — broadly defined as shamanism — relied on the drum to journey into the mind and spiritual insights. Cave drawings dating to 25,000 years ago show the central role of drumming.

Recently, I added drumming to my meditation practice, greatly enhancing my ability to still my “monkey mind.” The trance-like effect of drumming also improved my visualizations in more formal sadhana practices. It doesn’t matter whether I use the fish drum, a chod drum, damaru, or the single-sided shaman drum, drumming prior to the formal practice, stills my mind and makes visualization meditation almost “easy.” The trance-like effect of the drum, intensifies the mind’s focus, allowing truly vivid and profound visualizations. Mindfulness of “beat” and “sound” rather than breath. I decided to research the role the drum plays in different Buddhist traditions, and what the teachers say about drums and drumming.

Mahayana Buddhism: The Great Offering

In Mahayana traditions, we daily take refuge in the three jewels: Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. We also speak of the Body of the Buddha, Speech of the Buddha and Mind of the Buddha. As symbols, we often represent the Buddha with a statue, image or symbol, the Speech with a Sutra or sometimes a bell/drum (for the sound of speech), and the Mind often a Stupa.

Sound is as one of the eight sensory offerings traditionally offered in Mahayana Buddhist tradition. When we burn incense, we symbolically present the scent or smell offering. Flowers please the sight sense. Food the taste sense. The drum or the chanting of a mantra represents the hearing sensory offering. Many serious practitioners make daily or weekly or monthly sensory offerings.

In regular practice, such as during sutra or sadhana recitation, the drums are often used with bells, gongs and other sounds for a number of purposes: to draw attention, to give thanks (offering) and sometimes to purify. Drums and bells are used by most Mahayana practitioners use drums regularly, in liturgy, to call the daily meditation or to make offerings.

Zen/Chan Buddhists and Drumming

Zen Buddhism and the discipline of martial arts are often thought of as complimentary. The practice of drumming, as a means to focus the mind — and to inspire discipline — is well established in both Kung Fu and Zen/ChanBuddhism. The International sensation, Tao, from Japan, takes this to the ultimate art in terms of discipline (see video below), but even the most humble Zen temple has a fish drum for both the call to meditation, and as a mindfulness aid.

“The mokugyo, or fish drum, is used in Zen monasteries to keep the beat during the chanting of the liturgy,” according to the Zen Mountain Monastery. “Its deep, rich tone makes it clear why the image of the fish—symbolic of wakefulness—is used.”[3]

In Zen, there are many methods to still the mind, from creating gardens to sweeping the floor, to the recitation of Sutra, to martial arts training, to meditations on the breath and shunyata. It may seem counter-intuitive, that the energizing sound of the drum can still the mind, but a half-hour of chanting with a fish drum will quickly change any meditator’s mind. And watching the performance of super-disciplined and coordinated martial arts drummers has a similar impact:

International drumming sensation, Tao:

Korean Buddhism: Drum for the Fish, Cloud Gong for the Birds

In Korea, Buddhist monks play the drums, gongs and bells daily. Public drumming performances in Korea by Buddhist monks have become an art form, as it has in Japan.

Public Performance with Buddhist Drums:

At one level, the drum, cloud gong and bell are intended as blessings: the fish drum blesses all creatures of the water, the cloud gong, the birds and flying creatures and the bell, everything in and under heaven. At another, it is an intense form of meditation. Watching a monk play the giant drum, shows near trance-like intensity, a form of mindfulness focus that is vivid and deep.

Chan Buddhism: Dharma Drum Talks

“The wooden fish is used by monks to alert themselves to have a spiritual sense of shame, practice diligently, and not to be lazy,” said Master Sheng Yen, a Chinese Buddhist monk, a religious scholar, and one of the mainstream teachers of Chan Buddhism, who passed away in 2009. Master Sheng Yen was the founder of the Dharma Drum Centre. “The wooden-fish clapper serves to remind Buddhist practitioners to have the path of the bodhisattva in … ” [2]

In a teaching, Master Sheng Yen said, “There’s a story behind that fish.” He explained the legendary story of the eight dragons and of the Fish Makala — the significance of the fish Makala in the context of “always open eyes.” Fish do not close their eyes, symbolic of constant alertness and mindfulness desired in Chan Buddhist practice.

“The Buddha told his disciples, to be diligent and work hard at the cultivation, to emulate the spirit of the fish.” See video below:

Master Sheng Yen on the significance of the fish drum:

Vajrayana Buddhism: the Blissful Drum

It is often said that the bell, vajra (dorje) and drum are the penultimate symbols of Vajrayana practice. The profundity of these symbols has been previously discussed in our feature: “Bell and Dorje, Wisdom and Compassion.”  At its simplest, or most profound distillation, the bell can be said to represent “the wisdom of emptiness,” the vajra embodies “compassion,” while the drum — such as damaru or chod drums — express “bliss.” Ultimately, together they express “the compassionate wisdom of blissful emptiness.”

The drum and other instruments are extensively used in public pujas — both to summon people and to propel liturgy or ritual — but also in deep meditation practices such as recitation, mantra practice, sadhana, mindfulness, and offerings. They are also used to “celebrate” festivals, to make special offerings.

Sound also symbolically reaches beyond the mundane, calling out to (or blessing) all sentient beings of all realms. The Chod drum’s sound, often with small bells attached to the drum, are said to be the “voice of the Dakinis” and carry blessings, but also help propel the intense meditation visualization of Chod practice.

How to Play the Chod Drum with Lama Jinpa:

Chod Drum: The Voice of Emptiness

The iconic symbol of Chod is the Chod Drum. In a description of a teaching to be given by the Venerable Zasep Rinpoche at Gaden Choling Toronto, Chod was described this way: ” “Chod practice was developed by Mahig Labdron, a highly realized Dakini from the 12th century,” explains the Gaden Choling poster for the event. “The purpose of the practice is to develop wisdom and compassion; to heal the sick, remove obstacles, and to purify an environment of negative forces using peaceful means.”[7]

In a feature covering the event, we wrote: “Chod means “to cut”, as in to “cut the ego”. Chod practice is, arguably, the most misunderstood practice among non-practitioners, due to the intense visualizations some people describe as haunting and almost overwhelming moving. Chod is among the most profound of the purification practices in Vajrayana. There is no faster way to “cut the ego.”” [7]

Perhaps the most beautiful performer of meditative Buddhist Drumming is from the internationally popular Buddhist Nun and singer Ani Choying Drolma. Listening to her steady, drumming and gorgeous chanting is itself an uplifting meditation:

In a similar event posting, this one from Tara Mandala, Chod was described as semi-shamanic, and the importance of the drum was emphasized: “Chöd is a unique blend of the Tibetan Shamanic traditions and the Buddhist tradition of compassion and emptiness. This centuries-old practice is sung and is accompanied by the use of a traditional Chöd drum and bell. Healing comes when fear, fixation, and self-clinging are cut through, based on nurturing not fighting what assails us, giving rise to the awareness of the empty nature of afflictive emotions… The chöd practice requires a chöd drum and bell.” [8]

Due to it’s profundity, Chod practice generally requires a teacher and instruction to perform. Playing the drum, in any of its forms, does not, and is of immense help to meditators around the world.

Monk on the drum:

Mindfulness with Drumming: A How-To

Using the drum for mindfulness practice does not require a teacher or extensive learning, and in fact could be considered easier to practice (by some, such as myself) than meditation on the breath.

This mini-how-to is strictly based on my own practice, and clearly there are no rules. The goal of drumming for mindfulness is identical to any other mindfulness meditation. It has the same benefits, but in some cases a faster result. Outside of any spiritual context, drumming for mindfulness is also recommended as a stress-reduction therapy by various therapists.

Drumming, or any form of percussion, provides a very hard to ignore focus for mindfulness. It’s as simple as taking your favorite meditation technique, and adding the drum as the focal point, rather than the breath. You can either drum for yourself (which has extra benefits: the live sound of a drum is very moving), or use a drumming MP3 or recording.

The steps are literally 1,2,3:

1. Sit and get comfortable. Alternately, some people prefer to stand or even dance while drumming.

2. Using any drum, drum a regular, monotonous beat. You can beat quickly, which tends to induce a Theta response (helpful for visualization practices in Vajrayana, for example), or slowly. A heart beat, ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump has also been identified as therapeutic.

3. Drum for at least 15 minutes. I find 30 better. Simply focus on the beat (rather than your breath). Become the sound. As always, with mindfulness, if the mind drifts, just refocus gently back on the beat. If images appear, just observe. Be the listener (observer).

    

Useful Variants: Don’t be Afraid to Try…

There are so many ways to appreciate the benefits of drumming for mindfulness. Drum circles, and drumming dance are two provocative and powerful methods. They enhance mindfulness and stress-reduction benefits at a group level. Here are some other useful variants:

1. Drum while visualizing, if this is part of your practice. Visualization meditation has extra health benefits. (See our story on Visualization vs. Mindfulness>>)
2. Drum while chanting mantras, if this is part of your practice. Even if you don’t have a teacher, non-permission based mantras such as Om Mani Padme Hum can be beneficial. See our story on mantras: Part 1: Mantras: Setting the Mind Free>> or Part 2 Mantras: Good Vibrations>> or Part 3: Mantras: There’s a Mantra for That>>)
3. Drum while walking: similar benefits to walking meditation.
4. Drumming outside in nature: very relaxing, if you don’t disturb the neighbors.
5. Play a drumming tape and meditate to the sound.
6. Use drumming before formal practices such as sadhanas, as it can put your mind in a better state (more relaxed, easier to visualize) for practice.
7. Try different drums. For instance, due to my arthritis, I now prefer an open hoop drum. Chod drums have a very powerful sound. Damarus are very striking. Garbage cans turned over can be magnificent, as demonstrated in many drumming street performances.
8. If there are drumming circles in your neighborhood, try them out, they’re a blast.
9. If your neighbors complain, try a pillow. (Not kidding, see the drumming the pillow video below:

Drumming on a pillow is handy if your neighbors complain:

Types of Drums: They All Work, Even a Bucket

All types of drums work for mindfulness and therapeutic use. Find one that is comfortable for you and is all about sound. Drums with beaters or sticks are probably better for mindfulness practice than hand drums because the striking sensation on the hand can be distracting.

Find what works for you. Even though I practice formally in Chod and with the Dhamaru, I had a very light weight hoop drum made up with a well padded beater (stick.) To make it part of my formal practice, however, I decorated a non-traditional hoop drum. I use it in place of more traditional Tibetan drums, except when I’m with a group in a formal session. My reason is practical. I have arthritis, and the turning wrist action of Chod drum is difficult for me, and distracting. It’s easy for anyone to play a hoop drum mindlessly (without too much thoughtful control), which is beneficial for mindfulness practice.

There are subtle differences, highlighted below, but all can help in mindfulness focus:

1. Hoop drum and beater. The open drum has a beautiful, intense sound that genuinely makes a difference. This is sometimes casually called the shamanic drum.
2. Chod Drum: very sacred and rapid sound, although they are expensive.
3. Dhamarus: In Tibetan pratice indespensible for some offerings/sadhanas, but the sound is great for meditation too, albeit it’s much more intense.
4. Hand drums: various popular hand drums make great meditation tools, although I personally find the impact on the hand detracts from the mindfulness practice somewhat. With a stick, the impact is negligible. With a Chod or Dharmaru, there are no sticks. Hand drums are great, however, if they are recorded and played back.
5. Rattles (Gourd rattles and shamanic rattles, not the children’s kind) can make an interesting mindfulness session, a different sort of percussive sound.
6. Pots, pans, buckets: whatever you have handy. If you strike it and it makes a sound, use it.
7. Tupperware, Lockn’Lock and other plastic household containers make great-sounding drums in a pinch. Just turn upside down, without lid, and beat with a spoon.
8. Nature drumming: try just taking your stick out for your nature walk and hike, and try drumming respectfully on fallen trees, rocks, anything that makes a percussive sound.

Drum circles and dancing enhance the power and versatility of drumming:

No Disclaimer Needed: Drumming for Mindfulness is Simple and Effective.

That’s it. Try a little mindfulness practice with the drum or your household Tupper Wear. Within minutes, even a few seconds, you start to unkink and relax. Before the first five minutes have passed, without getting sleepy, you find every muscle in the body unclenches, even the hands holding drum and stick. With practice, the health benefits are profound. Visualization skills seem to improve steadily, since the drum puts the mind in Theta mode — or at least Alpha — receptive and relaxed.

There’s no down side. No need for disclaimers. There are no risks in drumming unless you have a physical condition that makes beating difficult — in which case try recordings of drumming. The benefits to your mindfulness, if you have a busy mind, should be near instant and — in many cases — quite profound.

NOTES

[1] “Entry into the Profound”

[2] ” Why do monasteries suspend a wooden fish outside the dining hall?” GDD 474 Master Sheng Yen

[3] Mokugyo Fish Drum, Zen Mountain Monastery

[4] “How Buddha’s Teaching Will Disappear” The Essence of Buddhism.

[5] Sutra of the Great Dharma Drum

[6] Lotus Sutra, Chapter 12 https://www.buddhistdoor.com/OldWeb/resources/sutras/lotus/sources/lotus12.htm

[7] ” Venerable Zasep Tulku Rinpoche, Spiritual Director of Gaden for the West, Returns to Toronto for a Month of Precious Teachings in September and October” Buddha Weekly

[8] “Chöd With Karla Jackson-Brewer and Dorje Lopön Chandra Easton” Tara Mandala website.

[9] Shamanic Drumming, Michael Drake Talking Drum Publications (April 12, 2012) Language: English, ISBN-10: 0962900230, ISBN-13: 978-0962900235

[10] Psycology Today: “The Heart is a Drum Machine: Drumming as Therapy”, Robert T. Muller, Ph.D https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/talking-about-trauma/201501/the-heart-is-drum-machine-drumming-therapy

[11] “Music as Medicine” article American Psychological Association.

[12] “Making Music Can Overcome Depression” The Telegraph

[13] Theta Healing

[14] “Abstract: Complementary Therapy for Addiction: “Drumming Out Drugs””; Michael Winkelman, PhD, MPH

[15] “Six Ways Drumming Heals the Body, Mind and Soul” Green Med Info.

[16] This is Your Brain on Drumming, the Neuroscience Behind the Beat>>

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A study from the National University of Singapore, attempts to differentiate the relative benefits of different types of meditation. In particular, the research team found that Vajrayana meditation, with Tantric and Deity visualizations, significantly improves cognitive performance.

Vajrayana Meditation Good Medicine for Cognitive Disorders?

This may not surprise Vajrayana practitioners, who know just how much of the brain must be activated to stabilize a complex visualization, but it may also be good news for people at risk for Alzheimer’s and other cognitive degenerative disorders.

The study was conducted by Professor Maria Kozhevnikov and Doctor Ido Amihai from the Department of Psychology, and just recently published in the journal PLOS ONE for July 2014. [1]

Vajrayana and Theravada Produce Different Benefits

Putting aside the obvious spiritual attainments associated with each path, there are significant differences in health benefits. Although most of the study focused on Theravada meditative practices—which are frequently practiced also by Mahayana and Vajrayana practitioners as foundation practices—the study found that Vajrayana meditation added extra layers of cognitive benefits.

Specifically, Samatha and Vipassana meditation (which are also part of Vajrayana foundation practice) were compared to Vajrayana meditations which included visualization and self-generation-as-Deity and Rigpa. All participants in the study were monitored for both electrocardiographic and electroencephalographic responses. The breakthrough study found that Vajrayana meditation showed activation of the sympathetic system.

The results were not marginal. The tasking tests given to participants revealed sharply enhanced cognitive performance immediately after Vajrayana meditation. The margin of increase was steep and consistent. After meditation, any tasks involving the brain by Vajrayana meditators, showed marked enhancement.

By contrast, Theravada style meditation produced improved parasympathetic activity, and a decrease in activation of the sympathetic system. Vajrayana meditation tracked almost the complete opposite. This makes Samatha and Vipassana meditation ideal for spiritual contemplation, and stress relief.

The Middle Way: Both?

Vajrayana students have long been taught to anchor their practices in Samatha and Vipassana meditation, then, as they advance in their practice to undertake Deity visualizations. Due to the complexity of the practice, a teacher is necessary. However, a student of Vajrayana, practicing both styles of meditation, should see benefits spiritually, mentally and physically. Foundation meditation will anchor practice—and relieve stress—bringing important health benefits. Deity practices will advance spiritual attainments—and protect the mind.

Interestingly, another term for one branch of Vajrayana is Mantrayana, due to its emphasis on Mantra with visualization. Mantra, literally translated, means “protection of the mind.” Although Buddhists have understood this for 2500 years, science now verifies the mind benefits of Deity practice.

Long Term Benefits?

The study conclusively concludes that even one session of Vajrayana deity visualization meditation brings immediate cognitive improvements. Professors Kozheznikov and Doctor Amihai are now examining the longer-term effects.

The test subjects were all practitioners from Nepal, with years of experience in Tibetan Vajrayana meditation. Since Deity visualization practice literally takes years of dedicated practice, it’s easy to assume the long term benefits, considering how well the subjects did in the tests. The researchers will, however, be looking at the effects of short-term exposure to the techniques, probably using naive test subjects who do not have the benefit of years of study.

Quick Fix Vajrayana Meditation?

Even though Vajrayana is called the Lightning Path, the quick path to Enlightenment where you can potentially achieve Buddhahood in one lifetime, it’s doubtful the research will find a “quick fix” Vajrayana meditation for novices that immediately benefits people cognitively. In Vajrayana, the integrity of lineage (the passing of the practice, method and teachings through unbroken lineage back to the source) ensures that any authorized teacher has the attainments needed to guide the meditator. The meditations require dedication and years of practice from the student under a teacher’s guidance. Although effects can be immediate, from as soon as the first meditation session, it requires long term commitment. Lifetime commitment, in fact. Or multiple lifetimes.

The purpose of Vajrayana meditation is not to enhance cognitive abilities—but it’s a very nice side effect. We practice these proven methods to make progress on our spiritual path and to gain Dharma realizations. As my teacher, Zasep Tulku Rinpoche wrote, “We all have Buddha nature naturally, and we are all destined to become a Buddha sometime in the future, but there is no Enlightenment without Dharma practice.” We practice for realizations, not to sharpen our minds. It’s just nice that we’ll have nice, sharp minds.

Although there’s no data on adapting methods from Vajrayana to psychology, and considering how long it takes to become a serious Vajrayana meditation practitioner, it’s doubtful this will ever provide a “quick” fix to, for example, degenerative brain disorders. On the other hand, cognitive benefits should be nearly immediate, even for beginners, who diligently engage the mind with Vajrayana deity visualizations.

Compassion and Vajrayana Meditation

An additional area of benefit, from separate studies, is treatment of anxiety or depression. “Buddhist traditions see wisdom and Compassion as interrelated—two wings of a bird,” writes Christer Germer and Ronald Siegel in an unlikely source—a psychotherapy-medical text. [3] In the book, various scholars, scientists and clinicians describe how Buddhist compassionate practices can “enhance the treatment of anxiety, depression, trauma, substance abuse, suicidal behavior, couple conflict and parenting stress.” (see our full story here>>)

In Wisdom and Compassion in Psychotherapy, an entire section on clinical applications is dedicated to visualizing compassionate Buddha images (normally Avalokitesvara). It is noted that the visualization should be of a compassionat figure “who embodies the qualities of unconditional acceptance, quiet strength and wisdom… beyond human fallibility.” The example they used was Avalokitesvara or Guanyin (the female Chinese form). [3, page 262]

Adding this clinical experience, to this new research on cognitive benefits show added benefits specifically from visualization practice of compassionate Buddha’s.

Teacher and Initiation Required?

To really benefit from Vajrayana, a qualified teacher is a must. To practice most—but not all—Deity visualization meditations Tantric empowerments are required. To practice Samatha and Vipassana meditation, no such initiations are required.

“Traditionally in Tibet, students completed the five foundation practices before taking higher Tantric initiation,” wrote Zasep Tulku Rinpoche, the spiritual head of Gaden for the West and Gaden Choling. One of the five foundation practices is Guru Yoga, which may have the same benefits as other Deity visualizations since this involves visualizations. Vajrasattva and Avalokiteshvara visualizations normally do not require empowerment. But for most advanced practices, initiations are required, for the education and protection of the meditator. As many Deity meditations are complex —and should be understood correctly—a teaching, empowerment, and guidance are important.

(NOTE: A full 3 part interview with Venerable Zasep Rinpoche can be found here>>)

“When you decide to take an initiation, you should find out what are the daily commitments and vows,” Zasep Tulku Rinpoche advises. These are long-term practices, and the commitments are important.

Benefits of Long Term Practice

The benefits of practicing properly under a qualified Vajrayana teacher are well established—and the long-lasting benefits are clear and sure. And, if an additional benefit is a sharp mind, and defense against cognitive disorders, this is fortunate. You could say, good karma.

[1] Medical Xpress

“If You Don’t Feel Anything, It Can Be a Problem”

“Feelings are part of us,” said Venerable Zasep Tulku Rinpoche, during a mini-retreat on Mahamudra and “mindfulness of feelings” in Owen Sound. “It’s part of our life. Because we are sentient beings. We have a life. We have a body. We have mind — consciousness. And we feel things. Feelings are good. If you don’t feel anything, it can be a problem… without feelings, we are not able to move forward. Feelings are a natural thing.”

Happy/ Unhappy?

To simplify the teaching, Rinpoche demonstrated with happy-unhappy. “When, for example, we have happy feelings, we get, maybe, kind of excited. When we have unhappy feelings we feel sad” — sometimes triggering other emotions and issues and “mental defilements.” He cautioned that strong and negative emotions tend to create “a chain reaction, creating more and more unhappiness, more complicated, more entangled.” This is because with unhappiness we tend to “react, and go through different stages of suffering.”

“Instead of trying to look at right and wrong, good and bad, with Mindfulness of Feeling we just simply meditate on feelings with… observation.” To do this meditation, “we’re not targeting or looking for particular feelings. Or, to bring up feelings. Or to find out what happened… first we start with resting the mind in the natural state, then observe as feelings naturally come out.”

Discriminating Alertness

This form of discriminating alertness, samprajanya or shezhin, or dranshe in Tibetan, has a life of its own. Shantideva’s fifth chaper of The Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, focuses on discriminating alertness or mindfulness. By observing and monitoring, we stay in the present, no longer caught in the past or worrying about the future. We can observe feelings as they arise naturally in the present. Detached, non-analytical observation tends to help these emotions resolve naturally. Rinpoche cautioned us not to “judge” and not to “wish away” feelings.

Rinpoche explained that when we try this meditation, we may already have some strong feelings from earlier in the day which will arise naturally. Otherwise, if we rest the mind, the feelings will rise anyway.

“The feelings come out when we meditate. Whatever you experience, you just observe. Just observe your sadness. Don’t judge, don’t ‘wish away’, don’t suppress, don’t pretend it doesn’t exist. Observe and acknowledge. ‘I have this feeling. This feeling is in me.’ First recognize, observe. That’s the first step. Then, when you observe, secondary feelings will come up… don’t be afraid of it.”

If You Observe Negative Feelings, They Subside Naturally

“When you are the ‘observer’ you have more strength and awareness. This is the observer. When you are aware, and you realize ‘this feeling is here’, but you realize it is a natural thing. When you have awareness, mindfulness, of the feeling, reaction subsides. If you observe long enough it will subside… our defilements, emotions and negative feelings, if you have the awareness, mindfulness, it will evaporate. It will subside. It will purify. It will dissolve. Then, we can let it go. It will go away itself. Then, we can say ‘goodbye!’ We don’t hold it anymore. We don’t panic. We don’t have to run away from this… you can just let it go. Let it pass”

There are three steps to the meditation on feelings.

“First, acknowledge and recognize. Second, experience. Third, let go.”

Rinpoche guided the attendees through a Mindfulness of Feelings session.

Video teaching on Vipashyana Meditation

The Main Purpose: Examine Our Minds

In Mahamudra, the main purpose of mindfulness of feelings is not to help us deal with negative emotions and issues—although it’s a wonderful side-benefit. The goal of Mahamudra is nothing less than to examine our own minds.

What differentiates Mahamudra mindfulness meditations from what is typically thought of as ordinary mindfulness, is the subject: what do we observe? In typical mindfulness meditation, you might watch the breath, or just watch the thoughts that arise naturally in your mind. In Mahamudra, once we have mastered the foundation practices, we then focus on observation of “awareness” itself, rather than just observing an “object” of the moment, such as breath.

Mindfulness of awareness — rather than object — is an important distinction. This advanced level of mindfulness practice is made possible through first training the five foundations, which begin with mindfulness of “object”, such as breath or feelings. In previous sessions in this teaching (links below), Rinpoche covered “mindfulness of breath”, as the first foundation, then “mindfulness of body” through “body scanning” in session two. In session three, he asked meditators to focus on “mindfulness of feelings.” All of these are preliminary meditation practices where we observe, mindfully, an object.

About Zasep Tulku Rinpoche

Aside from teaching style and personality, what defines the credibility of a great teacher—at least for me—is: experience, compassion and care, and deep and profound teachings rooted in irrefutable lineage.One added dimension, in the case of Zasep Tulku Rinpoche, is a passion for languages. His ability to master languages—six languages fluently—allowed him to communicate teachings to a wide variety of students.

Zasep Tulku is the spiritual head of a number of Buddhist Centers, including Gaden Tashi Choling Retreat Centre in Nelson, BC, Canada, Vancouver, BC, Calgary, Alberta, Toronto, ON, Ottawa, ON, Thunder Bay, ON, Seattle, WA, Moscow, ID, Kalamazoo, MI, and Tasmania, Australia.

Full Biography of Zasep Tulku Rinpoche here>>

About Host Theodore Tsaousidis

One of the hosts of the event is Theodore Tsaousidis, a student of Zasep Tulku Rinpoche who is authorized to teach. Born in a rural community in Greece surrounded by mountains and valleys, he was profoundly shaped by nature and the ancient tradition of village elders and healers. His connection to nature and the spirit world is an integral part of who he is – as is his dedication to the Zen training he has followed for 30 years. He is also blessed by the guidance of the Venerable Zasep Tulku Rinpoche. His healing and shamanic sharing stem from, his cultural roots, personal experience. and Tibetan and Buddhist traditions. Theodore sees shamanism and meditation as a great alchemy for the healing of self and other.

For coverage of Session 1 of Mahamudra Teachings>>

For coverage of Session 2 of Mahamudra Teachings>>

In Buddhism, especially Vajrayana, the “action heroes” and activities of compassion and wisdom are embodied in wrathful forms — the First Responders of Buddhism.

The First Responders in Vajrayana Buddhism

Similarly, in our  meditational practices, the first responders – at least in some forms of Mahayana Buddhism — are the wrathful deities. Since Buddhas have transcended our mental limitations, they can appear in any form whatsoever. The wrathful forms are our first responder team. Instead of uniforms, guns and rescue equipment, our Buddhist first responders are burly, ferocious, powerful, towering presences that intimidate our psychological demons.

Whether you view “demons” and obstacles as psychological constructs, or as supernatural beings, it is helpful to visualize the Enlightened and helping forces as “wrathful, monstrous, gigantic.” The psychology is obvious. If you are facing an emotional “vampire” you want a more wrathful “emanation” to burn away the negative force. To use a modern comic book metaphor, if you need a super hero, do you want Dr. Bruce Banner, or his monstrous alter-ego the Hulk?

When Buddha faced the assault of Mara and his legions of demons — again, you can think of these as psychological doubts and obstacles or as “beings” it makes little difference — even Buddha called “the earth as his witness”.  In some sutras, it is Tara who aided Buddha — as she does for modern practitioners today [For a feature on Tara’s rescues in modern times, see>>]. In another sutra story, the great Bodhisattva Vajrapani, was a subduing force, hovered over Buddha’s head with his threatening vajra. [For this sutra, see our feature on Vajrapani>>]

In Modern Times: Super Heroes?

If it’s helpful, the wrathful deities can be thought of as “monstrous” super heroes, like the Incredible Hulk, or the Fantastic Four (or Godzilla, before Hollywood got hold the story). Just as “Dr. Bruce Banner” is the peaceful scientist, he can become the Hulk in times of emotional stress — just as Amitabha can transform into Hayagriva, or Manjushri into Yamantaka, or Chenrezig into Mahakala. Tara, the beloved Mother of the Buddhas, has 21 forms, 108 forms, and more, many of them terrible and ferocious.

Since our mind provides the context, the key visual point is that “wrathful” means a form “more powerful than the adversary.” For example, in Buddhist Tantra tradition, the great Bodhisattva Manjushri took on his most ferocious form, as Yamantaka, to defeat death itself. The adversary here was not a mental obstacle, but “death” in the form of Yama. [Yamantaka literally means “Foe of Death” or “Destroyed of Death.” He has multiple arms filled with symbolic weapons and a wrathful face that gave ex-President Richard Nixon a double take. For this story, and more on Yamantaka, see>>]

“Westerners can find the wrathful images bizarre and confusing,” writes psychologist Rob Preece in The Psychology of Buddhist Tantra.[1] “Early encounters with Tibetan culture, with its ferocious and erotic deities, led its religion to be viewed with great suspicion. Those of missionary disposition even tried to convert the Tibetans… to save them from what they saw as demon worship.”

At the same time, there is no denying the “extraordinary power of tantric deity images,” Preece added. These forms are deliberately more terrible than demons; they represent forces that help us transform these very demons—whether you see them as psychological shadows of the mind or tangible entities. From a Buddhist point-of-view, they help us remove the obstacles to Enlightenment.

Wrathful deities in Buddhism can be terrifying, monstrous, and demonic in appearance—but they are actually the “good guys.” People who might be casually interested in Buddhism are often puzzled, even horrified, by Tantric Buddhist Deities depicted as ferocious personas. At first exposure, they might seem almost demonic, sporting garlands of human heads, multiple terrifying faces, often stepping on human forms. When Westerner’s first explored Tibet, they reported that Tibetans “worshipped demons.”[1] What else could they make of apparently horrifying forms more terrible than the demons of Biblical hell itself?

For Buddhists who practice Vajrayana, we know these wrathful deities are Enlightened Beings. Just like Dr. Bruce Banner can transform into  the Hulk, the Buddhas can appear in any form, including angry, ferocious, monstrous and powerful forms:

•  Manjushri, the Peaceful Bodhisattva Buddha transforms into angry Yamantaka, much more ferocious and powerful than the Hulk — who even can overpower death itself.
• Amitabha, the Buddha of Infinite Light, adored many millions of Buddhists, transforms into Hayagriva, the mighty Heruka with three faces, six arms.
• Chenrezig or Avalokiteshvara or Guanyin, the Compassionate Bodhisattva Buddha transforms into Black Mahakala, White Mahakala and many other forms.
• Sarasvati, the Wisdom aspect of Tara, becomes the most terrifying of all, the Great and Glorious Palden Lhamo. [For a feature on Palden Lhamo, see>>]

Writes Preece, from a psychological point-of-view, “beneath the pageantry lies a profound meaning. It’s difficult to comprehend at first, but in our search for a way to understand the transformation of the many facets of the Shadow[2], Tantra can be of great significance.”

Schwarzenegger as a Wrathful Deity?

Psychologist Preece clarifies wrathful practice with an amusing Western ‘Hell’s Angels’ example, comparing peaceful meditations (as the metaphorical pinstripe-suited man) and wrathful practices (Schwarzenegger): “If we think of a gang of Hell’s Angels that has become totally wild and anarchic, how might their energy be brought under control? If a man dressed in a pinstriped suit with good intentions said to them, ‘Now look, you fellows, this just won’t do,’ we can imagine how predictably derisory their response would be. On the other hand, if they were addressed as a Schwarzenegger-like figure, who looked powerful and tough, dressed like a wild man, disheveled and scarred, carrying chains, knives and other weapons, the response would be different. They might develop respect or interest and be drawn into some kind of relationship, even to the point where becoming their leader, he could change the direction of their behavior… and their aggression would be gradually channeled.”

Wrathful deities, like the fictional Schwarzenegger character, embody wrathful characteristics. They can appear in apparently demonic aspects, bristling with weapons, fanged, dripping blood, and surrounded by aureoles of fire. When a serious practitioner evokes them, their power to transform is forceful and certainly very tangible. Just as a Schwarzenegger-like character puts on a show of force and ferocity, to accomplish his ‘tough love’ agenda, the Wrathful Deities of Tantra are motivated by compassion. Their cause is bodhicitta. The wrathful appearance is an expression of skilful means.

The Embodiment of the Shadow

The non-psychologist tantric practitioner understands these wrathful deities, in part, to be the very embodiment of the negative karmas or emotions they help us confront and control. These protector deities help us remove obstacles of our practice. For example, bull-headed Yamantaka, the “slayer of death”, is arguably the most ferocious of the wrathful deities and is considered a helpful practice for people with anger or hatred issues. At a higher level, Yamantaka—which means literally “slayer of death”—is a form more terrifying than death itself, and by virtue of this, he represents the very power of Enlightenment to defeat death.

Even Avalokitesvara, the peaceful and wonderful Buddha of Compassion, has his terrible form, Mahakala the great black one, as described by Vessantara:

“With a world-shaking cry the figure, now blue black, starts to its feet… The giant figure pounds forward, wild hair streaming upward, tied around with snakes. The massive body, nearly naked, girt only in a tiger-skin, wears skulls—pretty, staring skulls—as jewels. Snake-enwreathed, fang-mouthed, three eyes glaring bloodshot from an awesome face, he marches onward bellowing challenge…”[3]

Dharmapalas Protect the Mind

Why would anyone wish to conjure up such apparently horrible images of Enlightenment? Vessantara explains: “On a deeper level, dharmapalas throw back into the shadows the forces of nightmare and madness which always threaten to tear loose and subjugate the human psyche.” Interestingly, many psychologists, Preece among them, have analyzed wrathful practice and found it psychologically sound. In the same way, a psychiatrist might ask a patient to face his past traumas—often deeply buried in the subconscious—the Tantra practitioner faces the obstacles to Enlightenment.

The highly advanced practices of Tantra actually “transform” the negatives, instead of suppressing them.

“We have lost the symbols and rites of transformation that elevate the dark angel from an unconscious, potentially demonic state into a healthy conscious relationship,” writes Preece. “Despite our best efforts at curbing and containing aberrant human nature, the daily news is filled with its shadowy effects. The question still stands as to how we transform rather than suppress its forces.”

Stated another way, the purpose of wrathful deity practice is none other than converting our negative karmas and emotions into a force for Enlightenment, helping us understand Emptiness. Or, more traditionally stated, removing the obstacles in our practice, whether external or internal. Preece writes, “As a manifestation of the wisdom of dharmakaya, he embodies the power of wisdom to overcome the Shadow’s demonic side, not by repression, but by absorbing its forces into his nature.”

Wrathful Deities Are Usually Higher Tantric Practices

Wrathful deities are usually restricted practices for senior practitioners, often practices of the Highest Yoga Tantra. Because we work with the darkest internal and external forces, unguided practice could be considered dangerous and is actively discouraged. A qualified teacher with lineage is always required.

The Wrathful deities can be of two main types:

• Herukas: Enlightened Beings who manifest as wrathful forms
• Protectors: Wrathful deities who protect. These can be subdivided into three types: Dharmapalas, or “protectors of the Dharma”; Lokapala’s who are the protectors of the world; Ksetrapalas, protectors of a region.

Dharmapalas: Protectors of Dharma

There are eight main Darmapalas, the protectors of the Dharma, who help practitioners remove the obstacles to their practice, advancing them in their cause for Enlightenment.

Yamantaka is probably the best known, and possibly the most ferocious; he is the bull-headed wrathful deity who overcame death itself. Yamantaka, an aspect of Manjushri, even ‘recruited’ Death, in the form of Yama, as a Dharmapala—demonstrating the psychologically profound principle of absorption of shadow.

Other great Dharmapalas include Mahakala, the Great Black One (an aspect of Avalokitesvara), Hayagriva, and the terrifying Goddess Palden Lhamo.

Wrathful Deities: Vivid, Intense and a Heavy Commitment

Meditating on the ferocious embodiments of Enlightenment, for some people, myself included, can feel more vivid, in some ways more engaging and compelling than calming, peaceful deity meditations. There is no question you are working with the mind. The images jump vividly, snap to clarity. Perhaps it’s the massive scale of the imagery, so intense and fierce that makes it easier to visualize for some people.

It’s neither for the faint of heart nor the lazy of practice. Most wrathful practices are of the highest yoga tantra class. Tashi Tsering, in the book Tantra: The Foundation of Buddhist Thought explains:

“Different Vajra masters give different commitments when they give initiations—such as doing the full sadhana every day—and while this may not be the determining factor, you should consider whether you have the time and energy to follow such a practice. Perhaps a wrathful highest yoga tantra deity with many arms and faces is attractive to you, but is that the best practice for you to do?” [4]

Although the actual practices and visualizations are passed teacher to student, together with all-important instructions, a quick study of any of the many famous thangkas of fierce deities, reveals an intensity of images that make’s the middle earth world of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings seem tame. Yet, this isn’t an exercise in fantasy or a dream-filled trip to a wondrous mindscape. The practice of wrathful deities is difficult, rewarding and an extremely advanced. It is also not for everyone. Most wrathful practices are the highest yoga tantra class, typically only introduced to practitioners after many years of successful foundation practices.

Highest Yoga Tantra

The colorful concepts of wrathful practice can be alluring, and the promise of removing obstacles to practice is irresistible to many serious practitioners. Beyond the immediate goal of removing obstacles, and transforming emotions and aggregates, wrathful practices—at least those of the Highest Yoga Tantra class—profoundly work on our body and mind. As explained by Geshe Tashi Tsering,

“The main objective of highest yoga tantra is to move the subtle winds or energies through the central channel to eventually enter the heart chakra and abide there. When all of the subtle winds are dissolved into the indestructible drop at the heart chakra, we experience the clear light mind. When the clear-light mind eventually comes into union with the illusory body, the resultant state—enlightenment—is achieved.” [4]

Wrathful and Highest Yoga Tantra are obviously not an overnight practice, nor one that can be undertaken without a teacher, yet it is still considered the “lightning path” to Enlightenment. By harnessing fierce aspects of Enlightenment, for those who are suited karmically and emotionally to the practitioner, progress can be very fast in relative terms—although, only under the guidance of a qualified guru.

For those karmically blessed enough to find their perfect teacher, and willing to make an unbreakable commitment, the lightning path of wrathful deity practice is an extraordinarily rewarding and enlightening experience.

 NOTES

[1] The Psychology of Buddhist Tantra, Rob Preece, Snow Lion, ISBN-13 978-15559392631.

[2] Commonly used psychology term referring to Shadow of the mind, the subjugated darker feelings we are ashamed of that unconsciously affect us.

[3] A Guide to the Deities of the Tantra by Vessantara, Windhorse Publications, ASIN B013RNOFJS

[4] Tantra: The Foundation of Buddhist Thought, Volume 6, Geshe Tashi Tsering.

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By Elizabeth Baldridge

[Bio bottom]

Many modern students practice meditation, as it offers numerous physical and mental health benefits that college kids desperately need. By incorporating meditation into daily life, students can not only reduce daily pressure but also improve their memory, concentration, grades, and ultimately their lives. We will explore the importance of meditation for students below.

• Research studies on the benefits of meditation for students>>
• More studies cited in feature links below.

Benefits of meditation for students

It’s virtually impossible to discuss all benefits of meditation for humans in one sitting, so today we will mainly concentrate on the perks that it offers to students. Some of them are:

Enhance intelligence.

Studies show that those students who practice meditation usually show improved cognition and brain function, especially in aspects related to creative thinking, as well as practical intelligence and IQ.

Study-related stress reduction.

It is confirmed that students, who meditate daily for several months, notice a stable decrease in stress levels. They also report having improved concentration, better attention in class, and increased resistance to physical effects of stress on the body during exams.

Improved academic performance.

It is scientifically proven that students who practice meditation notice improvement in their grades. This healthy practice allows being calm, collected, and concentrated, which is a great mental state for studying.

Reduced susceptibility to addictions.

Daily meditation significantly reduces substance abuse problems and antisocial behavior for students as well as adults alike can even cure addiction. In many cases, meditation has proven to be more effective than traditional drug education and prevention programs.

Less absenteeism, better behavior.

College kids who enjoy meditation appear to show lower rates of absenteeism have fever incidents at school associated with bad behavior, lower rates of withdrawal from classes.

Happier, more confident students.

Meditation lovers commonly have better self-esteem, emotional control, mental stability, are more confident, well-equipped to deal with peer pressure, body issues, which allows them to feel happier and more content on a daily basis.

Physical health benefits.

Meditation is good for physical health as well as mental health. Regular practice of meditation helps maintain healthy blood pressure, increases gray matter (as well as inhibits the loss of brain gray matter during aging), enhances brain neuroplasticity, improves memory and concentration, boosts immunity, reduces the risk of heart attack, etc. It also helps relieve stress-related pains such as headaches, ulcers, insomnia, muscle, and joint pain. Those who practice meditation have more cerebral cortex folds – this allows the brain to process information faster, improve memory, attention, boosts decision-making.

Mental health benefits.

We already established that meditation has a positive effect on the brain. Numerous studies have shown that the amygdala, a part of the brain responsible for emotional responses, shrinks significantly after mediation. This leads to a fact that a person becomes more balanced and less sensitive to external stimuli. Meditation can reduce symptoms as well as effectively treat depression, panic attacks, stress, panic attacks, and other mental disorders. It reduces the level of lactate (lactic acid) in the blood, relieving anxiety attacks.

Improves personal characteristics

Practicing meditation is known to help people become more compassionate and enhance empathy. It also helps with developing imagination and an ability to visualize, which is very important in education. It also increases the production of serotonin, which is responsible for a good mood. Meditation allows having more energy by relieving emotional fatigue. It promotes better emotional stability, allows one to clear head and remain calm in any situation.

Gratifying results

Many people doubt that meditation has much practical use and consider it a waste of time, but they couldn’t be more wrong! Evidently, the benefits of meditation are overwhelmingly plentiful, which makes it a great practice to take up as a student, who deals with tremendous amounts of stress every day. We hope that our article gave you that extra push to try meditation for yourself!

He’s always ready with the joke that makes large crowds gasp for breath as they laugh.

This isn’t just an act of empathy with the people around him. Laughter connects us to the very universe itself at a deep level. This power is not limited to enlightened teachers.

The Dalai Lama, like the famous “laughter doctor” Patch Adams M.D. both emphatically believe in the power of laughter to heal, energize, enable, and inspire. The Dalai Lama famously laughs at every opportunity and often cracks jokes at his teachings. Patch Adams spent his entire life using laughter to comfort — and even heal — the sick.

Patch Adams: trying to make laughter and compassion the core of “what medicine is”

Hunter Doherty “Patch” Adams, M.D., took awareness of laughter as therapy to a new level of acceptance within the medical community as a valid treatment option. His life inspired the movie, Patch Adams. In his lifetime, he opened a free hospital to pilot a treatment regimen with thousands of patients — a hospital where the main element of common therapy was humor.

“We’re trying to make compassion and generosity the centre core of what medicine is,” said Campbell about the Institute. [1]

 

This hospital became the Gesundheit Institute, famous for volunteer programs with clowns going to hospitals, refugee camps, orphanages and prisons. Patch Adams is a living model for comedian Charlie Chaplin’s famous quote: “Laughter is the tonic, the relief, the surcease for pain.” (For more on the scientific evidence for “laughter” as a prescription for health, see the last section of this feature.)

Laughter’s Power: heal, banish, energize

If you laugh when you are ill, you feel better. (Mom always said, “Laughter is the best medicine.) If you laugh in the face of sadness, you transform grief. If you giggle at your own stupidity, you learn wisdom. Laughter has the power to banish demons, both internal and external. If you smile in at the end of the day, you look forward to the next morning. Laughter is the ultimate magical power. If you can laugh, you are already a magician. If you tap into the magic of laughter, you have started on one of the paths to enlightenment.

Video: “Laugh with the Dalai Lama”: When the Dalai Lama laughs, everyone laughs. It’s a form of mindful medicine.

Mindfulness meditation pursues the blissful state of non-thinking, or rather, being in the present moment. Emptying the mind by sheer will is difficult, and methods include simply observing your thoughts, distraction, visualization, and mantra repetition.

All of these methods achieve a blissful state. Yet, an easier path, one we pursue intuitively in our lives, is laughter. When we laugh, in that instant, we enter the state of “no thought” or emptiness, if only for a microsecond. With practice, laughter can be a powerful path to enlightenment.

The power of laughter to heal

Laughter’s power is of benefit to anyone, of any spiritual path:

• science has proven that laughter is a genuine medicine, with real healing powers (various peer-reviewed articles and studies) [2]
• laughter has the power to charm and influence those around you in daily life
• laughter can extend life, and make those days truly worth living
• laughter supports us on the eightfold path, teaching equanimity, compassion, patience, kindness (Metta) and supporting us along the difficult path.
• laughter is beautiful.

Laughter and Mindfulness

Think about the moment of laughter. When you laugh, you are possessed by the laugh, in the present moment, no longer worrying about past or future. Laughter is a very powerful mindfulness meditation method. Thinking simply stops when you laugh. You experience genuine moments of no-mind.

Laughter Teaches Emptiness

For those who “fear” the emptiness of enlightenment—often misunderstood to mean nothingness of extinction—laughter teaches us what true emptiness is. In that moment of pure laughter, our mind is still. It is empty. But it is bliss.

Laughter, in Buddhism, is a very powerful daily meditation. I think of the innocent child, always laughing and giggling, smiles coming as naturally as tears, but everything spontaneous and real. Isn’t this the goal of meditation? To seek what is the inner truth. What is real. To be in touch mindfully with the real you?

Why do Enlightened Masters Laugh?

Throughout history, enlightened ones are the ones readiest with the smile or laugh. From Gandhi to Mother Theresa to the Dalai Lama, the smile is what people remember first. Gandhi, through hunger strike and strife, was always ready to smile.

The Dalai Lama who lost his entire country laughs more than most. The Dalai Lama suffered invasion, the death of his fellow monks as he fled Tibet, the ongoing struggle of his people, violence and bloodshed in his homeland. But he is the first person with the laugh and smile. That’s enlightened behaviour.

My Teachers all Laugh and Smile

From my root teacher through all the teachers I respect, one thing certainly connects them all. They are always willing to smile and laugh. If only it were so easy for the rest of us.

What happens between childhood and maturity, that we lose the spontaneous, ready, daily, hourly, minute-by-minute willingness to laugh? Stress, life, struggles, more stress, worry, clinging, on and on. But those who endured far more suffering than most of us—from Mahatma Gandhi to Mother Theresa to the Dalai Lama—were always the ones able to laugh and smile in any situation.

Laughter is also energy. It has been called “the best medicine” and perhaps it must also be considered the best meditation.

What Science says about laughter: “stress-relief, pain reduction, improved healing…”

In an Official Publication of the College of Family Physicians of Canada, William Stream (PhD) concludes:

“There are, however, several good reasons to conclude that laughter is effective as an intervention. Although the evidence (detailed below) demonstrating laughter’s benefits could be stronger, virtually all studies of laughter and health indicate positive results.” The evidence Professor Stream mention include “an exhaustive review of the medical literature.” [2]

The article maps out extensive clinical evidence, including randomized controlled clinical trials, “validating the therapeutic efficacy of laughter” particularly in the fields of geriatrics, oncology, critical care, psychiatry, rehabilitation, rheumatology, home care, palliative care, hospice care, terminal care and broad general patient care.

Groucho Marx once said, that ‘A clown is like an aspirin, only he works twice as fast.’ Patch Adams would certainly agree.

Laughter Researcher: “get all the laughter you can!”

Robert Provine, a well-known researcher on laughter said, in the documentary “Laugh Out Loud”:

“Until scientists work out the details, get in all the laughter you can!”

Provine is Professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, an Assistant Director of the Neuroscience Program, and the author of Laughter: A Scientific Investigation. [3]

NOTES

[1] The Gesundheit! Institute, Founded by Patch Adams M.D. 

[2]  “Laughter prescription”, Official Publication of the College of Family Physicians of Canada, William Stream (PhD) 

[3] Laughter, A Scientific Investigation, Robert Provine, Viking, ISBN-10: 0670893757; ISBN-13: 978-0670893751 

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To chant or not to chant? — that is the question. To Pray or not to pray? To meditate or not to meditate? Why bother? Does it work? With new viruses arising, and the current pandemic — and with the increasing growth in cancer and other deadly diseases — how much benefit can we realistically expect from a mantra, or a breath-meditation, or “Deity” visualized healing meditation? Does it even work?

Short answer, yes.

[See cited medical studies below. Normal health disclaimers apply, including the caution to always seek the advice of your health practitioners. This is an information feature — no advice is given in this feature.]

For example, in a recent study testing immune function, flu shots were given to two control groups — one group made up of volunteers who meditated daily, and the other who didn’t. By giving a flu shot, it was certain all participants would have an antibody response — but the question was how much? “Blood tests taken later showed the meditation group had higher levels of antibodies produced against the flu virus, according to the study in Psychosomatic Medicine.” [1]

Hundreds of medical and scientific studies support the idea that meditation, mantras, and even prayer can heal — especially in any area of body medicine influence by brain, metabolism or nervous system. [For numerous cited studies with links, see this detailed feature>>]

In fact, these studies go so far as to claim that meditation can “slow aging, increase brain matter, and decrease PTSD and Schizophrenia.”

[Normal disclaimer: “but, meditation is not a replacement for good medical care.” Always consult your health care provider.]

Meditation and illness

According to the Mayo Clinic: “Meditation might also be useful if you have a medical condition, especially one that may be worsened by stress… some research suggests that meditation may help people manage symptoms of conditions such as:

• Anxiety
• Asthma
• Cancer
• Chronic pain
• Depression
• Heart disease
• High blood pressure
• Irritable bowel syndrome
• Sleep problems
• Tension headaches
• Be sure to talk to your health care provider about the pros and cons of using meditation if you have any of these conditions or other health problems.” [2]

The immune system responds to stress-reduction

Cardiologist Herbert Benson, M.D. — who engaged in more than thirty years of research on the benefits of meditation on health — is unequivocal:

“The relaxation response [from meditation] helps decrease metabolism, lowers blood pressure, and improves heart rate, breathing, and brain waves,” Doctor Benson, the founder of the Mind/Body Institute at Harvard Medical School’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

In the same way stress, bereavement, and lack of sleep can make us sick, meditation, mantra, and prayer can reverse this damage. And, going beyond this, even virulent viruses respond to meditation, stillness, repeated mantra recitation or Metta meditation.

Regardless of meditation style, your body can benefit in different ways. [For more on this, see various studies cited below.]

But what about Deity Yoga — such as visualizing healing light from Medicine Buddha or Black Manjushri. In the Vajrayana Buddhist tradition, the healing benefits are enhanced by visualization. By visualizing the healing light ‘obliterating cancer cells’ we focus our minds in specific helpful ways.

Black Manjushri for serious disease — that’s silly right?

Sounds funny, doesn’t it? (At least to a non-practitioner.) How does meditating on any visualized deity, with or without mantras, have any effect? There are countless ways such practices help, that go beyond “faith healing” as a notion. Faith is irrelevant (although helpful). Rather, visualized deity meditation works through the Buddhist concept of Buddha Nature.

You can view the “deity” as Black Manjushri (or Medicine Buddha, or White Tara) — or as your own Buddha Nature. In Mahayana Buddhist thought, they are not separate. In other words, faith in yourself is all that you need.

In addition to the benefits of mantra or repeated words (see study below) with Deity visualization, you include the focus of visualization — of targeting the disease with light or energy. Additionally, we layer in the loving mind of Buddha Nature (our own, and that of the deity we visualize.)

Turn the mind on the body, the body heals

One other meditation and healing advantage of Vajrayana deity practices is the formulaic visualization itself. Repetition is virtually the definition of meditation — repeated focus on breath, a mantra, and so on.

In Vajrayana deity practice, we repeat formulated visualizations that have been used for centuries by masters who have histories of accomplishments. If you don’t concur, there’s still the benefit of laser-focused visualizations. A traditional meditation sadhana always includes Refuge, Metta, and then a detailed visualization. In the case of Medicine Buddha, or Black Manjushri, that visualization will be precisely focused on disease and healing. By turning the mind on the body, the body heals.

For example, try out the Medicine Buddha meditation video below. You don’t need to “believe” in Medicine Buddha to engage the healing mind. Faith isn’t the main engine of healing. When Rinpoche guides you to visualize healing light — “the healing blue light, it fills your body. It is healing light, purifying you and healing light” — the mind disengages and begins the healing. You can think of the blue healing light as your own Buddha Nature, or Medicine Buddha — it doesn’t matter, and ultimately, they are the same thing.

Guided Medicine Buddha meditation:

Science supports the healing benefits

Regardless of your choice of meditation, here’s a short list of ways mantra and meditation can help with some cited studies.

1 – Effect on the brain — brain changes body

There have been countless studies involving MRI’s that show how meditation and mantra “shown an increase in activity in areas that control metabolism and heart rate. Other studies on Buddhist monks have shown that meditation produces long-lasting changes in the brain activity in areas involved in attention, working memory, learning, and conscious perception.” [1]

2. Relaxation heals: really, it does

Many of the diseases we suffer from — including chronic illnesses such as Rheumatoid Arthritis — respond to the healing environment created by “relaxation.”

In a feature on WebMD, Dr. Stan Chapman, PhD, pointed out that mantra — or repeating a word over and over, especially if “meaningful” or aspirational — or just “ignoring thoughts” creates a healing “biological response of relaxation.” Dr. Chapman is a psychologist in the Centre for Pain Medicine at Emory Healthcare in Atlanta. He added: “Meditation is not difficult to learn. ou don’t need to see a therapist 40 times to learn it. But like tennis, it’s a skill. You need to practice. In time, people develop the ability to produce these meditative, very relaxed states very quickly. When they meditate several times during the day, they become more relaxed during the entire day.”

3. Mantra, Metta and Meditation shown to decrease illnesses

In many studies, both mantra and meditation showed remarkable boosts to the immune system — our many weapons in fighting any disease.

In one study, peer-published in The Journal of Biobehavioral Medicine, the study specifically found: “that a short program in mindfulness meditation produces demonstrable effects on brain and immune function. These findings suggest that meditation may change brain and immune function in positive ways and underscore the need for additional research.”

In an important paper published in Psychosomtic Medicine, a report concluded “We report for the first time significant increases in left-sided anterior activation, a pattern previously associated with positive affect, in the meditators compared with non meditators.

In studies, Metta (loving-kindness) meditation was shown to decrease illnesses. [More, including citation at this link>>]

All Vajrayana deity practices — especially Medicine Buddha or Black Manjushri — are Metta practices. They start and end with Metta.

4. Metta Meditation is shown to “slow aging” and reduce illness

From research: The LKM [Loving Kindness Meditation] practitioners had longer RTL than controls at the trend level (p=.083); among women, the LKM practitioners had significantly longer RTL than controls, (p=.007), which remained significant even after controlling for BMI and past depression. Although limited by small sample size, these results offer the intriguing possibility that LKM practice, especially in women, might alter RTL, a biomarker associated with longevity.” Details of research here>>

NOTES
[1] “Meditation Balances the Body’s Systems (WebMD)”
[2] Mayo Clinic: Meditation: A simple, fast way to reduce stress

“It is no coincidence that the words “medication” and “meditation” are only one letter different. They both come from the same Latin root word, medeor, meaning “to heal or to make whole.” [1]

Although all Buddhist meditation can be thought of as “healing” — employing mind to heal body — it is to meditation on Medicine Buddha that most turn, largely because of the Sacred Vow of Medicine Buddha in His Sutra:

“I vow that all beings who are physically disabled or sick in all aspects be blessed with good health, both physically and mentally. All who pay homage to Buddha faithfully will be blessed.”

One way to bring the blessings of Medicine Buddha is to chant his Dharani while meditating on his image. Chant along with Buddha Weekly in the original Sanskrit Dharni from the Medicine Buddha Sutra:

Healing Buddha for Holistic Healing

Buddhist healing starts with the mind, rather than the co-dependent body. This doesn’t mean that we believe we can “think our way to health” — although the mind’s power over pain is inarguable [See this feature for more>>]

You can’t simply make up your mind not to be sick. Medicine Buddha as the patron of healing, doesn’t suggest pseudoscience or psychosomatic healing. Instead, Medicine Buddha healing is about holistic solutions that begin with the mind — but fully involve the body and speech. In Buddhism, the Body, Speech, and Mind are all equally important, not only in healing but in spiritual practice.

As David Michie explains, in his excellent feature on Medicine Buddha meditation: “When we practice Medicine Buddha meditation, we do not do so to replace mainstream medical treatment, but to complement it. The practice purifies and removes the underlying, karmic causes of disease and cultivates the causes for holistic well-being. Such may be the power of our practice that we experience significant improvements in the symptoms, too. But we need to be clear about what we are doing.”

Research supports the power of the mind

Science does not contradict the profound power of the mind. On the contrary, numerous studies support the power of mind and meditation and mantra in healing everything from migraines to depression to cognitive issues. [For example, see this feature in Buddha Weekly, citing several research studies>> or this feature Healing meditation>>]

Tibetan Buddhist doctors rely on Medicine Buddha as their patron in their healing practice. According to tradition, regular practice with the Medicine Buddha also empowers one to heal others. In China and Japan, Medicine Buddha is a refuge in times of illness. Around the world, literally millions call out the name or mantra of Bhaisajyaguru (भैषज्यगुरु). It is even written in the sutras that if you speak the name of the Medicine Buddha in the ears of a dying animal or human they will be ensured good rebirth regardless of their past karma. No wonder the Medicine Buddha is so popular.

A full 10 minute guided visualization as guided by Venerable Zasep Rinpoche followed by the most beautiful mantra chanting of Yoko Dharma:

Medicine Buddha is renowned not just for healing, but for His ability to neutralize past bad karma, His ability to bring good fortune to those in need, His ability to help us on the path to enlightenment, even His vows to release repentant prisoners. His Dharani in Sanskrit is:

Namo bhagavate bhaisajyaguru-vaidurya prabha-rajaya tathagataya arhate samyak- sambuddhaya tadyatha. Om bhaisajye bhaisajye bhaisajya-samudgate svaha!

A lovely chanted Medicine Buddha mantra sung in Sanskrit (versus Tibetan in video below) by the great Yoko Dharma:

This can be translated as: “I honour the Lord Master of Healing, the King of Lapis Lazuli Radiance, Tathagata, Arhat, Perfect Enlightened One, saying: To the healing, to the healing, to the supreme healing hail!” The last line of the Dharani is, of course, the short mantra.

The Mantra of the Great Medicine Buddha

Nothing is more soothing than to sit in quiet contemplation, chanting the Medicine Buddha mantra quietly:

TADYATHA  AUM BHAISHAJYE  BHAISHAJYE MAHA BHAISHAJYE BHAISHAJYE SAMUDGATE SVAHA

This is the sanskrit version (where Om is really Aum) of one version of the Medicine Buddha mantra as taught to me by my teacher. As found in the original sutra, the Bhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabhārāja Sūtra (भैषज्यगुरुवैडूर्यप्रभाराज सूत्र) this is most often given as:

 TADYATHA  AUM BHAISHAJYE  BHAISHAJYE MAHA BHAISHAJYA SAMUDGATE SVAHA

Many Buddhists chant in Sanskrit, as found in the sutra, but others use the Tibetan pronunciation. Since the intention is more important than the pronunciation, most teachers suggest both are equally effective. The Sanskrit version, of course, has the virtue of lineage to Shakyamuni Buddha via Sutra and by virtue of centuries of unbroken lineage from Tibetan teachers reaching back to Buddha. The Tibetan pronunciation is equally empowered from centuries of practice:

Tayata Om Bhekandze Bekhandze Maha Bhekandze Bhekandze Randza Sumungate Soha

Visualizing the Buddha of Lapis Lazuli Light

Mantras are effective regardless of other practices, but visualizing the Medicine Buddha while chanting is very effective. Part of the visualization likely will include seeing the mantra emanating from Buddha. If you have empowerment with a guru, you can generally find this even more powerful if you self-generate as the Medicine Buddha. (Note: Without empowerment, you should generally visualize Medicine Buddha in front of you, with rays of healing light or nectar projecting into the crown of your head and filling your body with healing energy.)

In my tradition, we visualize the seven Medicine Buddhas (see the top tangkha), but the simplest visualization is to envision a shining Lapis Lazuli blue Buddha, beautiful in radiance, perfect in all His features, in a monk’s robe in full lotus on the Lotus and moon throne. His face is serene and compassionate, and he has the features of a great Buddha. In his left hand is the Lapis-colored jar of medicine nectar, a medicine that not only cures all ills, but also negative karma, tensions, suffering, poverty, and any other sufferings. In his right hand is the stem of the Myrobalan, with Aruna fruit, held between thumb and forefinger. He is surrounded by a glowing nimbus and aura of Lazuli-colored light and as you chant, his crown, throat and heart glow with powerful seed syllables: Om (crown chakra) Ah (throat chakra) and Hum (heart chakra). My teacher normally encourages us to visualize with Tibetan script as it is very beautiful. (See Tibetan Script Visualization to the right). You can visualize in Sanskrit characters (left). Or even Roman alphabet if that is difficult: Om Ah Hum.

Then, healing light radiates from the Medicine Buddha’s heart, penetrating either your crown or heart, filling you with healing light, and driving out bad karma and sickness as visible black sludge and smoke. Some experienced visualizers envision white light from the Buddha’s glowing Om flowing into their own crown; and red healing light from the Buddha’s red Ah syllable flowing into their own throat; and blue healing light from the Buddha’s blue Hum flowing into their own heart chakra.

Often He is visualized with his two attendants Suryaprabha and Candraprabha, who are the sun and moon Bodhisattvas. In Soto and other Mahayana practices, you might also visualize the Twelve Warriors of Bhaisajyaguru, who relate directly to the twelve great vows of the Medicine Buddha (see below.) In my practice, we visualize the Seven Medicine Gurus plus Shakyamuni as the Eighth Medicine Buddha.

Healing Practices

[For a full guided visualization from Venerable Zasep Rinpoche see embedded video at the top of this story. The video ends with incredible mantra chanting from Yoko Dharma.]

Aside from visualizing and mantra recitation, a common healing practice is to chant 108 of Medicine Buddha’s mantras over a glass of water. The chanter, preferably one who has chanted the mantra in regular practice, then blows on the water and offers it to a sick person. The empowered water has healing powers. The patient can also be requested to speak the name of the Buddha 108 times, or chant the mantra, or read the sutras, or just to gaze upon a loving picture of the Medicine Buddha. Many miraculous cures have been attributed to the Medicine Buddha. From my own experience, when two Tylenol do not work, the mantra certainly does.

Tibetan doctors tend to begin each day with Medicine Buddha practice, and when making herbal medicines chant the Mantras while working to further empower their medicinal benefits.

Dedicating the Merit is Important

Most important to any healing, for a practicing Buddhist, is to dedicate the merit of any mantra chant or visualization or healing to the benefit of others, not to oneself. There is great healing power in Bodhichitta and dedicating the merit to others selflessly — as the Medicine Buddha himself did in the twelve great vows before he became a Buddha (see below.)

Faith plays a role in healing, in that having absolute faith empowers practice, yet I have seen from past experience, as have many others, that chanting the Medicine  Buddha Dharani or mantra for non-Buddhists — who might have no faith —is equally effective. The power is not all about faith.

Dharani of the Lord of Healing

In the sutras, Shakyamuni Buddha, the living Buddha of our age, taught the Dharani of the Medicine Buddha to benefit all beings, from gods to hell beings.

Lazuli Pure Land East

Medicine Buddha meditation and mantra is a sutra practice, as taught by Shakyamuni Buddha. The Medicine Buddha Sutra is known as Bhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabhārāja Sūtra (भैषज्यगुरुवैडूर्यप्रभाराज सूत्र). His Lapis Lazuli Pure Land is in the east, but, in fact, he resides in your heart, always ready to help. Medicine Buddha has seven brothers, each with different praises and functions, or they can be thought of as manifestations of the same Medicine Buddha. He goes by many names, including:

• formal title: Bhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabhārāja (भैषज्यगुरुवैडूर्यप्रभाराज, “Medicine Master and King of Lapis Lazuli Light”)

• Bhaisajyaguru — Medicine Guru in Sanskrit

• Bhaisajyaraja — Medicine King in Sanskrit

• Bhaisajya Samudgate — Supreme Healer in Sanskrit

• Sangye Menla  — Supreme Healer in Tibetan

The Twelve Vows

The twelve vows taken by Baishajyaguru, while he was a Bodhisattva, before he became a Buddha, are the key to understanding the unrestrained and growing popularity of the Lapus Lazuli Buddha. Just remembering his name and his vows brings healing. Reading the twelve vows is also a healing experience. Reciting the Medicine Guru sutra is also very powerful. He selflessly swore:

1. I vow that my body shall shine as beams of brilliant light on this infinite and boundless world, showering on all beings, getting rid of their ignorance and worries with my teachings. May all beings be like me, with a perfect status and character, upright mind and soul, and finally attaining enlightenment like the Buddha.

2. I vow that my body be like crystal, pure and flawless, radiating rays of splendid light to every corner, brightening up and enlightening all beings with wisdom. With the blessings of compassion, may all beings strengthen their spiritual power and physical energy, so that they could fulfil their dreams in the right track.

3. I vow that I shall grant by means of boundless wisdom, all beings with the inexhaustible things that they require, and relieving them from all pains and guilt resulting from materialistic desires. Although clothing, food, accommodation and transport are essentials, it should be utilized wisely as well. Besides self-consumption, the remaining should be generously shared with the community so that all could live harmoniously together.

4. I vow to lead those who have gone astray back to the path of righteousness. Let them be corrected and returned to the Buddha way for enlightenment.

5. I vow that I shall enable all sentient beings to observe precepts for spiritual purity and moral conduct. Should there be any relapse or violation, they shall be guided for repentance. Provided they truly regret their wrong-doings, and vow for a change with constant prayers and strong faith in the Buddha, they could receive the rays of forgiveness, recover their lost moral and purity.

6. I vow that all beings who are physically disabled or sick in all aspects be blessed with good health, both physically and mentally. All who pays homage to Buddha faithfully will be blessed.

7. I vow to relieve all pain and poverty of the very sick and poor. The sick be cured, the helpless be helped, the poor be assisted.

8. I vow to help beings who are undergoing sufferings and tortures. By hearing my name, paying homage and praying, their wishes would be granted and ultimately attain Buddhahood.

9. I vow to free all beings from evil thoughts and its control. I shall lead them onto the path of light through inculcating them with righteousness and honour so that they will walk the Buddha way.

10. I vow to save prisoners who have genuinely repented and victims of natural disasters. Those who are sincere will be blessed by my supreme powers and be freed from sufferings.

11. I vow to save those who suffer from starvation and those who committed crime to obtain food. If they hear my name and faithfully cherish it, I shall lead them to the advantages of Dharma and favour them with best food and eventually lead a tranquil and happy life.

12. I vow to save those who suffer from poverty, tormented by mosquitoes and wasps day and night. If they come across my name, cherish it with sincerity and practise dharma to strengthen their merits, they will be able to achieve their wishes.

Who couldn’t feel drawn to a Buddha willing to help us with such powerful vows, simply by virtue of calling his name?

Other Names of Medicine Buddha

There are several “Medicine Buddhas”—seven, plus Shakyamuni Himself as the eighth, each separately honoured and named, but where one Medicine Buddha is practiced as a solitary meditation, normally this is Bhaisajyaguru Vaiduryaprabharaja (भैषज्यगुरुवैडूर्यप्रभाराज)—the Medicine Guru of Lapis Lazuli Light. His pure land is in the east, and is called Vaiduryanirbhasa, or pure Lapis Lazuli Land. He might also be known as Sanye Menla (Tibetan སངས་རྒྱས་སྨན་བླ།, or just Menla), Medicine King, Medicine Guru, Yaoshifo (藥師佛 Chinese name), Nyorai or Yakushi (in Japan 薬師, 薬師如来), Yaksabul or Yaksayeorae (약사불, 약사여래 in Korea)or Lapis Luzuli Buddha. In many practices, seven or eight Medicine Gurus are honoured.

The Seven or Eight Medicine Buddhas

The Seven Medicine Buddhas names in English are a powerful and lovely poetic expression in and of themselves.:

• Bhaisajyaguru: Tathagatha Medicine Guru Lapis Lazuli King
• Abhiyaraja: Tathagatha King of Clear Knowing
• Dharmakirtisagara: Tathagatha Melodious Ocean of Dharma Proclaimed
• Asokottamasriraja: Tathagatha Supreme Glory Free From Sorrow
• Suvarnabhadradravimala: Tathagatha Stainless Excellent Gold
• Svaragosaraja: Tathagatha King of Melodious Sound
• Suparikirti-tanamasriraja: Tathagatha Glorious Renown of Excellent Signs

The eighth is Shakyamuni Buddha, the historical Buddha of our era—who taught us the Dharma. When chanting the praises, I prefer the poetic Enlish names to the Sankrit, just because of the beautiful descriptions. In a full practice session or a puja, each of the Buddhas would receive His own praise. As you visualize each of the Buddhas you prostrate and make envisioned offerings.

NOTES

[1] How to Invoke the Medicine Buddha, by David Michie — Lion’s Roar

Related Stories and Videos:

• Medicine Buddha guided meditation video with H.E. Zasep Rinpoche
• Medicine Buddha chanting by Yoko Dharma
• Illness and Cancer Advice: Healing teaching video: Medicine Buddha and Black Manjushri

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By Ryusho Joaquin Salazar, Soto Zen priest

[Biography below.]

We are a superior animal on the scale of evolution whose physical characteristics and brain have given it the possibility of forming a thinking mind that generates ideas, criteria, opinions, an acting will and a world of feelings, emotions and impulses of its own, unique, and only partially based on instincts.

We are “individuals”, individuals, worth the redundancy, with initiative, ideas that are mental plans about projects that we will carry out to improve our activities and the efficiency of our actions. Until now no other animal, no matter how “intelligent” has been able to match the “homo sapiens” in these abilities. Due to this, Sapiens has been able to conquer without any rivalry, it is situated as the owner of the planet.

Despite all his successes, the same “homo” has also become his own greatest enemy, with serious probability of destroying the same planet, or at least his living space in it, making it an impossible space to inhabit.

What has led us to this dilemma? In short, his ability to process the data that his conscience brings him, the elaboration of which can lead – and has led – to terrible decisions, based on multiple prejudices, animosities, cravings, desires, etc. The “homo” has become a fickle and bellicose animal.

What brings us to this? Well, the development of a “personality” as a result of our perception of the data provided by our consciousness, the sensory flow provided by the classic five senses: sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing. These are the “keys” to our contact with the world and they govern our actions.

Through our childhood, studied by the great philosophers of pedagogy: Piaget, Montessori, etc. We are building all the mental baggage, the so-called “personality”, which we have to live in each moment and which together can determine our actions in adult life.

The question is: “How, as adults, can we establish – perhaps” reestablish “- our sensory and mental stability, and a vision absent of contamination?

About three thousand years ago a thinker named Siddhartha Gautama, it is said from India, gave us an answer, perhaps the only answer. After multiple tests with the spiritual currents of his time, this thinker came to the conclusion that none of them really complied with the guidelines for the reorientation of our behavior in the sense of moving it away from the whirlwind of anxieties and our desires and actions. towards our goals, due to the set of predispositions and objectives that we radiate on the basis that they “suit us”, “attract us”, or fulfill our expectations of well-being and happiness.

This “being happy,” stated without any ethical or moral definition, is, in the vast majority of cases, the instrument of human unhappiness and misery.

Either we want something, or we move away from something we dislike, as defined in the literature of the time: “if we don’t have what we want, we will suffer, if we achieve what we want irretrievably we will lose it and we will also suffer.”

It is the play of the elements acquired by our mind that leads us to perdition. So what is the answer?

Desperate for an answer, our friend simply sat under a tree and focused his mind on what was happening around him. He did not put his “mind blank” as someone has invented. He put his inner vision into what his senses communicated to her and his mind was throwing her out of the cauldron of feelings and emotions accumulated over the years.

Whatever the mind threw at him, he followed without questioning or giving an opinion, accepting or rejecting, simply on the basis of the question “who am I”, I am the one who casts the vision of good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant, etc.

This person applied “full” consciousness, mindfulness, as our English-speaking friends, inventors of the term, say, concentrating on what is happening at that moment, which is always in the past, because when the present comes to consciousness, it is already past. We never see the present.

It is said that during that night, at dawn, his mind reconnected with his original purity, divorced from the sediments of a life, as it was at the beginning.

The people gave this experience a religious connotation of which, now in the 21st century, it is being stripped. Of oriental religiosity, it has been identified as “mindfulness”, the full consciousness of the present of the moment.

Do not think that this drives us to a world of “nothing”, we continue living (Oh…”neuroscience”!) In the garden of our desires, of our longing for satisfaction, love, affection, etc. The difference that this mindfulness gives us, “mindfulness”, is that we already “know” what the game is. And we are no longer lost.

It is about establishing as a daily practice to sit down and concentrate, so that the mind itself becomes our teacher and tells us what to do and where to go.

Buddhism is known for its emphasis on meditation and meditative techniques. People from all walks of life have used Buddhist techniques to ‘relax’ and ‘de-stress’, despite neither being practising Buddhists nor indeed understanding much (if anything) about Buddhism itself. Without a doubt, meditation and the meditative techniques developed by Buddhists have helped a great many to cope with anxiety and mental health issues [1] — without necessarily understanding their deeper significance.

Scientists and doctors now take meditation seriously, no longer dismissing it as incompatible with medical science. Advances in the field of psychiatry, and a greater willingness to properly investigate mental health issues has brought scientific respect for the healing potential of meditation. As is typical of the scientific mindset, many have been determined to ‘get to the bottom’ of what causes the undeniably positive effects of meditation. They’ve discovered a lot — but one of the most interesting (and lesser known) findings concerns the action of meditative techniques upon the vagus nerve.

The Vagus Nerve — the Meditation Highway?

What’s the vagus nerve? Put simply, it’s one of the longest nerves in your body (sciatic nerve is the longest). The name roughly translates as ‘wandering nerve’, and it is apt. The vagus nerve travels from your brainstem, winding down throughout your body, to finish in your abdomen. On the way, it connects with many major organs, including heart and lungs. We’ve been aware of it for a very long time, and been similarly aware of the fact that the vagus nerve is semi-responsible for your body’s regulation of heart rate, breathing rate, digestion, and so forth.

It was previously assumed that the vagus nerve acted more or less on its own initiative ‑- that is, without the conscious input of the individual. While it could certainly be influenced by external factors such as stress, diet, or motion, it acted internally, and could not be consciously influenced. However, research revealed the deeply interconnected way in which consciousness and physicality can influence one another — and the vagus nerve. Described by some as a ‘hack’ [2] to the nervous system, the vagus nerve appears to be science’s answer to the vexed question of just how, precisely, Buddhist practices do what they do. And this kind of scientific verification and understanding has come just in time; more and more of us, it seems, are in need of the benefits of ‘vagal nerve stimulation’.

Modern Mental Dysfunction — and ‘Disconnected’ People

It’s a sad fact that mental health problems associated with stress and anxiety are enormously on the rise. Some experts believe we are generally more aware of mental health problems than we used to be, and that we’re also more likely to seek help for medical issues in general. This may well have contributed to the statistical rise in mental health issues. However, the sheer scale of the problem appears to indicate that we’re not just experiencing an increase in awareness, but a tangible increase in problems as well [3].

Reasons given for this vary. Political and economic instability has been blamed, as has social media and increased work pressures. On a more spiritual level, modern (and Western in particular) society has been accused of creating ‘disconnected’ people, struggling to find a sense of identity, a sense of self, and basic spiritual fulfillment in a rapidly changing world. Whatever the reason, we’re undoubtedly suffering from a surfeit of anxiety — which can be very dangerous.

Stress and anxiety can cause any number of mental health issues, which can in turn lead to physical health issues (substance abuse springs immediately to mind). We’ve known for some time that meditation (or ‘mindfulness’ — the secular, scientific, and increasingly popular meditative practice) can help with many of these problems [4].

As meditation becomes more popular, more and more people want to dissect the mysteries of meditation, and get to the bottom of what makes it so effective. After all, no scientific doctor would prescribe a therapy — however effective it’s been proven to be — without understanding it in full, analytical detail. This is where the vagus nerve comes in.

The Sympathetic And Parasympathetic Nervous System

Our nervous systems are complex, wonderful things. They’re made up of many parts. One of these is the ‘sympathetic nervous system’  — responsible for the ‘Fight or Flight’ reaction. We’re all very familiar with the sympathetic nervous system and what it does. Your sympathetic nervous system is one branch of the ‘autonomic nervous system’ [5] — so called because it’s believed to act ‘autonomously’ (i.e. unconsciously). The other main branch of the autonomic nervous system is the ‘parasympathetic nervous system’  — about which we are in general considerably less informed.

The parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for the so-called ‘Rest and Digest’ functions, and we don’t pay as much attention to it as we should. To cut a long story short, when we meditate, we encourage our body to switch operational control from the ‘Fight or Flight’ system to the ‘Rest and Digest’ system. But how do we do this? And why is it important?

External Nervous Stimulation

We all know vaguely how the ‘Fight or Flight’ reaction works — we’re scared by something, and our sympathetic nervous system leaps into action to give us the ‘boost’ we need in order to either fight or flee our way out of danger. Specifically, this involves diverting resources from the deeper organs to your muscles, and from higher cognitive function to the ‘reptilian’ portion of your brain which deals with immediate survival. Adrenaline and cortisol are released to facilitate this, as well as to give us the ‘fizz’ and impetus we need to escape danger. The ‘Fight or Flight’ reaction can feel exhilarating in short bursts — it’s why we ride rollercoasters — but it’s not designed to last more than half an hour at the most. Beyond that, it becomes damaging.

Society is currently running tens of thousands of years ahead of evolution. Our ‘Fight or Flight’ reaction is designed to help us flee lions — but it’s being activated by the demands of overbearing bosses. A reaction which is supposed to last mere minutes before being drained out by physical exertion is lasting for hours, days, weeks, even months. And that’s simply appalling for our health [6].

What should happen is that our sympathetic nervous system should naturally cede control to our parasympathetic nervous system once the danger is past, and the ‘Rest and Digest’ system would smoothly get our bodies and minds back to the healthy activities of digesting food, healing injuries, and processing memories, experiences, and other psychological issues. We can — with a little ingenuity — trigger a ‘Fight or Flight’ reaction in ourselves (ruminating on something stressful will do it admirably). Can we do the same for a ‘Rest and Digest’ reaction? We didn’t used to think so — but new studies into the vagus nerve are bringing up evidence to the contrary.

Working ‘Backwards’

Our ‘Fight or Flight’ and ‘Rest and Digest’ systems are, in conventional wisdom, launched by the brain in response to external triggers (or lack thereof). Our muscles, digestion, cardiovascular system, endocrine system and so on are told what to do by messages carried from the brain by our nerves, and they respond accordingly. Many people believe that this is a one-way system – messages come from the brain, and the organs obey. However, evidence increasingly shows that it can work the other way as well.

For centuries, Buddhists and meditational practitioners have spoken of ‘finding your center’ — that area of calm inside yourself from which you can gather and control your sense of self. Scientists have found something similar to the ‘center’ in the vagus nerve. It’s not a perfect analogy, but it does seem that the ability to locate and work with your vagus nerve is just as effective at ‘centering’ you as taking a sedative. And you can achieve this with Buddhist meditative techniques.

Essentially, the Vagus Nerve reverses the flow of information — rather than orders flowing from your brain to your body, the nerve is instead taking some very strong suggestions from the body back to the brain. And, nine times out of ten, the brain listens. By lowering your breathing rate, your Vagus Nerve notes that things must be calm — you have no reason to be breathing hard and fast, and must therefore be able to relax. As it travels around your body and receives ‘relaxed’ messages from those organs over which you do have conscious control while meditating (your lungs, principally, but also your heart to a certain extent), it will infer that you are in no immediate danger, and have no need, therefore, to be stressed. It will convey this message to the brain, which (nine times out of ten) will then ease control over the to parasympathetic nervous system, allowing you to relax, rest, and digest.

When the parasympathetic nervous system has control, we are capable of deeper thought than we are when the sympathetic nervous system is in control (when our immediate survival is not at stake, the brain is more willing to afford time to deep thought). This perhaps explains why the deep breathing and physical relaxation aspects of meditation facilitate such excellent contemplation and self-exploration.

For helpful stories on “how to” meditate, here are some recent features on Buddha Weekly:

• The better way: standing meditation? For those with injuries, arthritis or a sleepy mind, standing can help us achieve mindfulness

• Drumming for mindfulness and healing: a simple way to calm the mind, remove stress and heal. Studies show drum meditation supports treatments of cancer, Parkinsons and depression

• Visualization activates the mind; Mindfulness stills the mind — Which is right for your practice?

• Science: research proves vajrayana meditation techniques involving deity visualization improve cognitive performance and may be promising for degenerative brain disorders

Mind/Body Connection

Western philosophy has long struggled with a marked dichotomy between the mind and the body. Since the time of the Ancient Greek’s, we’ve tended to believe that the mind and the body are separate entities, capable only of communicating with each other, but not really intrinsically linked. Furthermore, the mind has been held to be the body’s superior — something which not only controls the body, but can and should be used to suppress it in many cases.

This ‘Mind-Body Distinction’ [7] can hold itself responsible for a host of modern ills, not least among them being the idea that it doesn’t matter what we do with our bodies, and that giving into bodily desires is shameful. To this, we can trace (in some manner) obesity, sexual shame, and a whole host of other issues.

Buddhists in general, by contrast, know that the mind and body are parts of a coherent whole, which influence one another and are vital to one another’s wellbeing. Our growing scientific knowledge about the role that the vagus nerve and how interdependent body/mind really area, may allow for a more holistic view of the entire human, perhaps leading to a healthier, more respectful attitude towards our bodies.

Of course, it is likely to take a very long time to change a concept as ingrained as the mind-body distinction, but we can perhaps use our knowledge of the vagus nerve’s operation in relation to meditation to help those who are dubious about the benefits of ancient Buddhist meditation.

It should be remembered that any reaction to meditation is a highly individual thing, and the kind of deep self-knowledge promoted by intensive meditational programs may not be suitable for everyone [8]. However, as we learn more, we can hopefully work on ways in which to utilize Buddhist techniques in individualized ways which can help more of those in need.

For an interesting story profiling research on mind mapping using “Brain Stress Test”, see this Buddha Weekly Story:

Putting Compassion on the Scientific Map

For practical mindfulness methods, please see these recent features from Buddha Weekly:

• Much more than six words of advice — Zasep Tulku Rinpoche teaches on Mindfulness of body; anger; and healing through meditation

• The mindfulness of feelings: overcoming negative feelings and using discriminating alertness of feelings in your practice

• “Mind is the creator of our own happiness or suffering” — Venerable Zasep Tulku Rinpoche teaches Lojong Seven-Point Mind Training

• Meditation techniques for people with unsettled monkey minds

• Zen skateboarding: riding into Enlightenment

NOTES

[1] Julie Corliss, “Mindfulness meditation may ease anxiety, mental stress”, Harvard Health Publications, Jan 2014

[2] Michael Behar, “Can the Nervous System Be Hacked?”, The New York Times Magazine, May 2014

[3] Mercola, “Mental Health Disorders Now Leading Cause Of Non-Fatal Illness Worldwide”, Mercola, Sept 2013

[4] Judson Brewer, “Is Mindfulness an Emerging Treatment for Addiction?”, Rehabs.com, Aug 2014

[5] Philip Low, “Overview of the Autonomic Nervous System”, Merck Manuals

[6] American Psychological Association, “How stress affects your health”

[7] Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, “Rene Descartes: The Mind-Body Distinction”

[8] Miguel Farias, “Meditation is touted as a cure for mental instability but can it actually be bad for you?”, The Independent, May 2015

Buddha Weekly is also pleased to publish an excerpt chapter “Not Harming is Helping” from her popular book Steady, Calm, and Brave: 25 Practices of Resilience and Wisdom in a Crisis.

[Book details below. Steady, Calm and Brave is available wherever books are sold. Reference link on Amazon.com>>]

Interview — author Kimberly Brown

BW: Thank you for joining us today. For readers who may be new to you and your work as a meditation teacher, please briefly introduce yourself.

Kimberly Brown: I’m a longtime Buddhist student, who began teaching meditation in 2011. My work emphasizes the power of compassion, by helping students develop lovingkindness for self and others through Metta meditation and mindfulness of body techniques.

BW: What sparked your interest in Buddhism and meditation?

Kimberly Brown: I came to Buddhism for the reason so many others do—personal suffering. I’d been experiencing panic attacks and didn’t know how to manage them. Through psychotherapy, I understood the causes and conditions that created them, but I didn’t have tools to help manage or work with the overwhelming fear and anxiety that accompanied them. Buddhist teachings enabled me to recognize that the dread and worry that preceded the panic attacks was making them much worse than they needed to be. By practicing mindfulness and Metta, I was able to transform the way I related to them, and although they didn’t—and still haven’t—disappeared, they’re much less frightening. Over time I’ve learned to meet them with patience and kindness and they’re much less unsettling and painful.

BW: You study in both the Tibetan and Insight traditions. What drew you to each of these paths?

Kimberly Brown: In the Tibetan tradition, the emphasis on the great aspiration of the bodhisattva, and the understanding that each of us has the nature of a Buddha, really attracted me. I grew up believing that humans, including myself, are limited in our ability to grow and develop, so when I started learning from Tibetan teachers, it challenged my view of myself. Thanks to their encouragement and confidence, I began to develop my capacity to cultivate clear-seeing and compassion for myself and others. This led me to also study Metta meditation in the Insight tradition with Sharon Salzberg.

BW: You recently released STEADY, CALM, AND BRAVE. Please share a bit about the book, and your inspiration for writing it.

Kimberly Brown: In March, I was in the middle of finishing a proposal for a meditation book I’d been working on for nearly two years. When the pandemic hit, it didn’t feel like a priority anymore, and I set it aside. About a month later, I mentioned to my editor that I’d like to write something that could support people during this difficult moment. She encouraged me to share the challenges I was experiencing and the practices and meditations I used to work with them, and this became my book, Steady, Calm, and Brave: 25 Practices for Resilience and Wisdom in a Crisis, which was published in July.

BW: Is there a specific practice in the book that stands apart as a personal favorite? If so, why is that practice a favorite?

Kimberly Brown: My personal favorite from the book is the practice, “Letting Your Heart Break,” which is simply taking a moment to reconnect with yourself and your struggles, and then recognizing that many others share the same struggles as you do. Sometimes I get so angry at the greed and hatred manifesting in the world, that I overlook how upset and sad I feel about it, and the “Letting Your Heart Break” practice allows me to remember the deep and poignant interdependence I have with all humans through our shared stress and suffering.

BW: With everything going on in the world, from COVID-19, to the economic unease, to the racial distress, what do you want readers to take away with them after finishing STEADY, CALM, AND BRAVE?

Kimberly Brown: My aspiration for the book is that it will encourage and remind everyone—Buddhists and non-Buddhists—that it is possible to develop our qualities of love, wisdom, and compassion for ourselves and each other. Like any other skill, it just takes a little effort and time.

BW: What advice would you give to someone who is cautiously interested in exploring meditation? What about advice for practitioners who may find themselves struggling to stay focused on their practice during this pandemic?

Kimberly Brown: For the cautiously interested, I suggest you simply shut off your phone and computer, find a quiet spot where you won’t be disturbed, and just sit down, close your eyes, and pay attention to your breath for ten minutes. You don’t have to “meditate,” just allow yourself rest in the present moment, doing nothing but letting yourself breathe. For experienced meditators during this troubled time, I want you know that no matter how often or how briefly you’re practicing—you’re doing just fine. Don’t make your practice another task on your “To Do List” that you use to make yourself feel badly about yourself if you don’t get it done. Be gentle and easy on yourself, and let your practice be a place of refuge and rest.

An Excerpt from Steady, Calm, and Brave by Kimberly Brown

Not Harming Is Helping

In the Buddhist tradition, it’s said that there are basically two types of actions: those that don’t cause harm and those that help. If you follow the pandemic rules and stay home as much as possible, wear a mask in public, practice social distancing, wash your hands, and keep yourself and your family healthy by not mingling with others, you’re practicing not harming. Even though it may feel like you’re not doing anything or that you’re not helping anyone, mindfully taking precautions to not get sick means you’re taking care of yourself and you won’t endanger anyone else. In fact, you’re making it less likely that those in high-risk groups and essential workers and healthcare professionals will catch the virus, and by staying well you won’t put more stress on the medical system. The more of us who remain healthy, the quicker we’ll be able to control the spread of the disease and prevent even more suffering from occurring.

Experts know that not harming is helping because in places where social distancing and mask-wearing has been strictly enforced, the cases of illness and number of deaths by Covid-19 has declined, but you might still feel powerless and impotent. Your naturally compassionate heart feels the pain and grief of so many others who are struggling. You might yearn to attend a protest, visit an elderly relative, invite a lonely friend to visit, or volunteer your time at a local food pantry. If the weather is nice and you can visit, help, or protest outdoors, you can attend, but if you’ll be inside with others, why take unnecessary risks? The wisest action for you may be to continue to practice not-harming, for yourself and others until the current situation changes. There will undoubtably continue to be a great need for able-bodied healthy people who have the means and time to provide whatever assistance is necessary for those struggling economically, physically, and mentally.

The next time you catch yourself feeling helpless, or chastising yourself for not doing more, try this Safety Practice.

Safety Practice

• Find a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed.
• Give yourself a moment to get still and take a few deep breaths.
• Put your hand on your heart.
• Close your eyes and silently repeat, “By my actions may we all be safe from inner and outer dangers.”
• Continue to offer this phrase, breathing fully and consciously for ten minutes.

Excerpted from Steady, Calm, and Brave: 25 Practices of Resilience and Wisdom in a Crisis Copyright © 2020 by Kimberly Brown. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

Book Details

• Steady, Calm, and Brave: 25 Practices of Resilience and Wisdom in a Crisis

• Paperback: 132 pages

• ISBN-10: 1735254819
• ISBN-13: 978-173525481
• Publisher: Publishing with Heart (July 15, 2020)
• Language: English

About Kimberly Brown

For over a decade, Kimberly Brown has offered classes and retreats that emphasize the power of compassion and kindness meditation to reconnect us to ourselves and others. Her teachings provide an approachable pathway to personal and collective well-being through effective and modern techniques based on traditional practices. She studies in both the Tibetan and Insight schools of Buddhism and is a certified mindfulness instructor. Visit her on the web at MeditationWithHeart.com.

Coping with the Monkey Mind — a meditation term indicating an “unsettled; restless; capricious; whimsical; fanciful; inconstant; confused; indecisive; uncontrollable” mind — is one of the biggest obstacles to meditation and mindfulness practice in Buddhism.

The monkey mind disturbs peaceful reflection and creates endless obstacles to mindfulness practice, and, although it sounds contradictory, mindfulness can be said to be the “cure” for the monkey mind.

Monkey King as Monkey Mind

In the epic Journey to the West by Wu Cheng-en, the famous Monkey King is named Sun Wukong, meaning: “Monkey Awakened to Emptiness.”

In this wonderful story, the legendary monk Tang Sanzang — based on the historical monk  Xuanzang — is accompanied by Sun Wukong, the powerful Monkey King. In the legendary version, Monkey King is a powerful deity converted to Buddhism — a metaphor for overcoming the monkey mind. He wears a golden crown around his head placed there by Guanyin (Avalokiteshvara) to “encourage” the Monkey King to help the monk. If he “misbehaves” Xuanzang chants Amitabha’s mantra causing the crown to shrink — instantly surpressing the Monkey’s King’s naughty behaviour — in much the same way, we might, in our daily lives, meditate, or chant mantras, to calm our minds.

The monk Xuanzang’s companions represent his own obstacles:

• Monkey King: restless monkey mind
• Pig: greed and laziness
• Various demons: “symbolize thoughts, emotions and sensations that interrupt efforts to be present.”

From Lui Yiming’s commentary on Journey to the West:

“The real message completely transcends the actual words of the text.”

In one scene of the great epic, Monkey King uses his great powers to try to escape from Amitabha Buddha’s great all-encompassing hand. He somersaults to the end of the world and back in a few seconds, then realizes he never actually left the Buddha’s hand. The symbolism is vividly clear and stunning — the monkey mind, no matter how clever and powerful, can not attain Buddha Nature until the obscurations are removed. [More on this in our forthcoming feature on the Monkey King, Journey to the West.]

What is Monkey Mind?

Monkey Mind is an important concept in Buddhist practice. Buddha specified five techniques for overcoming this obtacle to our realizations.

Coping with the monkey mind can be helped with different techniques:

• active meditation: Tai chi, Chi Gong, walking [A feature on martial arts as meditation here>>]
• static meditations: standing, sitting, lying [A feature on standing meditation here>>]
• sensory meditations: focus on just hearing or feeling [A feature on mindfulness of feelings here>>]
• analytical meditation: analyze your anger or other feelings, or examine your body to find that which is “you” [A feature on Lojong Mind training here>>]
• visualization meditations: really incorrigible monkey minds can best be settled with active visualization methods [A feature on visualization meditation here>>]
• compassion meditation: meditating on metta and loving-kindness and tonglen (giving and receiving meditation) [A video how-to on Tonglen is here>>]
• voice meditations: if you’re really unsettled, combine visualization with a mantra, a repetitive toneless sound. [A feature on the power of mantras here>>]

Proven Benefits of Meditation

Meditation has numerous proven health benefits as well as mental and spiritual benefits. (There are at least ten health benefits to meditation, as proven in clinical studies. Refer to this article>>)

To achieve any gains, regardless of the goal, the mind must be able to focus, to settle. Meditation is one of the best options to help control the accumulated stress and other related problems, normally associated with this fast-paced world.  Meditation is critical to spiritual practice and reflections on the Dharma.

Psychiatry has also long recognized the benefits of stillness meditation. But, what to do if you have the monkey mind if you simply can’t still the mind or the body?

Some well-tried and lesser-known methods, which we’ve covered in detail before, also include:

• the Mindfulness of Feelings (Venerable Zasep Rinpoche’s teachings on Mindfulness of Feelings here>>)
• Analytical mindfulness: for example, “find your body.” (more below.)

Concentration Versus Clarity

One key to overcoming the monkey mind is to focus on clarity, not concentration. Don’t concentrate on the breath, simply experience it with clarity. Don’t concentrate on sounds, let yourself go and experience them, closing your eyes to remove visual distraction. Don’t try so hard to visualize the Buddha or Merit Field — let your mind go and simply trigger the visualization with a clear mind.

In Mahayana Buddhist practice, Shunyata meditation, a meditation on Emptiness, is an advanced method. Ultimately the goal is to find clear light, emptiness, the bliss of no-thinking. The clarity of any meditation, Shunyatta or Tai Chi, really comes from Clarity, not concentration.

Analytical Method Destroys the Monkey Mind

If you can’t settle on breath or sound or observation, the great teachers normally suggest Analytical Meditation. For example, in a previous feature (“Much More than Six Words of Advice”>>) Venerable Zasep Tulku Rinpoche explained it this way:

In explaining relative versus absolute truth, Rinpoche invited us to use analytical meditation. “I look at my body, and ask myself the question, what is my body? … You do a scanning meditation and try to find your body. When you scan your skin, you ask, is that my body? No, it’s skin, not body. Then you look at your bones, and likewise every part of your body.” If you scrutinize the body this way you’ll find body parts, but not body. Even those body parts have components if you scan those body parts. “To be body, it has to be the ‘whole’ body, all the parts. If you really look, you can’t find one thing that is your body. What we call body is just a ‘label’. A name. Imputing a label.” Therefore, “yes it’s a body” in relative truth, “but when you search for the absolute body, you can’t find it. We can call this the emptiness of our body.” It only exists by virtue of it’s label.

“A good example is your car. If you take that car apart, and everything is just parts, there is no car. Just car parts. You put it back together, and then label it Hyundai, you have a Hyundai. But if you switch the labels [to Honda] is it now a Honda? It’s all labels. There is no independent existence. That’s only one way to look at emptiness.”

“Emptiness and form co-exist,” he explained. The car relatively exists, but is, in absolute terms, only a label. It is made up of parts, and defined only by a relative label.

Effort and Non-Effort

No matter how unsettled your mind, experts consistently recommend continuing your effort for at least 15 minutes regardless of results. However, the word “effort” is wrong here. You really want to continue the “non-effort” for 15 minutes or longer. Don’t try hard. That makes you tense up. The mind becomes distracted. It’s downhill from there. Focus on non-focus. Try non-effort. True, it sounds a little silly Zen 1960s to put it that way, but ultimately that’s the goal: non-effort, non focus. (So down below, where we say “focus on…” we really mean “non focus on”)

Mindfulness of Anything

Normally, the first step in meditation is to achieve mindfulness. This can be mindfulness of “anything” — not necessarily mindfulness of breath. Mindfulness of breath is certainly the most common method, but it rarely works well for monkey minds. Instead, focus on your body parts. Try “scanning” meditation, scanning your body mentally (with your eyes closed) from your toes to your crown, moving upwards inch by inch. Simply be mindful. Don’t pause on your pot belly and start thinking of diets. Scan mindfully, observe, don’t judge.

Mindfulness of Sounds

If this is too difficult, try being mindful of sounds. Even if you are inside the house, try really “listening” to the house. You might hear the wind on the window. The muffled bark of the neighbours dog.  If you are outside, all the better. Listen to the movement of branches, rustling in the wind. The birds singing. In the winter, sounds are even more magnified by cold air. Hear the cars on the highway. Hear the neighbors arguing. Simply hear, don’t think. Don’t start analyzing the neighbor’s fight — just experience. Mindfulness of sound, especially with eyes closed, is one of the most profound techniques. You will be surprised, after five minutes of mindful practice, what you can hear. You can even hear your children two floors down in the basement playing video games. You can hear the dog’s breathing.

Active People Who Cannot Sit Still

Most people make all types of preparations for practicing meditation with increased determination and they sit down and close their eyes to get into a deep state of relaxation and focus. Whenever they attempt to practice seated meditation, they will become restless and a jittery feeling will start creeping in. Due to different feelings like discomfort, distress, embarrassment, and strain, you will start twisting and turning your body like a worm or snake. What happens next? Often, an abrupt end to your meditation session. How to overcome this situation?

Varying your meditation, using the four postures can be helpful; they include sitting, lying down, standing and walking. Here are some guidelines:

• If you sit for meditation but feel jittery, try standing meditation.
• If you can’t settle peacefully while standing for several minutes, try very slow walking meditation.
• If neither of these work, try prone meditation (lie down), but remain aware, and if you become sleepy, return to sitting.
• Take up Tai Chi or other “slow” meditative actions, such as some forms of Chi Gong (Qigong) — the slower the better.

Walking Meditation

If you are a person who cannot sit still at the best of times, you might find walking meditation is best until you settle your mind. However, it’s important to understand this is “mindfulness” walking, which means you must be conscious of everything: the pressure on the ball of your foot, your breathing, the sound of the birds, the wind on your skin — every little detail. If you are doing this properly, you’ll find a clarity of vision and hearing you never imagined before.  But start with one foot very slightly in front of the other. Very close, not long strides. Very smooth, so that it appears your shoulders are not bobbing — level and without swaying. You should be walking slowly enough that you can feel the play of your muscles. You should be so deliberately focused that your movements become tortoise-like.

While walking, you still watch the breath. If your breath is rising and falling too quickly — slow down even more. You should be able to even feel your heartbeat. Walking meditation is actually one of the most powerful mindfulness practices, because you can experience it outside, and genuinely start to notice literally everything around you. You start to feel your body. You even start to feel your body in tune with everything around you.

Standing Meditation

If walking meditation doesn’t calm the mind, if you still have monkey mind, then try standing for awhile. You can practice this inside or outside. Outside, you can combine it with walking meditation. Ten minutes walking, ten minutes standing. Always mindful. Always clear. If you focus on your muscles, breathing, the sounds around you, you will find your mind settle.

It is important to bend your knees slightly. If you are a martial artist, you can use a static kata — like the horse-riding stance, which bends the knees and keeps your centre of gravity very centred. If you are untrained in martial arts, simply try to sink down over your ankles, with your knees slightly bent. Feel your centre of gravity sink lower and lower. 

Vajrayana Meditations

One reason Vajrayana Buddhism is considered an advanced path, aside from many other factors, is the extensive focus on advanced methods to settle the monkey mind:

• visualization of a merit field: idealized imagery that really allows your “beta” mind to beat down that active alpha mind
• mantras, either alone or with visualizations, to really release the mind: repeating sonerous, other-wordly sounds triggers an empty mind-space
• complex sadhanas: combining a series of visualizations with mantras with actions — such as offerings, prostrations and music — to totally occupy the mind.

The goal of complex Vajrayana meditations, combining visualization, mantra and action, is to take the mind where it normally can’t consciously go. Emptiness resides in the subconscious, rather than the conscious mind.

Mantra Mindfulness

If you are a Buddhist, particularly a Vajrayana Buddhist, you likely have a favourite mantra. Usually we focus on the mantra to achieve a goal. Another way to think of mantras is to sink into the repetitions as a “non-focus” of the meditation. Just let the repeating sound wash over you. You can chant it yourself, or play mantras on a soundbox, but either way sink into the vibrations. Combine “listening” meditation with sacred mantra.

If you are not a Buddhist, you can still create a sound focus. Something like, “I am Empty, I am Empty, I am Empty….” over and over. Or just use the generic “OM” so popular in Yoga studios.

If you don’t have a mantra in your daily practice, the compassionate mantra of the Buddha of Compassion is a wonderful focus:

Om Mani Padme Hum

Pronounced “Ohm mah nee pad me hum”

Being Comfortable

Regardless of the meditation style, it is a good idea to remove distractions. Turn off the phone. Wear comfortable clothes. Seek out quiet (unless you’re pursuing listening mindfulness). The next step is to identify an object for focus — focus, not concentration — it can be anything: your breath, your heartbeat, a painting on the wall in front of you, the texture of a piece of paper, a candle flame or any other object.

If you can’t just absorb yourself mindfully in the focal point, try visualizing. Stare at the candle, painting, or apple for a few minutes, settling, observing every detail, every minute texture and shading. Then close your eyes and continue to see it. Open, refresh. Close, visualize. Don’t try too hard. Concentration and over-trying make it harder.

This is why, in Vajrayana meditation, mantras are so powerful. Aside from their sacred meaning, they allow the mind to disengage. Repeating a mantra 10,000 times definitely brings the mind to an empty space.

10 Benefits of meditation

It is definitely worthwhile. There are ten medical and mental health benefits to meditation — recognized by doctors and psychologists — and proven with peer-reviewed studies.

See this feature:

Peer-Reviewed Science of Meditation: There are At Least 10 Reasons to Meditate: From Boosting Your Immune System to Increasing Cognitive Function

What are we and what are our limits? An answer arrives when we make contact with the nature of energy and consciousness embodiment. Energy and consciousness are enmeshed principles in Tibetan Buddhism and other contemplative spiritual traditions.

Energy and consciousness are indistinguishable through the lens of unequivocal causal interdependence and the middle-path point of view. Let this idea detonate — energy and consciousness are as interdependent as all other phenomena, and matter comprises of energy. Energy is indestructible and simply subject to change. So we can extrapolate that our lives enmesh with this interdependence and totality and are not separate from it in any way. It may all sound like a familiar new-age trope, but when we settle into this truth, most other metaphysical concepts are invited and revealed.

Special feature by Joshua Reichmann

More features by Joshua Reichman here>>

Body and mind enmeshed

The human body, like all forms, is an arising conglomerate tethered to all other formations, the human body and mind are enmeshed integral aspects of one another and opportunities for vast amounts of energy and dimensions of awareness to manifest. As beings, we are conduits for and elements of all phenomena, including energy and consciousness, as a singular expression of activity.

To dig into this more closely, we look first at our physics. Our manifest reality is built by expressions of energy. One way that energy displays is as light. Light manifests as both particles and waves creating potentials following an electromagnetic gravity vacuum we call this universe—a universe of energy. Minds in any stage of an embodiment are properties of this energetic universe, just as consciousness, in its general sense, is a pervasive force running through all phenomena as it interacts with minds and bodies.

The Sense Gates

Let’s look specifically at the human being and the expression of mind and body as one. Thoughts and the embodied imprints that generate them through our sense gates (sight, touch, hearing, etc), including our conceptual faculty, make up our minds’ core stimulus fodder. The human being in its mundane form is simply a dense dance of atoms. Atoms are made up of subatomic particles behaving as waves which are potential states of energy brought out of a quantum vacuum -We can then simplify and say – Human beings are expressions of energy, minds, and the thoughts they think included.

Again, consciousness is not independent of the material realms—the manifest realm and consciousness entwine through minds, and the form produced senses. As we examine quantum principles more closely, we see that consciousness is not dependant or founded in the material realm, instead, it weaves into its core.

We have found in both ancient Vedic wisdom, various wisdom traditions, and the frontier of modern neurobiology-quantum-philosophy, neuroscience, and physics- a unified field theory where all phenomenal display potentiates through awareness. That awareness has no inherent substantial quality. Therefore we start to see the foundation of emptiness, or the spontaneous arising quality of the ever-present primordial purity – what we call the Darmadatu. Form and time manifest – such as in our world and yet all activity we perceive is merely a potential.

So, what can a human do with this knowledge? We can self evolve to perceive more levels of phenomena and awareness by utilizing awareness and energy themselves. We do this to liberate ourselves from “lower” manifestations of experience and help other beings do the same. How developed or braided with levels of energy we are, depends on the quality or “amount” of consciousness we tap into and integrate into our physicalized field of influence or- our bodies. Enhancing consciousness offers access to a dimensionality that feeds back and continues to enhance our singular awareness – eventually resulting in total self-illuminated mind beyond duality arising beyond subject and object. We can call this enlightenment.

The Three Kayas

To see how we manifest as embodied energy, we first look to the three Kayas or bodies of manifestation in Tibetan Buddhism.

They are

• Nirmanakaya – The embodied wisdom of the buddhas, enlightened activity in this realm.
• Sambhogakaya– a dispersive energetic dance where enlightened activity activates perpetually.
• Dharmakaya – the pure realm without form or substance and yet initiating and imbedded in all.

Could we then say that the energy of an embodied state, including the fluctuation of thoughts and a mind-stream gathering intention and pure self-awareness, is the spirit?

The spirit or La in Tibetan Buddism is the confluence and spin of energetic life quality in relationship with other energies and beings across various realms of perception. Energy is the determined flow of mind, and so energy is entwined with what we can call information – or -the imprints gathered by mind(s). Energy and mind are produced through the focus and pattern habituation. The spiral and refracted movement of intention is both mind and energy – spirit. Spirit actuates in a dance of other foundational metaphysics comprised of elements and geometric light and wave lattice that we can discuss in another post.

The spirit can also be understood as self penetrating observance, activated within the physics of a multi-dimensional occurrence. To awaken or activate, we must find the equilibrium between understanding and our fundamental force of energy.

To settle into a spirituality that participates with the linear-sequentially logical human ego-mind – like the one that is reading and judging these words, we can begin by admitting the indestructibility of energy.

Transmission, transmuting, and interlocking qualities of energy dissipate, morph, build, and move, showing us something fundamental about the cosmos. It shows us that nothing is wasted or disconnected from the rest. We can start to open the door to spiritual awareness when we connect our conscious mental/embodied activity and pattern to that of the energies produced through other physical displays. We are beings fully ensconced within the process we observe around us. We must engage in the shamanic alchemy of decerning what forces empower us and which are degrading us.

Mind: patterns of conceptual generation

The mind is a pattern system of response and fantasy/conceptual generation. There are many layers or types of minds in Tibetan Buddhism. They each reflect a dimension of the structure we call self, and they each require investigation to set them free from limitation or confusion.

The mind that we describe as “self” is a confluence of these minds and is generally the one identified with protecting the body-state and producing pleasure over pain. This mostly ignorant mind state ignores the body as a part of the mind field and higher expression of consciousness and energy.

The egoic discursive mind is incapable of accessing these higher realms of perception ad energy because it is a self-reflecting close circuit loop, not a channel.

The interaction with perceived external objects informs the body’s state as well as the conceptual mind state. The self-identifying mind describes the state it experiences through memory recall and judgment of whether this state is tilted towards pleasure over pain.

Even if attempted in a mistaken manner, the alleviation of suffering is the goal of all sentience.

The body is one with the traditional idea of mind or ego. As a result, it is a part of the perception generators that create a possibility for liberation or a gate to further confusion. Our body is this way a portal to energy as well!

The limited dimension of observed reality

We are a being that observes a dimension of reality and, through that same lens observes ourselves. It is a limited dimension we generally perceive, and we must endeavor to expand our perception and thus tap into more energy as we open up our dimensionality. Our bodies offer us this, and our various perception synthesizing apparatus located along the chakras of the subtle body are the gates that open us to this potential

Abstract mental formations are another factor producing the perceived limitations of “self”. Language and symbol production gives rise to the pattern or “meaning” formed by the minds to navigate this dimension or state. Language and symbols are simply visual and sonic structures built through habit to represent other objects.

They are directly energetic but also inferential devices to enable navigation for a conscious creature like us. They are produced within the sentient creature through memory and stimulated by a trigger. We can notice that any stimulus we encounter activates a memory of conceptual abstract mental formations. These motivate us and can deepen our sinking into Samseric delusion, or they can be tools to help liberate our subtle mind and bring us to enlightenment. We can look at all languages the same way. It is a conceptual formation that activates in visual or sonic signatures that enliven the enlightenment mind or dampen it! That enlightened mind resides within us and all phenomena. The nature of the buddha mind is for the confused being realize and engage. This realization opens energy like nothing else. All one can hope for is that the karmic winds offer enough insight to promote more.

As beings with (perceived) boundaries, we generate a self by exploring the limits of these boundaries. We feel the tension with other objects and beings. The weather, vibrations of sounds, spectrum and heat quality of light, the chemical reaction forming smells, the texture of the world against the cells of our skin, the conceptual mind of language and memory. These all rattle around in a bio-electric skin-suit affecting and being affected by the energy around us, nothing is unconscious.

The individual’s energy is simply the recycling of quality moving between states full of information for a being to receive. The ego creates story-state or narration to achieve stability, but this self-narration is very fragmented and thin, impermanent, and entirely subject to the atmosphere and the conditioned and changing state of the being. So what is stable? What can we hold onto in any of this? If energy is an exchange, ever-changing in quality and full of information, what can we call our own?

First, let’s look at how we relate to the cosmos.

A conduit for larger energies

In Vedic astrotheology, the planets, stars, and celestial bodies are dynamically at play with the human being. We are conscious energetic beings just as these other forms are beings. These large cosmic objects move in sweeping time scales, and the quality of their rhythms cascade into our terrestrial realm and through our bodies in a dance that gives character to our perception and quality of our lives. We are simply conduit like intermediaries for larger energies.

The particular coordinates shape our psyche’s and embodied habits of perception we manifest in and occupy. If every observable object interacts with the next- then what of our thoughts, minds, and emotions? Do these ephemeral states track into this dance of activity.

How “far out” do our thoughts travel, and upon what medium? Can we expect our mind streams to continue after bodily death, is there mind stream death? Can we determine the quality of that mind and heart-stream? Our spirit is simply the looping dance of our congealed energy and sense-made imprint patterns, including conceptual thought. If this is so, then what of the ego-self?

Why does it not survive bodily death too? To this, we must look at the memory and atmosphere, informing that state of mind(s). Our consciousness is simply activated when we are in proximity to a reminder; that reminder is our lives, our body in perceived time.

Foundational energy

Those two things largely extinguish at death. Our more subtle imprinted mind and the congealed energy of the light body or subtle body are not interested in the story-mind and are dislocated from the linear time when we die. The story mind is simply that which guides the self that seeks protection from suffering in this realm.

When the realm has shifted and loosened from linear time and space, the mind cannot retain the framework it was using and resorts to more fundamental or foundational core imprints and quality. That quality is simply energy (full of the information of core imprints).

This should prompt us to work with that foundational energy in this life! That foundational energy is the continuum of mind-heart that morphs and is as indestructible as any other energy.

Water transforms into vapor, mist, condensation, and back – feeding algae, plants, and the animals that consume them, and then converting into bio-electricity, methane, and other complex by-products. Entire eco-systems ripple along with all components playing a crucial role in cycling and morphing in a never-ending dance of causal looping.

The entire flow of this inter-dependence does not stop at the perimeter of the earth’s atmosphere nor with just dense expressions of energy such as matter. Why would we imagine that some energetic activity dislocates and arrises independently from the rest? We mesh with the elements and elemental nature of the planet’s template we have incarnated on now.

This templating means we are made of the song of the earth, the song of our galaxy, the celestial machinations that blueprint our mind-body in specific but always changing ways.

We must steer that change to grow. We choose to grow to liberate ourselves from confusion and degraded and limited embodiment, and we can offer what we become to all beings, simply by being what we become.

I recently heard the Buddhist story of Devala the Dark, who was being cursed by seven Bramhans, ‘but the more they cursed him, the more beautiful, good-looking, and inspiring he became…’

This reminded me of the Tibetan Buddhist Thought Training practice, called changing adverse circumstances into the path to enlightenment. One analogy they use is that of the Peacock in the Poison Grove. They say this mythological bird eats poison, and his plumage becomes brighter and even more beautiful. The more difficult things are, and the greater the need, the stronger these practices become. In some ways, this is the ideal practice for our times.

By Jason Espada

If we’re not going to be overwhelmed by the news of worsening conditions, of the pandemic, of racial injustice, or environmental destruction, we’re going to need a way of holding these difficult truths.

Most of the time we can go just so far with reports of oppression, or corruption, or our destruction of the natural world before we shut down in one way or another, but there is another way to be with what is tragic, or suffering or oppressive that is found in these precious Tibetan Buddhist Thought Training teachings.

Powerful motivation to respond skillfully

The essential principle of Thought Training is to meet all the most difficult conditions, such as those we are living with now, and to use them as powerful motivation to respond skillfully. Through this alchemy, the awareness of suffering itself becomes the remedy to suffering.

The Thought Training Teachings and practices are known as the expression of compassion, especially in difficult times. If we understand fully what is meant by compassion in Buddhism, then we can understand and effectively practice Thought Training.

From its inception, Buddhist teaching has always been about liberation from suffering. The central motivating principle then in Mahayana Buddhism is compassion and the dedication to bringing every single being to freedom and ease. It’s said that When we hear the cries of the world, we must be engaged…

Compassion as we usually think of it here in the West in these times often has this soft quality to it. It can also feel like sadness. True compassion though is powerful, illuminating, and inspiring. It is the most powerful force we can harness to endure, to bear witness, and to solve problems on deeper levels than ever before. Compassion leads us to seek resolution, through insight, beyond the emotional reactions, and rising and falling of events.

In Buddhism, the understanding of how suffering can be brought to an end is essential. Without such wisdom, problems are potentially endless. Compassion is then essential food for the journey. It brings light and health, peace, and strength. 

The Assalayana Sutta doesn’t say what practice Devala was doing that caused him to become even more lovely and inspiring when attacked and insulted, but this is exactly the way that Thought Training works. The worse the conditions become, we can see, the more powerful this practice is. That is the secret of Thought Training. It becomes even more powerful in especially dangerous times such as the ones we are living through now, in 2020. 

At the end of one text on The Seven-Point Mind Training, called ‘The Great Path of Awakening’, there are a few additional verses that compare compassion in the most difficult times as being like a strong wind that makes a fire grow more and more. These very conditions can be a kind of fuel.

A Tonlen – Taking and Sending Poem

Again and again take to heart what others are going through

and let it become who you are, and what you aim to do

Uncover your hidden sources of strength, and ease,

and then give yourself away, today, 

the clean breath, the warmth of love…

With the way things are in our world right now, I imagine that if we could be strengthened by compassion it would be a very great thing. If we could change what would otherwise be oppressive conditions into a source of strength and courage and greater love and freedom, that would be wonderful, the best we could hope for, really. The more we take up these practices, the more everyone benefits.

Whatever Practice We are Doing – Compassion Empowers All Virtuous Activity

There are so many practices in Buddhism, and in other Spiritual Traditions, and non-traditions. They all aim to improve our lives and the lives of those around us. Whatever practices we are doing, of taking refuge, of prayer, or mantra, calm abiding, or insight, purification, and social engagement- all of these can be strengthened by having greater compassion. Compassion connects us with others and with our deeper resources. It awakens a wealth of qualities in our lives – such as courage, patience, and foresight, humility, endurance, and wisdom.

The Thought Training Teachings highlight this activity. They say that when challenged, it’s exactly times like these that we can unfold our strength and hidden virtues.

With the extensive sufferings these days, of illness, poverty and economic insecurity, and given all the materialism, the immaturity, the endless distractions of consumer culture, all that is meaningless, there’s a great need now more than ever for conscious, dedicated, truly healthy and wise people. When conditions rise up as menacing enemies, we can become stronger, more clear and compassionate as a response, and we can take quiet joy each day in engaging and uplifting each other, and our world. This is the message of the Thought Training Teachings. 

Resources

For more on Thought Training, called ‘lo-jong’ in Tibetan, the following texts and their commentaries are recommended. 

The Seven Point Mind Training – commentaries by Jamgon Kongtrul, Geshe Rabten, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, the Dalai Lama, and others; 

The Eight Verses of Thought Transformation, commentaries by the Dalai Lama, (available online), and Geshe Sonam Richen;

and, 

The Thirty Seven Verses on the Practice of a Bodhisattva, commentaries by the Dalai Lama, Dilgo Khyenste Rinpoche, and Geshe Gyalsten.

See also The Empowerment of Compassion, 

and,

A Practice That Thrives in Difficulty by this author, from Great Circle Publications, 2017.

Our lives are more stressful more than ever. The most recent Coronavirus pandemic, a world-wide tragedy, with more than 4.3 million worldwide cases reported, has health and wellness impacts far beyond the virus itself.

By Claudia Jeffrey

[Biography below.]

Amid the COVID-19 chaos, everybody is stressed — and the extended lockdown might lead to stress-related burnouts.

Stress can lead to depression — and we definitely need some good coping skills to stay calm during a crisis. Mindfulness meditation is one method of de-stressing, well-proven in various studies to lower our anxiety, improve our mood, strengthen our health, and help us sleep well. [For links to peer-reviewed research on mindfulness benefits, see our previous feature>>] As discussed in Awakening to Success – following in the Buddha’s footsteps, a key mindfulness method is to live in the present moment.

“The past is gone. The future isn’t here yet,” said the Buddha. Mindfulness — being in the present moment — is the secret of managing our body, feelings, desires, and emotional attachment with people and objects.

How Mindfulness Makes A Difference In Challenging Situations

1.     Helps Regaining Emotional Balance

Traumatic situations often knock off our balance, but mindfulness is a crucial element for emotional restoration. It helps us to recover from adverse conditions that are emotionally exhausting and draining. Additionally, researches proved that people who practice mindfulness have greater resilience to stress which is essential for healthy well-being.

2.     Strengthens Concentration

Mindfulness exercises are considered to be highly effective for self-management of concentration issues as well. If you are someone who always faces difficulties paying attention to people talking to you, then we have good news for you. Mindfulness helps you improve your ability to focus on details and overlook distractions in your surroundings.

3.     Improves Mental Health

Regular practicing of mindfulness breathing trains our brain to focus and speed up mental performance. It helps us enhance our memory while slowing down the ageing process, which causes several age-related mental conditions like dementia and Alzheimer’s. The practice of mindfulness improves the connectivity of our brain when a person remembers about a past event or thinks about the future. Greater connectivity makes the mind strong. Evidence suggests that a daily session of mindfulness is essential to look after your brain health.

4.     Helps Control Stress

Mindfulness exercises can help release anxiety and alleviate stress by increasing brain activity. When the cognitive and emotional information is processed rapidly, and the part of the brain that controls worry activates, our stress level reduces.

5.     Uncover Blind Spots

By maintaining high awareness of our feelings, thoughts, and judgments, you can expand understanding of your inner world. The purpose is to pay attention to the things around you and experience the sensation with all your senses. You just need to slow down the process and notice things genuinely. This way, you will know your true self in terms of behavior and thinking pattern. This will increase your self-awareness, your satisfaction with the inner self, and will improve your ability to make informed decisions.

6.     Decreases Body Pain

A lot of people suffer from physical pain caused by injuries and diseases and buy drugs for achieving the analgesic effect. Mindfulness soothes body pain needing to consume opioids. However, you cannot learn to manage your pain overnight. With regular practice, you can build tolerance towards pain, and this is especially helpful for those who have been using opioids in the past and are at higher risk.

7.     Helps Sleep Peacefully

After a tiring day, everyone deserves deep sleep. However, we often can’t sleep under challenging times, especially after hearing a piece of bad news. If you take some time daily from your busy routine and do some mindfulness exercises, you can fall asleep fast. It will reduce fatigue, levels of burnout, and insomnia which significantly improves sleep quality.

12 Ways You Can Practice Mindfulness In Tough Times & Stay Calm

1.     Get Comfortable With Uncertainty

It’s natural to hope for better things, but sometimes people get everything and still not happy with their present. It’s in human nature to quest for more, but we can tolerate our cravings by controlling our thoughts and emotions and. The idea behind this is that we often have to accept things that we cannot change or things that are beyond control, but we can recognize them and ease our pain. For example, the COVID-10 outbreak is frightening as well as the uncertainty it causes. Amid the ambiguity and fear, you have to remind yourself to remain neutral and non-judgmental.

2.     Use Mindfulness Apps

During stormy phases, you don’t need to schedule a yoga session to practice mindfulness. Installing mindfulness apps in smartphones is quite a trend these days and believed to be an effective method to give your mind and body a much-needed break. There numerous free best meditation and mindfulness apps for 2020 that can help you stay focused during tough times. A five minute of attentive mindful breathing exercise can recharge your brain and help you regain your focus for the more important task at hand. These apps have several guided workouts that you can practice at any noisy place. Some apps come with subscription fee and have more intense programs such as mindfulness for controlling stress eating and healthy sleep.

3.     Listen Empathetically

Active listening is a fundamental aspect of communication which is often ignored but can be improved through practicing mindfulness. The recent Coronavirus outbreak has taught humans a lesson the need to fight the virus with empathy. With cases exploding daily people are forced to stay at home and work remotely. At this challenging moment, people need to show compassion and kindness to those who are affected. Don’t listen to respond, but listen to understand and show empathy. Mindful listening allows you to follow a situation from someone else’s perspective by removing the internal and external distractions.

4.     Say No To Multitasking

The overwhelming emotions and feelings are very likely in tough times. In these troubling situations, people feel like doing a couple of things at once. For example, a lot of students may want to engage in multi-tasking when they are assigned with multiple assignments and projects for different courses. Studies suggest that multitasking limit human productivity levels and interferes with parts of the brain that help us stay focused. To practice mindfulness at work, studies, and in daily life, you must avoid multitasking and focus on one thing only. Instead, you can make a to-do list and prioritize your tasks.

5.     Observe Your Emotions & Thoughts

Like we observe others, we can observe our own thoughts and emotions. To feel more present, you can see how your varied emotions come and go like a passing cloud. When you observe more, the chances increase that you will not be caught up in your feelings. Resist the temptation that pushes yours, though into the tunnel of memories.

6.     Turn On Some Music

One of the most simple mindfulness exercises that you can try today is put on your headphones and listening to some music. Music has the potential to shift human moods and feelings, and that’s why it’s widely used as a therapeutic technique. Pick a song that you have never heard before and try to be neutral as much as you can. If you don’t judge the music from its album name or genre, you allow yourself to explore every bit of the melody and power up your day.

7.     Do Some Meditation

Undoubtedly, mediation is genuinely a powerful way to nurture mindfulness. There are countless ways to practice meditation. It is a mental training that helps us to stop the racing thoughts that cause an inability in humans to concentrate at present. There are tons of meditation techniques, but in general, it involves breathing, muscle squeezing, mental imagery, and body relaxation. You can also use writing as a meditation practice as penning down your thoughts and feelings helps you to understand yourself better and let of the negativity that holds us back from achieving our true happiness.

8.     Practice Self-Compassion

A critical point not to be missed is showing compassion to yourself in hard times. Don’t avoid your feelings instead of accepting them. Make a video of yourself during your tough time when you are filled with heavy emotions. Record yourself and explain the whole situation, including your feelings and thoughts. Play this video after a few days, and you feel compassionate towards yourself. You will have greater self-acceptance as you can see how badly you were caught up in a situation and now you feel healthy again. It will give you hope, and you will begin to trust that hard times don’t last forever.

9.     Mindful Media Consumption

While everyone is talking about social distancing these days, one of the most prominent strategies to stop the spread of fear and anxiety is media distancing. The idea is not to boycott media, but to be intentional about what information you are ingesting. Your stress comes from your active imagination leading to destructive thoughts. Our media channels are showing Coronavirus updates round-the-clock and sometimes even false news just to increase their ratings. The constant exposure to negative news is the driver of painful thoughts. Try to explore the bright side of humanity and news about people who survive difficult times and share their stories in your network.

10.  Take A Mindful Walk

A fifteen to thirty-minute walk is good for your health, but what do we mean by mindful walk? We take every step automatically without thinking. However, we should occasionally draw our complete attention to walking to experience the uniqueness.  When you step out, make sure you pay attention to your body movement and things around you on the street. Use all five senses and observe the sights around you. Note as your feet touch with and leave the ground and capture the events around you.

11.  Eating Mindfully

Cooking something healthy is always a better idea than ordering unhealthy junk food online. However, eating is something that we do automatically, like walking. This is often because we are habitual of eating while checking notifications, scrolling Facebook, talking with someone, or watching our favorite series on Netflix. When you eat while distracted by the surrounded, you missed on out on the fact that you eat, and sometimes you eat more than your requirement. To gain the experience of eating, touch the food, smell it, and feel it inside your mouth. When you get the authentic experience of eating, you will feel more satisfied. Remember that when you eat, only eat and when you drink, only drink.

12.  Family-Based Mindfulness

Difficult times often affect entire families. Losing a loved on financial difficulties cause distress and cost the whole family. To expand the positive effect of mindfulness, you can practice it as a family and make it as part of your routine. It will make mindfulness more fun and effective. Set aside fifteen to twenty minutes each day for this activity and pick a mindfulness corner in your living room where everyone sits comfortably and exercise together. To model mindfulness, elders need to spend time in self-care. Parents often put pointless pressure on themselves to be a perfect role model for their children. Take out some time for yourself and show your younger ones how you manage your stress and strong emotions.

The Bottom Line

It’s common to fall into overthinking and stressing over things you can’t control. By managing yourself, you can deal with hard times. Among all the tips we’ve shared, some might work for you and some may not. Everyone is different, and so is their preference. The easy way is to get lost in the things you like as they connect us with who we really are.

By Josh Reichmann 

[Biography below.]

This integration of our lucid dream state and our waking life or mundane perspective is the goal. The illuminating of our deeper mind of clarity in space-time (a realm of awareness we can describe as the Sambhogakaya- the energy body of Buddha), which we inhabit and experience outside of mundane space-time, is a spiritual process. This eclipsed space-time is the home of the astral self in all of its relevant power. This level of embodiment we call Sambhogakaya is an overlapping aspect of perception achieved with realization and practice, an available state of existence that entwines with dharmakaya (Buddha mind). We are discussing a state of mind we want to cultivate a relationship with and embody, both while awake and during sleep, eclipsing our perspective and enhancing our energy. It is our birthright and portal to a way-station (Bardos) that arrives as the birthing and dying of mundane states of consciousness and after bodily death – the gate of enlightenment.

Lucid dream space is just one of our co-occurring or simultaneously manifesting spaces of resonance and residence while we are in any state of consciousness.

Lucid dream space is thusly a realm of perception we access as an attribute of Sambhogakaya when we eclipse our mundane mind with our more subtle conscious awareness cultivating a refined body.

I am attributing this Kaya or Buddha body manifestation to our multi-dimensional embodiment when in lucidity, which touches the enlightened state of awareness more readily.

Our essential goodness, our underlying core vibrating selfhood or frequency, resides in the lucid dream space with many others, and with all imprints, in an enfolded lattice of many-dimensional happening. All of this conscious activity is an undulating, ever-mutating, and porous exchange between minds and collected projections. None of the lucid dream experiences are permanent or premised on fixed elemental structures, but neither is our mundane waking world! As with our mundane waking world, the lucid dream playground it is a construct of ever-more complex interconnected objects and events which lack inherent singular self-dependant existence and yet display as stabilized realms for perception and arise through the level perception.

This fabric of space-time projection we call lucid space is an energy emanation is an arena of various dimensions interacting, including that of our own cognition’s imprint store.

All beings are “dreaming” even while in waking states in the mundane world.

The planet and all organic material dreams and all elements manifest in the astral dimension’s web, and this web is made more available for lucid dreamers. All layers of mind interact in the dance, and therefor lucid dreaming is simply a focus of mind- but a more concentrated one. We can be swept away and plunged into a dark pool as we loose focus and bounce between objects and concepts, or ride the wave and be the wave, all at once with a soft but firm resolve to maintain a view of impermanence and our natures. We can direct our mindstream through this chaotic interplay or leave it to chance and absorb the consequences and remain genuinely asleep in the passive dream. If we choose to direct our mindstream and become more lucid, we start by feeling into the body, our energy field, the emanating form of consciousness we call self.

The dreams which leave strong echoes as we come into our assembled conscious, or waking mind, are those we ascribe meaning to and inspect, if only briefly. Usually, passive dreams which trigger intense fear, loathing, or arousal are the dreams we recall. The colors, emotional impact, allegory, confusion states, and the songs in dream, blend into a packet of information we hold and play within waking life. As it seeps through our fingers or burns off like the mist on the pond, we come to know the elusive nature of dream and mind itself. When we rouse from sleep, waking life dominates the mind, and the dream recedes or thins out into a symbolic state.
So what if we could be more present during these passive dreams? Where would we be? “What” would we be during them? What could we become in this astral space with our heart and embodied mind awakened? Could we come to fully realize the dreamlike nature of what we call reality and evolve through the process?

Time Out Of Mind

As this process of the dream fading occurs upon waking, we begin to create revisionist and simplified tellings of the passive dream through our rational and fixed mundane perspective. The emotions we experience around dream as memory is an extensive registry of complex amalgams. Some of the heightened emotional states we remember and have fading imprints of are stranger than many we process or experience daily when awake. What does this suggest about the dream body and dream space? What does it say about what we tell ourselves about the mind’s process, about phenomenal reality and its stability?

Powerful expressions of mind occur in a dream where they can not or are not allowed to express in the waking life of the mundane world.

Jung and many since, thoroughly offered a map for the repressed and deep bubbling up of archetypal, personal-foundational, and traumatic imprints wishing to express in dream where they cannot through waking linear, organized egoic mind. The primordial mandalas of human experience are the core symbol of our sense-making mechanisms’ built into form and time and onto our knowledge reflecting mindstreams. Still, they are far more than a metaphor for unprocessed lived experiences. They are the scaffolding of consciousness in personalized or individuated form.

This lens for potent but limited dream recall and contact with this scaffolding does not itself present the final state of wisdom offered through the dream realm, nor does it express the goals of a lucid dreamer. We transcend our logical mind and baggage, the collective hallucination of symbol, and our shared language space of projection as we move into broader horizons in Astral space where our dream body – that which approaches Sambhogakaya, displays.
We move into pure creative energy expression with mind activating a realm beyond waking life’s symbol and even beyond astral spaces’ projected and received constrains when we truly see what lucidity has to offer. We must learn to differentiate the feeling of a personalized egocentric retelling and that of a powerful expression of conscious awakening or what we know as a lucid dream without limits.

There is a unique clarity and mix of feelings induced by a passive dream, an emotional melange that ripples forward and backward with implied meaning and baffling logic no matter what the subjects and objects are. We can not get caught in this story! This strange brew is a product of the dream as a memory component and the usual temporal mind’s grasp and process of dream simultaneously mixing with the powerful, timeless energy of the lucid realm – that friction is our inroad to greater freedom. Our inner sense of self is also trying to condense the very unreasonable and yet, by some unknown type of logic, entirely “normal” feeling of our dreams. Let’s imagine that this non-linear, meta-symbolic, and robust realm is normalized, that it can be traversed and then allowed as we allow the ocean to float us along. Acceptance can release us into the energy of lucidity, which will catapult us even further when the chains of over description and mundane framing are dropped.

Acceptance

We seem to force dream imagery, and it’s barely linear narrative, into a package of stories that are useful for cognition’s self-integration and the upholding of Ego’s continuum or “sanity” while noticing some bits as uselessly absurd. It is those very bits that often carry the most significant potential to eject us from the linear rational mundane frame.

Those most obscure and bizarre sections of dream are often where the energy lays. Usually, we must dismiss the real horror of the dream impression as utterly strange and find some core story or punch-line to relay to our selves to digest a regular passive dream or semi-lucid dream. With just a touch of closer work and patience, spending time with the dream’s resonance, we find that much more is going on.

We breathe into our memory imprint, allowing the feeling to wash over us. Not the conceptual narration with our rational mind’s map, but instead, we approach with our fully open heart and the calm focus of a meditators view. We are accepting the dream.

Something beyond just passive observation, something beyond us simply being rag-dolled around a holographic chamber of the confused dream story of samsara is happening. If we track this, with acceptance, the story’s more profound energetic lessons, conclusions, and exciting obscure mysteries begin to peek out in non-rational but empowering ways. The center of the wheel of dharma exposes in those glimpses, and we gain energy in the process of looking. Some radical agency of ours develops. We gain power.

We feel remorse, regret, yearning, promise, dread, pathos, absurdity, and disgust wrapped into a bizarre cocktail in one moment as we remember our last dream before waking. The thematic resonance of our dreams is potent, like colors or hieroglyphics of information, like emotional rivers running over fractured stories, condensed and confusing. We must embrace the confusion and see the more profound energy of the terrain we are in lucid space.

When we arrive into lucidity

When we arrive into lucidity in a dream, we must use all of our training to focus. We must not be swayed into mesmerization and desire, for if we are, we will instantly wake or leave ourselves susceptible to forces we do not know how to navigate in the astral realms. The trauma of waking life survival takes over from our dream integration as we wake, and the lessons are forgotten or buried in the psychic body. Often this happens without us even being aware of it. Our body’s
activity through the waking world of perception distracts us, but it can help us to remember as well if we use our body to feel the dream.

Hold on to those felt dream impressions. Even a skewed reading of a dream sets us into intention with the lucid dream realm and its exact language of power. Walk with that. That is the first practice. Feeling the embodiment of dream. Open the heart to the underlying feeling and “truth” of the dream. There are no lies in dream if understood through the body (body again meaning both our organic and energy body systems and the subtle winds which move through them on all planes). Lean into this feeling without conceptual understanding as motivation.

What is the take away from an ordinary dream which fades with each passing moment? A moral truth, a warning, a fear processed at best. Mostly projection. The process of recalling a dream and letting it wash over us without attempting to frame the dream into our standard logical mechanisms is an essential aspect of beginning the lucid process. The accepting is the ultimate goal of tracking the lucid space. To watch the mind watching dream and to resonate into this awareness and to stay with the embodied feeling. Something is waking up in us as we do this. We can do it right now!

We can start by remembering our last dream. Or we can start by recognizing our previous waking moment, which is a sequence of smaller moments bundled into a sense impression and conceptual meaning imprint embodied or metabolized. What is the residue of this moment? Let it sit. Now recreate or conjure the imagery or a waking life memory. We can do this right now by choosing a dream or memory most fresh. We conjure our moment or dream recall, and we feel it. We see it as a hologram and accept it’s resonant tone.

Recalling more than we imagined we could

Usually, when we settle down and breathe for just a few seconds with a calm but alert nervous system, we can recall much more than we imagined we could. What’s the core feeling tone of this fading moment of dream or memory imprint recall? We disrupt analysis or the reflex to forget a dream, and we feel it without judgment.

We can use this same approach to the very moment we are in presently! Curious but soft alertness, this is the quality we practice to become a lucid dreamer—atmospheric recall and emersion. Find a texture or part of the story of the dream, now feel the energy. The way it interacts with your body when you remember it. We apply this embodied dream lens approach to our present and see the phenomenal display and sensorial stimulation as dreamlike transient and simply energized with vibrancy.

Again, allow the feelings, the memory, and the atmospheric resonance that the dream produces to arise. How is this feeling different in quality than the feeling you had just before commencing this exercise? Take this approach to feel awareness with open curiosity and calm alertness into dynamic integration with the waking world as many times as you can remember to do. See the world like the dream you just recalled. One sequence to the next, each noticed, flagged, and released for its quality. Breathe. Remain upright as if you about to take flight. Soon, this quality of conscious engagement will become a habit over the distracting practice of judgment and the flittering of our former waking life perspective.

Tracking embodied awareness like this allows us to see the very first inkling of the seeds or blueprints of Karma. That is, the foundational map of our relationship to macro total conscious expression, the shared field of impermanent arising, and it’s special quality making us what we are. This occurring is subject to the further inquiry where we notice through the lucid dream that all is void of any inherent form, and that time is an illusion of mind’s addiction to form, including our mental construct of any reliable self. Dreams can help showcase all of this. Awakened moments are usually absorbed into our subconscious like lost jewels, but often they recede from our daily working memory. We want to eclipse and absorb those insights into our mundane habits of cognition and let those jewels shine. They will illuminate our minds and help stimulate the energy needed to stay awake even in dream!

Seeing the obstacles and shadow

The nature of our mindstream and the quality of our body and heart begins to reveal itself. We can see the obstacles and the shadow or the resistance. The fear is natural, the doubt is natural, the disgust is natural, the laziness is inherent, but we do have a choice, and we do have the power to evolve using the lucid dream as a guide to awareness.

The opportunity is touching our underlying frequency, our light mind, our bare-awareness, our capacity — that jewel. We start to see all experience as a buzzing dance of fluctuating noise. It becomes less personal and yet more illuminating.

Again, just allowing the dream to sit in our body and mind, letting it hover and stay. Then using our sensory memory of its nature to scan the feeling and impression, experience its aura while awake, and bring this quality to our waking life, this is the practice. No strenuous thinking is needed. We surrender to it and let it blanket over and weave into us. Now we are tracking power and dream energy and awakening our dream body. Our bare-awareness. The exhilarating level of fundamental core heart/mind/body our potential Sambhogakaya awareness.

To reiterate, mostly, the rational or mundane mind’s confusion is an appropriate response to our dream’s impressions. There is not much we can do to make a dream map of the passive dream until we understand how to feel and see these essential elements and how they teach us and how they propel us into more awareness and more power and further usage of energy. Contacting the “aura” of a dream is the point of entry for the introduction to practice lucid dreaming. This contact will prove to be the gateway to fully empowered lucid dreaming and far beyond, which in turn opens up a space to investigate our underlying frequency and to take hold of our evolution, doing so with love and compassion as guiding principles of action.

Contact with, and acceptance of the multi-layered untenable quality and depth of many confusing dreams is the first step to building a relationship with the “infinite” without the sense gathering mind. Other worlds await when we allow the feelings to wash over and sit with us, all the while maintaining our focused and awakened intention and heart. This process is tracking and embodying all at once.

The practice is about bridging these realms in waking life. We do the great work of mystics when we step outside of time and form’s usual expression, and we learn to observe all states of awareness skillfully through the body. We see what is observable to the senses in memory and through the body in the present, and as usual, most importantly, we observe ourselves observing. This practice can help collapse addiction to mundane form/time and offer another door to empowerment and energy.

Leave Meaning At The Door

The dream is a dumped over a treasure chest of impressions, warped memories, emotional displacement, and confusing conclusions, all strewn about in an unfolding haphazard and violent play of pattern-seeking, creating and grasping. The mind is trying desperately to find a foothold and stabilizer for meaning to erupt. Who is running the show? The simple answer is…

No one! It is less about why or who, and it is entirely about how! Beyond this, it is about allowing. Lucid dreaming showcases how we are a unique mix of energy rather than a stable identity.

Every moment is a chance to observe how our notion of self is balanced on an absurd proposition- that there is an unchanging personality we can claim. The changing moment’s quality is sometimes subtle, and we impute a self-developed ego projection to interact with it, but this Ego is not permanent. It is always evolving and dying and being re-established through its interaction with samsaric imprints. It is a tool but nothing more. We are a deeper mind, a deeper heart, and we use these more profound expressions to travel into spirit, mind, dream, and to align these properties with lucidity. So, where does meaning arrive for our lucid experience?
The meaning is simply that we each have a ladder to climb upwards to expand our consciousness and ignite our evolution for the betterment of all. We enter this field of power and use it to transcend rather than to understand. The knowing is in the going. What awaits could never be imagined. Evolution is inevitable, and the dream unfolds until we see beyond it.

Dream is the space where our more subtle conscious levels of awareness express, including integration with consciousness from “outside” of our own linear experiences and body, eclipsing self and others in more refined ways than in the mundane sphere.

We do this repeatedly in our waking life by maintaining contact with a dream’s “feel” as we stay simultaneously aware of our conscious intention filled mind and the focused but relaxed mind sensing experience with the open heart. We learn to do this in dream space in the same manner. We learn to bring conscious awareness and focused intention into dream. We bring conscious wakefulness to sleep. Conscious wakefulness is the ordered mind of self-reflective sensory input and output working in synthesis to make an egoic captain who is tamed. So how do integration of the Ego and this more subtle self help us?

The illogical ego view of self

The very act of connecting the illogical egocentric view of a permanent “self” with the more subtle mind and heart of our etheric body and our The very act of connecting the illogical egocentric view of a permanent “self” with the more subtle mind and heart of our etheric body and our heart’s tender infinite pulse – coalesces us into a lucid dreamer! We become integrated.

Integrating the shadow of ignorance with the illumination of the Sambkogakaya is a lucid dreamer’s specialty.

Practicing this integrating approach in both spaces of mundane waking life and dream time, we gain access to the dimensions which surround and inhabit us at all times in all conscious states. This work also gains us access to farther realms beyond the personalized and passive dream, beyond the lucid dream, and what awaits us beyond concept.

Every step we take, awake or asleep is lucid when we focus and release with equal measure entwined by a view of emptiness and the eternal vibrancy of heart.

By McKenzie Dillon

[Biography below]

Pre-bedtime meditation can have a tremendous effect on a person’s quality of sleep, making it a great alternative for those who prefer to rely on natural sleep aids when they’re struggling to fall asleep. According to the American Sleep Apnea Association, 50 to 70 million Americans suffer from sleep-related issues whether it’s due to a disorder, busy schedule, or taking care of young children. Sleep deficiency has an impact on your mood, ability to learn and retain information, slows down your response time, alters decision making, and can even lead to serious health issues like heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart failure. Here are a few ways meditating before bed can help you catch up on your zzzzz’s to ensure you stay healthy both physically and mentally.

Reduce Anxiety And Stress Levels

There are many different forms of meditation, and mindfulness meditation is one of the best types to help relieve anxiety and stress before bed. One major cause of sleep deficiency is stress, and practicing mindfulness teaches you how to cope with anxiety and control your emotions more effectively so you have a more calm response to stressful stimuli. Mindfulness can be defined as the practice of being mindful, or in other words, being hyper-aware of your body and mind in the moment of meditation.

Yoga is a popular form of mindfulness, since you fixate your focus on your breathing and movement of the body. Meditative movements like yoga and deep breathing can slow the heart rate, lower blood pressure, promote relaxation, and help with your body’s internal response to stress.

Relax Your Muscles Before Bed

As we just mentioned, yoga is an effective form of meditation and allows you to practice mindfulness. It also can relieve tension in your muscles so your body feels relaxed and prepared for 7+ hours of sleep, which is especially nice for somebody who sleeps on a medium-firm bed because they likely aren’t getting a ton of pressure relief throughout the night from their mattress.[1] Try out gentle yoga poses that will give your muscles a good stretch without being too straining, such as the butterfly pose or even a low lunge.

Improve REM Sleep Cycles

People go through different circumstances in life that cause changes in a person’s sleep patterns, like pregnant women or those who are getting riper in age. One major issue for people over 50-years-old is the reduction of time spent in the deepest stage of non-REM sleep. It’s harder for older individuals to fall asleep from the get-go, and they spend less time in a deep sleep which causes them to wake up more frequently throughout the night.

Vipassana meditation, which “focuses on the deep interconnection between mind and body” according to the official Vipassana website, can increase REM sleep states and prevent Slow Wave Sleep from diminishing. This makes it an ideal method of meditation for seniors, who can use it to get their regular sleeping patterns back on the right track.

Treat Sleep Disorders

One in ten people say they deal with insomnia on a regular basis, meaning there is a significant amount of people who aren’t getting nearly enough sleep at night. There have been multiple studies that analyze the effect of meditation on people who suffer from sleep disorders, and the results proved to be extremely successful in the short and long term.

One telling study shows that after taking a mindfulness course, individuals with insomnia took half as long to fall asleep than they did before, reducing time from 40 minutes to only 20 minutes. Additionally, at the end of a different meditation study, 60% of those who participated were no longer considered insomniacs. What was even more impressive, though, was how the impact of meditation stayed with the participants 12 months later when researchers returned to perform a follow-up study.

 NOTE

[1] Reviews of medium-firm beds>>

Sources

– 50-70 million Americans suffer from sleep-related issues

– Negative effects of sleep deficiency

– Stress is one major reason why some suffer from a lack of sleep

– Yoga helps relieve stress

– Deep breathing lowers blood pressure, slows heart rate

– Age-related sleep issues

– Benefits of Vipassana meditation 

– Studies about meditation’s effect on people with sleep disorders

Mindfulness meditation and yoga are ideal practices for our current “Covid-19 lockdown” situation — or any time. Many people all over the world are aware of the benefits of mindfulness, meditation and yoga. What better time to practice health and mindfulness with your children than now? Families in “lockdown” are under stress — and mindfulness is a well-proven “remedy” for stress.

By Molly Crocket

Biography at the bottom.

The benefits of mindfulness are well documented; studies have illustrated that as little as a few minutes of meditation a day can increase our attention span and ability to concentrate, increase empathy, regulate our emotions and reduce stress. Many studies have also shown the link between mindfulness and reduced mental illnesses like anxiety, depression, and ADHD.

So, imagine what could be gained by beginning to meditate from an early age?

Giving children the tools to help them combat negative thought patterns, become more confident and aware of their emotions is very important. It’s a gift they will carry into their lives, helping them to become more well-rounded, empathic people.

In one study in Ohio, children who practiced mindfulness in school saw a decrease in bullying. Another study in San Francisco saw a huge improvement in overall academic performance, and one middle school saw a 45% decrease in suspension rates and fighting. Can all of this really be achieved by integrating some meditation and ‘quiet time’ into children’s days? Yes!

Here are some ways you can introduce mindfulness to children – whether you are a parent, teacher, or caregiver.

Lotus Breath

Meditation can initially be boring for children – so it’s great to incorporate games into the mindfulness activities. Get kids to form a lotus flower by touching their pinkies and thumbs together, then ask them to take a deep breath and imagine what the flower would smell like. Ask them to imagine how they’d feel if they were smelling it, what the flower feels like, and what color it is. You can then move on to asking them about their day – the overall purpose is to have children start to speak about their emotions and feelings.

The Balloon

This is a fun and simple guided meditation for children. It can be done either standing or seated, and you ask the children to relax their bodies and take in deep inhales and slow exhales. You ask them to imagine they are blowing up a balloon: to take in a slow, deep breath and fill their belly with as much air as possible. Let the air out of the belly (or balloon) through the nose. Encourage the kids to feel their whole body relax, and they can also make a hissing noise when they exhale ‘like letting air out of the balloon!’

With younger children, you might want to have some visualization of the balloon itself: ask them to choose its color and keep the image of the balloon in their mind as they breathe.

Bear Breath

Once balloon breath is taught, the bear breath can be the next mindfulness practice. This involves breathing in through the nose for 4 counts, holding the breath for 4 counts, and slowly releasing the breath for 4 counts. This is a Buddhist practice that centers on the breath – increasing concentration and calming thoughts in the mind. By breathing slowly, deeply, and only focussing on the breath, the body is ‘tricked’ into believing it is more relaxed – so a great exercise for stress, too!

Guided Visualisations

This one involves slightly more knowledge on the part of the teacher. You might want to look for recordings if you are not confident in teaching meditation and visualization.

One common visualization is the body scan. It’s usually practiced lying down, and the guided meditation takes children through their whole body, from top to toe, letting them feel any areas that are sore or tense. Through breathing into these areas, they release any negative emotions and tension in these places.

Step-by-step guide

• Lie down comfortably and close your eyes.
• Take a few deep breaths.
• Bring all your attention to your right foot, noticing how it feels.
• Squeeze the right foot, making a fist with your whole foot and all five toes.
• Hold this tension for two breaths and then release all the tension, relaxing it completely.
• Take a deep breath, and move onto your left foot…
• Follow the same instructions, moving up your body, squeezing one part at a time, and then releasing the tension.

By Diane Wong

(Biography below.)

The Need for Productivity

All this is a reality that makes students look for formulas that allow them to increase productivity. High-performance rate in assimilating knowledge reduces the time of a learning process. Once this scenario is raised, it must be said that increases in productivity may be easier than you might think. Meditation has been shown to bring a number of benefits, both physically and mentally, that allows knowledge to be assimilated with greater efficiency.

Stress Reduction Is the Key

It is true that stress is a very useful response of the human organism to certain situations. However, permanent and uncontrolled stress is not beneficial. This stress increases the secretion of cortisol, a hormone that will trigger a series of reactions that will prevent you from facing the study in a calm manner.

Well, meditation, with sessions of even 10 minutes a day is more than enough to reduce the levels of this hormone and, consequently, stress. A reduction of stress will allow you to face the study in a more optimistic way, more calm and, definitively, with a greater capacity of reception since there are no external factors that prevent it.

Increases the Ability to Concentrate

Meditation, in essence, and despite the fact that there are many variations and ways of facing it, helps you become aware of yourself.

Zen Buddhist traditions highlight that If you’ve never practiced it, it can be quite shocking: you will notice your breathing, heartbeat as well as any involuntary movement. Over time it can be enormously liberating. You will learn to be at 100% in every moment, without any kind of interference.

A state that will allow you to have a greater capacity for concentration. Your mind will not be preoccupied with any concerns. And of course, if you develop the capacity to concentrate, to be in the today and in the now, the assimilation of knowledge will be much better. Moreover, it has been shown that those people who meditate to increase their capacity for concentration are much more receptive to the various study techniques that exist today.

Encourages Rest

It goes without saying that the importance of quality rest is vital on both a physical and mental level. Although it is true that on many occasions it is recommended to sleep between 7 and 8 hours, it is known that the number of hours is not as important as their quality. As already mentioned, to be able to meet with oneself will make sleep deeper, more restful and free your mind from everything unimportant.

The main consequence of this could not be more evident. A person, in this case, a student, more rested and with adjusted biorhythms, will have a greater capacity for learning. Concentration will be greater and all this will make productivity increase exponentially.

3 Practical Tips for Getting Started in Meditation

As you have seen, something as seemingly simple as meditation has many advantages. However, you must emphasize one key fact, and that is constancy. It is not enough to meditate, or at least to try, one day a week. You have to persist. You have to improve your technique and achieve ever greater goals. Therefore, to reach this perfection, it is necessary to follow some simple guidelines.

• Start with just 2 minute-meditation sessions. It may seem like a short time, but the mastery of the mind and body during those two minutes will make the path to proceed easier afterward.
• Help yourself with guided sessions. Until you have a refined technique, you cannot do anything without guided sessions. These sessions, by the way, are essential to acquire the habits that this technique requires.
• Help yourself with music or aromas. There are many cases in which silence can be more of an enemy than an ally. Well, in these cases, include some relaxing music or some aroma in the room.

By Jason Espada