I graduated from Columbia College in 1968, and had been working professionally as a musician for several years. In the fall of 1970, I decided that I needed further training in music and so I got in my car and drove up to Boston for my first semester at Berklee College of Music.

I had been interested in Buddhism, yoga, consciousness expansion, you name it for several years, so it was a natural for me to seek out a yoga studio in Boston. I found the East-West Center under the direction of Patricia Harvey, who was a wonderful teacher and friend at the time. Coincidentally, she was one of the people who helped bring Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche to the United States, and so not long after he arrived here, he came to her studio to lead a workshop — Work, Sex and Money. (These workshops are just now available in a new book called Work, Sex, Money: Real Life on the Path of Mindfulness.)

I had heard he was a high lama from Tibet and nothing could have been cooler at that particular time, so I signed up for the workshop. I was surprised to see him enter in a western business suit (not robes), and that first Friday night he gave a rather straightforward and somewhat “flat” talk. In no way shape or form was it spiritually “titillating,” or even non-spiritually titillating (even though the title might have left the door open for some sizzle). As I remember that talk, it was reasonable but dry and maybe even a little bit boring.

As I walked home that evening, I thought to myself, “Hmm… I really am wound up on all this stuff and that guy just let the air out of my tires.” I remember laughing at myself a bit as I had my first (but not last) experience of what Rinpoche would famously later call “cutting through spiritual materialism.”

When I went back the next day, I began to really appreciate the quality of his presence, his directness, the subtlety of his mind and the depth of his training.

He gave each person one to one meditation instruction in a room upstairs from the yoga studio. I remember asking him for a mantra, saying that I was a musician, and that I thought I could relate to sound easily. He said that mantras are good but they are like medicine and you can use them but then you have to wean yourself off them, so maybe it was better just to relate directly with the mind.

He taught a very open style of meditation that is still presented In Level 1 of the program he created called Shambhala Training, which I later realized was a mixture of shamatha (mindfulness with effort) and dzogchen (a more open style of awareness practice). Many of his early workshops were, in a Buddhist sense, very advanced in terms of how he presented material to us. I think later on he cut back and taught the fundamentals of Buddhism in a 3 month seminary we all had to attend before being introduced to the tantric (more advanced) teachings.

For me to be able to present a workshop now based on these earliest teachings is a big thrill. (Ok, I’ll try to be a little boring too.) This material at the time was so juicy, and it still is. It’s about making everyday life the root of your dharma practice, not just some incidental events that happen while you’re trying to get enlightened.

The Shambhala Centers are still here 41 years later, still thriving, and we’re still here (most of us) relating to work, sex (occasionally) and money, trying to wrap our dharma framework around these things. But what Rinpoche was saying at the time and what we all still need to hear is that how we handle our lives isour dharma.

This quote from Rinpoche sums it up completely and I personally live by it:

There are many people who are more learned than I and more elevated in their wisdom. However, I have never made a separation between the spiritual and the worldly. If you understand the ultimate aspect of the dharma, this is the ultimate aspect of the world. And if you should cultivate the ultimate aspect of the world, this should be in harmony with the dharma.

(From Chogyam Trungpa’s unpublished diary, 1966.)

Shamatha o “attenzione completa” è un esercizio completo e formativo. Si basa sul percepire l’attimo in cui la nostra coscienza si connette al presente, fornendo così uno strumento per accrescere tale cognizione. I benefici di questa pratica si riflettono nel riuscire ad allineare mente e corpo, iniziando a relazionarsi alla realtà circostante con meno distrazione e mantenendosi vigili.

Per praticare meditazione Shamatha in modo corretto, ci sono tre punti da seguire:

1. Posizione per la meditazione

Iniziamo col prendere la posizione corretta, generalmente seduti con le gambe incrociate su un cuscino o sul pavimento. Cerca di trovare una posizione comoda, con una buona aderenza tra fondoschiena e cuscino, che ti faccia sentire fermo e stabile. Adesso puoi posare le mani sulle cosce o sulle ginocchia, secondo la lunghezza delle tue braccia.

Posiziona torace, testa e spalle dritti, ma rilassati, e poi abbassa leggermente il mento (ma non troppo). La postura darà una sensazione di dignità ed imponenza, ma non di rigidità o tensione.

Se per qualsiasi ragione avessi problemi nel tenere le gambe incrociate, puoi metterti seduto sulle ginocchia o semplicemente sederti su una sedia. La cosa fondamentale è di utilizzare qualsiasi supporto (cuscino, ecc.) in modo da stare comodo, ma assicurati di mantenere sempre la schiena dritta e di non appoggiarti al muro o allo schienale della sedia. Di solito diciamo di mantenere una posizione “né troppo rigida, né troppo morbida”, istruzione che puoi tener presente per tutta la sessione meditativa.

C’è una sensazione di costrizione e di limite alle tue capacità, nel rimanere fermo e nel ridurre le tue attività. A questo punto assicurati di rilassare la mandibola, tenendola leggermente chiusa o appena aperta. Gli occhi restano aperti con uno sguardo leggero rivolto verso il basso, all’incirca 2 metri sul pavimento davanti a te. Non stai eliminando la consapevolezza di ciò che ti circonda, ma in un certo senso stai rilassando la tua mente.

2. Poni l’attenzione sul respiro

Dopo aver posizionato il tuo corpo in questo modo, comincia a focalizzare l’attenzione sul tuo respiro – inspira ed espira. Stiamo parlando di respiro naturale – non pranayama o altre tecniche. Mantieni consciamente una connessione al respiro, che resta leggero piuttosto che divenire troppo intenso e pesante. Semplicemente dando attenzione al respiro in modo piacevole e rilassato.

Quando noti che la tua attenzione è altrove (forse stai pensando alla tua relazione, alla tua settimana di lavoro, o a una gran coppa di gelato al cioccolato…), dovunque siano i tuoi pensieri, quando ti accorgi che la tua mente è da un’altra parte, semplicemente riporta la tua attenzione al respiro, senza alcuna forma di giudizio o commento o interpretazione. Torna soltanto al tuo respiro.

3. Classifica i pensieri come “pensiero”

Quando ti rendi conto che stai pensando, semplicemente dì a te stesso: “pensiero”. Classifica ogni pensiero con la parola “pensiero” e poi riporta la tua attenzione al respiro. Trungpa Rinpoche generalmente diceva che quando sei seduto in questo modo, il tuo sedere è piatto e lo sono anche i tuoi pensieri. Prima forse i tuoi pensieri avevano piccole ali e svolazzavano e ti trasportavano con loro, ma adesso invece il tuo corpo è stabile e così si stabilizza anche la tua mente.

Inoltre è importante avere un approccio “democratico” nei confronti dei nostri pensieri. Sono tutti uguali. Non abbiamo preferenze per alcuni, né siamo spaventati da altri. Quando noti che stai pensando e l’attenzione si è allontanata dal respiro, semplicemente classifica ogni pensiero come “pensiero” e riporta la tua attenzione al respiro. È importante rilevare che non stiamo reprimendo i nostri pensieri né li stiamo assecondando. Permettiamo loro di essere ciò che sono, li riconosciamo e poi riportiamo la nostra attenzione al respiro.

Durante sessioni di meditazione più lunghe, se hai bisogno di muoverti per riattivare la circolazione o nel caso avessi un vero e proprio disagio, puoi avvicinare le gambe al petto e continuare la meditazione. Poi riprendi posizione e ricomincia daccapo.

Questa è l’introduzione di base alla tecnica di shamatha/ “attenzione completa” – una guida pratica su come farla. Iniziare un poco alla volta va bene, meditando a giorni alterni per 10-15 minuti, per poi arrivare a meditare ogni giorno per la durata più adatta a te.

Una volta iniziata la pratica della meditazione, potrebbe essere di aiuto rivolgersi ad un insegnante. Anche meditare in un gruppo potrebbe essere utile, fornendoti un contesto, una struttura e il supporto necessario per la migliorare la tua pratica.

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Tradotto da Gaia Torzini e Gianluca De Gennaro

I was having dinner Sunday night with a dear old friend, a singer-songwriter of some repute, and I happened to mention the recent film by Martin Scorsese about George Harrison, “Living in the Material World.” Somehow this led to a discussion about fame, and whether it was a blessing or a curse.

I took this opportunity to introduce, as further fodder for our conversation, my theory of the “5 Seducers That Steal Our Awareness and Contentment” — a riff on a formulation that seems to exist in every major religion, philosophy and code of ethics since the beginning of human society. These are the things we are supposed to watch out for, that can lead to moral degradation and spiritual depletion. In my variation they are:

Fame
Money
Power
Sensual pleasures
Intoxicants

Actually the list doesn’t sound that bad, right? Quite possibly many of us would pick out two to three items on this list and say, “Yup, that’s what I’m going for in this life. That’s when I feel most alive, most vital, most fulfilled.”

Interestingly, in Buddhism and other religions, if you live the simplified life of a monk or nun, these are exactly the temptations that you are renouncing. But is it possible to live IN this world and relate to these seducers without having our peace, our presence of mind and our compassion for others destroyed?

The allure of these experiences is that they create a heightened state for us and thereby a craving to return to that state when our “ordinary” reality re-asserts itself. I have rarely heard anyone say, “Yes, I have enough fame, enough power, enough money, enough delicious food and drink.” When we hear the siren’s song, we want more.

So coming back to my friend the singer-songwriter, he admitted that he had always wanted more fame. But he also saw it as a toxic substance and couldn’t think of anybody who had it who didn’t seem messed up by it.

By the way, that was one of the most interesting aspects of the George Harrison film — it seemed that toward the end of his life, he was less interested in fame than in practicing meditation and creating a beautiful garden around his house. George seems to have been a kind of worldly yogi — mixing temporal success with spiritual growth.

As with fame, wealth and power also seem to create a kind of vacuum for those who have them. Honest feedback, a critical channel for personal growth, gets scarcer and harder to trust. Clear vision and open-heartedness can be trumped by ambition and pride.

Sensual pleasures can certainly be appreciated and enjoyed in the moment, but they also can tend to produce dissatisfaction and craving. It can be challenging to separate the memory of pleasurable experiences from the fantasy and longing to recreate them.

Our relationship to actual intoxicants can be moderate, but can also lead to a downward spiral of abuse and over-indulgence, often accompanied by a sense of denial and obfuscation.

In most spiritual traditions renunciation and austerities are considered essential practices to highlight and put our craving in perspective. Most religions (think Lent, Ramadan and Yom Kippur) have some period of fasting or abstinence or at least moderation as part of their portfolio for spiritual development.

In Buddhism, during retreats, we have oryoki (monastic style of mindful eating) and one bowl contemplative meals — both intended to foster mindful eating and restraint.

All of us living in the world have to deal with these five seducers in one form or another. We may not be as famous as Lady Gaga, but somebody knows who we are and respects what we do. We may not be as rich as Donald Trump, but we do have to manage our finances and for sure there are others far worse off than we are. To them we actually appear to be rich.

We may not be as powerful as Barack Obama, Dick Cheney or Tim Geithner, but we do have to make decisions that influence the lives of other people, like our family or co-workers. We may not be as rich as the Sultan of Abu Dhabi, but we do regularly feast our senses by eating good food, making love, listening to music, going to the movies, taking a hike in the mountains or a walk on the beach.

And we may not be a substance abuser, but we do periodically ingest intoxicating substances, even if it is only the occasional cocktail, refined sugar desert, coffee or tea.

The $64 question is, can we maintain balance, awareness and open-heartedness while we engage fully in the activities of this world? Can we make the five seducers work for us or will we work for them?

If we work for them, our history tells us personally and collectively that we will be out of balance — dreaming of future fulfillment instead of enjoying what we already have. That is exactly the Buddhist definition of suffering. Your thoughts?

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慈悲（サンスクリット語で「マイトリー（maitri）」、パーリ語で「メタ（metta）」）を育む練習は、他者に向かって心を開いて行くための仏教的なアプローチです。古来の、非常にシンプルで直接的かつ効果的な方法なのです。

練習の中心となるのは、4つのポジティブな願いをあらゆる存在に送る事です。

・あなた方が安全でありますように

・あなた方が幸せでありますように

・あなた方が健康でありますように

・あなた方が安らかでありますように

あらゆる存在とは、私たちが大切に想っている人たち、そうでない人たち、また、あまり気にかけていない人たちを含みます。それだけでなく、私たち自身も含まれるのです！

もちろん（たいていの場合）、こうしたポジティブな願いを両親や自分の子供たち、ペットや先生、友人に送るのは簡単です。こういう場合、「マイトリー」あるいは慈悲の心はスムースに流れ出すことでしょう。

難しいのは、関心を持っていない人に対してこのような姿勢で向き合うことであり、嫌いな人に対してであればさらに難しくなります。

私たちは他者を何らかの分類にあてはめて見ようとしますが、それは時とともに、ある時はとても早く、またある時はもっと遅く、変わるものだということについて考えてみることは、「マイトリー」を練習する為の素地を作るのに役立つことでしょう。私たちが経験することは全て、無常なのです。

たとえば、スーパーマーケットで出会った名前も知らない人が恋人になり、それから妻となって、やがて、あまりありがたい存在ではない（時として）元妻になってしまうという事があります。1人の人が、3つのカテゴリーに移り変わって行ったわけです。

また、私たちの人の見方というのは、何らかの原因や結果の法則と密接に結びついている事に気づくかも知れません。これは不確かなものです。嫌な事があった日などは、他人に対して、あるいは基本的に好きな人に対してでさえ簡単に苛立ってしまうでしょう。子供の頃虐待を受けたというような場合には、世界全体が自分の敵であるかのように感じて、復讐してやりたいと思うかもしれません。美しく晴れた春の日なら、時折全ての人が素晴らしく見えて、あらゆるものに恋をし、最高の気分になってしまうかもしれません！

ですから、原因と結果の法則は世の中に対する私たちの態度を決める土台となり、私たちもまたその原因と結果の法則に影響を及ぼし得るのであり、事実そうなのです。ネガティブな習慣的パターンに支配されないようにする為にマインドを深く鍛えることは役に立ちます。

そして最終的にはそれも無意味になり、私たちは最も根本的な本質へと集中してゆきます。私たちが開かれて、クリアな状態で、完全に今ここにある状態とはどんな感じでしょうか？私たちの本質とは何なのでしょう？私たちは本当に、実際に他者が苦しむ事を願うでしょうか？私たちは自分たちの苦しみのための原因や結果の法則を作り出したいと願うでしょうか？心を開いて自分達と他者のためにポジティブな願いを送れるようにするはずだったのでは？私たちは本当にそんなにひねくれてしまったのでしょうか？

「マイトリー」の練習はシンプルです。静かな場所でただ楽に座り、目を閉じます。そしてまず、あなたが愛している誰かを思い浮かべます。先に挙げた４つの願いをその人たちに送りましょう。心に浮かぶ人にそれぞれの願いを繰り返し送っても良いし、願いが叶えられて状況に作用するところを思ってみても良いでしょう。これに関しては皆さんの創造性を発揮してください。

続いて自分自身について、それからあなたの心がニュートラルに働きかける人（あまり良く知らない人や、既に強い感情を抱いたことのある人）へ、最後に思い切って、「敵」にも願いを送りましょう。敵となる人を選ぶにあたって、その対象となる人が変わったりして迷う事があるかも知れませんがそれでも構いません。既にお話ししたように、昨日の敵が明日は友という事だってあるのですから。また、練習の中でいろいろ試す間に浮かんでくる事にただ気づき、そこにスペースを与えてやるというのでも良いのです。

最後に、慈悲の心、思いやりがあり優しく、愛に満ちて開かれたハートをあらゆる存在に向けて放ち、その全て（友人、自分自身、ニュートラルな思いを向ける存在、敵、人類、動物、亡霊－思いつく全ての人）にあなたの願いを届けましょう。それから瞑想を解き、しばらく静かに座ります。

ある人にとっては、この練習は感傷的すぎると感じられるかもしれません。最初は私も、ちょっと無邪気で優しすぎる感じがすると思いました。しかし、これはブッダの時代にまで遡る古来のプラクティスであり、驚くほど力強い効果をもたらし得るのです。

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シャマタ、もしくは気づきの瞑想は非常に有機的で、基礎的なプラクティスです。これは、私たちの意識が今現在の状況とつながっている時、その瞬間に気づくということに基づいています。そして実際に、こうしたシンプルな気づきを意図的に培ってゆくのです。これによって、私たちの身体とマインドはより調和し、より落ち着きをもって、より覚醒した状態で世界と関わることができるのです。

シャマタをきちんとした瞑想の練習として行うための3つのステップは以下です：

1. 座り方

まずは瞑想に適した座り方で座るところから始めます。通常は、床に置いたクッションの上にしっかりと足を組んで座ります。クッションにしっかりとお尻を落ち着けた快適な姿勢が良いでしょう―落ち着いて安定していると感じられることが望ましいのです。それから手を腿か膝の上に休ませます。どちらに置くかは腕の長さによります。

胴体、頭と肩はまっすぐに、楽にします。顎は優しく、わずかに引きます。座る姿勢は凛として、高められた感じが良く、硬さや緊張があってはいけません。

もちろん、脚を組んで座ることに何らかの問題がある場合には、正座や背筋を伸ばして椅子に座るのでも構いません。大事なのは、快適に座るために必要なサポート（クッションなど）は何でも使用して結構ですが、どの体勢で座る場合も背中は出来るだけまっすぐに保ち、壁や椅子の背もたれに寄りかからない事です。「きつすぎず、ゆるすぎず」とよく言うのですが、練習を行う上でこの言葉は良いガイドラインとなってくれるでしょう。

座った状態で動きや、動作の範囲を狭めてゆくことで、抑制されたような気分になることがあります。その時は、顎が軽く閉じるか、わずかに開いて、リラックスしているかどうか確認してみましょう。目線はやわらかく、1～2メートルくらい前方へ下向きに置きましょう。周りの空間に向いてゆく意識を断ち切ることはしませんが、焦点は若干リラックスさせておきます。

2. 呼吸に注意を向ける

説明した方法によって体勢が安定したら、次は呼吸に注意を向けてゆきます―吸う息と吐く息にです。

ここでは自然な呼吸―プラナヤマやその他の呼吸法ではなく―通常の呼吸に注意を向けます。

皆さんの意識が呼吸につながって行きます。ここでも、あまり熱心にしすぎたり過度に集中したりせず、軽いタッチで行います。ただ楽に、リラックスして身体を出入りする呼吸に注意を払います。

意識が他の所へそれたと気づいたら―人間関係や、向こう1週間の仕事について、あるいは大きなボウルいっぱいのチョコレート・アイスクリームの事かもしれませんが、それが何であれ、マインドがどこか別の場所へ行ったと気づいたら、意識を呼吸に戻して下さい。いかなる判断も、批評も評価も与えずに、ただ戻りましょう。

3. 思考を「考えている」と分類する

何かを考えていることに気づいたら、心の中で「考えている」と言ってみて下さい。「考えている」という言葉によって分類し、再び意識を呼吸へと戻しましょう。このようにして座っている時、身体の基底となる部分は平らで、私たちの思考もまた平らであるのだとトゥルンパ・リンポチェは言っていました。初めのうちは、思考に小さな羽が生えていて、あちこちへ飛び回るのと一緒に皆さんも振り回されていたかもしれませんが、今や身体は落ち着いて、やがて精神的な活動も同様に落ち着いて行くのです。

思考に対して「民主的な」アプローチを試みるのも役に立つでしょう。全ての思考はある意味平等です。ある思考を好み、他の思考におびえるといった事はしません。ただ単純に、考え事をして呼吸への意識が離れてしまったと気づいたら、どんな思考でも全て「考えている」と分類して呼吸に意識を戻します。注意していただきたいのは、これによって思考を抑制したり、思考を追いかけたりしている訳ではないという事です。私たちはただ単に、思考をあるがままに放っておき、思考に気づき、そして呼吸へ注意を戻して行くだけなのです。

長く座っている間に、血液循環を回復させるために身体を動かす必要があったり、不快感を覚えたら、胸の前に膝を立てた状態で座り、練習を続けても良いでしょう。それから体勢を整え、仕切り直します。

これがシャマタ /気づきの瞑想の基礎入門―実際にどう行うかの手引きです。最初は控えめに、1日おきに10～15分くらいから始めても良いでしょう。そこから、皆さんに適した長さで毎日座る練習へと頻度を上げて行く事も出来ます。練習を始めたばかりであれば、先生について学ぶ事は非常に助けになります。グループでの瞑想に参加するのもまた良い経験になりますし、皆さんの練習に筋道と骨組み、サポートを与えてくれることでしょう。

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(originally on the Huffington Post 10/10/11)

When we practice mindfulness meditation, one of the first things we notice is how un-mindful we are. It is like going back to the gym and realizing how out of shape we have become. It can actually be a little irritating. We might think, “I don’t know about this meditation thing” because at first we mostly notice how out of sync we are.

Some people get frustrated right away, but this is actually a great place to start — just like going to the gym with our little pot belly and oxygen-deprived body is also a great place to start. We just have to be patient, kind to ourselves and willing to try.

To practice mindfulness properly, we have to cut through a kind of daydream quality in our mind. Often we are engaging in some activity — riding the subway, driving a car, having a business meeting — but our mind is somewhere else, lost in a daydream. If you look at people sitting on a bus or on a train you can often see this quality in their eyes. Whether we’re having a pleasant or unpleasant daydream, we are cutting through all of that with mindfulness practice.

The awakened mind is sharp and clear. Sometimes the gateway to it can be an experience of irritation, or even shock — not entirely unlike waking up suddenly from a dream. “My goodness, I’m on the subway here. That’s a human being walking by with one leg and a cup … and a strong smell”. Suddenly we become completely present with whatever is actually around us — whether it is pleasant or not. At these times, it’s as if our world is shaking us and waking us up with a kind of sharp edge.

Our world can also wake us up in a peaceful and beguiling way. We might notice the details of a beautiful flower, or the delicious smell of a bakery as we walk by daydreaming about our troubled economy.

In either case, there is a regular and recurring invitation to bring our attention back to the present moment and relate to what is right in front of us. Practicing mindfulness is simply recognizing this invitation to be present, and being willing to accept the invitation when it comes.

In the Buddhist tradition, one recommendation for practicing mindfulness is to lean into its sharp edge — so that we’re not seduced into going back to sleep, back into our daydream. It’s like the movie “The Matrix” — the red pill or the blue pill — one will wake us up and the other will let us continue in the dream world. Do we want to go back into that daydream, or do we want to wake up? When we become aware it doesn’t necessarily mean we’re waking up into a paradise.

Is this world a paradise? Well, yes and no, right? It depends on our attitude. But the point is, it’s not a dull paradise where everything is perfect and comes easily. It’s a sharp paradise, with edges and clarity. It’s vivid and poignant.

When looking to see if somebody is trained in mindfulness, sharpness and wakefulness are the mark to look for — more so than a blissful, spaced-out quality in which they love everybody, but don’t remember exactly why. Mindfulness is the core practice of the Buddhist teachings, but it can be practiced by anybody — and it has an edge.

To explore this practice further, here are basic instructions from an article I posted a while back.

As usual all comments are welcome.

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La meditación shamata o atención plena es una práctica muy orgánica, una práctica fundacional. Está basada en notar el momento que nuestra atención conecta con nuestra situación presente, y de hecho cultivar deliberadamente esa suerte de atención simple. El beneficio es que nos volvemos más sincronizados en cuerpo y mente y empezamos a relacionarnos con nuestro mundo de una manera menos distraída y más despierta.

Para practicar shamatha/ atención plena como una práctica formal de meditación, hay tres pasos:

Tomando nuestro asiento

Empezamos por tomar nuestro asiento de meditación, usualmente una sólida posición de piernas cruzadas sobre un cojín en el suelo. Vas a querer tomar una postura confortable con una buena y firme conexión entre tu cola y el cojín- debes sentirte enraizado y estable. Luego puedes simplemente reposar tus manos en tus muslos o rodillas, dependiendo de cuán largos son tus brazos.

Tu torso, cabeza y hombros deben estar erguidos pero relajados. Luego con gentileza pliega tu mentón un poco. La postura debe sentirse dignificada y elevada pero no tensa o rígida.

Por supuesto, si tienes problemas sentándote con las piernas cruzadas por alguna razón, puedes tomar la postura de rodillas o simplemente sentarte erguido/a en una silla. El punto principal es usar el soporte que necesites (cojines, etc.) para estar cómodo, pero en cualquiera de estas posturas tu espalda tiene que estar lo más derecha posible y no sostenida por una pared o el respaldo de la silla. En general, decimos “no muy tenso y no muy relajado” y eso es un buen guía a través de todo el camino.

Hay un sentimiento de contención, de tomar tu asiento y reducir tu actividad, toda tu esfera de actividad. Luego, puedes asegurarte que tu mandíbula esté relajada, ya sea ligeramente cerrada o ligeramente abierta. Tus ojos están abiertos con una suave mirada hacia abajo, quizás 4 a 6 pies hacia el suelo en frente tuyo. No estás cerrando la atención del espacio alrededor tuyo, pero puedes relajar el foco un poco.

Posando la atención en tu respiración

Habiendo asentado tu cuerpo de esta manera, empiezas a poner tu atención a tu respiración-entrando y saliendo. En este caso la respiración es natural- no pranayama o ningún otro tipo de técnica respiratoria. Tu atención se conecta con tu respiración. Aquí también se trata de un toque ligero más que convertirse en algo muy intenso o hiperenfocado. Simplemente una amable atención relajada a la respiración entrando y saliendo de tu cuerpo.

Cuando notas que tu atención esta en otra parte- quizás estés pensando en tu relación de pareja, tu trabajo esta semana, o en un gran bol de helado de chocolate. Cualesquiera que sean tus pensamientos, cuando notas que tu mente está en otra parte, simplemente trae tu atención nuevamente a tu respiración, sin juzgamiento, evaluación o comentario. Simplemente vuelve a tu respiración.

Etiquetar los pensamientos.

Cuando notas que estas pensando, solo dite a ti mismo “pensando”. Simplemente etiquetado con esa sola palabra “pensando” y luego trae tu atención una vez más a tu respiración. Trungpa Rinpoche solía decir que cuando  estás sentado de esta manera, tienes un fondo plano y tus pensamientos también tienen un fondo plano. Antes quizás tus pensamientos tenían pequeñas alas y volaban todo alrededor y te llevaban con ellos, pero ahora tu cuerpo esta asentado y tu actividad mental se va a asentar también.

Es útil tomar un acercamiento “democrático” hacia nuestros pensamientos. En algún sentido, son todos iguales. No estamos a favor de algunos pensamientos o nos afectamos por otros. Muy simplemente, cuando notas que estás pensando y te has alejado de la atención en la respiración, sólo etiquetas cualquier y todos los pensamientos como “pensando” y traes tu atención de vuelta a tu respiración. Es importante aclarar que no estas reprimiendo tus pensamientos ni siguiéndolos. Estamos simplemente dejando que sean como son, notarlos, y luego retornar la atención a la respiración.

Durante periodos más prolongados de sentada, si necesitas moverte para restaurar la circulación, o cuando tienes una real incomodidad, puedes simplemente llevar tus piernas cerca de tu torso y continuar tu práctica. Luego solo reestablécete y retoma de manera fresca.

Esta es una introducción básica a la técnica de meditación shamatha/atención plena- cómo llevarla a cabo. Está bien empezar modestamente al principio, quizás sentándote dia por medio por unos 10-15 minutos. Desde ahí puedes desarrollar una práctica diaria por el tiempo que te resulte indicado. Una vez que te pones en marcha, trabajar con un maestro puede ser muy útil. Meditar en grupo también puede ser beneficioso y te puede dar un contexto, una estructura y un soporte para tu práctica.

(This article originally appeared on the Huffington Post 7/28/11)

In Buddhism, the law of karma describes how causes and effects interact in our world. The point of understanding how karma works is to see the nature of things as they are, beyond any kind of delusion or wishful thinking.

What does the law of karma have to do with the current economic crisis? Maybe our national economic policy could use a good healthy dose of seeing “things as they are.”

In our individual meditation practice, there is no magic bullet, no fantasy transformation, no gimmicks — we have to work through our karma, brick by brick — it is manual labor.

With meditation practice, we can see how our mind works — what creates positive karma (compassion and wisdom), and what creates negative karma (aggression, attachment and ignorance). That is how we get clarity about how certain causes create certain conditions — how did we get where we are and what we can do about it.

With the same approach, with real scrutiny, perhaps our current debt ceiling crisis can be seen to be nothing other than our national money karma coming to fruition. There are some basic principles at work here, immune from any kind of fancy talk or manipulation. Certain basic causes and conditions have created the current situation:

1. We have borrowed too much money.

Just as many of us have done as individuals, as a nation we have simply borrowed too much money, and now our creditors are knocking at the door. I don’t think you need an advanced degree in economics to figure this out. Sometimes common sense is more valuable than intricate theories. It’s time to pay some of this debt down, just as we would (and as some of us have) if this were our individual problem only.

2. We have been too greedy.

As a nation (and many of us as individuals) we have been willing to sacrifice long-term prosperity for short-term gain, over and over again. Many of us are addicted to a hyper-extended materialistic lifestyle (certainly by global standards) and have been willing to go deeply into debt to maintain it. Additionally, a tiny percentage of extremely wealthy people are now in a position to manipulate our entire economy to further their own self-centered, limited agenda, which they are now doing on a global level.

3. Our national political arena has become overrun with personalized agendas and bad manners.

We seem to have a chasmic divide amongst our so-called “leadership.” Creative friction can sometimes be very effective in flushing out different points of view and perhaps reaching a higher fusion. But we seem to have gone well beyond that kind of creative friction in our national politics to the level of some kind of permanently feuding mentality.

Like the Hatfields and the McCoys, we now see our two “parties” immersed in an ongoing tit for tat, with nobody being very clear about the origin or the point of it all. There seems to be a crescendo of personalized agendas in the public sector. Temporal leaders, just like good spiritual teachers, could be invited to check their ego at the door. Wouldn’t that be refreshing?

The solution? We need bigger vision.

Let’s think about what would be good for ourselves and others. Are these really two completely different things? Perhaps we bring out the best in each of us and are also happier individuals when we have a feeling of contributing to a common cause beyond self-aggrandizement. If we are arguing about what would be the best outcome for the larger good, that could be a healthy argument to have. If we’re going to keep playing the “me, me, me” game, we might be spinning on this particular wheel of karma forever — like a giant Ferris Wheel with all of us on it.

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(article originally on The Huffington Post 6/20/11)

Last week Cyndi and I found ourselves in Hamburg, with a two day respite between teaching yoga/meditation workshops in Berlin and Copenhagen. What a beautiful and wonderful city!

Hamburg is one of the biggest ports in the world (seventh to be precise) and is also a major center of commerce and culture. One of the highlights of our stay there was a boat tour of the docks, which gave us a close up view of the industrial shipping operation. Having never seen this setting before, I found the magnitude of it to be truly mind-boggling.

Even in this day of rapid fire information transfer and worldwide high speed air travel, there is really no other way to conduct the transfer of large scale goods around the world. When we buy Danish furniture in New York, toys or books made in China, put gas in our car from Saudi Arabia, drink Colombian coffee, eat kiwis from New Zealand, all those goods have been transported via freighters, much as they would have been 50 years ago.

The size and scale of the docks, the ships, the cranes, and all the technology for loading and unloading the crates is awesome. After exploring this elaborate and massive setting for a while, I looked over at our guide who was describing what we were seeing (in German, but we had a loose and occasional translation). He was a reasonably fit, normal-looking male human being, maybe 6 ft. tall. I looked at him and then looked back at these massive ships, cranes and platforms and thought “Yikes! This person, or people like him anyhow, somehow conceived of, built and are operating all of that.” It seemed incomprehensible for a moment how such a thing could be possible.

Obviously at the physical level our species built all that with our relatively little bodies, but somehow it is really our big minds that enabled us to put such a massive and elaborate system together. If I were from another planet I would surely assume that this was a brilliant, clever, capable and resourceful species and that surely a civilization that could accomplish all this must have the resources, the capability, and the vision to solve any and all problems confronting their race and their planet.

It felt so clear to me that with the right motivation, the right intention, the right leadership, the right mobilization of resources, we could and would be able to solve all of humanity and this world’s problems in time, and live a wonderful, creative and vibrant existence that could be shared by all. It just seemed completely obvious that this kind of positive outcome was within the realm of possibility for us (usually I’m a bit more cynical, but this was a clear burst of optimism!).

So that led to a contemplation about where are we missing the boat (so to speak) as our species marches forward into what could turn out to be the most innovate century in our history (think genetic engineering, virtual reality, nanotechnology, a universal translator and a complete revolution in information access and exchange). Where are we missing the ship? Why is there so much trouble, poverty, heartache, war, struggle, disease, ecological disaster, ideological conflict and outright lack of compassion and wisdom in our world? Why does our world appear to be in crisis?

I shared this musing with my friend and dharma brother Krishna Das who in the spirit of shameless promotion I will mention is on a U.S. tour this month and who I will be joining him on guitar for the last week of the tour. In any case, KD’s email response said it all, summed it up, and brought it all together — so I wanted to share it with you:

“Yes, isn’t it amazing the amount of stuff that is actually moved around this world.. if only the motivation was compassion instead of greed!”

So simply and eloquently stated (I guess all that chanting can make you a man of few words!).

At this new frontier of our ongoing journey as the human race, we will need to pause and check our motivation. If we mix our technological capacity with our spiritual evolution as a species, we can turn this world into a beautiful place. If we don’t, we might have a powerful nightmare on our hands. It is going to be up to us. Compassion and wisdom might be the most valuable commodities we can ship around the world in the coming century!

Your thoughts?

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In mindfulness meditation practice, we are instructed to rest our attention on our breathing as a way to focus and stabilize our mind. This is an ancient and time-honored approach that clearly has relevance for those of us living in the modern world — often racing around, feeling stressed out, and having a hard time catching up with ourselves!

For those of us practicing in this way, several questions seem to come up over and over again — one of them is usually expressed something like this:

“I see the point of trying to develop more steadiness and ease in my state of mind. I am now able from time to time to notice myself thinking and bring my attention back to my breath, but when strong emotions come up in meditation, I do not seem to be able to let go of those so easily. They are captivating and disturbing, and are compelling me to look more deeply at their history and meaning. Should we really be using our meditation practice to shut down and stifle our emotions?”

This is a great question, and there are several issues involved that are well worth discussing.

First of all, it is not recommended to use meditation as a way of repressing our emotions (or thoughts for that matter) by forcibly silencing them in order to achieve a superficially imposed sense of peace and quiet. Many meditators have found that they are never really able to completely pacify their mind and that holding that as the goal only produces frustration and disappointment.

The approach of “just sit there and quiet your mind,” although commonly presented, is perhaps an over-simplification of the traditional method in which we:

1. Place our awareness on our breath.
2. Recognize what arises in our minds — without trying to manipulate, judge or suppress anything.
3. Simply see what arises in our mind as it comes up. Just notice it.
4. Then let go of the thoughts and return our awareness to the breath thereby coming back to the present moment.

This sequence is what we initiate repeatedly in our meditation session — as opposed to trying to stifle our thoughts and somehow magically hold on to that peaceful state. This more detailed method gives us some ground to work with — that being our mind as it is rather than as we wish it could be. We might find this practice more realistic, more workable, and more compassionate to ourselves. Of course it is up to each one of us to determine how we will proceed.

When it comes to experiencing strong emotions in our practice, it can be helpful to notice that what we call emotions really has two major components. One is the “story line”, which we do identify in our meditation practice as “thinking” and when we recognize it as such we are encouraged to let it go and return our awareness to our breathing and therefore to the present moment. The other component is actually energy that has a life beyond the “story line” — the energy and physical sensation of anger, passion, envy, pride, etc.

In meditation practice, we are encouraged to simply experience this energy and physical sensations as they are and not get involved with manipulating the “story line” or “content.” Just let the energy and sensations be there, be aware of them, without elaborating further. This way of experiencing our emotions is very powerful and may not map at all to our notion of peace and quiet.

These feelings, rather than being seen as problematic, can be seen to be completely natural and connected to what it means to be a human being. In more advanced meditation training the emotions can be “liberated” from ego-centric, repetitive “story lines” and experienced as a direct link to communication, appreciation of the inherent richness of our own being, and the penetrating quality of insight and wisdom.

So, we do not throw out the baby with the bathwater. Our emotions, rather than feeding stale and repetitive mental habits, can manifest as the very expressions of being alive and living fully in an authentic way. From that point of view we do not utilize our meditation practice to suppress our feelings and emotions but to liberate them, by becoming more familiar with how they arise, what they actually feel like beyond acting out or repressing them, and therefore working with them in a more constructive way.

Your thoughts?

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