OVERSEAS TEACHING AUTHOR: KHENPO TSULTRIM LODRO

Our mind has two functions that it is capable of performing. The first is the ability to perceive and analyse phenomena in the outside world; the second is the ability to be aware of what one is perceiving. This second capacity is described as introspective awareness. It is like our hand being able to feel whether something is cold or hot, while at the same time we are aware that we are in that state of perception. In counting our breaths, on the one hand our mind is able to focus on counting, and at the same time it is able to experience a state of great calmness. This is what we refer to as mental equanimity.

[Depicted from "Life as Practical – Practical Instruction to the Lay Practitioner - Part 27" May 2015, Canada.]

Here we count our breath. It’s not necessary in this beginners’ practice to regulate our breaths, or in any way accelerate or slow them down. We just breathe as we normally would, and we count each inhalation and exhalation together as “one”.. During this practice we fully concentrate just on the counting of our breaths. While counting breaths does entail some amount of conceptual thought, the fact that our attention is so concentrated on this task alone means that we are able to focus very intently.

[Depicted from "Life as Practical – Practical Instruction to the Lay Practitioner - Part 24" May 2015, Canada.]

We visualized the Buddha becoming luminous and glowing, and then contracting until he is the size of a pea . We then visualise that this small, glowing sphere of luminous light descends into our body through the crown of our head to the point where our heart is. Then we imagine the Buddha’s wisdom commingling with our minds, so that they become one and the same, indivisible in nature. We then simply abide in this state. Until we have achieved awakening, though, we are not in a position to truly understand what it means to “abide”. But for the time being, what it means is just to rest in this state, not thinking about anything else, and simply to abide with one’s current state just as it is.

[Depicted from "Life as Practical – Practical Instruction to the Lay Practitioner - Part 21" May 2015, Canada.]

In the Theravada traditions, there are some more complex techniques of meditation using the counting of breath, but for the purposes of this meditation practice we keep it simple—all that we are concentrating on is the counting of the breaths itself. While we practise this meditation on counting breaths, we still have mental activity. There is still conceptual thought taking place, but because it is concentrated on this one activity of counting our breaths, we just focus on this and we will experience a relatively great sense of mental calmness.

[Depicted from "Life as Practical – Practical Instruction to the Lay Practitioner - Part 26" May 2015, Canada.]

The three preparatory stages—the seven-point posture, the expelling of negative emotional states through using our breath and visualization, and finally the visualization of Shakyamuni Buddha—should be the way we begin any kind of meditation or practice.
After the three-phase preparation sequence, we proceed to the second stage, which is the actual meditation practice. The range of meditation practices that exist is extremely vast, but what I will introduce here is one that is common to both the sutra and Tantra traditions.

[Depicted from "Life as Practical – Practical Instruction to the Lay Practitioner - Part 23" May 2015, Canada.]

We then resume our seven-point meditation posture and move on to the third preparatory stage, which is a visualization. We visualise in front of us an image of Shakyamuni Buddha, and also our primary root teacher (or, if we have several, then all of those teachers) as one and the same as Shakyamuni Buddha. After we have brought Shakyamuni Buddha to mind through visualization, we then make a supplication of the Buddha that he might give us his blessings in this meditation session so that we are able to attain meditative equipoise. We don’t need to visualise Shakyamuni Buddha for a very long time at this stage, maybe about five minutes.

[Depicted from "Life as Practical – Practical Instruction to the Lay Practitioner - Part 20" May 2015, Canada.]

When we are counting our breaths, we do so in rounds of seven—when we have reached a count of seven, we return back to one. We don’t continue counting beyond seven because by doing it this way, our minds are less likely to wander. We aim to count twenty-one breaths, but we do so in three rounds of seven.

[Depicted from "Life as Practical – Practical Instruction to the Lay Practitioner - Part 25" May 2015, Canada.]

For newcomers to meditation, it will only be possible to abide in natural state for one or two minutes, which is fine. When we find ourselves coming out of this state, we simply recast our aspiration of bodhicitta, that we aim to achieve Buddhahood for the sake of all living beings and it is for this reason we are engaging in meditation practice.

[Depicted from "Life as Practical – Practical Instruction to the Lay Practitioner - Part 22" May 2015, Canada.]

Between each expelling exhalation, we exhale and inhale once without visualizing, and then we perform the visualization again where we see our negative thoughts as black vapour. We do this three times, first with our right hand on our right side and then the exact same procedure on the left side using our left hand. After having expelled our negative mental states three times on the right side and three times on the left, we then make two vajra fists and press both of them into the channels of our left and right legs. We then breathe in and expel our negative mental states three times through both nostrils.

[Depicted from "Life as Practical – Practical Instruction to the Lay Practitioner - Part 19" May 2015, Canada.]