In this video extract, Sogyal Rinpoche, Tibetan Buddhist meditation master and author of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying shows us what meditation really is.
Bringing our mind home
Rinpoche tells us that meditation is a skillful means to bring our mind home and recognize our true nature. Our minds are usually busy and lost in distraction. In fact, distraction is the root cause of all our problems. Through mindfulness and awareness, we can bring our mind home and peel away all the barriers and obstructions to our true nature. Slowly, all the stories, concerns, busyness, and ordinary mind dissolve and melt away and our true nature, our true heart, is revealed. Meditation, in the highest sense, is abiding in the recognition of our true nature.
Begin with sky-like spaciousness
Through meditation, we can disarm our negativity, aggression, and speed, and become real, authentic, and genuine. We can begin simply by just being spacious. Just to sit, just to be. Just allow the ordinary concerns and mind to dissolve and melt away. Just to rest. Even if we don’t feel spacious, we can aspire to be spacious and open like the sky. The great master Dudjom Rinpoche, used to say, “Have a sky inside you.” Sky-like spaciousness. When we visualize or imagine this or aspire to this, it brings a certain atmosphere and sense peace. It has a way of quietening, lightening up, freeing. Begin simply by just being spacious.
This video snip has a special atmosphere. See if you can catch the feeling imparted through this teaching and simply sit spaciously for a short while.
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