The Toolbox.

Meditation is a tool, and as a tool there are many different forms that it takes. Some types of meditation are better at calming the mind, others for inducing clarity or insight. Some give rise to bliss, others to peace and equanimity.

In our practice of shamatha, we have several different types of meditation that we should keep in our toolbox and gain familiarity with.

Meditation with an Object

The Breath. The breath is probably the most common meditation technique. The mind and breath are intimately linked, so as we work with the breath we work on the mind. The technique is simple, simply observe the inhale and exhale of the breath. Some people focus on the feeling of the breath passing by the nostrils, others prefer to focus on the gentle rise and fall of the upper stomach as you inhale and exhale. Whatever method you prefer, simply connect with the inhale and exhale of the breath. It isn't necessary to count, just breathe naturally.


A thigle of light. A common technique within the Tibetan tradition is to focus on an internal drop or thigle of light. This thigle is often focused on within the heart chakra or some other chakra, and serves as a visualized support for your practice. Focus on a brilliant white drop of light in the center of your heart, then connect with the inhale and exhale of the breath. As you inhale, imagine that light becoming more brilliant, as you exhale imagine it becoming more stable. There are many alternative methods for working with thigles in meditation.

Vajra breathing. Similar to focusing on the breath, you can visualize yourself in the form of your yidam or as a clear body of light. As you inhale, recognize the resonance of the breath as OM. As the breath abides, recognize it as AH. As you exhale, recognize the resonance of the breath as HUNG. In this way we connect the breath with mantra. Initially this practice can be rather conceptual and you may find yourself reciting OM, AH, HUNG. As you gain more familiarity with the practice and the sound of mantra the words will fall away and you can simply observe the breath as inseparable from mantra.

Enhancement techniques. When you are drowsy or your meditation is dull, you can focus on a white thigle of light at your third eye. Alternatively, you can imagine the white thigle at your heart shooting up through your crown and extending further and further into the sky, almost like traveling up an elevator. When you are experiencing distraction or agitation, you can visualize a black heavy thigle in your navel, pulling you down into the ground like a heavy weight. Alternatively, you can imagine it shooting down into the ground, anchoring and grounding you. These enhancement techniques can be used initially to cultivate a calm, clear mind, or they can be used as remedial techniques to work with distraction and dullness during meditation.

There are many other forms of object based meditation, including practices like Guru Yoga, mantra meditation and other tantric practices. If you have instruction in those meditation techniques feel free to use them as you have been taught. 

Meditation without an Object

Resting in the natural state. This type of meditation is unique to Mahamudra and Dzogchen. Simply relax the body, breath and mind. Don't worry about the past. Don't speculate about the future. Simply rest, without judging the present or cultivating expectations. Relax into the uncontrived natural state. In this meditation we want to recognize and rest in the nature of the mind, which is unceasing luminous emptiness. That can be difficult at first, as we learn to work with mind and its appearances. Any attempt to manipulate, correct, adjust or fix is mistaken. Simply relax in open presence.


Sitting in a comfortable meditative posture,
Our body is left open, relaxed.
The shoulders, neck and face are relaxed,
The eyes are left open, gently gazing into the space before oneself.
The breath is natural- gentle and uncontrived.
The senses are open, free from fixation,
Let whatever appears be as it is.
Don’t fixate- on feelings, thoughts, sights or sounds.
Just relax and settle, like waves on water.
Slowly, like mud settling out,
The mind will become calm and clear.
Rest in the natural state.

Any of these techniques can be used in our meditation. Become familiar with each of them. Develop your toolbox. Some you will naturally gravitate towards, others may be useful in certain situations. 

Long Life Prayer

ཨོཾ་སྭ་སྟི།         ཆོས་དབྱིངས་ཀ་དག་ཀློང་ལས་མི་གཡོ་བར།

OM SWASTI   CHOYING KADAG LONG LAY MIYOWAR

OM SWASTI     Without wavering from the expanse of the originally pure dharmadhatu,

སྣང་སྲིད་ཆོས་རྣམས་ཐམས་ཅད་རྩོལ་མེད་ཟད།

NANGSI CHONAM THAMCHE TSOLMEY ZAY  
You effortlessly resolve all that appears and exists,

ཡེ་གྲོལ་ཐིག་ལེ་ཉག་ཅིག་ལ་གནས་ནས། 
YEDROL THIGLE NYACHIK LA NAY NAY 

Abiding in the timeless freedom of the single sphere of awareness,
འཆི་མེད་ཆོས་སྐུའི་དབང་པོར་རྟག་བརྟན་ཤོག།།    །།

CHIME CHOKU WANGPO TAK TEN SHOG 
Lord of the deathless Dharmakaya, please abide eternally! 

ཁྱེད་སྐུ་རི་བོ་བཞིན་དུ་གཡོ་བ་མེད།

KHYE KU RIWO ZHINDU YOWAMEY 
Your body, immovable like a mountain,
ཁྱེད་གསུང་འགག་པ་མེད་པའི་ཉམས་རྟོགས་དབྱངས།

KHYE SUNG GAGPA MEPAY NAM TOK YANG 
Your speech, an unceasing melody borne of experience and realization,
ཁྱེད་ཐུགས་སྤྲོས་མེད་ཟང་ཐལ་རིག་པར་གནས།

KHYE THUK TROMEY ZANGTHAL RIGPA NAY 
Your mind, resting in rigpa zangthal free of elaboration,
ཟླ་མེད་ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབང་པོ་རྟག་བརྟན་ཤོག།།    །།

DAMEY CHOKYI WANGPO TAK TEN SHOG 
Peerless Lord of Dharma, please abide eternally! 

ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་ཀྱི་མཁའ་དབྱིངས་ལས།

KHYE KYI JANGCHUB SEMKYI KHA YING LAY 
From the spacious sky of your awakened mind,
རང་བྱུང་ཡེ་ཤེས་འཁོར་འདས་ཀུན་ལ་ཁྱབ།

RANGJUNG YESHE KHORDE KUN LA CHAB 
Naturally occurring wisdom pervades all of samsara and nirvana

ཉམ་ཐག་འགྲོ་ལ་གདམས་ཟབ་སྟོང་མཁས་པ།

NYAM TAK DRO LA DAM ZAB TON KHEPA 
Guiding all weary travelers by your profound instruction,
ཡོངས་དགེ་འགྲོ་འདུལ་གླིང་པ་ཞབས་བརྟེན་ཤོག།།   །།

YOUNGE DRODUL LINGPA ZHAB TEN SHOG 
Younge Drodul Lingpa, please live long! 

This prayer was composed by Rigpai Wangchuk (Greg Patenaude) following the annual summer Dzogchen retreat in conjunction with devotion and pure samaya on the 25th day of the fourth month in the Tibetan Wood Horse year 2141 (June 22, 2014). It was translated into the Tibetan by Tenzin Bhuchung in a surge of Guru devotion. May it be auspicious!

Long Life Prayer

OM SWASTE
Without wavering from the expanse of the dharmadhatu,
You effortlessly resolve all that appears and exists,
Abiding in the timeless freedom of the single sphere of awareness,
Lord of the deathless Dharmakaya, please abide eternally!

Your body, immovable like a mountain,
Your speech, an unceasing melody borne of experience,
Your mind, resting in unimpeded awareness free of elaboration,
Peerless Teacher, Lord of Dharma, please abide eternally!

From the spacious sky (Kha) of your awakened mind,
Naturally arising wisdom pervades (Chab) all of samsara and nirvana,
Guiding all beings by your complete virtue (Younge),
Younge Khachab Rinpoche, please live long!

A Spiritual Friend

Editor's note: This is a guest post by Karen Johnstone.

 I've been invited to be a guest writer here today, and the subject:  something that inspires me.  Immediately, Guru Yoga, Devotion to the Spiritual Teacher, the Spiritual Friend came to mind.   

I crossed a benchmark in the past several months, having taken refuge a little over 5 years ago, studying exclusively with my root teacher, Younge Khachab Rinpoche.  He has often exhorted me to direct my attention to Guru Yoga.  Early on, I found myself somewhat befuddled by the terminology - what does this truly mean?  Am I practicing a kind of blind faith, an "idiot" devotion (parallel to another popularized term, "idiot compassion")? Perhaps this has occurred to some degree. 

However, as I've passed the 5 year benchmark, I have discovered an inner confidence that provides a very firm foundation for my practice and anchors my commitments.  I reflect on all that I have learned from my root teacher, and I deeply appreciate the insight and stability that supports me daily.  I recognize a joy and sense of ease that is uncontrived- a radiance that simply occurs.  I've come to recognize this after taking the time to listen, absorb, and contemplate the teachings he has so generously and abundantly shared. 

My meditation practice allows me to examine and relate to the teachings from my own personal experience.  I am deeply and sincerely moved by the profound generosity of my root teacher, and of course his discipline, patience, diligence, meditative concentration that is so deeply instructive, and wisdom.  Guru Yoga for me has evolved into something very natural, empowering and nurturing.  I understand just how illuminating this relationship has become and its far reaching benefits. 

Alexander Berzin defines a Spiritual Friend:
A Spiritual Friend is a friend to help us be more constructive.  It doesn’t mean somebody that we go drinking with and go to the movies with, but someone who we really have a heart to heart close connection with. The whole purpose of the relationship is to help us to be more and more constructive, more and more positive, to gain more and more good qualities.

That is unquestionably my experience.  My practice and my path are rooted in the very practical and grounded advice of my root teacher, the very genuine and reciprocal respect we share, and the deep self respect he has inculcated in me.  From that deep respect, I move with a greater sense of responsibility, devotion and attention to my practice, which is so very constructive and grounded.

I had the pleasure of spending this past week on the island of Hawaii, at Wood Valley Temple, for an empowerment, teachings, fire puja and celebration of Losar, presented and led by a visiting teacher from Seattle, Tulku Yeshi Rinpoche.  I have been acquainted with him since 2008 (a few months after establishing my relationship with my root teacher). Recently I read his autobiography, a remarkable story, and I welcomed the opportunity to deepen my acquaintance with him.  I also had the pleasure of socializing with the Hawaii sangha.   Tulku Yeshi Rinpoche also spoke about Guru Yoga, explaining that it is not merely the physical actions done as part of preliminary practices.  I already had a deep appreciation for Younge Khachab Rinpoche and in the weekend's activities I recognized how much I have learned, and the ease and confidence I now enjoy with what I have learned and experienced so far. 

I came to recognize that Guru Yoga is not something merely done.  It is a way of being; of receptivity, of inspiration and integrity. 

Time spent listening to Tulku Yeshi Rinpoche and interacting with the Hawaii sangha- being open, receptive, sharing, and responsive gave me quite an exuberant feeling.  I found myself quite conscious of devotion to the Spiritual Teacher in conversations as each of us came from unique backgrounds. We quickly came together with a sense of warmth, generosity and kindness that was reflective of the devotion each of us have to our respective root teachers and subsequent teachers.  While I felt very exuberant in my devotion to my teachers, I also felt more firmly rooted in my dharma practice; even more deeply at home.  I was inspired and focused on the transformative power of the teachings from my own root teacher and Tulku Yeshi Rinpoche, as shown in my ease and comfort with people I did not know previously; I departed with many new friends.  I was inspired by the firm confidence, devotion and responsibility to the teachings I have been so fortunate to receive, to live them as fully as I can, and in the profound kindness and generosity of the teachers with whom I share very dear connections.

This sense of connection to my teachers and their lineage was punctuated later in the week when I went to Paleaku Garden, a botanical garden that includes a Stupa dedicated by Bokar Rinpoche, one of the great teachers for Younge Khachab Rinpoche, and a Green Tara shrine inspired by Her Eminence, Jamyang Dagmola Rinpoche, who has been like a second mother for Tulku Yeshi Rinpoche.  Being mindful of very real and dear lineages was deeply inspiring to me, deepening my sense of inspiring presence, devotion, and the beautiful guidance and power of Guru Yoga.

It is from this inspiring presence, devotion and joyful confidence that I can be available for others.  Realizing that is profoundly empowering.

Karen Johnstone is an estate planning paralegal, energy clearing consultant, bad ass mother; and long time student of Younge Khachab Rinpoche.  She is a leader and coordinator for the YDL- Washington Sangha.  She can be contacted at bodhismile@gmail.com.