Honor.

Not much is sacred anymore.

Everyone appreciates values such as self-reliance, independence, hard work and kindness. We all value honesty, integrity and optimism, whether it is in our homes, at work or in our communities. As young adults we start to explore our values, what impact they have on our lives and which values we want to live by. Our values shift and change over time, depending on the shape of our lives and the relationships that we forge.

I was fortunate to encounter the Dharma when I was in my early twenties. During my formative years as an adult, I experienced and explored values such as honor, reverence and humility. I had the privilege of sitting at the feet of great spiritual teachers; teachers like my own root teacher Younge Khachab Rinpoche, the Dalai Lama, Kusum Lingpa and Lama Tharchin. I practiced a tradition that had a long lineage of reverence towards teachers like the Karmapa, Patrul Rinpoche, Longchen Rabjam, Padmasambhava and all the way back to the Buddha himself. I was able to explore what it meant to be humble in the presence of these teachers, but also recognize a powerful sense of self-worth and innate potential. 

Nowadays, everyone has the right to say what they want. Everyone can choose to have a voice. Everyone can choose to lay out a vision. No one wants to exclude anyone. No one is wrong. There is no authority to be found, authority is seen as anti-egalitarian.

When we don't honor anything then nothing is sacred. Without any sacred values in our life, there is no authority to be found. Without authority, we end up with chaos, indecisiveness, and a lack of action. Without honor, traditions wither and die, movements stagnate, and communities suffer.

Honor gives rise to other values. It gives birth to authentic reverence and humility, which themselves rely on values like integrity, determination, self-respect and service.

I'm glad to have honor as one of my core values. What, or who, do you honor?

Metaphors for the progression of your practice.

The process of developing our shamatha practice of calm abiding develops through five stages of experience. This progression of experience can be described through five metaphors.

Waterfall. The first experience of shamatha is movement. When we sit down the first thing we discover is that our thoughts, feelings and sensations are raging like water cascading down a steep cliff. This is the first experience which is like a waterfall.

Torrent in a deep ravine. The second experience is attainment. Our mind, which was once cascading and all over the place is being channeled and brought to focus. We discover in the stages of settling the mind and continuously settling that the mind is incredibly powerful and provides a lot of resistance to being directed towards our object of meditation. Effort is required to keep bringing the mind back to its focus. This is the second experience which is like a torrent in a deep ravine.

Meandering river. The third experience of shamatha is familiarization. The raging waters of our mind have calmed considerable, and we have discovered a gently flowing current. Within this river of meditation, we still experience the currents of agitation and dullness pulling us away from our focus, but we are able to come back and rest much more easily.  This third experience which is like a meandering river is like the stages of completely settled mind and the subsequent stages of training and calming the mind as we continue to work with the movement of the mind.

Ocean free of waves. The fourth experience is stability. The waters of our mind have merged with the great ocean which is free from waves. This is the fourth experience of resting in single-pointedness in which the mind does not waver, like an ocean free of waves.

A candle flame unstirred by any breeze. The fifth experience of shamatha is consummation. This is the stage of resting in equanimity in which the mind rests naturally in a state of limpid clarity, like a candle that is unstirred by any breeze. It is the state free from effort in which we experience the total pliancy of mind and body.

These five metaphors describe the progression that takes place in your meditation as you deepen your practice of shamatha. You can further understand and appreciate these experiences by contemplating the four ways of working with the mind and the eight remedial techniques that eliminate the five flaws of meditation.

Movement within stillness.

When we first sit down to meditate, the first thing we experience is movement. Through continued effort and relying on proper meditation instruction, we can arrive at a place of stillness and peace.

When the mind is completely settled, a lot of the gross thoughts and emotions that might disturb our focus have settled down. We can direct our mind and rest simply in a state of calm clarity. Within this stillness, we discover another layer of movement. How we work with that movement determines our progress and the rest of the path ahead.

The nature of the mind is unceasing luminous emptiness. Being empty, it is groundless with nothing to find or hold onto. Being luminous it arises as the variety of thoughts, appearances, sounds and sensations without end.

If we cling to the appearances arising in our meditation, we get caught up in the cycle of distraction and agitation. If we learn to leave thoughts and appearances free in their own place, our focus does not wander and we sink deeper into a state of single-pointedness.

So much of the training is how we work with movement, how we resolve sights, sounds and appearances.

Go sit. Bring your mind to a place of rest. Notice the movement within stillness.

How do you work with it?

Four ways of working with the mind.

As we are learning to bring the mind to rest, settling into a calm and clear mind, we will encounter four different ways of working with the mind.

First, we encounter involvement with effort.

When we first sit down to settle the mind, we encounter movement. Lots of movement. It is not easy to rest the mind, to focus it on our intended object. The first stages of bringing the mind to rest require effort. If we don't bring effort into our meditation, we simply rest in our monkey mind and that will not bring any result, at least not the result we are looking for. We need to apply effort to settle our mind and to continuously settle as we experience distractions.

Second, we encounter involvement with interruption.

We have started to settle the mind and prolong that experience. Then, we experience interruption in the form of thoughts, emotions and sensations that pull us away. Using mindfulness and vigilance, we recognize that we are distracted and come back to our object of meditation. Settle. Wander. Come back. Our practice is involved with interruption from the stages of continuously resettling the mind through the stage of completely calming the mind, as we continue to learn how to work with agitation and dullness.

Third, we encounter involvement without interruption.

Once you have gained agility working with agitation and dullness, you arrive at the stage of single-pointedness in which you are no longer affected by these waves of thoughts and emotions. There is still some subtle effort of mindfulness and vigilance at play here, but one does not fall out of meditation into states of distraction.

Fourth, we encounter effortless involvement.

Having settled the mind into a state of equanimity, you can effortlessly maintain the practice without the need for additional applications or remedies. Applying effort at this stage would be a fault, contriving something to be done. One simply rests in complete evenness. The mind abides in a state of limpid clarity, with no stirring or wavering.

Settling the Mind.

Take your seat. Meditate for ten minutes using any method that you are familiar with. You might focus on your breath, visualize an internal drop of light, focus on a mantra, or rest in the uncontrived natural state.

What is your experience? What do you notice? What are some of the challenges or problems that come up?

One of the first things you will probably notice is movement.

You experience thoughts racing, sensations coursing through your body- pain, itching, tightness. You notice all of this movement, which normally goes unseen and unrecognized.

Movement is the first experience of meditation. Now you know how stirred up you are. You may have a conceptual idea of resting the mind and what that should look and feel like, but when you sit what you actually experience is movement.

Which is good.

What we are experiencing is our own mind- complete with thoughts, emotions, sense perceptions, habits and memories. We are having a direct encounter with our crazy monkey mind.

At this point in your practice it is important to rely on study. What is meditation? What are methods for dealing with obstacles? Really investigate what is mind, what is the nature of mind? What is the basis for what we experience in meditation? Are the things we experience momentary and fleeting or do they have some real substance? Investigate cause and effect, look at where you are stuck or what you are holding onto. Dig deeper into your experience.

Don't beat yourself up. Don't make your practice into a big project. Learn to relax. Let go.

It is okay if it doesn't happen right away. It is important to develop the habit of settling and resting. Put your effort into showing up without expectation or judgment. Be present, be here. Even if the present is loud and unsettled, it is enough for now. 

Stillness within movement.

Settle the mind. Let it rest naturally. Let it rest in its own place.

Let go of any thoughts or stories playing out in your head. Let go of your plans and projects. Simply rest in open presence.

Calm, peaceful, expansive presence.

Stillness.

Within that stillness,
thoughts will drift like tumbling leaves,
sensations will burst forth and disappear like water bubbles,
voices and sounds reverberate like an echo in a canyon.

Movement within stillness.

Nothing to do, simply rest.

Movement is free in its own place, naturally freed without having to do anything.

Resting deeply, we become like a vast ocean of equanimity; the variety of sights, sounds and thoughts rise and fall, yet we remain unmoved in the expanse of naturally settled meditation. 

Resting deeply in stillness we can accommodate movement without being disturbed. Gaining proficiency with movement within stillness, we can begin to recognize stillness within movement.

Extending an arm, lifting a glass, walking, conversing, working. All thoughts, expressions and movement manifest as a grand play of awareness.

There is no need to fight or struggle, movement doesn't destroy stillness, it enhances awareness.

Don't bind your mind to stillness. Don't block movement. The inseparability of stillness and movement is the wisdom mind of pristine awareness, the natural Great Perfection.

Rest in movement.

I think we all have an impulse to see rest as state without movement.  It's a gap in your day, a day off of work or a moment of connecting with the breath. 

We see rest as stillness.  Peace and quiet. 

We struggle to reconcile movement with rest.  When we are busy, we long for the moment when we are not.  When we are at work, we long for the moment we are done.  Movement becomes our adversary and our days are lost in spite of ourselves. 

What if we learned to rest in the dance?  What if we could rest with the dynamic display that manifests around us and through our day?  What if movement didn't pull us away, but rather reinforced our awareness. 

What if we no longer had to fight against 'busy', but took 'busy' along with us on the path of realization?

If we no longer had to divide our days between busy or restful, how would we live them?

Join the Movement

Our communities have changed.

We are no longer surrounded by like-minded individuals who share our worldview.

We are no longer surrounded day and night by people who can help us get up when we fall, guiding us in the right direction. 

Our communities don't revolve around anything sacred.  They revolve around 'me', which is often caught up in a lot of mundane activity, meaningless work and a lifetime of distraction.

You are out in the battlefield all by yourself. 

You have your practice.  Keep it.  I am not asking you to buy in.  

I am asking you to own it.  And it ain't a show man.

I am asking you to take your stand, to cut away the frills and the fraud.

Once you can stand, take a step forward with your heart.  Be an artist who uses reality, people and interactions as their canvas.  If your a bodhisattva, your art is generosity, love and kindness. 

As you learn to walk with confidence, you will find that the world no longer fights you.  Every interaction is a support for your practice, an opportunity to dig deeper and to practice your art. 

You'll find you are not alone anymore. 

You are surrounded by community.  Join the movement.