Simple meditation instructions, answers to common questions about meditation, and guidance to help cultivate peace, stability, friendliness, and compassion. How to Meditate. [...]
Search Results for: shamatha
Inside the Shamatha Project
Adeline Van Waning, a psychiatrist and Buddhist practitioner, takes us inside a groundbreaking study that explores the effects of meditation on the brain and one’s overall well-being. When I first heard of the Shamatha Project, I felt like some of my deep longings were coming together. For quite some time I had wanted to participate in a meditation retreat that lasted several [...]
How to Practice Shamatha Meditation
Shamatha meditation—mindfulness or concentration—is the foundation of Buddhist practice. Lama Rod Owens teaches us a version from the Vajrayana tradition. Shamatha means “peaceful abiding” or “tranquility.” Also called mindfulness or concentration meditation, shamatha is an important introductory practice that leads to the practice of vipashyana, or insight [...]
Shamatha Meditation: Training the Mind
"The process of undoing bewilderment is based on stabilizing and strengthening our mind," says Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. "Shamatha meditation is how we do that.” We sometimes forget how the Buddhist teachings came into being. We forget why the Buddha left his father's palace. Dissatisfied with maintaining an illusion, he wanted to understand his life—and life itself. Why [...]
Shamatha–Vipashyana: It’s Our Original Nature
Gaylon Ferguson says through the practice of both shamatha and vipashyana we bring our mind back to its original state. In the tradition of the buddhadharma that traveled from ancient India to Tibet (and, more recently, to various points west), the two main kinds of meditation practiced are shamatha (peaceful or calm abiding) and vipashyana (insight). These are two [...]
Preparing to Die
Death is a journey into the unknown, but like any journey it goes better if you’re prepared. Andrew Holecek offers meditations and teachings from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition to help you prepare for the end of life—and what comes next. Death is one of the most precious experiences in life. It is literally a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The karma that brought us into [...]
A meditation instruction by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche
Doubtlessly, meditation practice is one of the most important and at the same time most confused subjects that we experience. It’s confusing because of our own expectations that the practice of meditation should bring about a certain sense of tranquillity, equilibrium, and spiritual "high." I would like to emphasize that the practice of meditation as it was presented [...]
Meditating on the Mind Itself
A teaching on the practice of Mahamudra by Kagyu master Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche, who passed away in July 2012 at the age of 57. According to the Buddhist Mahayana tradition, practitioners need to eradicate certain defilements and obscurations of the mind in order to realize ultimate truth, or ultimate reality, and the most effective way to achieve this is through the [...]
Free from Mind, Discrimination and Consciousness
Master Sheng-yen is abbot of the Nung Ch’an monastery in Taiwan and founder of Dharma Drum Mountain, which includes the Ch’an Meditation Center in New York City and Dharma Drum Retreat Center in Pine Brush, New York. The interview was conducted during a ten-day silent illumination retreat led by Master Sheng-yen. The interviewer was Michael Liebenson Grady, a guiding teacher at [...]
Forum: Practicing the Great Perfection
Forum with Marcia Schmidt, Ron Garry and Mingyur Rinpoche on the view, teachings, and challenges of Dzogchen. Sometimes the Buddhadharma forum asks people from different traditions to discuss a common Buddhist principle, like karma or the kleshas, or to explore issues that challenge the Buddhist community as a whole, such as how we can extend a helping hand to the world. At [...]
