Speed creates its own power and momentum, which begin to rule us, says Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. When we speed around, are we mastering our life or hanging on for dear life? A month or two after returning from a trip to Tibet, I ran into Aaron, a physician who had traveled with me. I asked him how it felt to be back in the West. He said that he felt as if he were winding up [...]
About Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche
How to do Mindfulness Meditation
“Mindfulness practice is simple and completely feasible, says Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. "Just by sitting and doing nothing, we are doing a tremendous amount.” In mindfulness meditation, or shamatha, we are trying to achieve a mind that is stable and calm. What we begin to discover is that this calmness or harmony is a natural aspect of the mind. Through mindfulness [...]
The Myth of Permanence
No matter how hard we try to solidify our lives, says Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, nothing stays the same or lasts forever. Our denial of that basic truth is the reason we suffer. Human beings always want something. We are continually looking for pleasure and we are rarely satisfied with what we have. Even being able to afford a great vacation is not what we thought it was [...]
Just Leap!
A key element of bravery, says Sakyong Mipham, is abruptness—the ability to break free from hesitation and suddenly leap from our habitual patterns to the awake mind. This current dark age, to put it very simply, has come about by people not properly being on the spot. We have ended up in a distracted, mindless state, which meditation helps us to reverse. Bravery, a [...]
It’s Not Us and Them
The fear so many of us are feeling these days can stress us into freezing our world and getting caught up in dualism. But, says Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, we can get past that by practicing mindfulness and gentleness. In the face of the economic hardship the world is now suffering, it is possible for us to spin out and become very dualistic. When we are not sure what’s going [...]
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 [...]
Going at Our Own Pace on the Path of Meditation
Our mind is like hard ground that has not seen water for a long time, says Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. As meditation practitioners, we begin to till that ground so that we can grow the mind of enlightenment. The Buddhist teachings are as vast as you can possibly imagine—and beyond that. At some point you might think you understand, but the reality is that the teachings are [...]
Confined by Cowardice
The way to free ourselves, says Sakyong Mipham, is to face life head-on without the seductive companionship of habitual patterns. My father, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, introduced the teachings of Shambhala to the West. These teachings are called “the sacred path of the warrior” because they emphasize bravery as an important factor in determining not only our personal future, [...]
True Listening
The receptive state of listening is a kind of auditory meditation, says Sakyong Mipham. It is an important way to gain wisdom and insight. But it’s not easy. It is said that when the Buddha first taught, two deer approached, knelt down, and raised their ears. The two deer symbolize the act of listening, a sublime way of being present in the moment. Their perked-up ears [...]
Deep Seeing
Vipashyana meditation can eventually show us the basic nature of everything, says Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. It has the power to cut samsara at the root—to liberate us from ignorance. When things work out the way we think they should, we call it a good day. We feel successful when we can make the world do what we want it to do. In meditation practice, though, we begin to see [...]