Thread by @chagmed

My dear lama told me that the best meditation arises from relaxation of body and mind

Another gem from my lama, Chagmé Rinpoche:

In meditation, is mind resting in a slumped, sleepy dullness?

Dull states are easily mistaken for genuine calm abiding (shamatha).

If mind is dull, return it to vivid, uplifted wakefulness.

Some approaches to calm-abiding meditation (shamatha) are rather aggressive, emphasizing focus/fixation. This is exhausting (and misses the point).

The dzogchen approach to shamatha doesn't involve siege tactics.

My teacher Yangthang Rinpoche wrote:

"It's not a question of [discursive thoughts] being eliminated; they are still present, they may still be arising, but because one is remaining in the natural state, discursive thoughts dissolve by the force of relaxing"

To this day, I turn to this precious pith instruction again and again. It stunned me the first time I read it.

So, yes, we do apply force in meditation: the force of ease, expansiveness, and relaxation into the natural state.

My teachers emphasized that shamatha is not a state in which thoughts don't arise, rather, due to the effulgence of awareness, thoughts continue to arise, but mind is undisturbed, as the ocean is undisturbed by waves on its surface.

Again, my dear Yangthang Rinpoche:

"All thought is relaxed in its own place and one remains in the nature of what is. This is the dzogchen approach to remaining comfortably in one's natural state."

Dzogchen emphasizes getting mind out of the way of its natural state: not manipulating, not interfering, but also not indulging endless chains of discursive thought.

Initially, one begins calm abiding with a support: the out-breath, a statue, a stone, a visualization, etc.

Mind becomes aware of its distraction and returns to the object of support. This is a very good way to begin.

With continued practice, the object of support becomes more subtle. E.g., I began using a external object, was then asked to visualize something within the body.

Eventually, one drops the object of support, and practices what some call peaceful abiding without characteristics.

In daily life, when something is interfering, one needs to take action — hang up the phone, close the door, etc.

In calm abiding, when mind is distracted, the distraction doesn't need to be eliminated per se — one simply returns to the practice.

This method can be carried into post-meditation: if mind finds itself disturbed by, e.g, the news/politics/whatever, return to your life practice (continue what you were doing before you were disturbed).

Of course, this requires a modicum of awareness.

Learning to ride a bicycle is challenging. Eventually, the body learns (and never forgets!).

Similarly, mind can slowly learn to abide calmly in its essence. This mindfulness then begins to "leak" into your everyday life. This is something wonderful.

Your friend anger arrives for a visit.

You can:
- ignore him
- ignore everything else, pay attention only to him
- neither ignore him nor be disturbed by him

Neither a) ignoring, nor b) indulging a disturbing emotion, but instead acknowledging it (seeing it clearly), allowing it to arise, dwell, dissolve on its own.

At no point is there a need to put on gloves, scrub, give in to mental melodrama.

What does it mean to
- see clearly
- acknowledge
- recognize

Yes, there is a world. There are objects. But all perception of objects (and this body) arises in this mind.

Perception of objects, perceiver, and interpretations/concepts all arise in the same place.

For me, the experiential understanding that
a) the sense of I
b) perception of stuff "out there"
c) thoughts about a & b

— that these are all this mind, is something I consider what in some circles is called "actionable intelligence"

To be clear: I reject notions that the universe, matter, stuff, bodies, are somehow all mind. I am an unabashed materialist. No apologies there.

Working with mind, cultivating mindfulness/awareness/resilience do not require one to submit to funky metaphysics.

It is, however, essential that this mind know (experientially, not merely conceptually) that its likes/dislikes, sense of morality, political and food preferences, etc. — all arise from itself.

Mind's natural plasticity/flexibility can be a problem (endless distraction, discursive thought, giving in to anger, etc.).

But this flexibility is also the basis for a deep sense of freedom and ease, even in the midst of the insanity that is our contemporary world.

We cultivate compassion for beings because they don't understand the difference between physical pain, which is unavoidable, and self-inflicted mental anguish and suffering.

I need not like a particular politician, nor his policies. But if this mind is consumed by what it dislikes, it becomes the enemy within.

A lama told me "meditate on what you want, not on what you don't want."

His point: direct your time/energy towards beneficial things.

Not so much
- creating conditions for relaxation to occur
as
- ceasing to cultivate the opposite of relaxation

E.g., if I stop ruminating upon anger, relaxation-of-anger is naturally there

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