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Mindfulness is a relational quality. It’s not about what’s happening, it’s about how we are with what’s happening. The point isn’t to utterly control our internal and external environment—the point is to have a different relationship to everything. 

Mindfulness can go anywhere: It doesn’t take the shape of what it’s watching. So we can be mindful of those beautiful, wonderful, tremendous times, we can be mindful of those difficult, painful times, and we can be mindful of all the neutral times. It’s a quality that can go anywhere. That’s the biggest, most expansive sense of what our meditation is about. 

When we sit and consciously cultivate mindfulness, through sitting meditation or movement meditation, like walking, it’s a period of dedicated attention. It’s the key to being able to bring that attention into our day. Very often, the foundational exercise in mindfulness has to do with the body, because it’s the most concrete, it’s the most available to us. We take the attention we have cultivated on the feeling of the breath, and expand it to other sensations in the body. 

Some experiences will be very, very pleasant. Some of the experiences, of course, will be painful. It’s just the nature of being in a body, and we get to see what it’s like to be with the painful experience. We see if we can open fully to those experiences without all of those mental add-ons. We come back to the experience in the body, and then we have the opportunity to see more deeply into the nature of what’s happening.

Now, if you are doing your meditation in the form of sitting, it’s important to remember balance. You don’t want to sit in a particularly painful posture. You don’t want to hurt yourself in some way. But if you can sit comfortably, and maybe not shift posture, at the very first moment of some kind of difficult sensation without straining your body, it will open up a world of investigation. (Where is the suffering, actually? Is it in your knee, is it in your mind?)

It’s not a process of grim endurance and somehow making it through. It’s much more a process of the invigoration of exploration and discovery. And it’s quite empowering to realize that we can transform our minds so that our relationship to pleasure and pain and neutrality can all be different. 

Guided Practice: Mindfulness and the Body

So let’s sit together. We’re going to experiment now with a body scan in our meditation practice. You can sit comfortably or lie down, however you feel most at ease. And begin by once again bringing your attention to the feeling of the breath. Just the natural sensations of the in and out breath. If you’re with the breath at the nostrils, that may be tingling, vibration, warmth, or coolness. If you’re with the breath at the chest or the abdomen, it may be movement, pressure stretching, release. You don’t have to name these things, but feel them. This is where we rest our attention.

(Pause).

And then bring your attention to the top of your head. You don’t have to use imagery or visualization. But notice if there are actually any sensations that you can perceive: tingling, pressure. Again, you don’t need to name them, but feel them. What we normally take to be solid is really a living, moving sea of sensation.

Simply noticing, slowly bring your awareness down through your face. Some sensations are pleasant, some are unpleasant, some are neutral. We’re cultivating the same kind of balanced awareness with whatever we’re picking up.

Notice your ears. Notice the back of your head. No judgment. No condemnation. Simply being in the moment with whatever you’re perceiving. Notice your neck and throat, your shoulders.

You may feel some stress and strain, the accumulation of tension. It’s okay. Of course it would be tempting to spin out into ways to “fix” this tension.

But our goal here is simply to be aware and have awareness itself be the vehicle of transformation. Let’s just be with our experience as it is right now, relinquishing as many add-ons as may appear.

Bring your attention down through one arm all the way through to your fingertips, and, when you’re ready, the other arm.

See if, in this process, you can make the shift from the more conceptual level of thinking, for example, of “my finger,” to the world of direct sensation. Pulsing, throbbing, pressure, vibrating, heat, cold, again, without needing to name these things. This is what we’re feeling.

And then bring awareness down through the back. One teacher once commented to me that in the West we tend to be so forward-oriented, we don’t even know we have a back. So what’s it like when you fill your body with this kind of awareness, this kind of attention? Just sweep your attention through your back, and then chest, stomach, groin.

Bringing your attention down through one thigh to the knee and then the other, down one leg, all the way to the toes, and, when you’re ready, the other leg.

You can sit or lie there, feeling the aliveness of the body. Feeling its ever-changing nature.

And when you feel ready, you can open your eyes.

(End of practice)

This is one of the most accessible forms of attention. So much of our day is built around simple sensations. We can cultivate attention to these simple sensations throughout the day. 

For example, if you’re in a meeting, every now and then, see if you can feel your feet touching the ground. It may sound simplistic, but it’s actually very powerful. If you’re washing your hands, instead of, at that very moment, trying to think through a presentation you’re going to give, see if you can simply feel the sensation of water on your hands. 

If you’re reaching for a cup of tea, or a cup of coffee, pause for a moment and simply feel that contact as you actually experience touching that cup.

These are just some of the simple ways we can break some of the crazy momentum of our day, and bring ourselves back to a state of mindfulness.

♦

Excerpted from Sharon Salzberg’s 2013 Dharma Talk, “Real Happiness: A 28-Day Meditation Program.” Watch the full Dharma Talk here.

This article was originally published on August 26, 2022.

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Years ago, when I was worrying about the climate crisis, I was often told that I was catastrophizing. Those voices have become quiet now, and when themes of the climate crisis arise, people now turn their gaze down, as if quietly depressed or too disheartened to speak. This sense of anguish has become even more pronounced as we hear about the horrors of war raging in our world, which have pushed even the urgent fear for the environment off center stage. In my meditation groups that include first responders and people in public service, we often discuss how to be with our fear, despair, and hopelessness. Together we contemplate how we can avoid shutting down emotionally and how we can stay present and engaged amidst so much suffering.

In my search for ways to help and support others in this time, I think about the concept of Deep Adaptation, popularized by British professor Jem Bendell and introduced to me by Buddhist scholar and activist Joanna Macy. Bendell encourages us to accept the probability of a catastrophic future, and to begin thinking now about how we can adapt emotionally and practically to such a frightening prospect. He encourages us to shift our perspective from fixating on the outcome to contemplating how we can live in the best ways possible in the face of great loss and uncertainty. Bendell describes the need to restructure our way of life in society in clear, sensible, and practical terms. 

In addition to adapting to how we live our lives, I believe we also need a “deep adaptation” of the heart—an inner complement to the outer dynamic that is a necessary medicine if we want to become agents of peace and transformation. Whether or not we cannot turn our ship around, it is important that we meet our uncertain future internally, and the quality of being that we will find there will infuse our relationships and engagement in the world.

Cultivating a compassionate heart can help us avoid burning out, shutting down, or getting lost in anxiety and depression. It can help us stay calm, caring, and connected to a wider perspective so that we may even thrive in a grim situation. 

In his travel book The Colossus of Maroussi, novelist Henry Miller offers us a clue to how we can bring about such a change in attitude:

At Epidaurus, in the stillness, in the great peace that came over me, I heard the heart of the world beat. I know what the cure is: it is to give up, to relinquish, to surrender, so that our little hearts may beat in unison with the great heart of the world. 

But how can “our little hearts beat in unison with the great heart of the world?” How can we connect our heart to a much wider perspective? 

Reflecting on the traditional Buddhist metta practices of lovingkindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity, I have imagined a seven-step heart practice for this time of horror and sorrow we’re all enduring. And, drawing upon my knowledge as a psychologist and meditation teacher, I’ve especially thought about the practices that would be most helpful to caregivers, first responders, parents, friends, and neighbors in times of crisis and for working with trauma. 

These practices are rooted in mindfulness and embedded in natural or awake awareness. Natural or awake awareness, also called the field of awareness, is not localized in our prefrontal cortex, our “manager mind.” Instead, this quality of awareness is present everywhere, without localization, and is often likened to a vast ocean. When we rest in this quality of being, we are filled with aliveness, awakeness, and love. We can learn to cross over into experiencing ourselves this way, like the ocean viewing its waves arising and dissolving. Together with the experience of mindfulness and awake awareness, heart practices allow us to experience the basic qualities of openness, fullness, and love. 

7-Step Heart Practice

Step one: Trust in a wider perspective.

Soften your gaze and connect with the world around you. Trust what you feel. Even when our world is being gravely damaged by climate change and war, we can rely on our intention to trust in a wider perspective, as well as on our dedication to open our hearts to all suffering beings. This intention and dedication situate us into our heart space and allows the energy of the heart to radiate outward into our world. Resting in the felt sense of our heart space allows us to feel calm, warm, and connected. Trust reminds us that there is a bigger context in which we are embedded. Trust allows us to relinquish, to surrender, to let go into uncertainty, while holding the faith that doors will eventually open for us. Trust allows us to go beyond our personal sense of being in control, especially in times when control is impossible. Trust allows our little heart to drop into the great heart of the world.

Step 2: Heartfully rest in the field of awake awareness.

Resting in this way situates us in a much wider perspective than in our personal, often fearful, little heart view. The Isha Upanishad of the Indian Vedas tells us, “This is full, that is full, from that fullness comes this fullness, if you take away this fullness from that fullness, only fullness remains.” If we allow our personal hearts to rest in the limitless, boundless, knowing fullness of the universe, then we can anchor ourselves in a reality that is inexhaustible, that does not shut down, burn out, or get overwhelmed. Resting our hearts in this inexhaustible field of awareness provides the security, the psycho-spiritual container, to hold our suffering.

Step 3: Listen deeply to yourself. 

Deep listening allows us to tune into ourselves and to attend to our own fears. Imagine a child who has been hurt. When a trusted adult embraces and listens deeply, the child can feel pain, cry, and relax. However, when there is nobody to help, the child may get desperate and often angry. When we experience the fullness of there being enough, whether that’s attention or love, it is easier for us to be open and generous towards ourselves. Make ten minutes every day to listen to yourself, deep inside.

Step 4: Offer tenderness to yourself.

Tenderness for oneself brings us into the present moment and makes it possible for us to be with the felt sense of our own vulnerability and rawness. Psychotherapist Eugene Gendlin tells us that, “The moment you experience the felt sense of painful feelings is exactly when change can happen… Then something in your way of being starts to re-configure and you gain a healthier understanding of yourself and become increasingly free.” The felt sense of tenderness toward our own self allows us to heal and grow. Offer a sentence that expresses tenderness to yourself, such as, “May I hold myself with kindness and tender care.” You may gently place one or both hands on your heart.

Step 5: Accept what is.

Acceptance of what is allows us to let the reality of the world in, even though it may be harsh. Acceptance, here, does not suggest whitewashing or the condoning of wrongdoing, but, rather, it means seeing clearly. People can experience the feeling of acceptance when a skillful doctor tells them compassionately the truth about a difficult prognosis. The individual then has the chance to spend the rest of their life with what is essential to them. In a similar way we may be able to accept knowledge of a possibly devastating future with openness and a peaceful heart when we are held in compassionate and loving awareness.

Step 6: Offer loving compassion to yourself. 

Loving compassion unlocks our heart, so we can feel with the pain of others. Tapping into the openness and fullness that is naturally there, we can afford to preserve the essence of our humanity despite a possibly looming catastrophe. We know that parents, who are in touch with their own inner lives, are more easily able to share themselves sensitively and effectively with their children. In a similar way are those, who know themselves and care for their own physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health, able to be effective and resilient first responders, healthcare workers, parents, friends, activists, and citizens. You might say quietly to yourself, “May I offer compassion to myself, so I can also include others in my care.”

Step 7:  Set yourself—and others—free with heartfelt engagement.

Heartfelt engagement makes it possible for us to reach out to others in helpful ways, and to remain engaged and caring, while exercising the little influence we may have to help. There are many stories from wars and concentration camps where people who had an inner sense of “richness,” “wealth,” and “freedom of mind” were able to share themselves in incredible ways with their fellow prisoners. Those who serve others often experience a sense of strength, belonging, and profound meaning. Open to the possibility of engaging yourself on behalf of another to help or support a person or animal in need in a special way. As you have done so, notice the felt sense in your body and heart.

Heart work is deep adaptation. The stages of this seven-step Heart Practice build on each other, and together allow us to stay open and engaged, even when there is great suffering, offering solid, practical, and real-world support. Then, even when life is harsh, difficult, and at times devastating, we can stay healthy, present, and caringly available to others and our beloved world.

♦

For for more on the climate crisis, check out Tricycle’s Buddhism and Ecology Summit. In honor of Earth Day 2022, Tricycle is bringing together leading Buddhist teachers, writers, and environmentalists—including Joanna Macy, Roshi Joan Halifax, David Loy, Paul Hawken, and Tara Brach—for a donation-based weeklong virtual event series exploring what the dharma has to offer in a time of environmental crisis. Learn more here.

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Welcome back to the fourth and final week of Meditation Month, our annual challenge to sit all 31 days of January featuring guided meditations from Tibetan Buddhist teacher Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. 

This week, Mingyur Rinpoche leads a guided meditation on tonglen, the Tibetan practice of “sending and receiving.” Tong means sending or giving, and len means taking or receiving. To practice tonglen, you breathe in and receive the suffering of other sentient beings, and then you breathe out and send happiness to others. Mingyur Rinpoche describes the act of sending and receiving as self-transformation. By practicing tonglen, he explains, we develop strength in our own love and compassion and we accumulate virtue through the will to help others become free from suffering.  

We’ll do hatred as an example. If we do [a] taking and sending practice with the hatred, then the hatred actually transforms into love and compassion. Without suppressing it, without getting rid of the hatred, poison becomes medicine. 

Download a transcript of this talk. It has been edited for clarity.

Meditation Month is free for all participants. Tricycle is here to support your journey with helpful articles, a live call on January 31 with meditation teacher Myoshin Kelley, a Facebook discussion group, and other free resources for meditation and Buddhist practice. Visit tricycle.org/mm22 to learn more.

This week’s Meditation Month articles:

• “The Efforts of Others” by Rev. Dr. Kenji Akahoshi
• “The High of New Beginnings—and the Joy of What Comes Next” by Jessica Angima
• “The Power of the Third Moment” by Trungram Gyalwa Rinpoche 
• “The Sound of a Bell, the Seven-Piece Robe” by Guo Gu
• “We Are All This Luminous Mind: The Possibility and Importance of Awakening” by Dosho Port
• “The Simile of the Lump of Foam” by Bhikkhu Bodhi

To keep up with all of our Meditation Month offerings, sign up for our newsletter using the form below.

♦

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Happy New Year, and welcome to week 1 of Tricycle Meditation Month. Throughout January, we invite you to take our annual challenge to commit to a daily meditation practice. Anyone can do it, even if you can only set aside a few minutes. Each week, our Meditation Month teacher, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, will lead a free guided meditation video to help you weave your practice into your life while cultivating awareness, compassion, and wisdom. 

Mingyur Rinpoche is a master of the Karma Kagyu and Nyingma lineages of Tibetan Buddhism and the leader of the Tergar Meditation Community, a global network of Buddhist meditation centers. Born in Nepal in 1975, Mingyur Rinpoche began to study meditation as a young boy with his father, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, a revered Buddhist teacher. For his four-part series, The Bodhisattva’s Path of Meditation, Mingyur Rinpoche will explore Shantideva’s The Way of the Bodhisattva. Each video will introduce an approach to meditation inspired by the classic text that builds on the previous weeks’ teachings.

In this first video, Mingyur Rinpoche introduces a practice of equalizing self and others and guides us through a meditation on our desire for happiness and our true nature of innate goodness. He explains how to build a foundation for your practice by focusing on how you share a connection with all other beings and recognizing that we all have a universal wish to be happy and free from suffering. But although we all wish for happiness, we don’t always know its true causes.

Download a transcript of this talk. It has been edited for clarity.

Meditation Month is free for all participants. Tricycle is here to support your journey with helpful articles, a live call on January 31 with meditation teacher Myoshin Kelley, a Facebook discussion group, and other free resources for meditation and Buddhist practice. Visit tricycle.org/mm22 to learn more.

This week’s Meditation Month articles:

• “What We Gain When We Learn to Let Go” by Gil Fronsdal
• “Awakening to Joy” by Pema Düddul
• “A Short Meditation for Caregivers Battling Burnout” by Lama Palden
• “The Art of Slowing Down” by Martin Aylward
• “The Zen of Not Knowing” by Zenkei Blanche Hartman
• “A Practice for Breathing Through Pain” by Radhule Weininger

To keep up with all of our Meditation Month offerings, sign up for our newsletter using the form below.

♦

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When Tricycle first launched For the Moment: Short Practices for Relief and Resilience last May, we hoped that the brief guided meditations could provide some calm amid growing anxieties about COVID-19. Over a year into the pandemic, even though the world is slowly opening back up as vaccines become more widely available, many of us are still grappling with feelings of anxiety, loss, and isolation. For those looking to stay grounded, here is a selection of guided meditations from a variety of teachers across the Buddhist traditions.

***

Working with Anxious Thoughts 
with Craig Hase

You’re not alone if you’ve noticed yourself experiencing more anxiety than usual this past year. The pandemic, social distancing, and even the thought of returning to “normal life” spurred anxiety for many people. Here, Craig Hase guides us through a short practice for working with anxious thoughts that begins with dropping into the breathing body. Hase holds a PhD in counseling psychology and has spent years practicing in the traditions of Zen, Vipassana, and Vajrayana Buddhism.

Bringing Our Practice into the Workplace 
with Pamela Weiss

In this two-part episode, Insight Meditation and Soto Zen teacher Pamela Weiss leads a before and after work meditation. In the first part, Weiss invites us to ground ourselves before the workday by setting an intention—a quality to engage and cultivate within the activities of our daily life and work. In the second part, she invites us to reflect on this intention at the end of the day and ask ourselves, “How did it go?” 

Before Work:

After Work: 

Be a Walking Buddha 
with Mindy Newman

Grab your headphones and step outside for this walking meditation led by psychotherapist and meditation teacher Mindy Newman. During the walk, Newman offers instructions to help us cultivate love and compassion for all beings we cross paths with: 

Try to imagine what it would be like if everyone, every being you encounter, could be totally free from suffering. Know that just this wish, this desire, this seed of an idea, is healing to your own mind. 

Welcoming and Liberating Fear 
with Loch Kelly

In this episode, Buddhist teacher and psychotherapist Loch Kelly leads us through a meditation on shifting our relationship to fear. The practice begins with acknowledging our fear, then welcoming it, and finally liberating it. 

Interconnectedness with Nature 
with Dekila Chungyalpa

“You are part of nature, and you belong here,” says Tibetan Buddhist and conservation scientist Dekila Chungyalpa in this episode as she shares a breath practice for heightening our awareness of our interconnectedness with the natural world.

Goodnight Metta 
with Sumi Loundon Kim

Sumi Loundon Kim, a Buddhist chaplain and student of the Theravada tradition, offers a goodnight metta meditation that can be practiced from the comfort of our beds as we wind down for the night. You can follow along on your own or with family members and children.  

This is a practice to accompany Sumi’s article, “Goodnight Metta: A Bedtime Meditation for Kids.”

Working with Strong Emotions 
with Jessica Angima

In this episode, mindfulness teacher Jessica Angima invites us to bring to mind an area in our lives in which we’ve been experiencing a strong emotion, whether it’s difficulty in a relationship or problems at work. She then guides us through a practice on how to approach these strong emotions with honesty and compassion. 

♦

Find more episodes of For the Moment here, or on Apple Podcasts and Soundcloud.

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