• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • Join My Email List
  • Donate
  • Contact

Judy Lief

Buddhism – Shambhala – Profound Treasury – Making Friends with Death

  • Home
  • About
    • About Judy Lief
    • Editorial Work
  • Offerings
    • Profound Treasury Volumes
    • The Slogans of Atisha
    • End of Life Teachings
    • Articles
    • Videos
    • How to Meditate
    • Additional Meditation Resources
    • Resources for Small Groups
  • Courses
    • Video Courses
  • Podcast
    • Dharma Glimpses Podcast
  • Blog
    • Label It Thinking
  • Events
    • Profound Treasury Retreats
    • Profound Treasury Events
    • Profound Treasury Video Courses
    • Upcoming Teachings

How to Meditate

Episodes 2 – 14 of the Dharma Glimpses podcast series present basic instruction in the shamatha-vipashyana meditation practice taught by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. You can access all podcast episodes by clicking HERE. Additional meditation resources can be found HERE.

•     •     •     •     •

Episode 2: Meditation Practice   The importance of setting clear boundaries • start with a clear beginning • sit down, slow down, and come into your body • take a relaxed, dignified, upright posture • breathe naturally and place the mind on the breath • focus on the outbreath with a light touch, yet with persistence: out, dissolve, gap • when you get distracted, simply bring the mind back, without judgment • end clearly, with the intention of taking the gentle, open, dignified attitude of meditation into your day.

Episode 3: The Role of Posture   Learning to come into our body in a simple and direct way • psychological body vs. sensory body • start with just being still • “perching” vs completely settling in like a rotting log • noticing the effect of posture on your state of mind • feeling embodied whether sitting, walking, standing, or lying down • accepting your own body and posture with tenderness and appreciation.

Episode 4: Sitting Like a Mountain   Sitting like a mountain: solid, immovable, content • meditation posture provides a container within which you can relax • sitting with uprightness and dignity (“head and shoulders”) • senses relaxed • soft front, strong back • bringing strength and vulnerability together creates greater stability • emphasizing awareness of the space around the body • letting the space reflect back on you.

Episode 5: Being Intimate with the Breath   Our breath is our most intimate connection with life itself • we are continually in a process of exchanging inside and outside • the inbreath is taking in, and the outbreath is letting go • the breath is the central issue that we work with in this style of meditation practice • synchronizing mind and breathing means identifying with the breath as closely and intimately as possible • in meditation we are being still, but we are also connecting with the energy and movement of the breath.

Episode 6: Letting Go with the Outbreath   We place our mind on the outbreath, and then we let go • this form of mediation is based on dissolving outward, looking beyond ourselves • a rhythm of relaxing and regrouping, relaxing and regrouping • at the end of every breath there is a little momentary gap, which is a very important part of the practice • we place our mind on the breath, and then as it goes out, we let go • every breath is a mini-meditation.

Episode 7: Noting Thoughts and Returning to the Breath   Two different aspects of thinking: the content of thoughts and the thinking process • where do thoughts come from? where do they go? • stillness of mind and activity of mind • like watching children in a playground • just return to the breath • not battling or trying to get rid of thoughts, but having a different relationship to thoughts • simply note and return to the breath • the technique of labeling thoughts • reminding ourselves that thoughts are not the boss of me.

Episode 8: Dripping Water on a Stone   The first kind of effort is just showing up • just getting to the cushion is the hardest part • simply giving in and surrendering to the discipline • soft yet strong effort is what is called for in meditation practice • letting a burnt pan soak overnight; just let it sit • soaking our fixations, obstacles, self- doubts in the water of meditation • the second kind of effort is repeated effort, steady effort, like dripping water on a stone over a very long time • sometimes it seems like not much is happening, but with steady effort over time you begin to see what meditation is all about.

Episode 9: The Tree, the Rock, and the Blade of Grass   The story of the tree, the rock, and the blade of grass • flexibility, steadiness, resilience: these are the qualities that are cultivated in meditation practice • rooted and flexible; you may be knocked over, but you bounce back • seeming power can be quite weak and brittle, easily undermined when circumstances are hard • the porcelain cup breaks, the lacquer cup bounces • from softness comes flexibility and resilience; from stillness comes engaging the world with power and strength.

Episode 10: Meditation as a Way of Making Friends with Yourself   Meditation as a way of making friends with yourself • inviting in all aspects of yourself to a banquet of experience • workability: staying with our experience, whatever it is, at is arises • being more present in a heartful, gentle, kind way • becoming more familiar with our patterns at an early stage, before they become overwhelming • mindfulness or “heartfulness”? • what we think we need sometimes falls away, and we realize we actually have everything we need.

Episode 11: Training to be More Present   In meditation we are practicing being more wholeheartedly present • learning to recognize our escape valves, the ways we hide out from our immediate experience • wholeheartedly feeling what we feel • recognizing the process of checking in and checking out • training to be more present with the ups and downs of ordinary life allows us to be more present with others • each time we bring ourselves back we are strengthening our ability to stay with what is happening as it’s happening • not hiding our true experience from others.

Episode 12: On-the-Spot Practice   The skills we learn in formal meditation practice can be applied on-the-spot as we face challenges in our daily life • training to come back into your body; giving yourself just a moment to come back to simple physical presence • tuning in to our breathing provides a gap, interrupting the flow of habitual or panic mind • letting the situation tell us what to do • acknowledging our emotions without judging or altering them • coming into the fresh ground of the present moment • we’re able to do these on-the-spot practices because we’re training in them in our regular meditation sessions.

Episode 13: Not Too Tight, Not Too Loose   Finding the right balance in our practice keeps us engaged with without being overly effortful • too loose = being spaced-out, indulgent, forgetful; too tight = being really hard on ourselves • sitting practice presents a dynamic, moment-to-moment set of choices: should I relax more? should I tighten up more? • this dynamic is reflected in our posture and in our thought process • when you begin a session, it’s good to tighten up a bit to set boundaries, but then relax within those boundaries • like flying a kite: holding the string with just the right amount of pressure.

Episode 14: Touch and Go   “Touch and go” refers to how we relate to thoughts, distractions and sensations that arise during sitting meditation • it represents a middle way between the extremes of avoiding our experience and getting seduced by whatever arises • the “touch” and the “go” happen almost simultaneously • the example of a neighbor stopping by to say hello when we are chopping wood • welcoming and appreciating whatever comes our way, but then letting the experience go • the sense of “disowning” is similar to “divesting” — disowning those qualities that keep us stuck in fixed views or habitual patterns • inserts freshness and simplicity into our meditation • whatever arises is good fuel for meditation practice.

Join Judy on Social Media

  • Email
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Contact Judy Lief

Contact Judy Lief:  judy@nulljudylief.com

Join my Email List

Join my email list to keep up with teaching events and other news from Judy Lief.

 

News and Events

Judy Lief • 802-598-5832 • judy@judylief.com