The Big Picture

The most exquisite teachings of Meditation were translated into English for the first time in the 1990s. So recent!

These particular teachings, called the "Lamrim," were brought to Tibet from India by the Indian Yoga Master, Atisha, in the eleventh century. Atisha condensed all the mind training teachings of the Buddha (563-483BC) into the Lamrim because he himself felt that after decades of practicing yoga intensively, he needed specific techniques to train his mind to experience ultimate reality.

I have been in the world of yoga since I was born, and only recently - ten years after teaching yoga and a lifetime of practicing - have I realized the brilliance of the "Lamrim," which means "Stages on the Path (to Enlightenment)." The Lamrim takes into account all the complexities of the human mind and offers a step by step systemic approach to train the mind, open the heart, and understand reality.

Lamrim is also the essential preparation for Tantra, the fast path to omniscience where bliss is the vehicle used to experience ultimate truth and permanent bliss for ourselves and all beings. The success of one's Tantra practice depends on the ability to gather and dissolve prana into the central channel through the power of meditation and subtle body yoga practices. You need a qualified teacher to guide you in the practice of Tantra. For now, our task is to master the Lamrim teachings.

Lamrim is designed to be a self study. The three books, "Liberation in Our Hands, Parts 1, 2 and 3," by Pabongka Rinpoche offer a complete guide to the Lamrim meditations which practitioners can read on their own and guide themselves through. This is the first translation of the complete Lamrim into English - just published in the 1990s!

In this blog, we will go through the brilliant, step by step Lamrim meditations. I urge you to join me on this journey. Please buy the 3 volumes of "Liberation in Our Hands," and in case you don't have them, I will offer a brief description of each meditation in this blog so that you can then guide yourself and your students through them.

The Lamrim is designed for each practitioner to take themselves through a guided meditation and then hold their concentration on the meditation object of that day until they experience a direct realization of that day's topic. It is stated in the Vedas, "Only what you experience is real. What you learn from a teacher is Knowledge. What you learn through your own direct experience is Wisdom." The Lamrim gives you the experience of Wisdom; direct, uncontrived realizations.

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In can take years to master the Lamrim meditations. Pobongka Rinpoche encourages us to first become proficient at the meditation topics - get to know them - get a good overview of all the Lamrim teachings - and then go over them again more slowly in order to elicit contrived and eventually uncontrived experiential realizations.

For now, we will go through the meditation topics fairly quickly to get a good feeling of this path. We will take two weeks to go through the 21 meditation topics of the Lamrim. We may go into this with just a modest feeling of wanting to get to know these topics and become familiar with the meditations...but, you might just have uncontrived realizations sooner than later.

Personally, I feel compelled to write this blog and inspire you to join me because the Lamrim is having such an incredible impact on me. Though I have been following aspects of the Lamrim meditations for over 4 years, it is only in the past five days - twice a day - that I have been going through each topic in its original sequence as it was intended to be practiced centuries ago. On day one, I felt a surge of bliss, an opening in my heart that brought on so much elation, I didn't know what to do with myself! By day 3, not only did I feel bliss and lightness after meditation, but also a great urgency to help others in all the best ways I know how. By day 4, along with the post-meditation bliss and clarity, I was able to use the energy to focus on my work, being more productive than usual and finding extra time in my day to do things for others. I came out of my meditation in day 5 with a strong impulse to serve my teachers and students in various creative ways.

We will start together at the beginning. For today, you have the overview of what we are going to do in the next two weeks. Please go online - amazon - and purchase Liberation in Our Hands. Tomorrow, we will begin the meditations.

We will meditate twice a day - once in the morning and once in the evening. Each meditation will be a minimum of 30 minutes and a maximum of one hour. Please try not to fall behind because doing the meditations daily and at a steady pace like this is powerful in itself. If you do fall behind, don't worry too much...just pick up where you left off.

14 days. 21 meditations. A chance to prepare for a direct experience of a bliss that lasts, and a reality beyond illusions.

Today's homework:
1) Create a nice, clean space in your home where you will meditate.

2) Look at your schedule for the next two weeks. Find at least half an hour twice a day to do the meditations. In case you need to do the two meditations in one sitting, that is ok. Two shorter meditations per day are recommended over one long meditation. For example, two half hour sittings are recommended over one 60 minute sitting.

3) Purchase a meditation journal, where you will keep track of your meditation, diet, and yoga each day.

4) Close your eyes. Think of one person in your life who is having an especially hard time. Dedicate this two week meditation journey to them. In your heart, say to them, "I am doing this for you. I will experience peace, clarity, truth, bliss and wisdom...for you." Imagine yourself being that person's refuge. Keep them in your heart. All day today, feel happy that you are about to embark on this journey, not only for your own evolution, but for theirs as well and then imagine the snowball effect.

5) Be so happy to not only experience these meditations, but to also be able to share the journey with Lamrimpa's (practitioners of Lamrim) everywhere.

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Personally, I could have spent this summer going to Brazil with one of my best friends to spend time with Shamans in the Amazon. I could have toured around the world to the most sublime retreat centers and yoga studios teaching yoga and singing mantra. I could have gone home to spend time with my newborn, precious nephew. But, I have decided to use my time ---finally, finally, finally --- to be still.

I am choosing to make meditation the most important part of my day...to let everything i need to do in the day be scheduled around my two meditation sessions. Make stillness, silence, and solitude my priority. This is my choice. This is what I feel we must do to truly meditate and have our own realizations - beyond what we read in books or hear in lectures.

The Lamrim, Yoga, Tantra are far beyond religion. These are practices that enable us to develop our minds and experience ultimate truth, bliss and freedom for ourselves and all beings. Every spiritual tradition has a practice of meditation - Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, Shamans, Sufiis...every spiritual practice leads to silence and stillness - the conditions for Wisdom. I am choosing the way of the Lamrim because the Lamrim is part of the original teachings of Yoga and offers very specific instructions from the beginning of the path (having a Teacher) to the very end of the path (Enlightenment/Moksha/Samadhi).

My practice of yoga asana, pranayama, and mantra help me on this path, but, I need more instruction to purify and train my mind as did Atisha in the 11th Century. Having mastered the Lamrim, Atisha succeeded in experiencing ultimate Bliss and Wisdom directly as did generations of Tantric masters that followed him.

Today, we prepare. On Thursday, July 15th, we begin our first meditation.

Our practice of asana, pranayama and nutrtion must continue as we engage in Lamrim. The blog will offer ayurvedic recipes, mantra, and yoga tips throughout our course of study...

Thank you to my teachers for your blessings on this journey.

Namaste!