Kalu Rinpoche Podcast – Episode 3 – 1 Dec. 2020 (9 min) – Shamata part 1 of 3
Hello everyone, this is Kalu Rinpoche’s podcast, and thank you for being here with me again.
Last few weeks, we have done a podcast with different episodes and different categories, such as talking about the nature of the mind, we talk about is sacrifice devotion. I have prepared a new topic, it was a topic about training your mind. And I did actually did some voice recording, but then actually I thought how about I simply guide you with meditation. A guiding meditation along with you, as you listen to my voice and you meditate with me, as you follow my voice and a guideline. And that guideline is:
If you’re laying down in bed, with headphone, simply reading some books, if you are simply being in front of your shrine, being in a meditative state, or meditation posture. Whatever your posture may be. For some of you, doing any kind of posture can be challenging. So I request you to keep your back straight, if it’s a possibility. So if you’re keeping your back straight, and make sure that your eyes are open, looking little bit downwards towards your nose, you don’t have to close your eyes. And if you are sitting straight, make sure that your shoulder is in a right position. Make sure that your leg is crossed, or simply, cross-legged position.
The most important is your breathing. Many of us, when we talk about breathing, we tend to have this idea that “I need to focus into my breathing”, you need to have a clear understanding that when you say focus, and concentrate, it does not mean you need to build an intense state in your mind. There is a clear distinction between the self-awareness of your own state, being in the state of meditation, and then there is an intense state of mind that where you feel obligated, where you tell yourself to be concentrated, towards your mind, towards your breathing, towards the projection of thoughts.
What we need to do, what we need is not an intensity in our mind, we don’t need a concentration. Concentration is not awareness. Concentration is needed if you are playing sport, if you are playing football, if you are doing running, if you are doing any other kind of sport, based on the physical and mental strength combined together. That requires a concentration. Meditation does not require a concentration. Because it is the opposite of being intense. Being intense is a state of mind that is not really needed at the moment. Therefore, awareness, self-awareness is something that we need to have.
Self-awareness does not mean that you need to have an inner voice keeping on telling you each time, every single minute, every single second, to be aware, and to be aware, and to be aware. You don’t need that inner voice. You just simply need a reflection, reflection of awareness. The meaning of awareness is recognizing the projection of thoughts. The most important you need, in order to call yourself a meditator, in this state, in this category of meditation, is understanding the meaning of awareness, and understanding the meaning of recognizing the projection of thoughts.
So meaning of awareness simply means reflecting and witnessing at the same time. Without too much mentioning about concentration and obligation sensation. And that is very important that you need to understand. If you try to have many inner voices telling you to “concentrate, concentrate, concentrate on breathing, concentrate on breathing, concentrate on breathing”, that is never considered as a meditation. You may feel successful after the session, feeling that you have concentrated, but the very voice that has been repeating again and again, “concentration, concentration, concentration” is the projection of thoughts.
That is little bit like, throwing a boomerang and then forgot to catch when it returned. So therefore don’t chant the “concentration” in your mind. Do not chant “awareness” in your mind. Simply be the witness to the projection of thoughts. Simply be the reflection of the water. If you want to see the reflection of yourself in the water, you cannot keep on splashing the water and expecting to see some reflection of yourself, unless it is a drop of water where you need a microscopic camera to catch all the moments.
So therefore, let the water be as a water. And you see your own reflection in the water. So that is the meaning of awareness. Awareness does not mean you need to concentrate. Awareness means being the witness, and being still, being calm, and being witness.
When you have this, simply seeing the reflection of all the projection of thoughts without any judgement like I have shown to you the example, seeing your own reflection into the water.
Thank you for listening, bye for now.
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