Meditation

Meditation translates several Sanskrit and Tibetan terms, including:

• bhavana (Skt.; Tib. སྒོམ་, gom, Wyl. sgom),
• samadhi (Skt.; Tib. ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་, ting nge dzin, Wyl. ting nge 'dzin) and
• dhyana (Skt.; Tib. བསམ་གཏན་, samten. Wyl. bsam gtan).

Samadhi is one of the three higher trainings.

Types of Meditation

• His Holiness the Dalai Lama says that, broadly speaking, there are two approaches in meditation:
  

1. Meditations on loving kindness, compassion, bodhichitta and so on. In these the practitioner is trying to cultivate or generate a state of mind, or transform the mind into these qualities. The meditation and the object of meditation are the same.

2. Meditations on impermanence, selflessness and emptiness. The meditating mind already has the nature of impermanence, selflessness and so on, so meditation here entails focussing the mind on these truths and taking them as the object, and then cultivating familiarity with them.

• Buddhist meditation is often divided into the practices of

1. shamatha or 'calm abiding' and
2. vipashyana or 'clear seeing.'

• There is also the division into

1. analytical meditation and
2. settling meditation.

Teachings Given to the Rigpa Sangha

• Khandro Rinpoche, Lerab Ling, 3 October 2010
• Khandro Rinpoche, Dharma Mati, Berlin, Germany, 8-9 May 2011, Meditation—Make your life easier with mindfulness and awareness
• Sogyal Rinpoche, Lerab Ling, Meditation Retreat, 19-23 July 2011
• Khandro Rinpoche, Dzogchen Beara, Ireland, 12-14 May 2017, Taming Mind with Meditation: Teachings on the practices of ‘calm abiding’ and ‘clear seeing’
• Khandro Rinpoche, Rigpa London, UK, 20 March 2019, meditation
• Khandro Rinpoche, Rigpa Amsterdam, Holland, 23-24 March 2019, how the stages of shamatha and vipashyana lead to the Dzogchen view

Internal Links

• View, Meditation and Action

External Links

• Meditation Series on Lotsawa House
• 'What meditation really is' - an introduction to meditation with illustrated instructions and video teachings.