A sense of space

The key thing here is, try not to watch the breath, but try feeling it go in and out, so you feel one with the breath. Just see if from the beginning you can minimize that sense of heavy-duty watching it, and just feel the breath going in and out. …. Then start to emphasize the outwardness and the space that the breath goes into, and emphasize that more and more. And then just see if you can let that sense of outwardness and space begin to pervade the whole practice more and more.

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

Take a step back

The life view of getting things done and getting ahead moves in one direction; stepping back does not seem to be in accord with that view. It’s non-productive, so we don’t have time for it. But what we realize is that if we don’t step back , time has us. We are on the run, on the treadmill of work, career and getting ahead; on the vehicle of what we can get out of life, a vehicle that’s driven by a blind driver. But if we can’t afford ten minutes or even five minutes, that blind driver is going to stay in the driver’s seat. If we can step back, and not be anything or be nothing – not adopting some view that life’s a waste of time, but just curtail being wasted by time –  then there is room for a subtle inner light to dawn. For a moment we can stop putting the pressure on, and stop running to find something to be filled by.

Ajahn Sucitto, Turning the Wheel of Truth.

Underneath

Meditation is based on the premise that the natural state of the mind is calm and clear. It provides a way to train our mind to settle into this state. Our first reason for meditating might be that we want some freedom from our agitated mind. We want to discover the basic goodness of our natural mind. To do this requires us first to slow down and experience our mind as it is. In the process, we get to know how our mind works. We see that wherever the mind is abiding—in anger, in desire, in jealousy, or in peace—that is where we also are abiding. We begin to see that we have a choice in the matter: we do not have to act at the whim of every thought. We can abide peacefully. Meditation is a way to slow down and see how our mind works.

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche

Let things come in and go out

When you are practicing … do not try to stop your thinking. Let it stop by itself. If something comes into your mind, let it come in, and let it go out. It will not stay long. When you try to stop your thinking, it means you are bothered by it. Do not be bothered by anything. It appears as if something comes from outside your mind, but actually it is only the waves of your mind, and if you are not bothered by the waves, gradually they will become calmer and calmer. […] Nothing outside yourself can cause any trouble. You yourself make the waves in your mind. If you leave your mind as it is, it will become calm.

Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind

Stress proofing the mind

Bus Runner 2Unless we train it the mind does the minimum necessary to fulfill a function. In that way it is like the body. For example, our muscles and bones are strong enough for us to walk – but not to run, unless we condition them…..The difference between the mind and the body is that no one is surprised to get winded while running to catch the bus. Nobody get’s mad at themselves, saying “I can’t believe I can’t run 26.2 miles!” However, when we get overwhelmed by longer hours at work, more emails or more parenting duties, we become irritable, moody and unhappy. It does not occur to us that our mind is out of shape. We put more stress on ourselves because we assume we should be able to handle it all.

Sakyong Mipham, Running with the Mind of Mediation

Learning to stay

Meditation is a way of training in learning to stay, or as one student put it more accurately, learning to come back, to return to being present over and over again.

The truth is, anyone who’s ever tried meditation learns really quickly that we are almost never fully present.

Pema Chodron