Meditation

Meditation is the foremost activity at Shambhala Center. It is the foundation of all other activities offered at the center.

The practice of mindfulness-awareness meditation as taught in Shambhala enables one to look precisely at the state of mind without trying to alter it. This practice cultivates openness toward oneself and the environment, moment by moment. When practicing openness one's life can be a journey of wakeful and genuine existence.

This is a very experiential practice that begins where you are, with your experience, and helps you to pay attention to your world and how your mind works.

To learn more and try it for yourself, please come to our Thursday night Open House for free meditation instruction and community practice. Meditation instruction and practice is also available Monday evenings in Bellevue, and Tuesday evenings in Ballard.

For more material about meditation, including an excellent FAQ, suggested readings, and audio and video teachings, see: www.shambhala.org/meditation.

The whole idea of meditation is to develop an entirely different way of dealing with things, where you have no purpose at all. In fact, meditation is dealing with the question of whether or not there is such a thing as purpose. One is not on the way somewhere. Or rather, one is on the way and is also at the destination, at the same time.

-- Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

From Meditation in Action

The practice of meditation could be described as relating with cool boredom, refreshing boredom, boredom like a mountain stream. It refreshes because we do not have to do anything or expect anything. But there must be some sense of discipline if we are to get beyond the frivolity of trying to replace boredom. That is why we work with the breath as our practice of meditation. Simply relating with the breath is very monotonous and unadventurous -- we do not discover that the third eye is opening or that chakras are unfolding. It is like a stone-carved Buddha sitting in the desert. Nothing, absolutely nothing, happens.

     As we realize that nothing is happening, strangely we begin to realize that something dignified is happening. There is no room for frivolity, no room for speed. We just breathe and are there. There is something very satisfying and wholesome about it. It is as though we had eaten a good meal and were satisfied with it, in contrast to eating and trying to satisfy oneself. It is a very simpleminded approach to sanity.

-- Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

From The Myth of Freedom, page 56

Believing that thought patterns are a solid self is the source of our bewilderment and suffering. Seeing through this simple misunderstanding is the beginning of enlightenment.
     The meditation technique engenders clarity because in recognizing, acknowledging, and releasing thoughts, we realize that the mind's movement isn't "me." We don't have to cling to it as if it were a life raft. We'll still be here even if we let go. Releasing the thoughts and returning to the breath gives us a sense of space and relief. In that instant we are grounded, so to speak, because we can see ourselves as separate from our thoughts and emotions. . . .

     Meditation allows us to relax our grip on "me" because we're able to see the thoughts not so much as our personal identity, but more as the effects of the speed of our mind. We gain perspective. We can see the thoughts come and go. We're not so limited by them. Suddenly everything falls into place. We might have spent our entire life -- and many lifetimes over, according to the Buddhist teachings -- identifying with the movement of our mind. Now mindfulness and awareness present us with the revolutionary opportunity to observe that movement without being swept into it.

-- Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche

From Turning the Mind Into an Ally, page 63

Learn more about meditation and buddhism at shambhala.org

Read more about meditation and buddhism at shambhalatimes.org

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Seattle Shambhala Center
3107 E Harrison St, Seattle WA 98112
Tel. 206-860-4060    Email: seattle@shambhala.org