Meditation concerts

The ebook version is text only. The printed Workbook and Practice Guide will have more of a journal feature to log personal notes and use in discussion groups. Both the ebook and printed editions otherwise have the same content. I did it this way because the most common question that comes in is, “How do I begin a daily practice?”

Excerpt from The Power of Vow:

Some people prefer to be given instructions for exactly how to do things. There’s a tendency to want to do it right. In my opinion, if you’re doing any kind of practice, that’s a good thing. Right? So, use the “Daily Practice Guide” as it is or modify it to suit your needs. But we have to be careful. If we set ourselves up for too much, we may avoid practice. In other words, try to be flexible. If we feel that we’re not meditating if we don’t do a full hour on our cushion with our sangha, we may not meditate often. We can take one-minute meditation breaks at any time. We could also do a short refuge prayer whenever we want. Do your work, but be loose, and be free. Don’t punish yourself with over ambitious requirements. Like going to the gym, or practicing guitar, a 30-minute session three times a week is better than a two hour session once a week. The work gets into our brain better when practiced more frequently, rather than long intensive meditations.

Intention: it’s positive to set intention before literally any action. If we set intention in the context of Dharma practice, some gurus say that we dramatically increase the merits accumulated by the actions. It’s especially powerful therefore to set intention before a tun practice.

Refuge: can be practiced alone with one or all three of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. In fact, any time we’re trying to meditate, study, and purify, we’re really taking refuge in the practice.

One Vow at a Time: we can also add the lay vows during a more structured session or at any moment. Feel free to add only one vow at a time, any time, for the duration you want to choose. Be relaxed. Feel free to pull out one vow at a time or go for all of them. Remember you can keep a vow for a moment, minutes, hours or a full 24 hour cycle. Start where you are. Do your best. That’s all any of us can ask of ourselves.

Meditation: can be practiced any time, alone or in the context of other practices in any order. You can practice any kind of meditation that suits you. It’s all meditation whether we’re doing pranayama, purification, study, or contemplation of emptiness.

Purification: should really be practiced in the context of having taken refuge but again, it’s up to the practitioner.

Study: we can and should read sacred texts and commentaries whenever possible. That said, it can be helpful to meditate and/or take refuge before studying.

Dedication: we can dedicate the merits of our practice at the end of a session, the end of the day, after a retreat. If we’ve forgotten, it’s possible to dedicate the merits of all practice that ever preceded the session.

May the practice that I do and that all practitioners do be cause for the happiness of all sentient beings, without exception. May all beings be free and rest in the bliss of perfect equanimity.

Pranayama Instructions

I often begin my sitting practice with pranayama but not always. Sometimes I got back to pranayama during a seated meditation as it helps me regroup if I get lost. Over the past 30 years I’ve done some kind of breathing practice at many different times or when I needed them; before sleep, when on speed, during an anxiety attack, when I’m trying to calm down, or be non-reactive.

Breathe deeply and slowly and completely. After several breaths, fill up a little more than a normal breath. Hold it for a moment, gently. Exhale slowly and completely. Draw the belly into the spine on a slow journey. Press out the exhausted karma from beginningless time. Relax in that empty space for a moment. Breathe in from the deep root at the bottom of the tail bone. After a few breaths like that, begin to constrict the back of the throat slightly. Maintain this as long as you like, perhaps a few breaths or a few minutes. Then relax into regular, organic breathing.

Emptiness

We can use analysis to recognize emptiness or put our minds in the direction of recognizing it. We can try to remember the teachings on emptiness any time we feel attached, afraid or angry.

Notice that there is nothing substantial. Everything is just like a dream. Nothing is as it appears in our mind. Each thought and experience has a cause, which came after a cause after a cause on and on into a past without beginning. All phenomenon exist in space. Space is everywhere, between and in and through every molecule of the world, which seems so solid. Cultivate the meditative quality of space. Consider the possibility that the self is just a projection, a dance of lights like the reflection of the moon in a pond. Relax deeply. Retain wakefulness.

Refuge

• I vow not to take what has not been given.
• I vow not to engage in sexual misconduct.
• I vow to stay clean and sober.