Want some peace? Here’s three meditations for that.

I was very pleased when my last family of foster cats – all five of them, mom and babies – found homes with Buddhist practitioners who are interested in their future lives. (Nonetheless, it’s been weeks since I bought home Eloise and Savannah, both freakin’ awesome yet no one seems to want them, Buddhist or not …. No one except me and my recent visitors, that is. Unless you do?! One of them doubles up as a furry alarm clock.)

Imaginary barriers

I’m already digressing … I was only trying to say that one of these Buddhists took a photo of their original cat Puffer trying to swat at the new kittens to show them who’s boss – but it was a bit embarrassing for him because he was doing this through a baby gate leaned up against a chair. He could easily have walked a few inches around the side, in which case Jampa and Bilbo would have stood no chance. As it was, these young punks were just watching him in amusement.

It reminded me of those images you see of cows or sheep waiting to get through a gate in a field that actually has no fence.

They could roam free, but instead there’s an imaginary barrier in their path. This is how we are when it comes to solving problems – we believe we have a real problem there, like a real gate, whereas in fact there is space all around it. We’re actually free, but when our mind is filled with conceptual obstacles we don’t see it that way.

Therefore, we need to create that space; let that space appear in our mind. Given that our mind is naturally open and free, we don’t have to keep waiting for someone else to open that gate nor try to barrel our way through it – we simply need to realize that our sky-like mind is so much bigger than any barrier-like problems.

For more about how our mind is full of space, please check out this article: How to start meditating when you think you can’t. Recently I heard some fantastic teachings on this subject from Kadam Adam Starr, the teacher in Dublin, aka “the meditation man” as he is known on the Irish podcast circuit. I know he won’t mind if I share a bit of what he said here. Alternatively, if you prefer, just listen to his latest podcast on the Sleep & Health Podcast with Tom Coleman:

Finding space in a crowded mind

Kadam Adam placed three ingredients together in a “gold standard” meditation that prepares us really well for a deep and consistent experience of peace – breathing meditation, turning the mind to wood, and the clarity of the mind. Through any and all of these practices we learn the skill of resting and relaxing our mind, thereupon immediately accessing a natural peace. And as soon as we experience that, we also discover that we have inside of us the source of everything we are looking for outside of us, which is a consistent feeling of happiness.

1. Turn inwards and meditate on the breath

That means turning inwards toward the mind, the very beginning of quite an amazing journey. We make a conscious choice to let go of the week, the world out there, for now, and turn our attention to our awareness at our heart center. If you are up in your head, allow your awareness to move down through your body, coming to rest at your heart center. Even just doing that, disengaging from the world out there, there’s going to be some relaxation happening in the mind.

We might think turning into our mind means turning into a cluttered claustrophobic box full of thoughts, feelings, emotions, and distractions, but what we actually discover is the wide open space of our awareness. We can imagine this to begin with, but imagination has so much power. We’re aware of what’s arising and dissolving within the mind, the various thoughts, feelings, and sensations, which are like clouds – scudding quite fast at first, but nothing to worry about.

Within that space we bring our attention to the relaxed ebb and flow of our breath. At first you’ll be increasingly aware of various thoughts, feelings, sensations, and images coming and going like clouds in the sky, and the key is just to let them be. Don’t fight them. Try not to follow them. Instead gradually give your full focus and attention to that one sensation of breath as it enters and leaves at the nostrils.

If and when you notice your attention wandering away from the breath, getting lost in thoughts or feelings, without any judgment you simply relax and return your attention to the breath. And every time you do this, just see if you can remain there a little bit longer. Whereupon the clouds begin to slow down and clear a little bit. They become a bit lighter, a bit more transparent.

2. Turn the mind to wood

Now feel that your whole mind, the vast space of awareness, becomes as if inanimate. Unmoving. Unthinking. As if like a block of wood. Really allow yourself to imagine this, and, importantly, deeply feel this. It’s fine if thoughts, feelings, distractions, or images continue to arise in the mind, that’s just normal. Remember, you’re not trying to stop the thinking or even the distractions – you’re simply imagining vast space of your mind becoming inanimate, as if like that block of wood.

The fancy title for this meditation is “absorption of cessation of gross conceptual thoughts”, and I’ve already talked about it a lot in these articles because Venerable Geshe-la encouraged us to share this practice far and wide.

I loved how Kadam Adam emphasized that we imagine our entire sky-like mind becomes totally still, unmoving, inanimate, as if like a block of wood – not just a corner of our mind while the rest is still full of agitation and distraction.

And, “Don’t do what I did for the first five years of this meditation, ie, actually imagine a block of wood being your mind, visualizing it, looking at the grains and the grooves. It simply means our mind is inanimate. We’re not generating disturbing thoughts, feelings, and emotions. We’re using the power of imagination to imagine the mind is like a block of wood that doesn’t think or feel.”

This is a powerful way to relax the mind, and what we notice is that the clouds are now fading away altogether, so that a more subtle, more relaxed, more peaceful level of mind emerges. Allow your mind to rest in that space and, as you do, notice how the center of your awareness quite naturally begins to absorb more and more inwards to your heart center. Allow all this to happen quite naturally.

Don’t have any expectations, by the way, just see where you go with this. If you let yourself relax and enjoy the process of engaging with this meditation, then you’ll notice, over time, it becomes easier.

3. Turn to the clarity of the mind itself

Now we simply become aware of the clarity of awareness itself, like looking at the sky itself as opposed to the clouds that come and go, and meditate on the nature of the mind that is a boundless empty-like space. More on this meditation can be found here: How to know your own mind. 

The mind doesn’t possess any form, shape, or color, but is the very basis for everything we are perceiving, feeling, and imagining. Gently pay attention to it so that it moves more and more into the foreground of your experience. If you notice any thoughts, images, or distractions, don’t worry at all, just let these be. Shift your attention from what you’re aware of to the clarity of the awareness itself. Just abide there with that experience.

Notice how the cloud-like thoughts naturally dissolve back into that boundless empty-like space, and remain with that peaceful clarity of your own mind moment by moment. Just enjoy.

You can now gradually become aware of how you are feeling. Am I feeling some degree of peace? Is there some degree of contentment, happiness, or joy? Just explore your own experience in this relaxed way. Don’t overthink it.

This peace is simply the essential nature of your own mind. You simply have let go of giving attention to what’s bothering your mind. Because pure happiness is simply the experience that comes from a peaceful mind, we can come to know through this experience that peace and happiness are natural to our minds. Peace and happiness are our essential nature.

Because the mind itself is boundless, we have a limitless potential for peace and happiness within our own mind. Reflecting on our present experience in this way, if it feels natural to you, just allow yourself to identify with that pure potential for deep peace and happiness within your mind. Allow yourself to deeply appreciate that so it touches your heart.

Also everyone we love, everyone we see struggling at the moment, has that same pure potential in their heart too. How amazing would it be if everyone could discover that and fully realize it? So we develop a powerful motivation to realize that potential within ourself, and then we can help everyone we love, indeed all living beings, to one day experience that as well.

If you like at this point you can connect with the inspiration of blessings. Holding a compassionate prayer in your heart that everyone finds the peace, happiness and freedom from suffering they long for, you can engage with this short but beautiful meditation prayer called Liberating Prayer.

(Thank you, Kadam Adam! Back to me … )

The imperative to break free

We can truly solve our problems only from a spacious perspective, while feeling quite free. Normally we may think, “I have to wait till I’m high up a mountain or on vacation before I can feel that free!” But the beautiful thing about meditation is that we can feel freer anytime, anyplace, anywhere. And particularly if we realize it’s all just a dream, that the mental barrier is merely imputed or projected by conceptual thought. We don’t need to get to the other side of the gate because it’s not really there to begin with. It doesn’t matter what side we think we’re on because we’re already everywhere.

Meditation is not escapist but the actual solution to our own and others’ problems. It’s so important that we practice seeing our problems in this light and airy context because not a day goes by without problems appearing in our lives and we can’t afford to let them crush us. It doesn’t help us at all, and it definitely doesn’t help us to help other people.

I was recently working my way through one such tricky situation to do with finances, carers, the NHS, and so on. I felt like Puffer trying to solve my problems through that gate, so I did some Tara prayers, whereupon a lot of space suddenly appeared around the issue. It no longer filled my mind and I felt free and inspired to bring on the wisdom and compassion. Prayers are really helpful because they bring blessings, but we can also use that simple breathing meditation and/or turning the mind to wood described above.

Drowning person

To paraphrase the scriptures, just as one drowning person cannot save another, so if we remain stuck in samsara, limited, small, and apparently inherently existent, we cannot help people no matter how much we want to. Therefore we have to attain enlightenment.

When I’m feeling powerless to help the people I want to help – spread thin, overwhelmed, or not good enough – I remember this analogy. Attempting to help others while identifying with our normal samsaric identity, with all its limitations and dualistic thinking, feels like swimming desperately around in a vast turbulent ocean trying to get to one drowning person at a time. How am I supposed to help my family, my animals, my community, the numerous people who send me emails, this tradition, let alone all living beings if I’m so small, restricted, ordinary, and confined in time and space?! It’s not only exhausting, it’s futile. Even if I woke at dawn and worked till midnight every single day of my life, it would never be enough.

So then I think about what I can do, and the answer is that, yes, I need to be enlightened. Straight away, ideally. These daily demands on our time and energy can motivate us to stay in bodhichitta all day, to identify with the endless energy of compassion and wisdom. I need to be on the huge stable ship of Dharma sailing the ocean with the captain Buddha and the crew of Sangha pulling everyone aboard. I need to be on the dry land of liberation pulling others to safety. I need to pervade the ocean itself, perceiving everyone as mere appearance not other than my mind of bliss and emptiness. I need to be the moon reflecting wherever and whatever is needed.

What will it be like when I become enlightened? I will possess every good quality and I will be completely free from all faults, all sufferings, and every kind of hindrance.  I will have perfect ability to help all other living beings. My emanations will be as numerous as living beings and I will use them for the benefit of all. Just as there is one moon shining in the sky whose reflections fill all the lakes and waters of the world, so when I become enlightened my emanations will cover and protect every living being.

I will leave you with this happy thought. Please leave me with your comments. And that podcast by Kadam Adam again, if you would like to hear it on Spotify, is here: Finding Peace.