Post-Meditation Practice

The idea of holding our seat continues when we leave the meditation room and go about our lives. We maintain our dignity and humor and the same lightness of touch we use dealing with our thoughts. Holding our seat doesn’t mean we are stiff and trying to become like rocks; the whole idea is learning how to be flexible. The way that we deal with ourselves and our thoughts is the same way that we deal with the world.

When we begin to meditate, the first thing we realize is how wild things are — how wild our mind is, how wild our life is. But once we begin to have the quality of being tamed, when we can sit with ourselves, we realize there’s a vast wealth of possibility that lies in front of us.

Meditation is accepting who and what we really are. We find the richness of what already exists. Discovering that richness is a moment-to-moment process, and as we continue to practice, our awareness becomes more precise and more spacious and accommodating. Guru Rinpoche said that "My mind is as spacious as the sky and my activity is as fine as barley flour."

This mindfulness actually envelopes our whole life. It is the best way to appreciate our world, to appreciate the sacredness of everything. We add mindfulness and all of a sudden, the whole situation becomes alive. This practice soaks into everything that we do; there’s nothing left out. Mindfulness pervades sound and space. We become in touch with our actual lived experience.

Meditation Practices Adapted by Lama Yeshe Jinpa, Jack Kornfield & Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche.