Calm Breath, Calm Mind by Geshe YongDong Losar

Author:Geshe YongDong Losar
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wisdom Publications

WATCHING YOUR THOUGHTS

Imagine yourself sitting in the middle of a large room with many windows and doors in all four walls. Get up and open all the doors and windows and return to your seat. Your responsibility is to remain in the middle, on your chair. Your chair has wheels on the legs so you are able to turn around in a circle.

All kinds of people, forms, thoughts, ideas, memories, and experiences will enter and exit through the doors and windows. They come and go from different directions through different openings. You simply watch. Who is coming? Who is leaving? Just watch. Don’t chase after or follow. Don’t invite or reject. Don’t pull in or push away. Just watch. If someone goes, be aware they are going. If someone comes, be aware they have entered. No judging, rejecting, or chasing. Watch! Observe!

I clearly remember doing this as a child when we were visiting the city of Chengdu in China. I had my face pressed to the window of the hotel room, looking down onto the bustling street. There were so many different people, with unique ways of talking, dressing, and moving. Time slipped away as I simply enjoyed the watching. I felt like a cat, alert and fascinated, watching birds fluttering around outside.

Similarly, in this practice, just relax and look at all the thoughts and emotions coming and going. Just watch.

Usually, if we like something, we reach or grasp for it, or run after it. If we don’t like something, we try rejecting it, or fighting it, or pushing it away. Either way, we are in a pulling or pushing struggle. In this meditation, just observe. Watch. Be aware.

The doors and windows are your six senses: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling (touching), and thinking. All of the doors are open. Be willing to leave them open and allow what comes and goes to just “be.”

Don’t fight any of the sounds, thoughts, forms, or feelings. Be a bright, clear, nonjudging, impartial observer of all that comes and goes within that room of your mind.

If you can remain on your seat with openness and trust, fear and ego will transform into compassion and your visiting thoughts will transform into awareness. What you have to gain from this meditation is insight, the gift that opens up choices and possibilities.

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