Learn to meditate

The stages of the path to enlightenment, or Lamrim in Tibetan, is a special set of instructions that includes all the essential teachings of Buddha Shakyamuni, arranged in such a way that all his Hinayana and Mahayana teachings can be put into practice in a single meditation session.

To learn to meditate you can attend a weekly meditation class held in and around London. Or if you prefer, you could learn about the twenty-one Lamrim meditations using the New Meditation Handbook. (For a practical example of one of the these meditations, see the Loving Kindness Meditation.)

What follows below is a description of the stages of Lamrim meditation, and the purpose and benefits of each stage. By practicing Lamrim meditation regularly, we can gradually learn how to meditate effectively. In this way we will quickly come to learn the benefits of regular meditation practice from our own experience.

Preparation
The preparatory practices prepare our mind for successful meditation by purifying hindrances caused by our previous negative actions, empowering our mind with merit, and inspiring it with the blessings of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.

Geshe Kelsang Gyatso explains that we all have the potential to gain realizations of the twenty-one Lamrim meditations. As he says,

"These potentials are like seeds in the field of our mind, and our meditation practice is like cultivating these seeds. However, our meditation practice will be successful only if we make good preparations beforehand. If we want to cultivate external crops we begin by making careful preparations."

From this we can see that there are three essential preparations for successful meditation: purifying negativities, accumulating merit, and receiving blessings.

If you wish to engage in some preparatory practices, you can simply recite the Prayers for Meditation, composed by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso.

Contemplation
The purpose of contemplation is to bring to mind the object of placement meditation. We do this by considering various lines of reasoning, contemplating analogies, and reflecting on the scriptures.

It is helpful to memorize the contemplations given in The New Meditation Handbook so we can meditate without having to look at the text.

The contemplations given in that book are intended only as guidelines. We should supplement and enrich them with whatever reasons and examples we find helpful.

Meditation
When through our contemplations the object appears clearly, we leave our analytical meditation and concentrate on the object single-pointedly. This single-pointed concentration is the third part, the actual meditation.

When we first start to meditate, our concentration is poor; we are easily distracted and often lose our object of meditation. Therefore, to begin with we shall probably need to alternate between contemplation and placement meditation many times in each session.

For example, if we are meditating on compassion we begin by contemplating the various sufferings experienced by living beings until a strong feeling of compassion arises in our heart. When this feeling arises we meditate on it single-pointedly.

If the feeling fades, or if our mind wanders to another object, we should return to analytical meditation to bring the feeling back to mind. When the feeling has been restored we once again leave our analytical meditation and hold the feeling with single-pointed concentration.

Both contemplation and meditation serve to acquaint our mind with virtuous objects. The more familiar we are with such objects, the more peaceful our mind becomes.

By training in meditation, and living in accordance with the insights and resolutions developed during meditation, eventually we shall be able to maintain a peaceful mind continuously, throughout our life.

More detailed instructions on the contemplations and on meditation in general can be found in The New Meditation Handbook, Introduction to Buddhism, Transform Your Life, Joyful Path of Good Fortune, and Universal Compassion.

Dedication
Dedication directs the merit produced by our meditation towards the attainment of Buddhahood. If merit is not dedicated it can easily be destroyed by anger.

By reciting the dedication prayers sincerely at the end of each meditation session we ensure that the merit we created by meditating is not wasted but acts as a cause for enlightenment.

Subsequent Practice
This consists of advice on how to integrate the meditation into our daily life. It is important to remember that Dharma practice is not confined to our activities during the meditation session; it should permeate our whole life.

We should not allow a gulf to develop between our meditation and our daily life, because the success of our meditation depends upon the purity of our conduct outside the meditation session.

We should keep a watch over our mind at all times by applying mindfulness, alertness, and conscientiousness; and we should try to abandon whatever bad habits we may have.

Deep experience of Dharma is the result of practical training over a long period of time, both in and out of meditation, therefore we should practice steadily and gently, without being in a hurry to see results.

To summarize, our mind is like a field. Engaging in the preparatory practices is like preparing the field by removing obstacles caused by past negative actions, making it fertile with merit, and watering it with the blessings of the holy beings. Contemplation and meditation are like sowing good seeds, and dedication and subsequent practice are the methods for ripening our harvest of Dharma realizations.

To gain further experience you can attend one of our weekly meditation classes. You can either

• Find a meditation class in South London & suburbs
• Find a meditation class in the UK, or
• Use the search box below to find a class worldwide - you will be redirected to the main website for Kadampa Buddhism

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