Shamatha Guided Meditation (Online)

When you achieve shamatha one result is incredible mental pliancy. Your mind follows your wishes and focuses wherever you like for as long as you like. – Geshe Lhundub Sopa

Shamatha means ‘to abide in peace’. It is the practice of tranquillity or stabilizing meditation. Shamatha meditation helps us cultivate the skills needed to develop a focused, calm and relaxed mind. With shamatha as foundation, one then proceeds to analytical meditation to gain profound insight into emptiness.

Please join us on Monday evenings for an hour of shamatha meditation. The class is suitable for everyone – beginners and advanced practitioners. It will start with a short instruction; most of the hour will be spent in silence.

From September to December 2021, we will work progressively through the practices designed for each of the 10 stages. The practices will be drawn from Lama Alan Wallace’s book “The Attention Revolution” (ISBN 9780861712762). We will practice three main techniques, focusing on one per month.

• mindfulness of breathing (September)
• setting the mind in its natural state (October)
• shamatha without an object (November)

In the month of December, we practice our own chosen technique for the entire month. We will also refer to other shamatha literature as introduced in the Lamrim.

We warmly invite everyone to join. Meditating in a group gives support to each other as a sangha, and keeps this practice alive.