August 12, 2005
"THAT IS MEDITATION"
My master had a student called Apa Pant, a distinguished Indian diplomat and author, who served as Indian ambassador in a number of capital cities around the world. He was also a practitioner of meditation and yoga, and each time he saw my master, he would always ask him �how to meditate.� He was following an Eastern tradition where the student keeps asking the master one simple, basic question over and over again.
One day when our master Jamyang Khyentse was watching a Lama Dance in front of the Palace Temple in Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim, he was chuckling at the antics of the atsara, the clown who provides light relief between dances. Apa Pant kept pestering him, asking him again and again how to meditate, so this time when my master replied, it was in such a way as to let him know that he was telling him once and for all: �Look, it�s like this: When the past thought has ceased, and the future thought has not yet risen, isn�t there a gap?�
�Yes,� said Apa Pant.
�Well, prolong it: That is meditation.�
- Sogyal Rinpoche
(photo of Ananda in Balasana, a beautiful pose to observe the Arising and Diminishing Thoughts...and, if you are practiced in Spiritual Work, then you are able to witness the Space between them. If you are Awakened, then what is left of "you" dwells in that Thought Bardo Space!...Pleasant Practices!...coach ilg)