The Mindful Way through Pregnancy

The audio download below, taken from the companion CD to the book The Mindful Way through Pregnancy, features a guided medita­tion to help you achieve deep relaxation. This body-awareness meditation can be used during pregnancy and after giving birth. It provides a simple way to relax anytime-some­thing invaluable both during the stresses of pregnancy and afterward.  Body Awareness meditation When we become pregnant, we receive a great deal of medi­cal, dietary, and lifestyle advice. Of course, it is crucial to pay attention to what we eat, the stages of our baby's develop­ment, and how to stay healthy throughout pregnancy. But we can also pay attention to something else: Within the rush of doctor's visits, changes in our bodies, and shopping trips for maternity clothes, a miracle is occurring. Our bodies are giv­ing rise to life. Our hearts are expanding till we fear they may break. Our identities are shifting and changing. Suddenly, perfectly, irrevocably, we are displaced from the center of our own life. With gentleness, we can also explore these aspects of our pregnancy.   The Mindful Way Through Pregnancy invites you to slow down, relax, and cherish this magical and momentous time of life. It features illuminating essays written by experts on mindfulness, spirituality, and parenting. This book and CD also offer step-by-step instruction in yoga, meditation, journaling, and more, to help you make the most out of this expe ­rience and prepare yourself for childbirth and beyond. Hardcover with CD | eBook *Audio download also available     Excerpted from the introduction to The Mindful Way through Pregnancy. The audio file also accompanies the book The Mindful Way through Pregnancy, compiled by Susan Piver, © 2012. Published by Shambhala Publications. Please use this file for your own personal use only.

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The Dalai Lama's Teaching on Stages of Meditation

His Holiness the Dalai Lama's visit to Boston His Holiness the Dalai Lama gave an excellent teaching on Kamalashila's Stages of Meditation at MIT. Below are the texts mentioned by His Holiness in his talk. For those interested in going deeper, you will find them complementary to the teaching: Stages of Meditation - A commentary on Kamalashila's work by the Dalai Lama Shantideva's Way of the Bodhisattva Aryadeva's 400 Stanzas of the Middle Way Nagarjuna's Letter to a Friend You can also visit the Dalai Lama's website to learn more or click photos and videos to see footage from his events. Related Books

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No Delight; No Courage

The excerpt below features a slogan from Michael Carroll's new book,  Fearless at Work: Timeless Teachings for Awakening Confidence, Resilience, and Creativity in the Face of Life's Demands.  Learn more about the book here.     "No Delight; No Courage" One of my favorite Taoist stories passed down through the centuries recounts the tale of a young boy caught in a most distressing predicament, where fearlessness is not a matter of braving untold challenges or shouldering heavy burdens but about taking delight in the midst of life's inevitable demands. One afternoon, like many afternoons before, a young boy, Simha, walked along the edge of the jungle on his way home from work. This day, however, he noticed that he was being stalked by a tiger, who, remaining concealed in the shadows and tall grass, was silently angling to ambush him at an approaching narrow point in the path. Being a clever boy and not wanting to be a meal for the tiger, Simha slowly changed direction and then, without warning, quickly sprinted for a nearby abandoned stone quarry where he felt sure he would find refuge if he could outrun the shadowing tiger. And sure enough, when Simha reached the quarry he rushed toward the towering stone wall and, grabbing hold of a vine that had grown down the cliff, pulled himself up off the ground and safely out of the reach of the tiger, who arrived seconds too late to grab him. To his relief, the tiger roared and jumped but could not reach him as he, hand over hand, climbed the vine toward the top. As Simha climbed closer to his escape at the top of the cliff, he suddenly noticed that a second tiger-a tiger that he had not spotted earlier-had maneuvered to the top of the cliff and was stationed patiently at the other end of the vine, also awaiting Simha as a meal. Below, he could see a tiger pacing and growling; above, he could see another licking its chops. As he paused to reflect on his distressing circumstances, Simha glimpsed a pair of mice playing among the vines and greenery. One was black, the other white, and as they went about their business they would occasionally stop and nibble at the vine that suspended Simha along the face of the cliff and between the two tigers. Each nibble frayed the vine further and Simha's predicament grew more and more precarious. Then, glancing off to his left, Simha noticed a dazzling-red, perfectly ripe strawberry nestled among the foliage. And for a moment he paused and wondered at such a marvel, stretching out to pick the berry that was ever so slightly out of his reach. Then, shifting his weight, he swung the vine back and forth until he could snatch the strawberry from its nest. He held the fully ripe red fruit in his hand, smiled, and took a full bite. And true to its appearance, the strawberry was delicious beyond compare-an occasion of radiant, flavorful delight. Now, as with most stories where we are literally left hanging, we may ask ourselves, "What happens next? Does Simha escape? Does he toss those pesky mice off the cliff? How does he outsmart the tigers?" But in this case, there are no resolutions to these questions, because it isn't in the resolution but in the taste of the strawberry that we learn the lesson of Simha's story. In many respects, Simha's circumstances reflect where we all find ourselves as human beings. The tiger of death is ever present, at times unseen, but always getting closer. And like Simha, we may cleverly seek to avoid its grasp, but in the end must acknowledge the presence of the tiger-the persistent reality of death. Now, the presence of a tiger can focus our attention, waking us up to some ironies, the black and white mice that fritter away our hold on our lives: hope and fear, praise and blame, success and failure. But using such dualities to keep score seems oddly pointless in such circumstances-dangling from a cliff in the presence of death's tigers. Young or old, rich or poor, successful or struggling, healthy or infirm, the tiger awaits all equally, despite the score. But, in the midst of what for so many of us would be desperate, dismal circumstances, Simha notices, then delights in, a simple gesture: the tasting of a berry. And it is here that we discover a formidable truth about living a fearless life. To be human is to confront truly difficult circumstances, no doubt: disease, poverty, tragedies, and frustrations of all kinds. Yet, for all of us, there is always, always the possibility of delight: to awaken to life's rich, sensual wonders such as sipping a glass of water, glimpsing the vast sky, touching another's face, or simply having a nose. Appreciating our lives naturally, almost effortlessly, in this way, right in the midst of life's tigers and mice, requires us to bravely acknowledge something powerful about our human di ­lemma, something that is red, dazzling, and fully ripe. Maybe right within our grasp is this vividly ripe moment, wonderfully delightful, if only we have the daring to simply recognize it. The slogan "No delight; no courage" reminds us that the fierce facts of life are unavoidable but not the entire story, because to live a fearless life requires that we taste life fully. And what Simha realizes in tasting that berry-and what we all can realize in our lives-goes well beyond just counting our blessings in the midst of life's predicaments. It is about accepting an invitation to be delightfully human, moment by moment, for the rest of our lives. - excerpted from Fearless at Work by Michael Carroll.

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A Simple Exercise for Relaxation

Did you know that you can alleviate common stress and mood problems by working with different breathing patterns? Here's an opportunity for you to give it a try. The excerpt and audio exercise below are taken from The Healing Power of the Breath: Simple Techniques to Reduce Stress and Anxiety, Enhance Concentration, and Balance Your Emotions by Richard Brown, MD, and Patricia Gerbarg, MD. Guided exercise: Coherent Breathing Note: Click a file to play it in your web browser. Right click and save the link if you would like to download it to your computer. Coherent Breathing is a simple way to increase heart-rate variability and balance the stress-response systems. When scientists tested people at all possible breathing rates, they found that there is an ideal breath rate for each person, somewhere between three and a half and six breaths per minute for adults using equal time for breathing in and breathing out, a sweet spot where the HRV is maximized and the electrical rhythms of the heart, lungs, and brain become synchronized. Modern researchers have called this the resonant rate, but this phenomenon has been known for centuries by religious adepts in many cultures. For example, when Zen Buddhist monks enter deep meditation, called zazen, they breathe at six breaths per minute. The Italian cardiologist Luciano Bernardi discovered that traditional chanting of the Latin Hail Mary occurs at six breaths per minute. There are many ways to learn Coherent Breathing, including a growing array of commercial gadgets with visual cues. But we prefer a method that is relaxing and easy to use anytime, anywhere. Research shows that keeping the eyes closed and the hands still has significant effects on brain waves, indicating greater relaxing effects. When people look at a computer screen, move their eyes, or type on a keyboard, this activity can interfere with the attainment of optimal states of relaxation. This is one of the reasons why we use breathing. It can be done with eyes closed and hands at rest. In learning breath practices the most important thing to remember is to relax. That may sound obvious, but it isn't. As you are learning a new practice it may feel awkward or unnatural at first. You may begin to worry about whether you are doing it correctly, whether it is working, whether you need to try harder. All this thinking and worrying will just make you tense up. Self-judgment adds another layer of stress. The less you judge yourself, the easier it will be to relax and experience the benefits of Coherent Breathing. Try not to evaluate or judge what is happening. Just go with it. From The Healing Power of the Breath, pages 11-13.

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Ken Wilber: Remembering Traleg Rinpoche

"At 12:10 am on July 24, Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche passed into parinirvana. His death was not only a deep shock, but a truly tragic loss to the world of spirituality in general and Buddhism in particular-well, actually a tragic loss to the world, period. Traleg was one of what can truly be called a genuine Kosmopolitan-a truly universal human who had a deep understanding not only of Eastern culture and practices, but a genuinely profound grasp of the West and its various philosophical strands. When I first met him, through the graciousness of our mutual friend and Shambhala founder, Sam Bercholz, Traleg had a list with two columns: 'Where Ken is right' and 'Where Ken is not so right', and we proceeded to have one of the most intelligent, Enlightened discussions on Integral thought that I have ever had. "As it turns out, he and I agreed on much more than we disagreed on, and we gave several public workshops together, often focusing on the perils of an extreme postmodernism to a genuine spirituality. But what was so amazing about Rinpoche is that, even though a high-ranking teacher in the Tibetan system, he was no mere traditionalist. He wanted to keep Buddhism pure, but he also wanted it to advance into the modern and postmodern world, and he (and I) were deeply worried about what some of the popular forms of Buddhism were doing to both distort traditional understanding and forestall evolutionary advancement. He was particularly concerned with the rampant anti-intellectualism that pervaded much of American Buddhism (and spirituality in general), and the common confusion of postmodern platitudes ('all things are equal') with deep Buddhist truths (which acknowledged absolute and relative truths equally). He was, in my opinion, one of the first truly Integral Buddhists, and at the time of his passing, he and I had in place plans to do a book together on these general notions, and had already transcribed our seminars in preparation. "Now, alas, the world has been deprived of this voice of a genuine 4th Turning of the Wheel of Dharma. Those of us who knew him and counted him as Teacher will never forget him-his astonishing and wide-ranging intelligence, his deep Enlightenment, his easy-going nature and deep love of transmitting the Truth. But even his relatively short period with us was enough to demonstrate that a true coming together of East and West is indeed a real and extraordinary possibility, and a possibility upon which the future of humanity now depends." -Ken Wilber Visit the Integral Life website to watch Rinpoche and Ken Wilber discuss the evolution of enlightenment and the future of Buddhism.

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Honoring Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche

The family here at Shambhala Publications is deeply saddened by the loss of the incredible master, teacher, and author Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche, who passed away in Australia at 12:10 a.m. on July 24, 2012, the Fourth Day of the Sixth Month of the Tibetan calendar in the Year of the Dragon. Rinpoche was a close friend and teacher of some of us and his breadth and depth of knowledge and experience on the path to enlightenment was tremendous. We will miss him so much. Below is a short excerpt from his book Mind at Ease: In approaching the spiritual path, we need some understanding of what the journey involves. Many different spiritual experiences may arise in the course of our journey. To make sense of them, it is important for us to grasp where our experiences originate and have some appreciation for the inconsistencies in these subjective occurrences. Some experiences may appear to be enlightened when they are deluded, and others may appear to be deluded but actually portend enlightenment. An important method for developing our discernment is to fathom the spiritual path in terms of deluded mind and enlightened mind. We need to understand deluded states of mind as something we need to overcome and enlightened states of mind as something we need to cultivate. Only then can we confidently steer a course through the myriad subjective revelations that can and do unfold on the spiritual journey. At the same time, we should engage in our spiritual pursuits-and indeed in whatever we do-with a sense of caring, love, and compassion as well as a sense of joy. If not, our healthy emotions will atrophy, and we will be forever trapped in our conflicting emotions, which will filter down to influence our spiritual experience and practice. Therefore, in spiritual practice, love, compassion, and joy have to be experienced in an unperturbed way through equanimity. In the Mahamudra tradition, the notion of self-liberation is paramount. Through self-liberating our conflicting emotions and discursive thoughts by allowing them to simply arise and dissipate without any grasping or fixation, we transcend any spiritual requirement to renounce, purify, or transform them. This is the unique skillful means of path Mahamudra that inexorably leads to spiritual realization. Thus the journey we take in Mahamudra is one that fundamentally involves returning to our true home, our original dwelling place. We can see, then, that ground Mahamudra and fruition Mahamudra are identical, because when fruition Mahamudra is realized, so too is ground Mahamudra; and when ground Mahamudra is realized, it is instantly apparent that this is fruition Mahamudra. In other words, to realize our authentic state of being is to realize the fruition of the Great Seal of all-encompassing reality. Although the spiritual journey is a homecoming of sorts, it is still indispensable to proceed on the path in the first place. We cannot say that since our authentic state is the enlightened mind of luminous bliss, we need not embark on any kind of spiritual journey. We cannot afford to think we are already there. Although our original state of being is the same as that of the buddhas, we are not buddhas yet. We are deluded sentient beings, and our minds are layered with defilements and obscurations. In fact, due to the density of our obscurations, we are not even in a condition to catch the occasional glimpse of our original condition. There should be no doubt that we categorically need to engage in some kind of spiritual practice, one that is genuine and effective and can be systematically utilized to illuminate the darkness of our ignorance. The Mahamudra meditation of tranquility and insight meditation is one of the most effective ways to achieve this end. If we follow this path with genuine interest and invest the necessary time and energy, we will quickly feel the effects of these practices. To really devote ourselves to this practice, it is essential to fully integrate ground, path, and fruition Mahamudra. This way, we will eventually be Mahamudra. The luminous bliss of Mahamudra is what represents our own true nature. We could even say that in our own true nature we are Mahamudra.

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Dream Yourself Awake

This recent piece from CBS considers that lucid dreaming might actually be possible. But for those for whom understanding the mind on an experiential level is a way of life, lucid dreaming is not only possible, but can serve as a genuine practice on the path of realization. Our book by B. Alan Wallace, Dreaming Yourself Awake, is an instruction manual for lucid dreaming and Tibetan dream yoga. Wallace lays out techniques that trigger awareness in the dream state to heighten creativity, to solve problems, and to increase self-knowledge. We also publish a few additional books on dream yoga. More Books Related to Dream Yoga and Lucid Dreaming

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10 Tips for a Mindful Home

Wake with the sun There is no purer light than what we see when we open our eyes first thing in the morning.   Sit Mindfulness without meditation is just a word.   Make your bed The state of your bed is the state of your head. Enfold your day in dignity.   Empty the hampers Do the laundry without resentment or commentary and have an intimate encounter with the very fabric of life.   Wash your bowl Rinse away self-importance and clean up your own mess. If you leave it undone, it will get sticky.   Set a timer If you're distracted by the weight of what's undone, set a kitchen timer and, like a monk in a monastery, devote yourself wholeheartedly to the task at hand before the bell rings.   Rake the leaves Rake, weed, or sweep. You'll never finish for good, but you'll learn the point of pointlessness.   Eat when hungry Align your inexhaustible desires with the one true appetite.   Let the darkness come Set a curfew on the internet and TV and discover the natural balance between daylight and darkness, work and rest.   Sleep when tired Nothing more to it.   (by  Karen Maezen Miller, author of  Momma Zen: Walking the Crooked Path of Motherhood, from her  blog,  Cheerio Road.)

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