a contemplative method for human unfoldment
developed by Karma Tenzin Dorje Namgyal Rinpoche

This meditation was created with the intention of helping students of Buddha Dharma and all humans in the West who have difficulty relating to the cultural trappings of "Buddhism". It is a non-sectarian, non-deistic body-mind technique that includes all the salient points of the Buddhas great teaching of the mindful way - The Satipatthana Sutta - culturally translated for today.

The technique is comprised of four main sections, as follows:

1. Meditation on Defilements
2. Meditation on Lacks
3. Meditation on Strengths
4. Meditation on the Breath

The recommended general guidelines for practice are as follows:

1. Exercise - Before each sitting, get your system going with a walk or calisthenics, etc. The principal meaning of this instruction can be summed up by the word "sweat"! Exercise until you start to "glow".

2. Posture - Sit in a comfortable, balanced posture with a straight spine and open eyes looking in front and only a little below eye-level. If the mind is active, lower the gaze a little; if it is sluggish, raise the gaze a little. Sitting in a chair is okay, but be sure that the spine is balanced and centred and both feet are on the floor. If you can manage the lotus posture, that is best, but be gentle with yourself. The meditation can be gradually extended to the other three classic postures - standing, walking and lying down. For now, work exclusively with the sitting posture until there is some sense of mastery of the technique.

3. Breathing - When your posture feels good and balanced, take a few deep breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth. Bring your attention fully to the breath until the mind stablizes, perhaps three to ten breaths, no more.

4. Aspiration - It is important to know what you are trying to do there on your meditation cushion, so make a clear and straightforward statement of intention. For instance, "I want to be happy and free from pain, so I will now practice this Holistic Clearing Meditation with that intention". or, "I want to know more!", or, "May I and everyone get better!" Pray until you are moved in the stream of your own being. Try to narrow it down to one key word or slogan.

5. The Main Body of the Meditation - Here you focus on the object of study.

6. Re-statement of Aspiration - When you are ready to exit the meditation, briefly recall the intention you made at the beginning of the session and power it up. Strengthen it by adding new words or finding the essence slogan that really rings true for you.

7. Share the Merit - Splash some of your good feelings around by wishing "may whatever positive results that have been produced by this practice be shared with all living creatures!" Imagine that rays of light and blessings emanate from your entire body-mind to bless all directions of the compass as well as above and below. Give it all away.

8. Review - It is helpful to keep a notebook and pencil handy to jot down any important ideas that occur to you. At the end of the session keep a record of as many details as you can remember, in point form. The principal is to cross the information from the right to the left brain hemisphere. Speaking out loud at this point will do the same trick, but writing is better. Both speaking and writing is even better. You may consider exploring any emergeing insights by bringing them into artistic expression. This will deepen the work considerably.

After you have established your meditation with Exercise, Posture, Breathing and Aspiration, you are ready to turn your mind to the main body. The first meditation focuses on the negative emotions that afflict you. This is, paradoxically, a positive meditation because it is possible to liberate yourself of a neurotic pattern by fully going into it, locating it in the body and naming its essence or texture.

Start by creating a list of (no more than) five things that really "Bug" you. Attitudes that you find really obstructive and negative; aspects of your character that seem to be "Stuck". You may wish to jot it down on paper. Take each one, one at a time, and find a key word or phrase that definitely "embodies" the issue, for instance "Nagging" or "Can't get Around to It". Whatever. Now repeat the essence word a few times and feel deeply into your body. "Where is it in the body?" "What does it feel like?" Do this briefly. Now, take a rest and go back to simply breathing for a short while until you feel balanced and centred again. Then go back to your second defilement. Feel it in the body and then rest. Then the third defilement, et cetera....

When you have a handful of negativities, choose ONE that you feel has the most juice for you. You may need to briefly scan them again, but allow the mind to zone in on the one defilement it wishes to work on.

Choose one, then bring your attention to it fully. Find a word or phrase that resounds or reverberates in your body and seems to exactly "get" the defilement. Play around with a few words until you feel that it's just right. You'll know it's right when your body responds.

Use the key words like a mantram. That is, conjoin it with a question mark. ? Ask yourself, "What IS ____?" Stay focussed on your mantra and whatever you do, don't change it or get lost in intellectualizing. Just keep repeating the key word with an intense attitude of question.

When the mantra is rolling along, start noticing what's happening in your body. What you are feeling for is the emotional-body or energy-body, called by the Buddha "the body in the body". Notice in particular any sensations of texture, or density. For example, you may feel cloudy in your chest. Keep the mantra turning until a definite energy-body formation evolves. In the early stages of practice, this may take time. Once you do some work however, it can come really quickly.

Now, when the body in the body has become manifest, let go of the mantra and take up this penetrating question: "What is the essence texture of this formation?" It could be anything, because every individual is different, but it might be something like "smoke" or "cheddar cheese" or "velvet hat". Who knows, it's up to you. But, you will KNOW when you get the right word because it will reverberate through your body-mind like a gong. "Aha! That's it!"

When the texture word of the defilement is brought into consciousness, the neurotic pattern is liberated. Use the word like a magic wand and touch it to every part of your body. (Yes you are allowed to enjoy it). Pay very close attention to what is happening internally. You may observe energy movements of all kinds or you could receive insights. Sit in silence and remain watchful. Adjust your posture and use breathing awareness to keep you grounded.

At this point the energy-body might change to a new formation. If you wish to pursue it, then simply repeat the previous step and search for the essence texture of the body. And so on. It's pleasant to continue on like this for a long time, but keep it short during the first sessions.

If you decide that you wish to end the session, then Re-state your Aspiration, Share Merit, and Review.

This meditation is designed to pinpoint the areas of your life that are simply missing. For example, a plant may have rain and sunshine but maybe what it needs is a little phosphorus. How would it ever know? If only it could do this meditation.... Carl Jung wrote about four basic human modalities or functions: Thinking, Feeling, Sensation and Intuition. His (and Namgyal's) belief was that all humans are striving towards balance and integration of these four in their own being. Where are you lacking? This will be the area of your greatest unconscious resistance so don't be surprised if obstinacy comes up for you in this meditation. Just plow right through it. Stick to your practice and win through to liberation. This destroys ignor-ance.

Start with Exercise, Posture, Breathing and Aspiration. Now ask yourself deeply: "What is lacking in me?" Say this or it's equivalent over and over again with feeling. An answer will come, be open to it. Honour and acknowledge it, then close in the usual way.

This is really the core of this particular teaching. Eventually, when you are free of all obstructive defilements, the energy that was tied up will be available for new and interesting explorations and unfoldment of consciousness. You will move from strength to strength, from curiosity to curiosity until whatever path you are on takes you to the experiences of the Transcendental. You can experience complete freedom from fear and obsession because this is your natural state. Oddly, most everyone has frequent episodes of wholesomeness, but won't acknowledge them or remember. This meditation is designed to support and feed wholesome states of consciousness already present in the body-mind, as well as encourage and nurture wholesome mind states that are as yet only in a seed form.

Start with Exercise, Posture, Breathing and Aspiration. This is in itself a statement of great strength.

Now, like the meditation on defilements, create a list. Instead of negatives, however, creat a list of positive wholesome events, attitudes, feelings. Search for events that left you feeling whole and complete, for instance, "swimming" or "making love" or "generosity". You can dwell for a good long while at this stage if you wish, collecting a list of approximately ten wholesomes. You may wish to jot them down.

Now focus on each one, one at a time. Find a key mantra word or phrase that seems to embody the feeling of the event. Let the word and memory resonate through your body-mind. Marinate your spirit in wholesome feelings and thoughts.

When you've gone through your list and have a good collection of positives, select ONE that has the most juice for you. Follow your interest and bliss. If it seems like the most fun then it's probably the right one. Allow your mind to naturally gravitate towards it.

Now bring all of your attention to this particular word and use it as a mantram. "Swimming. Swimming. What IS swimming???" Use your voice inflection to add a big question mark. ?
Continue repeating until you have established a really engaged focus.

When the mantra is really roiling, then begin noticing "the body in the body". How does it feel? What texture does it feel like? This is probably going to be more dificult than the defilement meditation because the nature of strengths is that they don't stand still! Defilements just sit there like a lump of ----, so they're easier to apprehend than strength formations which tend to move on like a river. So you must be sensitive and unhesitant, clear and strong. Keep the mantra moving and watch the body-mind with alertness until you can feel the energy-body manifest a full holistic statement from the depth.

At that moment, drop the mantra and focus on the feeling of the "body in the body" itself, asking intently, "What is the texture of this?" "What is its essence?" "What does this feel like?" Try out different texture words until one resounding word comes that is instantly recognizable as the correct one. "Aha! It's nectar!"
Now use the word like a magic wand and touch it to all parts of your body-mind. Then sit in stillness and pay close attention to whatever arises. Attend to awareness of the breath in order to stay grounded.

At this point, the body-mind may spontaneously change to another body-mind pattern of strength. You may follow it by once again searching for the word that embodies the essential texture of the formation. ie:"What does this feel like?"

If you wish to end the session at this point, then Restate the Aspiration, Share Merit and Review.

Whenever you are perplexed, root yourself in this meditation. The main principle is to establish tranquillity to act as a foundation for the other meditations presented here. It is the counterbalance*, but is also in itself capable of providing the mental conditions for nurturing strengths, filling lacks and eliminating defilements. Use it as a tool to stabilize your mind and bring yourself back to centre. Also, any time you feel you need a rest, this practice is remarkably rejuvenating. *(Samattha and vipassana; tranquillity and insight)

Start with Exercise, Posture, Breathing and Aspiration. Exercise isn't so important in this one, but posture is.

Now take a few deep breaths and let them go. Now let your mind go and rest in a non-contrived natural state, neither grasping nor pushing. Just let go of everything. Be like a bail of straw when the string is cut. If you have received Mahamudra or Dzogchen instructions from an authentic master then practice that, but if you haven't, then simply put your attention on your breath at the nostrils.

You may wish to start by counting your out-breaths from one to five, then one to five, et cetera... Do this for a while until your mind is stable and you can consistently keep attention on the breath, counting effortlessly.

Then let go of the counting and simply regard the breath whistling in and out of your nostrils. Do this for a while until your mind is stable and you can consistently keep attention on the breath.

Then let go of the breath. Let go of everything except awareness. Relax.