Natural Meditation Podcast

In the Tibetan tradition, we prepare the ground for Bodhicitta with equanimity. In this talk, you are introduced to the main methods to discover an openess and kinship with all living beings.

Sometimes it is difficult for us to connect with a genuinely felt sense of warmth and kindness towards ourselves. In this meditation, you learn a method to strengthen this natural quality within you.

How do we prepare ourselves so that we genuinely can open to others? It is important to first heal your own wounds and insecurities. Genuine Bodhicitta can only grow if you come from a stable self-acceptance. Stephan Pende shares traditional approaches to self-healing.

Stephan Pende gives examples on how to practice tonglen in your daily life. Every difficult experience and every wonderful experience gives us the opportunity to open, to soften, to share and to grow. Tonglen is one method to do so.

As spaciousness opens within you, you can experience a profound silence in your very being. You may feel nervous at first, and at the same time, you’ve longed for this. This is the vast silence that surrounds life. Trust it and rest in the stillness. Feel your heart open and become more fully alive. Everything that arises from this silence is only a cloud in the vast sky, a wave on the ocean. Rest in the depths of silence. - Jack Kornfield

The deep, peaceful clarity of our essential mind is in the nature of love, and in this calm atmosphere the disturbances of hatred and anger have no place. While absorbed in this deep state of awareness, there is no chance for a harmful thought to agitate us. It is not a question of consciously deciding to refrain from anger and behave virtuously; this loving, benevolent feeling arises spontaneously and effortlessly, from the depths of our being. - Lama Yeshe

The tonglen practice is a method for connecting with suffering — ours and that which is all around us — everywhere we go. It is a method for overcoming the fear of suffering and for dissolving the tightness of our heart. Primarily it is a method for awakening the compassion that is inherent in all of us.

We begin the practice by taking on the suffering of a person we know to be hurting and whom we wish to help. For instance, if you know of a child who is being hurt, you breathe in the wish to take away all the pain and fear of that child. Then, as you breathe out, you send the child happiness, joy, or whatever would relieve their pain. This is the core of the practice: breathing in other’s pain so they can be well and have more space to relax and open, and breathing out, sending them relaxation or whatever you feel would bring them relief and happiness. However, we often cannot do this practice because we come face to face with our own fear, our own resistance, anger, or whatever our personal pain or our personal stuckness happens to be at that moment.

Tonglen can be translated as "taking in and sending out." It is a Buddhist practice that can assist us in countering the human tendency to resist emotional discomfort. Instead of engaging in the habitual response of pushing away pain, the practice of tonglen invites us to bring the discomfort close. It is totally counter-intuitive, yet it is a profound way to cultivate inner peace and compassion.

Tonglen practice, also known as “taking and sending,” reverses our usual logic of avoiding suffering and seeking pleasure. In tonglen practice, we visualize taking in the pain of others with every in-breath and sending out whatever will benefit them on the out-breath. In the process, we become liberated from age- old patterns of selfishness. We begin to feel love for both ourselves and others; we begin to take care of ourselves and others. - Pema Chodron

We base our lives on seeking happiness and avoiding suffering, but the best thing we can do for ourselves — and for the planet — is to turn this whole way of thinking upside down. If we’re ready to try staying present with our pain, one of the greatest supports we could ever find is to cultivate the warmth and simplicity of bodhichitta. The word bodhichitta has many translations, but probably the most common one is “awakened heart.” The word refers to a longing to wake up from ignorance and delusion in order to help others do the same. - Pema Chodron

We insist on being Someone, with a capital S. We get security from defining ourselves as worthless or worthy, superior or inferior. We waste precious time exaggerating or romanticizing or belittling ourselves with a complacent surety that yes, that’s who we are. We mistake the openness of our being - the inherent wonder and surprise of each moment - for a solid, irrefutable self. Because of this misunderstanding, we suffer. - Pema Chödrön

Phenomena do exist, but they don't exist in the manner in which they appear. They don't exist in a independent, absolute way. They are empty of inherent existence. The view of emptiness is not a negation of phenomena, it is a negation of a specific manner of existence. The object of negation must be understood.

Chitta means “mind” and also “heart” or “attitude.” Bodhi means “awake,” “enlightened,” or “completely open.” Sometimes the completely open heart and mind of bodhichitta is called the soft spot, a place as vulnerable and tender as an open wound. It is equated, in part, with our ability to love. Even the cruelest people have this soft spot. Even the most vicious animals love their offspring. As Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche put it, “Everybody loves something, even if it’s only tortillas.” - Pema Chodron

“Stay close” is an invitation to become intimate with the energy of your emotions, to befriend them and to trust their natural evolution. “Do nothing” points to the practice of giving space, allowing and letting be as a valid response to a difficult moment. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if “Doing nothing” was more encouraged in our world and in our spiritual practices? Not as a resignation but as an expression of trust into our basic goodness and self-healing capacity.

Stephan Pende gives an introduction to Medicine Buddha and then leads a short practice. The practice connects you with your innate healing powers to bring healing to yourself and others.

Stephan Pende explains how to work with discomfort in your meditation practice. He also explores how to benefit from traditional rituals in your daily practice without them becoming a straight jacket.

It is important to have a structure for your daily meditation practice which is inspiring and wholesome. Stephan Pende helps you to find your own style in your practice. Our meditation practice can be effortless and joyful.

Establishing a daily meditation practice might be the best gift you can give to yourself and the people you meet every day. Stephan Pende encourages you to honour your preferences and your discomfort in your daily sitting.

Jesus was a Rebel, Buddha was a Rebel. What about you? Stephan Pende invites you to rely on your inner Rebel to protect you from bullshit in the traditional approaches to meditation. How can you cultivate a wholesome meditation practice without putting on a straightjacket?