Calm Abiding (Shi-nä) Retreat

My very dear...
I am very happy to hear that you are doing shamatha retreat. It’s very important to create the causes; this is very, very important, otherwise you will get lung. You probably heard about a student who tried to do shi-nä by following His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala. He stayed where the meditators are, but later it turned out he had so much lung that he tried to stop even the goat noises by pushing big rocks off the mountain. I was told this by my teacher, Gen Jampa Wangdu. Then the student went to Bombay to be healed, and later he did one year retreat.

As much as possible concentrate on the cause of shi-nä, calm abiding, otherwise you can become like that student. So, thank you very much.

Please do the retreat with bodhicitta and lamrim, because shi-nä alone is not enough. Even Hindus can achieve shi-nä and we have already achieved shi-nä numberless times. We have been born in the form and formless realm numberless times, thus it is important to do shi-nä with lamrim and with bodhicitta, so the direction of your retreat and your practice is towards enlightenment.

I have made prayers for both of you. Thank you very much.

With much love and prayers...

Dear Tony,
I am sorry this has taken some time to do. I am very concerned that you receive this advice as soon as possible. I checked regarding where you could do your long retreat and Shiné Land (Land of Calm Abiding) in California came out very good, and so did Chamdo Geshe's house at Tushita.

Following is a general guideline for lifetime practice: 

• In the beginning, while doing the preliminary practices, meditate on the lamrim.
• For the first three months, focus on the beginning of the lamrim up to the section on karma.
• Then do five months on the middle scope, the nature of samsara.
• Then do seven months on bodhicitta, and then five months on emptiness.
• Every day do some meditation on guru devotion until you gain a stable realization, that from your side you see all your gurus as Buddha.

Specific preliminaries to do are:

• 200,000 recitations of the Heart Sutra
• 20,000 Samayavajra (Damtsig Dorje)
• 900,000 Guru Yoga

The main deity for you to practice, particularly with the practice of shi-nä, is Most Secret Hayagriva. Focus on the generation stage of this practice. For success with shi-nä we need a lot of merit, and the preliminary practices are good for that. Shiné Land has come out particularly good as a place for you to do retreat, but you can choose between that and Tushita.

Remember, this is general guideline for lifetime practice.

Much love... 

My very dear Lhamo,
A billion, zillion, trillion thanks for what you are doing. It is excellent; it is excellent to hear about the improvement in your mind—that there is more stability and clarity, and that you feel more confident. It is great, very good, to be able to lay the foundation.

It doesn’t matter how long it takes; it takes time. What causes the achievement of shamatha is pure morality.

I am very, very happy with you. Enjoy that! See you soon. With my prayers to you always.

With much love and prayers...

PS. From time to time, if you have something to say, send me a letter or email.

PPS. Your motivation should be to practice, even if it takes eons.

Student:
My main obstacle to concentration is still discursiveness. My mind so quickly wanders off onto all manner of things. Intellectually, I can see the self-centeredness, the desire, the anger, the pride, and so on that cause these distractions, and I recognize the faults, but still the mind wanders. I am becoming more and more afraid of my samsara. Still, I remain optimistic that I can attain heart-felt renunciation, subdue my mind, and achieve concentration, and I look forward to resuming the shi-nä meditation.

Rinpoche's Response:

My very dear one,
I am very sorry for the long delay in replying to your letter.

Regarding what you said, it is good to think how His Holiness the Dalai Lama often advises Western people in the teachings: that they shouldn’t expect quick attainments, like within a few years, not to give up, to continue to practice, and then the attainments will come. One needs to plan for many eons, if it takes that long, not give up, but keep continuing the practice. Then, realizations will come if you have patience and perseverance. (I added the last sentence.)

I don’t remember exactly this quote, but the essence is like this. Kadampa Geshe Tulwapa said: If you plan for hundreds of years to continue to meditate on the path then you will have realizations. In the beginning you might think that you will have realizations even in a few years.

I think maybe meditating on the path means collecting merits, practicing purification, then actually meditating on the path (lamrim), as well as one-pointedly requesting the guru, with devotion, looking at the guru as Buddha. Like this, when the ground is made soft and the stones are cleared away, just like removing obstacles, and with soil, water, and seeds, the crops can grow. In the same way, when all the conditions come together, then there is no choice; even if you pray not to be enlightened, still it happens, since it is all from the causes and conditions coming together. Here, the conditions are renunciation, bodhicitta, right view, etc.

As I mentioned in the beginning, try practicing shi-nä for one year, then see whether there are conditions or not, if not, then change the practice. Try for six more months; if nothing happens then you have to change it.

Then, maybe you need to build a very large stupa (I’m joking). Maybe you can build the largest stupa in the world. Maybe the hour the stupa is completed, then enlightenment will happen. I think that is a very easy way to achieve enlightenment. Or maybe you can build a very large banana instead, and inside there could be a temple, with Buddha’s life story and Milarepa’s life story in paintings on the walls, and a place for teachings and Dharma meditation, also a coffee shop, ice-cream shop, a restaurant—you can have everything inside the giant banana.

Anyway, being afraid of samsara is a great sign, that is great renunciation. That pure thought, having fear of samsara, being unattached to samsara, is what brings you to liberation, along with having compassion for sentient beings, the wish to bring sentient beings, who are suffering in samsara and have been suffering since beginningless time, to enlightenment. This is progress in your retreat.

Also, having the hope to achieve enlightenment, having faith in it, is important. In order to have renunciation, you have to get rid of desire, so for that you need to actualize exactly the path. Only then can you totally renounce the cause of desire—the negative imprint. For that you need to achieve all those paths. You can’t expect this to happen within some months or a few years, that you can just stop all the delusions.

If you are finding out more about the self-centered mind, pride, etc, it seems like they are coming up more. This is a very good sign, because normally in our life we are very busy with external things (work, etc.), so we don’t see ourselves, don’t see our delusions, then when we do retreat and we are less busy, then stuff comes out, many things, and you see all your many mistaken minds, negative karma, and that most of our actions have been done out of the self-cherishing thought, and so forth. In order to defeat the enemy, first you have to know who the enemy is and to be able to see the enemy. Then you have to bomb the enemy, you have to completely destroy the enemy. If you already know who the thief is, then you can hit him. Otherwise, if you are not sure, you might hit someone else. If there is a thief in the house, but you think that he is actually a very close friend, you don’t notice that every day this thief, the enemy, is stealing your chance to achieve liberation. Liberation is to be free from delusions. So, we have to destroy the enemy, the delusions. In order to destroy them we have to recognize the delusions.

If you are already enlightened then you won’t see the delusions. If you are a rock, tree, or mountain, then you don’t have delusions. But you are not a rock, tree, or mountain, so you have delusions. From beginningless rebirths up until now, you have been suffering, and didn’t achieve enlightenment, so that means you haven’t achieved liberation from rebirth. If one had achieved liberation, then one would be able to benefit others, and would not have to suffer ever again.

For example, to make a cloth clean you have to wash it. When you are washing it, then all the dirt comes out. That is the process. To do this you use water and soap and then the dirt comes out. When we do retreat we see the dirt, the delusions, the self-cherishing mind, etc. This is the washing that is needed in order to be able to achieve liberation and enlightenment, in order to liberate all sentient beings from the oceans of samsara’s suffering and enlighten them. It is very positive that you are seeing this.

Similarly, in order to be healthy, sometimes we have to go to hospital to have a check up, x-ray, or examination—so many different examinations, examining one’s kaka, pipi, and spit, as you know very well. It seems they don’t examine so much the stuff coming out of one’s ears, anyway I haven’t heard about that. Also, they don’t seem to examine one’s tears, no one examines the tears. Well, I haven’t heard about that. It also seems they don’t examine the snot either.

All of these examinations are to find the sickness. That is the way they discover what the problem is, then from that they decide what medicine to take so that one can be treated, in order to have a long life and to be healthy. If one does not discover the sickness, then it can become very heavy and can cause you to die.

In the beginning when practicing shi-nä, as you know, again and again, you focus on the object, keep redirecting your mind to the object. By doing this you discover a lot of problems, you start to recognize so many distractions, scattering thoughts and sinking thoughts, and you have to bring the mind back again and again. In Tibetan the word is len tuchupa, to continue the concentration, because normally you don’t notice, either you have no time to meditate, so you don’t notice, or there are too many distractions and there is no time to notice things. It is similar to the cloth being dirty but not noticing that until one washes it, and then so much dirt comes out.

So, please make constant prayers, strong prayers. Especially put effort into guru devotion, to have stable and strong guru devotion, and as much as possible to be able to see the guru as Buddha. Then, even though obstacles and difficulties arise, think that you are unbelievably fortunate, think it is a great pleasure, that by this one is discovering and through this one is able to achieve liberation and enlightenment and enlighten all sentient beings, by following Buddha’s advice. Seeing the guru as Buddha, having strong devotion, confessing all one’s past mistakes, this is very important. It is still good to do prostrations by reciting the Thirty-five Buddhas’ names, as well as Vajrasattva at night.

Recently, I heard that some people achieved shi-nä in 20 days. This would seem to be not only from very strong meditation, but strong guru devotion in the past. Anyway, it is good to study the section on shi-nä in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, Geshe Jampa Wangdu’s teachings, the Lamrim Chenmo, and Gen Lamrimpa’s books, any book that has advice on shi-nä.

With much love and prayers,

Student: Now that I am in my fifteenth month of retreat of combining deity meditation with meditation on the lamrim, I wanted to report to you how the retreat is progressing.

I am humbled and delighted to be continually discovering the depth of meaning in the lamrim teachings. On the other hand, I find that my powers of mindfulness and concentration are deplorably weak. As much as I try, this mind of mine always wanders off onto other topics. This does not depress me, as I understand that my samsara is very, very deep and it is going to take a long time and much effort to be able to maintain focus upon the meditation object. I am concerned, however, that I may not be taking the best advantage of this precious opportunity of long retreat. I would be very pleased to receive words of advice and encouragement from Rinpoche.

Also, I await Rinpoche’s advice on when is the right time to change my meditation routine from this preparation for calm abiding to the actual meditation on attaining calm abiding.

Rinpoche's Response

My very dear Keith,
Thank you very much for your kind letter.

What you mentioned—this is the best progress, because you see the lamrim deeper and deeper. This means what you are doing, your retreat, is benefiting your mind, to achieve enlightenment in order to enlighten all sentient beings. This is the main meaning of one’s life, the only goal; this is actually the only reason to live. Having this motivation, then whatever one does—walking, sleeping, talking, even having breakfast, with Vegemite or French fries—is meaningful.

So, I think you have a very deep realization of how samsara is terrible, nothing but suffering, which you have already experienced numberless times, and to continue to reincarnate in this samsara again is unbearable and disgusting. One feels that the suffering of samsara is not only the suffering of pain, or the suffering of change, but is totally in the nature of suffering; this is very important. Then, there is also pervasive compounded suffering—how the aggregates are in the nature of suffering constantly.

One not only sees how samsara is in the nature of suffering, but also what we perceive as happiness often comes about as a result of committing negative actions, and this continues, by leaving seeds of delusion, from which more delusion arises, from which more negative karma arises. This causes the continuation of compounded suffering. The more you see this, how being in samsara is like being in a fire, and the suffering of that, or like drowning in a septic tank, then the more one feels how this is a very good basis for developing shamatha. We feel disgusted at delusions, feeling they are very terrible, very awful, very deceptive, particularly attachment, which is like a poisonous snake that kills you immediately. Even if one is bitten by all the snakes in the world and dies, still one is only separated from one’s body in this life—it doesn’t prevent one from being liberated, from enlightenment, or generating virtuous thoughts. Just being bitten and dying doesn't cause one to be born in the lower realms, it is not the condition that causes that. But delusions cause one to be reborn in the lower realms. From delusion one creates negative karma and that is the cause for that rebirth. So, you can see that delusion is more dangerous than an atomic bomb, because delusions harm you and harm numberless sentient beings, and have been harming you in the past. If one doesn't eliminate delusions, they will continue to harm sentient beings, directly and indirectly, forever, besides harming oneself. This is much worse than a billion atomic bombs. This is the essence, the point of what I am saying.

The more one realizes the harm delusions cause, the more one has a better foundation for shi-nä. There are less distractions, such as attachment, scattering one’s thoughts, meaning less disturbances for shi-nä. Then, it is so easy to achieve shi-nä. One’s mind becomes more content and then there is more realization of renouncing delusion, and how samsara is in the nature of suffering. One’s mind becomes more peaceful, with less distractions; then it is very easy to achieve shi-nä.

The other thing is that the more one realizes renunciation of samsara and the harm of delusions, the more one is able to look at other sentient beings who are suffering and feel others’ suffering so clearly. This is how one’s compassion gets stronger. Then, it is very easy to generate bodhicitta, which leads you to enlightenment, and leads you to enlighten all sentient beings. This has skies of benefit.

So, you can start practicing shi-nä. Start by reading many instructions on shi-nä, specifically Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand and Lama Tsongkhapa’s lamrim, as well as Gen Lamrimpa. Slowly start with very short sessions, but many of them.

When you practice shi-nä, realizing how one’s concentration is very bad is a quality. To realize that—that’s one’s concentration is very bad—is progress. On that basis, recognize it and continue to develop it more and more. Try for one year. Then, see how it goes, put effort into that. If your concentration is not developing within six months, then I think you need to put more effort into other practices, like purifying negative karma and collecting merit, things like that.

Keep trying to develop renunciation, compassion, bodhicitta, and emptiness. Have a strong feeling of the lamrim at the beginning of your sessions, even just for five minutes. If you don’t get to practice like this, then you should have an even stronger feeling than if you had lost billions of dollars.

Normally in this world, you are regarded as a hero if you defeat other countries. However, as I've mentioned before, when you have to suffer the karma of this in future lives, for eons and eons, how can that person be regarded as a hero, who is then in the lower realms, suffering inconceivably in the hell realms. That person is not a hero at all, who is suffering unbearably for however many number of years.

But there is no question that each day the lamrim meditator defeats delusions. All one’s happiness, up to enlightenment, every day, from moment to moment, also of all sentient beings, comes from your lamrim realizations. The problem is we follow is what our self-cherishing wants, what attachment wants - that is what we follow. Ignorance trusts that, that it is truly existent. This is what doesn’t allow one to have realizations of the three principals of the path, guru devotion, etc.

What I am saying is: defeat delusions every day. Even if it only happens once, even if you can only do it once a week, or once a month, someone who can do this is actually the greatest victor, the greatest winner. Normally, those who are called great champions are warriors, who kill hundreds of thousands or millions of people. But they never defeat the inner enemy: delusions; in fact, they always follow them, their whole life.

So, here you can see the huge difference: the lamrim meditator is making war, like the war happening in Iraq, but on all the delusions, making war in the world of one’s mind, making war by trying to defeat the real enemy: delusions.

By actualizing the lamrim path and totally defeating the delusions, trying to eliminate even the cause of every delusion, the negative imprints, the seeds, only then are you totally free forever from all the delusions, from samsaric suffering, from the oceans of each realm’s suffering, and all the external enemies. You have no enemies because you have no cause to receive harm from others, forever. This is the greatest champion, to be able to enlighten numberless sentient beings, who are in each realm, and to bring them to peerless happiness.

The one who sacrifices his or her life to meditate on the lamrim is the real champion. This is also the real work for world peace—taming your own mind brings peace in the world, to numberless sentient beings. This is what brings light into their hearts and lives.

Sorry, this is just extra talk, but it is good to think about this every morning when you get up, to remember this, that you are working for world peace, that you are dedicating and giving this to sentient beings, and that you will continue working for others by practicing meditation on the lamrim. You can do this not only during the sessions but also in the break time, while you are washing, going to the toilet, etc Whatever action you are doing, remember this. Your motivation is to benefit every single sentient being in this world, including your family, Muslims, the terrorists, all the people who are violent, who are torturing others, and who are suffering, those who are sick, those dying today, the millions of people who are dying of cancer, etc. You are benefiting everyone, every fish, every shellfish, every animal living in the water, on the beach, every single fly, all those people suffering in Africa, who are chopping up human beings, the tribes who are chopping other people up, making others so terrified, killing and raping others.

Also, remember this when you are taking the bodhisattva vows, every day during Guru Puja and other practices. Remember this and how this is what you are doing. Even when you chant one mala of OM MANI PADME HUM, even just a few mantras, make sure you do it with a bodhicitta motivation for all sentient beings. Do every mantra recitation, every meditation, for everybody. Everything you do in your house or outside, when you see a bird, when you're walking, do it with a bodhicitta motivation, then you are benefiting others.

By meditating on the lamrim, practicing the lamrim, and defeating the delusions, even though suffering doesn't get stopped right away, by taming the mind this becomes a precedent. This happens every time you don’t follow a delusion, every time you defeat it, even for a minute, two minutes, three minutes, by practicing patience, renunciation, not following desire, and so forth. It also happens every time you meditate on dependent arising, looking at things in emptiness, not following ignorance and grasping at things as truly existent. This is good to remember.

This leads after some time to a total cessation of the cause of suffering - karma and delusion - through actualizing the path, directly perceiving emptiness, with the basis of renunciation of samsara and developing the mind in this way. In this way, you are able to offer so many other qualities and be able to benefit others, to liberate others from the cause of suffering and lead them to enlightenment. This comes from each day practicing Dharma, guru devotion, the three principles of the path, and, on top of that, tantra, practicing pure appearance, and especially bodhicitta.

In every motivation, every time, generate bodhicitta, then everything you do leads definitely to enlightenment, with all the qualities, realizations, perfect understanding, omniscience, perfect compassion, perfect power, and the ability to perfectly liberate all sentient beings and bring them to enlightenment, to be able to do perfect works for sentient beings, spontaneously, without any effort.

This is how through practicing the lamrim one is able to benefit every single sentient being. If you can do this it is amazing. Normally, people think that becoming king of a country or defeating other countries is unbelievable, but in reality if you don't renounce the cause of suffering it is nothing. You are removing the cause of suffering each time you practice lamrim meditation. At the beginning, develop a bodhicitta motivation, compassion, to cease the cause of suffering, and to not experience suffering, forever. Every minute sentient beings stay in samsara is unbearable. This is the practice—every day, every minute, meditate especially on the lamrim, especially now you are in an isolated place, free from distractions.

I regard as the most important thing in the world that anybody, including yourself, dedicates their life to achieving the lamrim, guru devotion (which is the root), the three principles of the path, and the common and uncommon two stages, with the goal to liberate numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, suras, and asuras from the oceans of suffering of each realm and to bring them to enlightenment.

There are great scholars who know everything, the entire Kangyur and Tengyur, by heart, great pandits who know all about the four traditions, Bönpo, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, all the different religions, who have so much knowledge, but who are not practicing, meditating on the path, or practicing Dharma, which means overcoming delusions and trying to destroy them, which are the one enemy, the inner enemy for oneself and enemy to all sentient beings. These scholars know so much but their life does not have much meaning, their life is empty. If they are not practicing then it's like their mind becomes like a library, but that's all. This does not make one’s mind useful even for liberating oneself, and certainly not for achieving enlightenment for sentient beings and enlightening all other sentient beings. This does not even use the knowledge to achieve a good rebirth in the next life, or to not be reborn in the lower realms, which is the minimum. So, one’s life is totally empty. It's like collecting all the medicines and storing them up, but you don’t take them when you are sick. Or you buy all the food in the world but don’t eat it and die of starvation.

Being able to defeat anger and attachment even one time, in one year, by being a lamrim practitioner, through lamrim meditation, is better than winning the Olympics a billion times. Being able to defeat one negative imprint plants the seed back in one’s mental continuum, and it becomes one less negative karma.

If you do not defeat it then from that negative imprint delusion arises again and again, and one has to circle in samsara continuously, experiencing the sufferings and suffering results for so many lifetimes. From that one negative karma one experiences hundreds of thousands of lifetimes of suffering, and also one repeats the same action again in each lifetime, for so many lifetimes. But you don't have to experience it like this, you are free. Whereas, even if Olympic champions win a billion times, it doesn’t have this benefit, and if they win, it is done with attachment, pride, or clinging to this life, and this is all negative karma, so actually it brings them closer to the lower realms.

Please inform me again after some time how you are getting on.

With much love and prayers...

When looking for a suitable location for your retreat it is important for the place to be somewhere pleasant where you have the feeling that you want to stay.

First you need to do preliminary practices to pacify hindrances that may arise while abiding in retreat.

Your object of shi-nä can be either self as the deity or tum-mo. It is good to combine the generation stage with attainment of shi-nä, then you can do the two things at the same time. It is good to read Geshe lamrimpa’s book that explains his experience of shi-nä – the proper diet and conditions. Some of this advice may not be in the Lamrim Chenmo. For general explanation and guidelines for shi-nä, rely on the Lamrim Chenmo and Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand.

Every day, you need to do many prayers to complete the meditation, and also to accumulate a lot of merit. When the meditation is progressing you can cut down the prayers, but at the beginning do many mandala offerings and request to achieve the Three Great Purposes. When you reach the third or fourth stage of mental development, the main object is to complete the attainment of shi-nä and you can begin to gradually cut down the number of prayers. At the time your mind is stabilized in virtue, if you try to do prayers etc., they may distract you from shi-nä and that is not useful. So, with the purpose to attain shi-nä, cut down the prayers, not all at one time, gradually. Also, your usual daily sadhanas can become shorter. Once you are starting to progress, do more and more shi-nä.

During the Vajrasattva retreat it is good to do a self-initiation, short or long, every day, also, Lama Yeshe's Vajrasattva Tsog. This is to make your samaya vows pure, as that is the main qualification for attaining shi-nä.

More effort is required at the beginning; otherwise there will be obstacles later. One old student received advice from Gen Jampa Wangdu, then he went to some Hindu sadhus. He studied and debated with Geshe Rabten and was extremely well educated at an intellectual level. Then, somehow during retreat, he came to the conclusion that his gelong vows were an obstacle to attaining shi-nä. It was strange. He understood the detailed points but could not see this most simple one. I think it is karma that decides one’s life, it is not something to do with intelligence. If the obstacle is karma, it can be purified.

Another senior monk went up to the seventh stage, then he felt that he needed more merit and so decided to stop retreat and help his mother sell flowers. He did not continue, but he had much experience.

Then, there was the lady who thought she had overcome subtle excitement. She told me that she could enter meditation at any time. When I was living in Dharamsala she spent one year with Geshe lamrim and in America. Then she had the idea to marry another student and a strong plan to do this developed in her mind. Shi-nä requires a quiet mind and renunciation; if you have a plan with attachment, then you cannot achieve shi-nä. His Holiness told one student to do shi-nä, and she became very upset – this became an obstacle to achieving shi-nä. When seeking advice from your teachers you must have a very good translator. If you are relating your experience, especially detailed points, you will not get the exact answer if the translator cannot understand.

Another method to collect extensive merit to complete shi-nä is to read the Sanghata Sutra, which I have been recommending all the centers to read to collect merit for the Maitreya Project. Read this 500 times. Do it by combining reading with lamrim meditation. In the morning perform Lama Chöpa and meditate on guru devotion. In the next session, meditate on the perfect human rebirth, karma, and meditations of the first scope for 30 minutes to one hour. Then read the sutra for 30 minutes to one hour. In the afternoon, do the same. A little lamrim meditation and then read the sutra for 30–60 minutes. This is mainly to collect merit so that when you actually do shi-nä there will be no obstacles. Also, it will create the cause to have a very enjoyable retreat. When all the conditions are pacified then the actual retreat does not take much time, there will be no heavy obstacles. If you do not do this you can experience lung and other obstacles.

*Note: For more information on overcoming lung and other practice problems, see the Wind Imbalance/Lung and Practice Problems sections of Lama Zopa Rinpoche's Online Advice Book.