What are
Shamatha, Tonglen and Heart Sutra Practice?
- Shamatha
Our
experience proves that unhappiness and suffering are created only
by the mind and by our internal processes of over-thinking.
Thus, the remedy lies also in our mind; it depends wholly upon
meditating. When we learn meditation methods and put them into
practice, the result is that day by day, week by week, and
month
by month, our inner peace and happiness grows.
Gradually, through the energetic force of meditation,
countless positive qualities and changes arise within our
experience. This is because the true peace and happiness we
seek
are found within us. Shamatha (calm abiding meditation) is a method for
pacifying the coarse, or perceptible, forms of disturbing emotions.This
practice applies to
everyone, from beginners to advanced practitioners.
- Tonglen
The Practice
of Love and Compassion: The primary methods for
developing a loving and compassionate heart through specific meditation
in which we use the breath as a focal
point. By developing the noble intention to help others, our every
action of body and
speech will be inherently kind and helpful. Training in this
perspective
completely changes our outlook, thereby transforming our lives from the
inside out.
- The Heart Sutra
is the
quintessence of
Shakyamuni Buddha's teachings on the way things are, clearly
elucidating how the nature of all phenomena is
emptiness. This is an extremely profound text because it contains all
the key points of explanation found in the sutras regarding the true
nature of phenomena. Receiving this teaching is a truly rare and
precious opportunity, as the Buddha himself stated, "The recipient of
teachings on the Heart Sutra obtains the benefits and qualities of
having received teachings on all sutras on emptiness." This is a
spiritual journey of heart-mind that examines phenomenal perceptions of
the outer world and inner aspects of our very being.