Shamatha
In the Nalandabodhi Path of Meditation, you begin with a basic resting meditation practice called "calm abiding" or shamatha. Several different spiritual traditions teach shamatha meditation, but all forms of shamatha are designed to help calm the mind and bring forth its natural qualities of spaciousness, clarity, and attentiveness. These qualities allow you to work with the meditation practices that build upon the foundation of shamatha later on. Practice Instructors (PIs) work with newer students to determine which technique is most beneficial and at what point to introduce another shamatha practice.
Read instructions by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche for beginning meditation practice . . .
After some months of familiarizing yourself with calm abiding, you
begin working with vipashyana, or "clear insight" meditation, which
is the next stage in the Path of Meditation. Like shamatha,
vipashyana can also take on many forms and techniques. At this
stage, however, clear insight involves the practice of analytical
meditation: relying on the foundation of a calm and settled mind,
you begin to investigate or analyze the true nature of your mind
and how it creates its world.
Vipashyana
By practicing analytical meditation, you harness and further
develop the more active, inquisitive, and penetrating qualities of
the mind. This allows you to identify and gradually transform
mistaken beliefs about the nature of experience By alternating calm
abiding with clear insight, you gain a new certainty and confidence
in emptiness (Skt. shunyata), the spacious and open, ultimate
nature of reality. You also gain certainty and confidence in
"dependent arising," or the direct connection between the actions
we perform and the quality of life we experience. Through this
certainty, you gain the ability to lead a life that is of genuine
and increasing benefit to yourself and others.
At this stage of the Path of Meditation, your PI encourages you to
participate in longer meditation practice periods, to join the
intensive weekend sittings at the Nalandabodhi center, or to go on
group practice retreats.
A Community Approach to Meditation
In Nalandabodhi, you practice meditation both in solitude and with a group when you can. Practice Instructors and their instructees, as well as the entire community, are encouraged to gather regularly for practice sessions so that all may develop wisdom and compassion by realizing the nature of their minds.
Refuge Vows
During this first phase of practice, you may decide to take
refuge in the "three jewels": the Buddha, the dharma (the teachings
of the Buddha and the Buddha's tradition), and the sangha, or
community of practitioners.
Become a member of Nalandabodhi . . . Read the Path of Meditation FAQ . . .