Audio (TCP7, Day 01): Introduction, Finding the Breath

A short talk on finding the breath, followed by a full guided meditation — the opening session of a 15-part śamatha-vipaśyanā (calm abiding and insight) series recorded live at the International Buddhist Academy, Kathmandu. Ven. Ngawang Tenzin introduces the nine stages of śamatha through the classic monkey-mind and elephant imagery before leading the guided breath-awareness sit. A good entry point if you’re new to meditation or mindfulness of breathing.

Sakya tradition · IBA Kathmandu · The Complete Path (TCP) 2026 · English · Talk + guided sit

For the full Sanskrit/Pali/Tibetan glossary and nine-stages reference table, see the Glossary and Summary for Morning Meditations.

Transcript

So good morning, dear friends.

Welcome to our regular morning meditation session here at IBA, TCP 2026. My name is Ngawang Tenzin, and I’m very happy to have the opportunity to share some of the practices of śamatha and vipaśyanā, of stopping and looking deeply, of calm and insight meditation, that I have had the good fortune to learn from teachers such as Thomas Dhammadipa, from Sakya Lama Choedak, and from the late venerable master Thich Nhat Hanh also. So, I’m just very briefly — I’m ordained in the Sakya tradition.

My home temple is here in Kathmandu, Jamchen Lhakhang. And the intention with these sessions is to provide those of us who have the interest and the energy with an opportunity to explore some of these basic, fundamental practices for cultivation of mindfulness, both on the cushion and — hopefully — I will be able to link also to practice off the cushion, to mindfulness in daily life, but emphasizing

practices of calming the mind, allowing us to see clearly. And these are practices that are very important also in the path to which we are being introduced also in TCP, this Vajrayana path, in which we are often called upon to see very clearly — for example, to be aware of right view, to maintain that view in all different situations in daily life, and

also, as you have no doubt experienced in your personal practice, to be able to see clearly — sometimes extraordinarily detailed visualizations, different arrangements of deities, quadrants of the mandala, colors, shapes, mental images. And, as one of my main meditation teachers often shared, this cultivation of a capacity to stay with an object, to maintain our attention on that object, is one that is invaluable in this kind of practice.

Maybe we can even say necessary. That if we are not able to pay attention in a way based on our intention, our volition — choosing where to pay attention and maintaining that awareness — we are what?

Simply caught in attention that is shifting from object to object continuously, almost of its own accord — the monkey mind, the image that is often shared. But, as we will be discovering slowly, slowly, there are other powerful images, like the elephant-chasing image that we see depicted in many gompas, in traditional tanka paintings of the nine stages of śamatha.

So important is this cultivation of right attention that we find it in all authentic spiritual traditions — the importance of this cultivation, we can say, and this is a word we will return to, bhāvanā. While we borrow the word “meditation” from the Christian, especially Catholic, contemplative tradition, in the original texts, the words of the Buddha, in Pali and also in Sanskrit, the term is one that evokes more cultivation, and we will be exploring why this is so. So, hopefully, for many of us these will be review sessions already.

These are topics that we are already familiar with, perhaps; they are practices that we are already able to incorporate into our sādhana practice, into our daily practice, in some way. Or perhaps we have the aspiration to deepen a little bit our familiarity with śamatha, especially

though, as we will be discovering, in the northern schools we have the habit of not separating śamatha and vipaśyanā — that they are hyphenated, we can say; they often occur together. Some of us may be familiar with schools of meditation in which śamatha is emphasized as the preliminary practice and vipaśyanā as secondary, or like a culmination practice,

in which the sharpened mind that has been honed in, for example, awareness of breathing, is then turned towards objects that are changing, for example showing us impermanence. But there are also clear instructions from the Buddha himself, instructions that have then been incorporated wholeheartedly into the Yogācāra system of meditation, which is the basis for the meditation instructions in the

Mahayana in general — instructions that invite us to see that śamatha and vipaśyanā are together from the beginning, that as soon as we make an effort to calm the mind, we are beginning to discern those factors that support us in calming the mind, and those factors that hinder us in calming the mind, and these factors will be part of our exploration as well. We will meet the hindrances as we go along. Ideally, the intention will be for us, in the short time that we have,

and recognizing that this is just an auxiliary, a supporting session, to allow us to cultivate a calm and a clear mind for receiving the precious teachings from His Holiness, the 42nd, but perhaps also we will develop capacity to self-guide in these practices. And so, to do that, the format that I propose is to have some short instructions, introduction on a topic developing through the themes that I’ve just described, as we move through the days that we have together, followed by a guided meditation,

in which we will explore how to put those instructions into practice, alternating with days where we have, again, perhaps instruction may be more review, and then a silent sit, in which the intention is for us to be able to self-guide, to practice as though we were at home,

in our own space, on retreat, perhaps slowly developing capacity to not need outside voice guidance, to be able to recognize, to have a clear intention, to recognize the tools that we have at our disposal, to notice the hindrances and apply antidotes correctly, and to recognize and also celebrate the qualities of calm abiding as they arise. This recognition, and being able to recall, is a really crucial part of our learning process. So, it seems that we will be starting, ideally, at quarter to eight, and we will have an hour.

This is the intention, so, in future sessions, hopefully we’ll be able to adhere to that, and also, in future sessions, our intention is to arrange Spanish translation and Chinese translation, if it is required. So, I don’t want to take up too much more of our time with discussion, but — maybe can I have a show of hands, who has already attended these sessions in previous years of TCP?

So, about half. So this morning, I would like us to start anew, also to begin fresh, in the Zen tradition.

We talk about the beginner’s mind, a mind that aspires, at least, to be free of preconception. And, in some sense, we maybe can see that freedom from preconception is a very important aspect of, actually, the freedom of abhūta — that this process of judging, of comparing, of assuming that we already know, is one of the most pervasive but also, perhaps we can say, disguised, of the hindrances,

so, in that spirit, I invite you to, first of all, consider the posture. We have, in the traditions of yoga, lots of different ways to sit. We have the lotus posture, padmāsana; we have the half lotus; we have sukhāsana; and we have the Japanese style, the Burmese style. In the Plum Village Zen tradition of Master Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnam, we are invited to consider the chrysanthemum posture.

So, some of you may already be familiar with the seven-point posture of Vairocana, from the Bhāvanākrama of Kamalaśīla — stages of meditation — beginning, in some sense, with this basic practice of how to sit. But here, the chrysanthemum posture is that posture in which we feel reasonably confident that we can find some ease and comfort for the duration of our sit.

So it can look different from person to person, and also from day to day, depending on how we are doing in our body and mind. The main characteristic of this posture is, however, its stability. And for this reason, we can maybe qualify that by saying “comfortable enough.”

Because, as we know from our daily life, the most comfortable position we can imagine, after a certain length of time, we want to move, to shift, to change our position. Even if we’re lying in the most luxurious deck chair, reclining, eventually we want to shift — the body is not made for sitting motionless forever.

So we’re finding, in the chrysanthemum posture, a posture which allows us to find some stillness for a good length of time, at least for us to start to notice that urge to move, and to be able to be with that urge to shift position. So, we can, first of all, see that our stability in a sitting position on the floor is going to look different from sitting in a chair,

but some of the main similarities are going to be not resting against the back of the chair, being able to stay softly upright, we can say, not rigid, allowing the spine to keep its natural curves. It allows us full contact with the surface that we’re sitting on. So, for this reason, cross-legged gives a big base — it’s not just the sitting bones, the buttocks, that are in contact with the mat that we’re sitting on,

but also the legs, the knees, the ankles. So, if we are in a situation where our knees tend to float very high, because our hips are not quite so open, it can be helpful to have a higher cushion. So don’t be shy — stack as many as you need in order to find some stability. And coming a little bit towards the front of that cushion can be helpful as well,

so that there is a little bit of tilt in the pelvis — the same if we’re sitting in a chair. With that uprightness comes an invitation for the heart to open, and the shoulders to relax down and away from the head and neck. To help this, we can rest our hands on the knees, or in the lap, stacked one on top of the other. We can continue with that lengthening and uprightness, that soft uprightness of the spine, all the way into the neck, by gently tucking our chin,

so that our ears are above our shoulders, our shoulders above our hips. We can relax the muscles of the face and jaw. We can have the mouth very slightly open, and the tongue touching the palate, the upper palate, just behind the teeth. And, depending on whether our main distraction tends to be outside and visual, or our main obstacle is drowsiness,

we can choose to either close the eyes or leave them slightly open, respectively.

So, if our tendency is to be caught in visual stimulus, wandering in sight, in color, shape, closing the eyes can be helpful. If our tendency is towards drowsiness, then keeping them slightly open can be helpful. So, taking a few moments just to establish ourselves in that posture, I’m also going to invite you to give rise to a clear intention for this sit. In this case, we are exploring posture, and, as I will introduce in a moment, the breath itself, finding the breath in the body. And, underneath that clear intention, I also invite you to give rise to an awareness of your motivation for this sit. Why?

Am I here? We might recognize that there are reasons of personal benefit that we can identify — perhaps we aspire to have more calmness, clarity, in our life. Can we identify also how that motivation

can be not limited to our own benefit, but also for the benefit of others — that if I am more calm and present in my daily life, as well as on the cushion, I am more available as support for others experiencing difficulties, agitation, anxiety, regret. The benefits of this cultivation need not be limited to just myself. And, having established that motivation, a clear intention for this sit, awareness of the breath in the body, the first step in kāyānupassanā, mindfulness gone into the body, or tracking bodily sensation,

and having also established ourselves in this posture — which, stable, upright, conducive to stillness, is also negotiable; if I need to change it during the sit, I can do so slowly, mindfully — inviting three sounds of the bell, we can begin with our guided meditation. Finding the breath: breathing in, aware of the in-breath, tracking sensations of the breath in the body.

If it helps, we can even place one hand on the belly and one hand on the upper chest. To begin with, perhaps aware of the rising of the belly with the in-breath, following that movement as the diaphragm descends, the lungs inflate, the organs of the abdomen shift, welcoming in this gift of life-giving oxygen, from atmosphere, from biosphere, into the lungs, the bloodstream, into every tissue, organ, into every

cell in the body. Breathing out, aware of the out-breath, tracking the movements of the breath in the body closely, following the belly back towards the spine, as the diaphragm ascends, the lungs empty, gifting back to atmosphere, biosphere, to ocean and forest, the carbon dioxide that which our cells, our tissues, our organs no longer require, relaxing the whole body as we do so, letting go of tensions, distractions, as

they arise and pass, arise and pass, arise and pass. In-breath: tracking closely the movement of breath in the body, the rise of the belly, inviting awareness to expand, noticing movement in the upper chest, also the region of the heart, the hand placed there gently rising as the rib cage expands, finding a little extra volume for the in-breath there, not forcing, not trying to change the breath too much, allowing awareness itself to encourage the flow of the breath to deepen, to widen, to become smooth, broad, spacious.

And breathing out, tracking closely the movements of the breath in the body, just as we find them, following the heart as the rib cage condenses, relaxing downwards, following the belly as it contracts back towards the spine, gently engaging there the muscles of the abdomen, diaphragm relaxing, the whole body letting go of tensions, distractions. Breathing in, aware of the in-breath, tracking the movement of the

breath in the body, rise of belly, expansion of the rib cage, the gentle lifting of the heart, the upper chest, inviting awareness to note also that gentle lifting and spreading in the shoulders and collarbone, perhaps a little extra volume at the top of the in-breath, perhaps even into the sides of the torso, the back of the body, a spreading behind the heart, between the shoulder blades, like a bird

spreading its wings, inviting spaciousness into the breath. And breathing out, tracking movement of the breath in the body as shoulders relax, the rib cage, the torso condenses, the belly sinks back towards the spine, relaxing the whole body, inviting tension to melt away, inviting distractions to arise and pass. Breathing in, aware of the in-breath, and having established ourselves in this connection to the movement of the breath in the body, we may like to relax the hands back down to the lap or on the knees.

And continue to track these feelings of the breath in the body, giving rise to a continuity — beginning, middle, end — of the in-breath sensations, just as we find them. No need to change the breath in any way now, allowing it to flow, inviting smoothness and spaciousness, simply through our awareness itself. And breathing out, tracking movement of the out-breath through its whole duration, beginning, middle, just as we find it — no need to change this experience in any way, this rhythm,

this ebb and flow of the tide of the breath, to continue as it has done since the moment of our birth. This experience to fulfill the mind, its simplicity, its continuity, full-heartedly attending, relaxing, letting go. And, when distraction arises — be it in the form of sensations in the body, perhaps pleasant or unpleasant, unrelated to the breath, or be it in the form of sounds or sights outside the body, or in the form of mental images, thoughts, stories, experiences from memory or concerns for the future — recognizing, welcoming these also as part of this present moment experience,

and gently inviting awareness back to the breath in the body, relaxing the body, calming tensions, letting go of distractions, like to generate some warmth in the palms of your hands, and you can offer this warmth to the face, giving yourself a gentle massage — head, neck, shoulders, kidneys, and lower back.

And you might like to adjust your sitting position if it has become uncomfortable. I think we will conclude there — we have the joy of seeing the eagerness of our friends to enter the shrine room and begin to prepare themselves to receive the precious teachings from His Holiness today. We may have an opportunity in later sessions for some questions and, if we’re lucky, some answers. And if you’re just arriving, and you’re wondering what is going on — welcome to the morning meditation session, or the very end of it. In these sessions, my name is Ngawang Tenzin.

I will be gently introducing some foundational practices for śamatha and vipaśyanā, on the basis of the nine stages and the four establishments of mindfulness, familiar, I hope, to many of you, if not all. And I look forward to that opportunity, and I thank you all for your attention, your patience. And I’ll see you again tomorrow.

And also, for those just arriving, I think we will make future announcements also, but please be aware that from 7:45 until 8:45, for one hour, the shrine room is the location of a meditation session, and you are wholeheartedly welcome to come at 7:45 for the beginning of that session. But, to also support the practice of those who have joined the session, by being very quiet and waiting outside if you are not coming for the meditation session — that would be very much appreciated. But please also feel very welcome. If there is sufficient interest and capacity, there will also be translation into Spanish, and we will try our best to organize this. Okay, thank you, and have a lovely day.