Audio (TCP7, Day 15): Closing, Practice Off the Cushion

The closing talk of this 15-part śamatha-vipaśyanā (calm abiding and insight) and mettā bhāvanā series — on taking practice off the cushion into daily life, with reflections on sangha and friendship on the path — followed by a guided mettā-spreading meditation to close.

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

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

Transcript

Good morning, dear friends. Welcome to the beginning, the next phase in our meditation practice, our personal practice. Once we go out from this place, these sessions here at IBA, Tinchouli, Kathmandu, the complete path 2026, and we find ourselves fitting some of these pieces of a puzzle into our daily life, into our existing practice.

One of the most helpful pieces of advice that I received as a beginner practitioner in the cultivation of śamatha, vipaśyanā, of stopping, looking deeply, the practices of calm and insight that we have been exploring was to sit even for a short time, but consistently every day.

To not feel as though my practice needed to be the practice of an an experienced ascetic sitting for perhaps 40 minutes or an hour or more, maybe even twice a day, in order for it to be beneficial and effective. All in us, the Dalai Lama is on record as saying that if we feel we do not have enough time to sit for five minutes or ten minutes in the morning, then we should sit for half an hour.

Because actually the beauty of this practice is that it emerges from the conditions that we offer it.

It’s not something we need to impose from the top down, but something that when we offer the conditions, even if that is just to use our image of the gardener, even if it is just a corner of a very weedy and overgrown schedule, that we clear some space, soften the soil and allow light and moisture to reach and plant a seed. Then from its own side, that seed will grow.

Eventually, a shoot a stem leaves, branches and not just flowers, but also fruit and maybe even shade eventually. So we may elaborate on that metaphor in a few moments, but in that spirit what I suggest we do this morning is a short sit at the beginning. Not too much theory. We’ve had plenty of information. Now let us just imagine that we have a day ahead of us filled with other engagements.

Perhaps like we experience at home in daily life, a job, a family, responsibilities, but here still for this time we have a moment. We can draw a circle around this time and use it to come back, to recollect, to remember. We have learned that sati, smṛti, the root of these words is cognate with memory.

And as Kenpo, Jordan shared, as his Holiness also shared, just remembering the words is one thing, but here a process of recollecting a feeling. And if we investigate, perhaps we will find that to remember a feeling is to feel, again, an idea, an image, but a feeling, one that can be anchored in the body or in the mind, or somehow both.

So let us recollect our awareness back to the body now, establishing that stable and upright posture, relaxing, but also sitting with awareness, engagement, a sense of being held, safe, supported by the earth, a sense of space available for in-breath and out-breath, remembering our motivation, widening the scope of our practice, to include not just our own benefit, but other beings also, consciously inviting them to sit also beside us, identifying our intention for this short sit, about 10 minutes.

What are we moved to practice with today? Perhaps it is simply finding the breath. Perhaps it is working towards greater continuity of attention. Perhaps we are patching up and replacing today, making use of counting. Perhaps there is part of us today in body or mind that is calling for some tenderness, and Mettā Bhāvanā speaks to us for this session.

Whatever that intention, that object, knowing that we can never have too much mindfulness, that appropriate effort, neither too much nor too little, clearly knowing what it is that we are doing right here, right now, clinging to or pushing away any aspect of our experience, relaxing the whole body and letting go as we gently approach the conclusion of our session, like to gently shift attention towards feelings in the heart, tracking sensations there just as we find them, breathing with the heart as it were.

This body beats a heart just like any other, subject to the ups and downs of life, to sorrow, to joy, that only wishes for freedom from painful sensations in body and mind.

We can wish that freedom for ourselves now, imagining if it helps that auxiliary image in the space in front, to connect with that feeling of care and friendliness towards this very being, fragile, vulnerable, imagining that we have the power in this very moment to offer ourselves that embrace of light and warmth of kindness, of friendship, protection, breath by breath, allowing that feeling to

spread outwards from the heart space into the rest of the body, the shoulders, arms, hands, the neck, the head, the torso, the front, the back, the sides, the belly, the pelvis, the legs, left and right, upper and lower, the feet, left and right, aware of the whole body from the tips of the toes to the crown of the head and the tips of the fingers, anchored in the heart space, embracing, breathing with the whole body.

May I be free from pain and suffering, free from anger, enmity.

May I carry my self-body and mind all in happiness, visualizing ourselves in the space in front as a child even, imagining the benefit of this radiance of light and warmth from the heart space and directly feeling it in body and mind in this moment, even if only a seed watering that seed now that it may sprout and grow, spreading branches eventually, flowers, and the fragrance of kindness, the fruit of compassion and a cool shade that can extend outside this body even, outwards into this space that we share, finding other beings, human beings, friends on the path.

It is just like in ours, pizza heart, fragile, vulnerable, wishing only for safety, not just inside this room, but outside also in this compound, in this neighborhood, this landscape, its city, its valley, its hills and mountains, to the east, to the south, to the west, to the north, above, below, spreading that heart mind of love in all directions, unobstructed from heart to horizon and beyond, encountering as it spreads countless beings, human beings, other than human beings, large and small, seen and unseen, awakened, not yet awakened.

May all beings everywhere without exception be free from pain and suffering, free from anger and enmity, from oppression to carry themselves, body and mind, all in ease and tranquility, imagining the benefit that this embrace of light and warmth boundless has for these beings in their countless multitudes, the ease they feel in body and mind, tranquility, radiance of expression, perhaps a gentle smile on their lips, their tears dry, directly sharing in the seed of that same feeling in our own body and mind, relaxing the whole body, letting go, not missing the opportunity to add to our experience even from a short sitting.

So dear friends, this brings us to the end of our morning meditation sessions. From my side, I’m very, very grateful to our translators, Nadia, Whamu, for your diligence, your energy, making the effort to come, to try your best to make sense of what I say in order that others may also do the same.

And if there has been something that has made sense, I must stress that this is thanks wholly to my teachers that have had the kindness and the wisdom to share with me something that I have found helpful on the path. And I sincerely hope that there has been something also that you have found helpful.

And if there has been unhelpful information, this is doubtless entirely of my own fabrication, and I apologize for that.

But I do wish you all the very best on your path as you continue, perhaps finding ways to integrate, as His Holiness has encouraged us, as Kampala has also mentioned, to integrate these basic practices of mindfulness awareness into not only our sādhana practice, this profound mind training that we are studying together, but also in our daily lives.

That in that way, on this path which is good at the beginning, good in the middle, and good at the end, we should not be waiting for those flowers and fruit, but finding them in even small ways in our daily life as well, in the way that we relate to others, to our friends on the path, but even to those difficult beings that we always encounter and perhaps finding space for them in our heart also, finding ways to touch again those moments that we might have felt of tranquility, of letting go on the cushion and allowing them to radiate outwards into our life, our relationships, our work.

So that is my hope and my wish, and I wish you all good luck. And I think with that we can conclude there with my voice and hear from others if there are questions, comments, reflections, anything that anyone would like to share by way of conclusion. Please feel free, and then we can wrap up and prepare for this last precious day of teachings from His Holiness also.