Guided Meditations

Lama Meditation

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Here is a meditation that every Tibetan does for a few minutes before going into their main meditation. It is the very simple exercise of watching the breath. Now just sitting down and watching our breath for hours on end is not going to lead us to see emptiness directly—there is not much to be gained by doing that. We use it mainly to put the mind in a neutral space—an intermediate state between our outer life and our inner one—an exercise that prepares the mind for going into a deeper state.

Breath meditation is also a good barometer for us. We can use it to check each day where our mind is. It is interesting to note a correlation between how well you watch your breath in the morning and how well the rest of your day goes. Even more interesting is the correlation between how well you watch your breath and how you behaved towards others the day before.

If you pay close enough attention, you can figure out exactly what agitates the mind, and what makes it still. Then getting to single-pointed concentration will be easy.

• Take a comfortable position, close your eyes, and focus on your breath for a minute to get the mind settled.
• Now picture just in front of you the most beautiful Holy Being you can imagine. This is your spiritual guide, your Lama, in their most divine form.
• Their body is made of light, softly glowing. Fill in every detail about their face, their posture, their dress. Try to feel the warmth from their body, and the pure sweet smell that radiates from them.
• They are gazing down at you with the deepest love for you; they are so happy to be with you.
• See that this light pouring from their holy body is simply a manifestation of their incredible love for all creatures.
• Believe that this angel is really sitting in front of you. Look into their eyes and be with them for a while, in stillness.
• Try to hold your mind fixed on this Being in front of you—don’t let it wander anywhere else. Use your heart and all of your senses. The more real they are for you, the easier it will be.
• To close the meditation, first make them an offering to thank them for coming. Offer them the wish to have that same kind of love in your heart; offer them the wish to become an angel like them.
• The angel hears your request, and slowly rises up in the air before you. They turn to face the same direction that you are facing, and then start to shrink down smaller and smaller, until they are just a tiny ball of light.
• The ball of angel light comes to rest at the top of your head, then slowly dissolves down into your body, coming to rest inside your heart.