THE BETTER PREPARED we are for an activity, the better that activity goes. For example, if we have a kitchen that is easy to navigate and contains all the ingredients we need, cooking a tasty meal will not be difficult. Similarly, when we prepare properly for a meditation session, the time spent meditating is more enjoyable and fruitful. The texts on the gradual path to enlightenment list six preparatory practices to do preceding meditation on the lamrim:

1. Find a quiet place to meditate, clean the area, and arrange an altar.

2. Make offerings.

3. Prepare your body and mind by sitting in a comfortable position, examining your mind for distractions, and cultivating a beneficial motivation.

4. Visualize the field of positive potential.

5. Purify negativities and create positive potential through the seven-limb prayer and offering the mandala.

6. Request the lineage of spiritual mentors for inspiration.

In addition, know what practice you are going to do and be familiar with the instructions or the outline on how to do it. Let’s learn about each of these.

SETTING UP A PLACE TO MEDITATE, CLEANING THE AREA, AND ARRANGING AN ALTAR

Choose a quiet place to meditate. Meditating in the same room with the TV, computer, a telephone, or your children’s playthings will create distraction. If you can set aside a “quiet room” where anyone in the family can go when he or she wants to be centered and peaceful, that is good. If not, select an uncluttered part of a room where you can set up an altar and place your meditation cushion.

Keep that area clean and tidy so that the environment reflects the state of mind you want to cultivate. You may wish to sweep or dust it each day before you sit to meditate. Don’t bring work items or food into that area.

Setting up an altar or shrine helps us get in touch with our spiritual side. Make the shrine higher than your meditation cushion, so that what you place on top of the altar is at eye level or higher. In the center place a statue or picture of Shakyamuni Buddha. You may want to place photos of one or more of your spiritual mentors above that. On the Buddha’s right, that is, on the left side of the altar as you look at it, place a Dharma text, preferably one of the Perfection of Wisdom sutras, such as the Heart Sutra. On the Buddha’s left (on the right as you look at the altar), place a stupa, a bell, or a picture of either of them. In this way, your altar contains representations of the enlightened body, speech, and mind: the Buddha image symbolizes the enlightened body, the text represents the enlightened speech, and the stupa or bell symbolizes the enlightened mind. If you admire particular deities such as Chenrezig (Avalokiteshvara) or Tara, place their pictures on the altar or on the wall behind the shrine.

Having an altar helps us not only when we meditate but also at other times. When we look at it before we meditate, we remember the Buddha’s wonderful qualities and are inspired to practice in order to become like the Buddha and our spiritual mentors. When we happen to glance at it during the day, our attention comes home to our spiritual motivation. In addition, when we see the Buddha sitting peacefully, we remember that it’s possible for us to let go of stress. When we see the calm, smiling faces of our spiritual mentors, we can smile back at them, getting in touch with our own kindness and joy.

You may wonder if having an altar really helps. What we see influences us. Imagine that instead of the peaceful figure of the Buddha you were to see a newspaper clipping with a mangled body or a magazine photo of a movie star standing in a sexy pose frequently during the day. How would that affect your mind?

Some people would like to put photos of people they love on the altar. It’s more appropriate to place these on a different table. Although we care about them, seeing their picture when we’re meditating may cause us to think about them, which would distract us from our meditation.

MAKING OFFERINGS

Making offerings to the Three Jewels is a wonderful daily practice. Recalling enlightened qualities and cultivating a generous attitude and delight in giving is a wonderful way to start the day. The joy we feel when our heart is open and we want to share with others is a result of our practice of generosity. Due to the change in our minds that occurs when we offer, we create positive potential (or good karma), which becomes the cause to have happiness in the future. Specifically, being generous now creates the cause to have the requisites for living—food, clothing, shelter, and medicine—as well as wealth in future lives.

Making offerings is a practice for accumulating positive potential and for purifying clinging and miserliness. Enlightened beings, such as the Buddha, do not need our offerings, respect, or prostrations. Rather, we do these practices because of the transformative effect they have on our own mind.

We can offer anything we consider beautiful on the altar. Traditionally, people offer flowers, incense, lights, and food. In the Tibetan tradition, there is the custom of offering seven bowls of water. To make the water bowl offering, begin by wiping each bowl with a clean cloth, imagining you are cleaning the defilements from the minds of sentient beings as you do so. After cleaning the bowls, place them upside down on the altar; just as we wouldn’t invite a guest to our home and offer them nothing, we don’t place empty bowls upright on the altar. Next, fill the first bowl with some water. Then pour most of the water into the second bowl but leave a little in the bottom of the first bowl. Place the first bowl on the altar. Then pour most of the water from the second bowl into the third, leaving a little water in the bottom of the second bowl, and place the second bowl to the right of the first one, near it, but not touching it—the distance of about a rice grain. Proceed to fill the rest of the bowls in this way, leaving a little water in each bowl as you fill the next one in sequence. Then go back to the first bowl and fill it nearly to the top, but not to overflowing—about a rice grain’s distance from the top. Fill the other bowls in the same way. Recite om ah hum, the mantra representing the Buddha’s body, speech, and mind, to consecrate the offerings. You may also want to recite the long offering mantra:

om namo bhagavate bendzay sarwaparma dana tathagataya arhate samyaksam buddhaya tayata om bendzay bendzay maha bendzay maha taydza bendzay maha bidya bendzay maha bodhicitta bendzay maha bodhi mendo pasam kramana bendzay sarwa karma awarana bisho dana bendzay soha

While filling the bowls, imagine that you are offering huge jeweled bowls filled with blissful wisdom nectar to all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas. Your offerings are luminous and fill the entire sky. The holy beings receive them and experience great bliss, as do you.

Offer water that has eight qualities, each one representing a quality that you will develop in the future as a result of offering the water with a good motivation now:

1. Your ethics will be pure because the water you offer is cool.

2. Because the water is delicious, you will come to enjoy delicious food.

3. The lightness of the water indicates that your mind and body will become fit.

4. The water’s softness results in a gentle mindstream.

5. A clear mind results from the water’s clearness.

6. Its being free from a bad smell will purify your karmic obscurations.

7. Because the water does not hurt the stomach, your body will be free of illness.

8. Its being easy on the throat indicates you will come to have pleasant speech.

You may want to offer bowls with the eight offerings that hosts made to their guests in ancient India. In this case, the bowls are arranged from left to right as you look at the altar, with the following offerings: water for drinking, water for washing the feet, flowers, incense, light, perfume, food, and music.

Many of these offerings have symbolic meanings. Flowers represent the qualities of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas; incense signifies the fragrance of pure ethics. Light symbolizes wisdom, and perfume represents faith and confidence in the holy beings. Offering food represents the nourishment of meditative concentration, and music reminds us of impermanence and the empty nature of all phenomena.

Instead of offering water bowls or the eight offerings, you may choose simply to place a plate with fruit or other delicious food on the altar. When you do so, offer fresh food, not leftovers. Imagine that the entire sky is filled with delicious food that satisfies the hunger and thirst of sentient beings as well as brings bliss to the Buddhas and bodhisattvas. Recite om ah hum or the long offering mantra as above.

You may offer electric lights; candles are not necessary. Be sensitive to others in the environment if you burn incense because some people may have allergic reactions. In this case, place the incense in a container outside to burn.

As you offer, you may also meditate on emptiness, the ultimate nature of all persons and phenomena, by contemplating:

1. You, as the one making the offering, are empty of true existence.

2. The act of offering is empty of true existence.

3. The offerings themselves are empty of true existence.

4. The Buddhas and bodhisattvas to whom you offer are empty of true existence.

5. The positive potential created by offering is empty of true existence.

Remove the seven water bowls in the evening. To empty them, start with the bowl on the right and pour it into a container. Then empty the next bowl on the right and so on until they are all emptied and placed upside down. If the bowls can air dry without staining, simply place them upside down on the shrine. Otherwise, dry them with a clean cloth, imagining that you are eliminating sentient beings’ sufferings and their causes. The water can be used to water plants, or it can be poured outside in a clean area, where people do not walk.

Food may remain on the altar for a day or two if it will not spoil. Then, asking the Buddha’s permission, remove the food. You may give it to friends or eat it yourself. If you eat it, please eat mindfully, thinking that the food was given to you by the Buddha. Avoid removing a delicious food offering just at the time when you happen to want to eat it.

Flowers may remain on the altar until they begin to wilt, then remove them and if possible, put them outdoors in a place where no one will step over them. Electric lights may be left on all day and night, or they may be turned off at night if it disturbs the sleep of someone nearby. If you offer the light of a candle, snuff it out at the end of your session; try to do this by some means other than blowing on it. I once lived at a Dharma center where a wing had been gutted by fire due to an altar candle having tipped over when no one was present. You can light the same candle the next day, again offering its light.

PREPARING YOUR BODY AND MIND

Set up a meditation cushion in front of the altar. While some people prefer to sit flat on the cushion, your legs are less likely to fall asleep if your buttocks are raised. Before sitting down, bow three times to show your respect for the Three Jewels—the Buddhas, Dharma, and Sangha. You may chant the mantra om namo manjushriye namo sushriye namo uttama shriye soha while bowing.

Sit in the seven-point meditation position, which enables the energies in the body to flow easily. This, in turn, facilitates concentration. The seven points are:

1. The optimal position is the vajra position: the right foot on the left thigh and the left foot on the right thigh. Alternatively, you can sit in the half-vajra, with the left foot on the right thigh and the right leg flat on the cushion. Or you could sit as Tara does, with both legs flat on the cushion, the left one closer to the body. Other people prefer to sit with the legs crossed in a normal way. If it helps, you may put a small cushion under each knee. If these postures are uncomfortable, you may sit in a straight-back chair and place your feet flat on the floor.

2. The back is straight.

3. Shoulders are level.

4. The right hand is on the left, with your thumbs touching to form a triangle. Place your hands on your lap against your body.

5. The head is slightly inclined but not drooping.

6. The mouth is closed, and the tongue is placed against the upper palate.

7. The eyes are slightly open, gazing downward toward the tip of your nose or the floor, but do not focus them on anything.

Now feel your body sitting on the cushion or chair. Be “inside your body,” that is, experience your body. Don’t look at your body as if you were outside of it, looking at it. Be in the room, on the cushion, in the present moment.

Scan your body to release tension. One way to do this is to begin with the feet and legs, then move to the belly and lower abdomen, then the chest, back, arms, and shoulders, and finally the neck, jaw, and face. As you observe the sensations in each place, check for tension. For example, some people store their tension in their belly, others in their shoulders, still others clench their jaw. Release tension in each spot as you discover it. Then, be aware of sitting in a firm, yet relaxed, position.

CULTIVATING A PROPER MOTIVATION

To calm your mind and free it from distracting thoughts, observe your breath for a few minutes. Then cultivate a good motivation. Putting your heart into your practice is very important. For that reason it is good to begin any activity, especially a meditation session, by cultivating your motivation.

You may begin by asking yourself, “Why am I meditating?” Sit and observe the reasons that spring up in your mind. They may be, “I want to be more relaxed,” or “I’m angry and want to be calm,” or “My friend or teacher said meditating will help me so I want to try it.” Whatever your motivation is, don’t judge it. Just observe.

Sometimes our initial motivation seeks the immediate benefits we hope to receive from the meditation session. This is a limited motivation, and so it is beneficial to expand it because our motivation is the primary factor determining the result of an action. A small motivation brings a limited result. Progressively more vast, inclusive, and long-term motivations are causes for progressively more excellent results. For example, if our motivation for an activity is our own happiness now, we may or may not succeed in getting what we want. If our motivation is to prepare to die peacefully and have a good rebirth, our action will create the cause for that. If our motivation is to liberate ourselves from cyclic existence, our action will be part of the causes that bring that result. If our motivation is to attain full enlightenment in order to have full compassion, wisdom, and skillful means to benefit all sentient beings, that will be the long-term outcome of our action.

Sometimes when we observe our meditation at the beginning of a session, we discover that we’re thinking, “Why am I sitting here meditating? What does that accomplish? I should be doing something useful like making money!” Such doubt is another way the self-centered attitude tries to distract us from doing what is beneficial. To counteract this, remember that we have the Buddha potential as well as a precious human life with all the conducive circumstances to make our life highly meaningful. This gives us more energy and our horizon expands: “I’m going to meditate in order to understand and apply the Dharma to my mind, thus purifying and transforming my mind for the benefit of each and every living being so that in the long term all of us will become fully enlightened Buddhas.”

You can build your motivation in a number of ways by briefly reflecting on various aspects of the Dharma. No matter whether you begin by reflecting on your precious human life, impermanence, the kindness of others, or other topics, make your conclusion, “Therefore, I want to attain the full enlightenment of a Buddha in order to benefit all sentient beings most effectively.” Spend as long as you wish cultivating your motivation. Habituating ourselves with this long-term motivation gives us the ability to sustain our practice over time. It also makes our mind stronger and more courageous. Joy begins to grow because we know that we’re going in a good direction—we are headed towards enlightenment no matter how long it takes to get there. Then when we go through a rough period when our mind is very unruly, our body is ill, or we face other problems, we won’t despair. Instead, we will know in our hearts, “I’m glad to see these mental afflictions because now I can clean them up” or “Problems are bearable. They won’t overwhelm me. I can transform them into the path to actualize the noblest aspiration, bodhicitta.”

Reading an inspiring passage from the Dhammapada or another Dharma book will invigorate your motivation. Or, you may reflect on the advantages of meditation and the disadvantages of letting our mind run untamed. Remembering the example of your spiritual mentor’s compassion and wisdom will inspire you to want to develop those qualities within yourself. Alternatively, think in the following way:

At the moment I have a precious human life with all the conditions conducive for spiritual practice. I am healthy and have met the Dharma, a teacher who instructs me, and other practitioners who support my efforts. This situation is not easy to get; I’m incredibly fortunate and don’t want to waste this opportunity.

I live in a world in which I’m interdependent with all other sentient beings. In fact, I’m alive today due to the kindness and efforts of others: my parents who gave me this body, the farmers who have grown all the food I’ve eaten since I was born, and the teachers who taught me. All the abilities and talents I have are due to others who believed in me, who encouraged and taught me. All my possessions were made by others. I have been the recipient of an enormous amount of kindness in my life, and from the bottom of my heart I desire to give something back to the world and to help others find happiness.

The wonderful Buddha potential exists inside of me and I want to activate it. Through meditating, I will purify my harmful emotions, self-defeating habits, and negative karma. I will also nourish my good qualities. My deepest wish is to become a Buddha, a fully enlightened being, because as such I’ll be able to contribute to the well-being of others most effectively. While on the path and after attaining enlightenment, my aim is to bring about the long-term happiness of all beings, myself included, to the best of my ability. This meditation session is helping me to grow in that direction.

The importance of having an expansive Dharma motivation cannot be emphasized enough. Not only does it determine the karmic or long-term effects of our actions, but also it gives meaning and purpose to our lives right now. It enables us to have joy and courage to continue practicing the Dharma. Over the years that I’ve been a monastic and Dharma student, I’ve noticed that the people who cultivate a long-term motivation are able to sustain their practices their entire lives. They remain peaceful even when they face difficulties that the rest of us would moan about. On the other hand, I’ve seen people who have excellent external conditions for practice, but cannot sustain their Dharma practice. Most of them seem to have weak long-term motivations. Perhaps they began by being inspired by a determination to be free or bodhicitta, but over time they did not nourish that intention and so it gradually deteriorated. The eight worldly concerns—craving sense pleasures, possessions, praise, and a good reputation, as well as aversion to not getting these four—snuck back in. They lost their self-confidence and trust in the efficacy of the Dharma as old habits reasserted themselves. This is indeed sad. For this reason, continuously nurturing our positive intentions and respecting our spiritual aspirations are essential.

MINDFULNESS OF BREATHING

After cultivating your motivation, you may want to spend some time on mindfulness of breathing. The instructions of this meditation are in the next chapter. Most Tibetan teachers do not emphasize breathing meditation, saying that it is sufficient to observe twenty-one breaths at the beginning of a meditation session to calm the mind. They then recommend doing the meditation on the Buddha. However, I have found that for people from busy societies who have a lot of stress and whose minds are filled with thoughts and preconceptions, spending more time on mindfulness of breathing can be helpful. On the one hand, observing the breath helps to calm the mind. On the other, we observe clearly what interferes with a calm mind: our body aches and our mind is unruly with many thoughts, emotions, memories, and expectations parading through it at an amazing rate. This untamed mind and uncooperative body are our samsara—our cyclic existence. Recognizing this activates us to do something about it, and thus we come to understand the purpose and function of Dharma practice. Without having an awareness of what our current experience is in cyclic existence, doing tantric practices in which we visualize ourselves as a deity becomes confusing.

Each person may do mindfulness of breathing for as long as he or she feels is beneficial. After that, continue with the meditation on the Buddha, which contains the rest of the preparatory practices. After that, do a specific analytic meditation.