There’s also a short, two-point meditation posture, which can be adopted at times when it may be inconvenient or impossible to settle fully into the more formal seven-point posture. The instructions are very simple: Just keep your spine straight and the rest of your body as loose and relaxed as possible.

That’s how to rest the mind in objectless shinay meditation: as though you’ve just finished a long day of work. Just let go and relax. You don’t have to block whatever thoughts, emotions, or sensations arise, but neither do you have to follow them. Just rest in the open present, simply allowing whatever happens to occur. If thoughts or emotions

The basic concern shared by all beings—humans, animals, and insects alike—is the desire to be happy and to avoid suffering.

The body of meditation, it’s said, is nondistraction. Whatever thoughts are perceived by the mind are nothing in themselves. Help this meditator who rests naturally in the essence of whatever thoughts arise to rest in the mind as it naturally is.

By this power, may all beings, Having accumulated strength and wisdom, Achieve the two clear states That arise from strength and wisdom.

The mind itself and the thoughts, emotions, and sensations that arise, abide, and disappear in the mind are equal expressions of emptiness—that is, the open-ended possibility for anything to occur.

Unfortunately, when the mind is colored by this dualistic perspective, every experience—even moments of joy and happiness—is bounded by some sense of limitation.

Aversion reinforces neuronal patterns that generate a mental construct of yourself as limited, weak, and incomplete. Because anything that might undermine the independence of this mentally constructed “self” is perceived as a threat, you unconsciously expend an enormous amount of energy on the lookout for potential dangers. Adrenaline rips through

Meditation is actually a very simple exercise in resting in the natural state of your present mind, and allowing yourself to be simply and clearly present to whatever thoughts, sensations, or emotions occur.