The Tibetan Book Of Living And Dying: A Spiritual Classic from One of the Foremost Interpreters of Tibetan Buddhism to the West

Meditation is not something that you can “do”; it is something that has to happen spontaneously, only when the practice has been perfected.

“‘Meditation’ is not; ‘getting used to’ is.”

It is through practicing the method skillfully that you reach the perfection of that pure state of total presence which is the real meditation.

But remember: A method is only a means, not the meditation itself.

METHODS IN MEDITATION

The gift of learning to meditate is the greatest gift you can give yourself in this life. For it is only through meditation that you can undertake the journey to discover your true nature, and so find the stability and confidence you will need to live, and die, well. Meditation is the road to enlightenment.

TRAINING THE MIND

To end the mind’s distraction would be to end samsara itself; the key to this, he realized, is to bring the mind home to its true nature, through the practice of meditation.

What the Buddha saw was that ignorance of our true nature is the root of all the torment of samsara, and the root of ignorance itself is our mind’s habitual tendency to distraction.