Every month on Guru Day (10th day of the Lunar Month) we will publish an excerpt from a teaching Rigdzin Shikpo has given recently. This teaching is from the Lion’s Roar retreat in 2020.
Whenever you feel bad, it always has a bodily sensation associated with it. You should turn towards that sensation, feel it, let it go. The thing is not to have the attitude of making too much of it.
Sometimes it’s people that make you feel bad, sometimes you feel bad because you feel you’ve done something you shouldn’t have done. You may feel you made a mistake of some kind in your relationships with others or in your relationship with the world and that makes you feel bad. But the thing to realize is that it doesn’t actually matter. What matters is in a sense the use you put it to, how you relate to it.
You can let what happened in the past stay there. Actually if you can really see it, what you did in the past when you let go of it just vanishes. It’s important to, yes, address the feeling, know that it’s there and see what effect it has on you rather than masking that out. But then don’t grind in and dwell on it too much either. It’s as Trungpa Rinpoche might have said: a light touch. Turn towards it, notice it, let it go.
Remember, you are the queen of your world. Do not let anything get to you! None of these things should phase you or give you a problem. People do things, make you feel bad, why should it be your problem? I’m not saying you have to negatively think, “Oh, it’s their problem,” particularly. But it doesn’t have to be anybody’s problem particularly. If you do that then there will be a kind of opening, a kind of collapse, a moving into spaciousness.
This is really, truly smrti, the true meaning of what people translate as mindfulness. To open out into your experience, to feel it, to touch it lightly, to let go, to move on, to move forward: that’s the very essence of smrti, the essence of what people translate as mindfulness.
Rigdzin Shikpo
Forthcoming Lion’s Roar Foundation Weekend in March
If you enjoyed this teaching, don’t forget we have a forthcoming Lion’s Roar Foundation Week in less than two weeks on 6-7 March 2021! This is an excellent opportunity to join the Lion’s Roar training, a three year program in meditation practice and Buddhist view and conduct. The full three year program includes three weekends of teachings per year and an annual guided group retreat, but you can also attend the Foundation weekend as a stand-alone teaching where you will receive training in the fundamental meditation practice and view of the Longchen Foundation. For more information on the forthcoming weekend check the event’s webpage here and for any questions, please contact the event organizer Johnathon Keen at tlr@longchenfoundation.org.