Mental habits drive our actions, and our actions lead to outcomes. If we find that the ways we’ve tried to create benefit for ourselves and others haven’t produced the outcomes we wanted, we must change our mental habits. Meditation is a means to produce that change.

Meditation can be defined as the process of repeating something over and over in the mind. What we repeat affects our experience.

Iron Knot Institute’s learning and practice materials utilize contemplative meditation to examine and transform what it is we repeat in our minds—consciously or unconsciously. These contemplations help us cut the root of negative thoughts and habits and replace them with beneficial ones by challenging our belief that happiness requires us to place our own needs above those of others.

Disentangling ourselves from deeply ingrained habits takes time and is accomplished in proportion to how often and sincerely we practice. We can sit in formal meditation alone or in a group, practice informally throughout the day, or both.

Meditation practices like the ones below can help us become more compassionate and responsive as we face the many challenges life presents. We’ve all dealt with difficult circumstances in the past, and we’ll all experience more in the future. Loss and pain are universal. These contemplations strengthen and encourage us to move beyond self-importance to skillfully face obstacles as they arise and enrich the world through consideration of and concern for others.

“The root of all difficulty and conflict lies in the mind; therefore, the solution to all difficulty and conflict lies in changing the mind. To do this, we practice meditation.”

— Excerpt from Change of Heart: The Bodhisattva Peace Training of Chagdud Tulku

How to Meditate

There are many different forms of meditation. The meditations that follow are of a contemplative nature, and can be practiced alone or in a group.

01

To meditate formally, sit in a comfortable position with a straight back, allowing your gaze to rest in the space in front of you. Bring to mind the contemplation you’re working with, reflecting on what it means to you in the context of your life experience. (Keep reading for meditations from Sunlight on Shadows and our 12-Step Meditation Practice.)

Thoughts and emotions may arise, the mind may drift. This is not a problem. Just apply the contemplation to those very thoughts and emotions again and again, until you experience a shift in perspective - a change not just of concepts, but a change in the way you experience the situation you’re contemplating.

02

03

If, or when, the mind becomes agitated, rigid or dull, or the contemplation no longer feels fresh and impactful, rest the mind. Let go of effort and allow the shift in perspective to sink in less conceptually. Allow this state of rest to continue until it is no longer restful and then begin the contemplation again, as time allows.

It can be helpful to begin the practice session by establishing Pure Motivation, or reading and reflecting on the introduction to our 12-Step Meditation Practice. Then identify issues to work on and choose the meditation that feels most effective to support that work.

Practice in Daily Life

or Informal Meditation

In daily life, as events and circumstances arise, instead of our habitual ways of thinking and reacting, we can insert these contemplations into our thought process. In this way, gradually we become aware that there are more options to our behaviors and responses than we usually see.

Sunlight on Shadows

Meditations from the Book

PRINTABLE MEDITATIONS

Click on the title of a meditation in the list below to open a printable PDF of that meditation.

1: Reflecting On Our Lives

2: I, Me, Mine

3: A Daily Practice of Pure Motivation

4: Reviewing Teachings on Pure Motivation

5: Just Like Me

6: Cultivating Bodhicitta

7: Practicing Pure Motivation

8: Practicing Bodhicitta in Daily Life

9: Mirror of the Mind

10: Creating Merit

11: The Effects of Gathering or Depleting Merit

12: Dedication of Merit

13: Alternating Contemplation with Rest

14: The Benefits of Formal and Informal Practice

15: The Four Powers of Purification

16: The Causes of Happiness and Sorrow

17: Impermanence

18: The Rate of Change

19: Transforming Fear

20: Alternating the Investigation of Emotions with Rest

21: Alternating Exploring the Nature of Emotions with Rest

22: Alternating Meditation with Prayer to Transform Our Emotions

23: Examining the Nature of Fear

24: The Consequences of Anger

25: Exploring the Nature of Anger

26: Transforming Judgment and Aversion through Alternating Meditation

27: Cultivating the Four Immeasurable Qualities

28: Practicing the Four Immeasurable Qualities in Daily Life

29: Alternating Meditation on Loving Kindness

30: Transforming Fear with Love

31: Alternating Meditation on Compassion

32: Expanding Alternating Meditation on Compassion

33: Generating Compassion for Those We Feel Aversion Toward

34: Tonglen Meditation

35: A Concise Tonglen Practice

36: Tonglen Meditation in the ICU

37: A Concise Alternating Tonglen Practice

38: Transforming Mind’s Poisons through Tonglen

39: Rejoicing Meditation

40: Rejoicing Meditation in Daily Life

41: Recognizing All Beings as our Mother

42: Combining Three Equanimity Meditations

43: Trying to Find Our True Nature

44: Meditation on the Movie of Our Life

45: Meditating with Metaphors for Illusion

46: Daily Life Practice

47: Meditation on Boundaries with Bodhicitta

48: Finding Rest within the Three Spheres

49: Watching Ourselves in our Own Movie

STUDY & PRACTICE GROUPS

If you are interested in joining a Sunlight on Shadows study and practice group please contact: sosgroups@ironknotinstitute.org

**12-Step**
**Meditation Practice**

12 concise meditations we can practice alone or in a group.

INTRODUCTION:

These 12 concise meditations are a simple set of tools for anyone who wishes to effect positive change in their lives and the lives of others.

With roots in Mahayana Buddhist philosophy, it provides a secular ethical framework to help us bridge the gap between our actions and our values.

Mental habits drive our actions and our actions lead to outcomes. If we find the ways we’ve looked for happiness haven’t produced the outcomes we wanted, we must change our mental habits. Meditation is a means to produce that change.

Meditation can be defined as the process of repeating something over and over again in the mind. What we repeat affects our experience. These practices use contemplative meditation to examine and address what it is we are repeating. The contemplations help us cut the root of negative thoughts and habits and replace them with beneficial ones by challenging our belief that happiness requires us to place our own needs and wishes above those of others.

Disentangling ourselves from deeply engrained habits takes time and is accomplished in proportion to how often and sincerely we practice. We can sit in formal meditation alone or in a group, practice informally throughout the day, or both.

Ultimately, the purpose of this training is to help us become more compassionate and responsive as we face the many challenges life presents. We have all dealt with difficult circumstances in the past; we will all experience more in the future. Loss and pain are universal. These contemplations strengthen and encourage us to move beyond self-importance, to skillfully face obstacles as they arise, and to enrich the world through consideration and concern for others.

MEDITATIONS:

01

CAUSE & EFFECT. For every action, there’s a reaction. We accept this law in the natural universe, yet rarely look at cause and effect as it pertains to our own choices.

This contemplation asks us to explore the short and long term consequences of the choices we make - how do our thoughts, emotions, words, and actions impact our lives and the lives of others?

I, ME & MINE. It can be instructive to watch how frequently we’re self-absorbed in daily life. Even when trying to help others, we may notice that we like, or dislike their point of view, and think we know what is right. This tightness around what we think is best can make us less receptive to other’s needs.

In this contemplation, we reflect on where our minds have been throughout the day. We replay our interactions and notice the ways we’ve judged others. How would the interactions change if we considered the views and needs of others as important as our own?

02

03

WHAT’S MY MOTIVATION? This contemplation asks us to consider the needs of others, their challenges, their joys and sorrows as being equal to our own.

If we find that this positively alters our experience, we can begin each day, each meditation session by re-establishing this motivation.

ALTRUISTIC ACCOUNTABILITY. This contemplation asks us to take an honest and fearless look at the contrast between what we say we value and how we actually behave. Do our actions reflect our ethics? Do they produce the outcomes we want?

04

05

LET IT GO. When we look at the gap between our actions and ethics, we can sometimes experience immense regret. This contemplation asks us to give rise to compassion for ourselves and others trapped in cycles of self-centered action and reaction. We own and regret our anger, negativity, and harmful actions, commit not to fuel or repeat them, then let it all go within the framework of compassion.

JUST LIKE ME. It’s easy to see faults in others and not so easy to see our own. We all just want to be happy. This contemplation asks us to reflect on the actions of someone we view critically, and to recognize elements of their behavior in ourselves.

06

07

ANGER. If we’re angry and spiteful, always criticizing and blaming others, our world quickly fills with enemies. This contemplation asks us to explore our anger and our habit to blame others for our experience. What are the short and long term consequences of anger, blaming and holding a grudge - does it create enduring, positive outcomes?

NOT HARMING. Compassion is the wish that others not suffer. This contemplation asks us to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes, a family member, a neighbor, a stranger. If we truly glimpsed another’s pain, would we ever do anything to create more misery?

08

09

HELPING. Love is the wish that others find happiness. How would our own lives and the lives of others change if we saw every interaction as an opportunity to help? This contemplation asks us to consider how kindness could change the dynamics of our relationships, our workplace, our community, the world.

EVERYTHING CHANGES. We are born, we grow old, we die, seasons and relationships change. Nothing is permanent, yet we live our lives trying to create stability, taking for granted what we have and acting as if we have all the time in the world. This contemplation asks us to try to find something, anything that is permanent and unchanging. If we fully accepted that everything changes, how would we live our lives differently?

10

11

HAPPY FOR YOU. Being happy for others can be a joyful experience. It can antidote the envy we may feel at another’s good fortune and counteract feelings of negativity.

This contemplation asks us to rejoice in the positive; another’s good fortune, the kind and virtuous acts happening all over the world, anything that uplifts, or inspires, and then make the wish that such kindness would only increase, until we all know unbound joy.

GIVE IT AWAY. It takes courage to look into our minds and to begin the process of change. At the conclusion of each meditation session and at the end of each day we take a moment to reflect on these efforts. We can then imagine these efforts as an offering to others, taking the form of whatever they need, fulfilling them completely as it expands throughout time and space. By giving away even the smallest acts of kindness, we gradually build momentum that further supports our process of change.

12

Dedication Prayer for the Peoples of the Earth

At this very moment for the peoples and the nations of the earth may not even the names disease, famine, war and suffering be heard. Rather may their excellent conduct, merit, wealth and prosperity increase and may supreme good fortune and well being always arise for them.

— H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche

PRINT THE 12-STEP PRACTICE

Group sessions are about practicing the meditations together, rather than engaging in personal processing or storytelling. Whether we’re beginning with the meditations in Change of Heart, Sunlight and Shadows or practicing with the concise 12-Step Meditation Practice, it’s helpful to work the steps in sequence at first, but once we have familiarized ourselves with the tools, they can be used interchangeably.

The layout for a group practice session might be as follows:

Designate a facilitator and a time keeper
Facilitator may begin the session by reading the introduction to the 12-step practice or establishing Pure Motivation.
Afterwards open up for an optional community check-in
- one person, one check-in, one minute per person
- no back and forth discussion among the group
Facilitator chooses three meditation practices based on the community check-in
- Five minutes per meditation
At the end of the group practice, we take a moment to reflect on our efforts. It takes courage to look into our minds and to begin the process of change. We can then imagine these efforts as an offering to others, taking the form of whatever they need, fulfilling them completely as it expands throughout time and space. By giving away even the smallest acts of kindness, we gradually build momentum that further supports our process of change.
To conclude there is a final optional check-in

While it is supportive for the facilitator to have some experience with the contemplations, the sole criteria for being a facilitator is the sincere wish to be of service to others. The facilitator is not a meditation instructor, a teacher, or a therapist. Rotating facilitation among group members will help avoid any one person becoming identified with the role.