Relaxing into Meditation : Review by metafuzzy

"As a Buddhist who now leads meditation sessions , I often read around the subject looking for different ways of presenting the material to a range of people. Ngakma Nordzin's experience and understanding of technique and potential result is evident on every page of her book and she presents the material with clarity. One of the aspects of her writing that I appreciate is that it is informed yet simple and spacious. Her style reinforces the concept that she expresses about the importance of relaxing, both physically and mentally. This is often neglected in books on the subject and is particularly helpful. I recommend it as a core text for interested students and experienced practitioners alike."

Relaxing into Meditation Ngakma Nor'dzin
Aro Books worldwide  ISBN 978-1-898185-17-8 http://bit.ly/nrprim

metafuzzy reviewed Relaxing into Meditation on Amazon.co.uk  (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A3L8EF43N80SG4/)

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Relaxing into Meditation by Ngakma Nor'dzin
Aro Books worldwide  ISBN 978-1-898185-17-8 http://bit.ly/nrprim

Available from Lulu.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, and other bookshops worldwide.

An act of kindness

"An act of kindness enables us to side-step our attachment to the past and future. It is a moment out; a day off; a holiday from me-centred concerns – and, as such, it can be lived vividly moment by moment."

p67, Rays of the Sun, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books worldwide, 2010, 978-1-898185-06-2

How to Meditate : Feature in the Western Mail

The Western Mail—a South Wales newspaper—features a ‘how to . . . ’ article in their Lifestyle section every Tuesday. This week they featured an edited version of Ngakma Nor'dzin's advice on How to Meditate.

how to


… meditate

Think meditation's for cheese cloth-wearing hippies with too much time on their hands? Making it part of everyday, says Cardiff-based Buddhism teacher Ngakma Nor'dzin, is one of the easiest ways to combat stress. And all you need is 10 minutes...

relax the body

Either lying down or sitting in a chair systematically tense muscle groups throughout the body and then breathe away tension on the out-breath.

Tense the arms and then relax them as you breathe out. Tense the hands and then relax them as you breathe out. Then do the same with the legs and feet.

Next move to the shoulders tensing them forwards and then relaxing, backwards and then relaxing, and bringing them up to your ears and then relaxing. Always relax on the out-breath.

Then follow the same procedure with the stomach muscles and then the buttock muscles, tensing and relaxing. Finally stretch the neck muscles relaxing into the stretch on the out-breath: gently roll the neck first to the left and then to the right; lift the head back to stretch the neck under the chin, and then bring your chin to your chest to stretch the back of the neck

Tip your head first to the left and then to the right trying to bring your ear to your shoulder to stretch the sides of the neck. Relax into the stretch on the out-breath.

Repeat this process of tense and relaxing until your body feels heavy and relaxed and your breathing is slow and regular.

sit comfortably

Once your body is relaxed and your breathing calm, you are ready to move into meditation. Slowly and gradually adjust your posture so that you are sitting with the back upright, the body supported, and in a position that the blood can flow freely around your body.

meditate

Meditate by bringing your attention to your breathing, particularly noticing the out-breath. As you breathe out let go of thought – let go of whatever is in your mind.

If you find this difficult count the out-breaths from 1 up to 21 and then back down to 1. If you get lost in a thought—from planning your next shopping trip, revisiting a memory to going over a problem at work—just let it go on the next out-breath.

Gradually it will become easier to let go of thought and remain focused, and you will start to experience moments of mind without thought.

practise

Get into the habit of this meditation of letting go of thought for ten minutes every day and you will start to discover a real quality of mind when it is no longer dominated and defined by thought.

Thought is a natural process of mind but thought is not the essence of mind. The nature of mind is spacious, clarity, and when it is discovered in meditation it will start to sparkle in everyday life.

Meditate every day for just ten minutes and you will become more open, patient, tolerant and kind through the spaciousness of mind you have discovered.

Ngakma Nor'dzin's new book, Relaxing into Meditation, published by Aro Books worldwide is available from www.amazon.co.uk

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Relaxing into Meditation by Ngakma Nor'dzin
Aro Books worldwide  ISBN 978-1-898185-17-8 http://bit.ly/nrprim

Available from Lulu.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, and other bookshops worldwide.

Relaxing into Meditation : Review by David Michie

David Michie, author of Enlightenment to Go & The Magician of Lhasa has written this endorsement of Relaxing into Meditation:

"This is a wonderfully insightful and practical meditation manual!  In a world filled with meditation starters, Ngakma's book stands out for all the right reasons.  It provides a comprehensive curriculum of meditation practices suitable for groups and individuals of a wide variety of types and temperaments.  Her suggestions are based on some of the most powerful methods of personal transformation available, which she describes with great warmth and simplicity.  Don't be deceived by the gentleness of this book: if you practice even half of what it contains, it will change your life!"

Read about David Michie and his books on his website : http://www.davidmichie.com/

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Relaxing into Meditation by Ngakma Nor'dzin
Aro Books worldwide  ISBN 978-1-898185-17-8 http://bit.ly/nrprim

Available from Lulu.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, and other bookshops worldwide.

Ngakma Nor'dzin on Creating Meaningful Holiday Traditions

Ngakma Nor'dzin was featured on the Toginet Radio show The Way of the Toddler Hour on Tuesday, 4th January 2011, in a slot on Creating Meaningful Holiday Traditions.

The entire programme is available online here: http://toginet.com/podcasts/  - look for the 4th January recording of The Way of the Toddler Hour.  The direct link to the recording is : http://toginet.com/podcasts/thewayofthetoddlerhour/TheWayofTheToddlerHourLIVE_2011-01-04.mp3

Ngakma Nor'dzin's talk begins at time index 4:40

Here is an excerpt:

"I would like to suggest that we resolve to begin a daily practice of meditation in 2011. This is something we can do with our children. Daily meditation enables the development of greater awareness and this can bring lasting fulfilment and happiness. Developing awareness illuminates the patterns that dominate our lives that cause us to feel unhappy and dissatisfied. Through regular meditation practice increased clarity begins to sparkle through into our everyday life and we become happier and more fulfilled. Through being happier and more fulfilled we become kinder people. Through becoming kinder people we bring happiness to those around us. Meditation practice—just ten minutes every day—has the potential to benefit everyone and everything everywhere."

The full text is on Ngakma Nor'dzin's blog: http://ngakma-nordzin.blogspot.com/2011/01/new-year-radio.html

Karmic law is directly consequential

"Awareness means relinquishing the police state of karmic-vision and assuming personal responsibility. Karma is the sum total of our perception in all its excruciating intricacy. The ‘Law of Karma’ is different from externally enforced societal law, because ‘karmic law’ is directly consequential and self-implementing. We perceive the world in a certain way, and react to it in accordance with that style of perception. That is what is meant by karma. There’s no injustice in this kind of ‘law’ apart from the injustice to the nondual state perpetrated by karmic patterning."

p51, Rays of the Sun, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books worldwide, 2010, 978-1-898185-06-2

Moving Being : Review by Sergio Dubois

"The illustrated handbook of Tibetan yogic exercises – Moving Being by Khandro Déchen – introduces readers to the principle and function of a vital set of exercises called sKu-mNyé. As both a formal Vajrayana student, spiritual friend of several Nyingma Lamas, and a practitioner of Qi Gong and Tai Qi, I find these practices situated at the crossroads of several of my life passions – where stillness of motion and the motion of stillness fuse into absolute experiences of the nature of mind.

For Tai Qi and Qi Gong students like myself, implicit instruction in modern schools frequently lacks illuminating clarity in the Taoist fundamentals of the practices. Khandro Déchen beautifully and brilliantly establishes the foundations of Dzogchen Longdé from which this Tibetan yogic practice arises in a way that stands as its own treatise on the subject. The student may go forward with the implicit practice instructions within the rich context of a very lucid and clear understanding of the principles from which the functions of the practice are made possible.

Several components of sKu-mNyé are extraordinarily effective. Gazing and the practice of circling the gaze facilitate the emphasis on “focusing in space”. I have found that these “massages” of the optical sense field have a particularly amazing effect in combination with the other moving elements of the practice. Supine meditation posture (lying down immediately after each exercise, for up to three times as long as the exercise) is where the real magic of the practice is experienced. In the period immediately after practice, profound experiences (nyams and Zap-nyams) occur in the “meteorological” space around the body as these energies appear to move both towards and away from the “central channel” – the space of our being.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone that has an interest in Tantric Buddhism, enjoys Yoga, or practices any of the inner martial arts such as Qi Gong or Tai Qi. I feel my life as a student in several of these areas is vastly enriched by the beneficial teachings offered in this book. As I continue my preliminary study with only the book, I enthusiastically look forward to receiving transmission and instructions for these teachings from authorized teachers and adopting this as a principle yogic exercise practice in this lifetime."

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Sergio DuBois is a senior practitioner of Tai Chi and Qi Gong and of meditation from the Tibetan Vajrayana tradition. Beginning in the nineties, Sergio studied Tai Chi outer forms in the Taoist school of Master Moy Lin-shin, and studied Baduanjin ("Eight Pieces of Brockade") inner form Qigong in the school of Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming. Shortly after the turn of the century, Sergio was introduced to buddhism through an auspicious spiritual friendship with Getsulma Ani Pema Chödrön, and became a formal student of Dzigar Kongtül Rinpoche, her teacher and a Lama of the Longchen Nyingthig lineage from the Nyingma tradition. Currently, as a senior systems architect with EMC², Sergio aspires to living as a Ngagpa (a non-monastic, house-holding lay practitioner of Vajrayana) bringing a rich life with his wife and sons to the path of realization and self-liberation for the widest and greatest benefit possible.

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Moving Being by Khandro Déchen
Aro Books worldwide  ISBN 978-1-898185-05-5 http://bit.ly/kdtmbx

Available from Lulu.com

Relaxing into Meditation : Review in Spiritual Lounge magazine

The Indian magazine Spiritual Lounge have reviewed Relaxing into Meditation in their January 2011 edition [PDF]:


As a Buddhist teacher and a community education tutor Ngakma Nor'dzin has been teaching meditation for long. The book Relaxing into Meditation has been the product of all the years of teaching. The book is a no-frills, 'How to' guide to meditation that looks at a typical group meditation scenario.

Nor'dzin starts of with the techniques, which allow the students to arrive at a starting point to meditation. There are chapters on the best position for meditation, the technique of breathing with alternate nostril, the skill of just 'listening in', the essential breathing patterns and the actual posture while meditating etc.

Nor'dzin also makes a special mention of singing that the students should undertake in a group. She says, “Our voices are an energetic aspect of who we are. The sounds we make are 'material' in that they affect our senses, but their 'materiality' is intangible. Our voice is the intangible and energetic link between our mind and our body – between our insubstantial being and our substantial being. Practices using the voice help us become keenly aware of the power of this energetic communication.” She would advise practitioners to look at singing as a tool to relaxation, to let go of their inhibitions that might hold some back.

The book also carries a gentle warning against sitting in a room with incense sticks burning when the students are engaging in breathing exercises. The resulting deeper breaths will mean smoke is inhaled deeply into the lungs and will lead to coughing. For today's several New Age enthusiasts who are more concerned about the props that accompany any such practice, this advice should come handy.

Nor'dzin's writing is practical and, as she takes you through the steps, all of it seems like the most natural thing to do. I particularly liked the chapter on 'Walking Meditation' which is not very commonly known and which uses the physical process of walking as the focus instead of the breath.

Another interesting concept is the meditation that involves analytical contemplation and visualisation. It involves dwelling on a subject and attempting to deeply penetrate the essence of that subject in order to discover our preconceptions, our prejudices and our habitual views. The meditation 'Friend, Enemy, Stranger' looks at our concepts and feelings around people we like, people we do not get along with, and people with whom we have no personal connection. Writes Nor'dzin, “Our view is the basis of all our expectations of life, our interpretations of circumstances, and our responses to the experiences we encounter in our lives. Our view governs how we are as people in the world and causes us to create an inter-penetrating network of reference points.” She claims offer us an opportunity to look at our entrenched viewpoints and can unlock our previously closely held points of view.

The book also explains how meditation helps us discover that there are qualities and aspects of our lives that are not as we would wish them to be. When we begin to meditate daily, they often seem to show up suddenly, but the fact of the matter is that they have always been there and it is now that we are becoming aware of them. Visualization techniques help us to cleanse ourselves of them and eventually get rid of them to embrace more enlightened attitudes and conduct.

Nor'dzin's approach is simple and direct. Along with a short glossary of terms explained, she gives illustrated tips on making sitting equipment for the practice. Her line drawings explaining the postures have more of a utilitarian rather than an aesthetic value. The book, on the whole, seems rather unadorned but it's friendly, down to earth and, most importantly, useful.

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Relaxing into Meditation by Ngakma Nor'dzin
Aro Books worldwide  ISBN 978-1-898185-17-8 http://bit.ly/nrprim

Available from Lulu.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, and other bookshops worldwide.

Happy New Year

From Ngakma Nor'dzin:

"The new year is often a time for making resolutions.  Usually our resolutions are about shuffling or adjusting the pieces of our life – to lose weight, to change jobs, to take more exercise, to start a new hobby. . .  These may be desirable and worthwhile, but such alterations to lifestyle will not bring lasting fulfilment and happiness.  Only the development of greater awareness will bring lasting fulfilment and happiness. "

Read the rest of Ngakma Nor'dzin's article here:

http://ngakma-nordzin.blogspot.com/2011/01/happy-new-year.html