Online Mindfulness Talk – By Khenpo Sonam Phuntsho

Lhomon Education (LME) organized an online talk with Khenpo Sonam Phuntsho on 21st June 2020, coinciding with the end of the Festival of Vaishakha (Saga Dawa Duchen) and the solar eclipse. The talk was organized as a follow-up of the winter mindfulness retreat that happened in December 2019 at Chokyi Gyatso Institute, Dewathang.

The objective of the talk was to remind the participants of the importance of mindfulness practice during this COVID situation and to encourage them to practice it consistently. It was also to celebrate the Vaishakha month and the birth anniversary of our root guru, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche.

Khenpo talked about mindfulness practices within the frame of view, meditation, and action. He emphasized the importance of understanding the view as a basic foundation for the practice to develop genuine wisdom and insight.

The Khenpo reminded us about the seven body postures, steps to develop concentration and to apply vigilance and awareness in the practice.

Khenpo said one of the obstacles to practice is laziness (lack of interest); therefore it is important for beginners to put effort and be determined in the practice. Khenpo advised the participants to keep the practice short and consistent.

As a part of the Q&A session, one of the participants, who have practised for the last six months, said she feels discouraged to continue with no improvement in her practice. To this, Khenpo advised her to continue her practice with no expectation. He also said that, if you KNOW that your practice is not going well, it means your practice is happening. So, he encouraged her to put effort without thinking about goals. The past retreat participants including teachers, monks, and youth from different schools attended the talk through the Zoom application.

The LME is encouraged to organize such online sessions using technology and social media platform. It gave us new ideas and experience as we explore different modes of educating people, particularly during this pandemic situation. This experience will be useful in the post-pandemic as well.

A practice for LME

One unique LME quality that we believe sets us apart from conventional secular approaches to education is that to teach effectively, we believe our LME teachers should not only be well versed in western/modern educational processes but must also be familiar with basic eastern philosophies that have been central to Buddha’s wisdom traditions for thousands of years.

To provide this opportunity, LME often creates a platform to practice on several occasions. One such occasion was on 5th June 2020, where meditation, prayer, and smoke offering practices were carried with few people from the neighbourhood corresponding to the 15th day of the Festival of Vaishakha month.

The practice was organized near the Martang community, approximately 25 kilometres away from Dewathang. It has a huge open cave with space to practice. The cave has three tall statues built against the cave wall, including Guru Rinpoche in the centre. There were shrine and shelter attached to the cave to perform rituals and do practices. It was a serene and beautiful place to practice with its intact nature, tall trees, surrounding rocks, and chirping birds.

Along the road, as we traveled to the practice site, we fed homemade food to more than 15 hungry stray dogs. The dogs were loitering along the roads away from the settlement in search of food. For the last two months, all the schools and educational institutions remained closed in Bhutan because of the pandemic. Thus the stray dogs were going hungry with no reliable food source.

The practice was attended by a small group of people, including farmers, businessmen, students, teachers, and the LME team. There were few of them in the group who never tried meditation practice. So, it was a good opportunity for LME to talk about the importance of the mind, meditation, its practices, and the rich tradition we have in Buddhism. Thereafter, we did a short and repeated practice for quite some time. Later, a few participants shared their thoughts on the practice. Many said that it was difficult for them to concentrate and focus their mind on the object of meditation. A couple of them shared that, they feel strange and feel like laughing.

The meditation practice was followed by smoke offering practice and other prayer recitation. This small step for LME is an opportunity to bring together the cognitive, contemplative and meditative dimensions of learning that are a hallmark of LME to its teachers and also to expand our help to other people in the locality. We will keep on expanding this opportunity.