Free The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa Collected Works: Volume Two by Chogyam Trungpa, Chögyam Trungpa

out with the out-breath.
    That is the basic technique of shamatha. It has to be very precise and direct.
    Then there is walking meditation, which has also been recommended. You walk mindfully. You pay heed to, say, your right leg. As your weight shifts, the pressure releases, and the weight is put on the left leg. So your right leg is free, and then you lift it off the ground, swing it. Then it touches the ground, presses the ground as your weight is put on it, and your left leg is released. That is also very precise. One does not have to walk like a zombie in order to do that. You walk with a reasonable, natural rhythm; let it be natural, just as with the breath. When you walk that way, very precise decisions have to be taken: this is the time to put weight on this leg, then the other leg, and so on. So the whole process becomes very precise and very direct and very clear. At this point, you have no intention whatsoever in doing this. You are not thinking, “If I do this, I will attain enlightenment tomorrow.” You have no concern about anything else but doing your practice of sitting or walking meditation.
    This is what is called discipline in the Buddhist tradition and patience as well. Participating in that ongoing process without purpose behind it. Students are advised to do this in a very orthodox way, to pay full attention. But this doesn’t mean that you have to be solemn or serious, particularly. If you are serious, that takes away your mindfulness. You get very busy being serious and you lose your mindfulness. Your mind has to be full, rather than one-eighth or one-hundredth. It has to be right there on the spot. We have the expression “mind your own business,” which means, “Leave me alone, let me be myself.” At this point you mind your business. Just be there, directly and simply be there.
    To do that is to experience the leaves that exist on the tree. You begin to find out who you are somewhat, or who you are not. Whatever—that particular metaphysical problem doesn’t matter very much at this point. We can sort that out later.
    What is your mind? Students might begin to think about this. As you practice, you might come to conclusions regarding hidden emotions that begin to come up to the surface like dead fish. And you might experience all kinds of contrasts in your point of view on the world, seeing it upside down, downside up. At one point, you might feel you are on top of the world; at another point, you might feel you are at the bottom of hell. The whole time the basic point is to be very precise.
    This approach is not only for the sitting practice of meditation alone, which is heavily recommended, but it also applies after the sitting practice of meditation is over, to what is called the postmeditation experience. That is to say that your life and your commitment to the practice of meditation is not a matter of a patch here and a patch there that you are trying to sew together. Your life is committed to meditation overall, like a blanket. It is from twelve o’clock to twelve o’clock. Your life is completely infested with the practice of meditation. When you are eating, you eat. When you are washing your dishes, you are there with it, right on the spot. It is not a matter of trying to work with your breath and wash your dishes at the same time, which would be cumbersome, unnecessary. In the postmeditation, if you are washing your dishes, you do it properly, completely, fully. Be with that; be with the tap, with the water, be with the dirty dishes; be with your arms, your hands, your coordination with your mind. Be with the water and the faucet and the soap and the sponge. Let us be them together and make a good job of washing the dishes. It is a matter of being on the spot with everything that way. From that point of view, it is a life commitment, a twenty-four-hour job.
    It has been said that you can’t practice meditation without postmeditation mindfulness. Mindfulness throughout our lives