THE WINDS OF MEDITATION

Using Prana To Avoid Subtle Meditation Obstacles, Especially In Deep Retreat

One of the greatest obstacles to meditation, especially during extended periods of deep
retreat, is subtle dullness and distraction. We can spend hours, for weeks or months, in a
state of mind where our thoughts are simply rambling through the issues of our life, even
though we are sitting completely still and calm within our thoughts. This mistaken
meditation leaves us feeling dazed and unclear, and prevents us from reaching the high
spiritual goals which meditation is meant to bring us.

The great meditation classics of India and Tibet describe a special type of prana, or inner
wind, which we can learn to direct through our body in order to bring our mind out of this
subtle wandering and return it to sharp, single-pointed focus. In these four days of teaching
at Diamond Mountain University, Geshe Michael Roach will take us on an exploration
through the nature of these subtle meditation obstacles, and inner techniques to overcome
them by moving the prana through our channels and chakras.

We’ll be using new translations on the subject of the prana of meditation taken from major
texts such as The Levels of the Listeners, by Master Asanga (350AD); A Middle-Length
Teaching on the Steps to Enlightenment, by the incomparable Je Tsongkapa (1357-1419);
A Teaching on the Path to Bliss, by His Holiness the Third Panchen Lama (1738-1780);
and A Gift of Liberation, by Pabongka Rinpoche Dechen Nyingpo (1878-1941).

We will first learn, experientially, how to recognize the subtle obstacles to meditation. Then
we’ll cover the mental and pranic techniques for preventing them. In the end we’ll discover
a bright, clear, and loving focus that can take us to the heights of spiritual realization.

Audio

Class 1

Class 2