Do you meow mindfully, dear reader?
A mouse-sized musing - and guided meditation
I am not a cat who meows. At least, not very much.
A single, imperious meow is all it takes for the formidable security door of the residence I share with His Holiness to open sufficiently to permit a lustrous, if somewhat wonky form to go one way or the other. Should Tenzin and Oliver, the Dalai Lama’s Executive Assistants, overlook my presence on top of the filing cabinet while enjoying their afternoon tea, one meow is sufficient to have a saucer of milk poured and delivered, pronto! As for Mrs. Trinci downstairs, very rarely do I have to so much as peep to attract her attention – and the bountiful munificence that surely follows.
If I were one of those felines who meows incessantly, chattering away - as if human - to all and sundry, would my meow be quite so powerful? Would it command the same instant attention? I think not, dear reader. No, when it comes to meowing, less is most definitely more.
There are occasions, however, when maintaining a sphynx-like silence can be misinterpreted. It was quite some months ago that Mrs. Trinci placed a delectably saucy soupçon of fish before me on the kitchen counter – she always saved a scoop of her finest cuisine for The Most Beautiful Creature That Ever Lived, as she called me. It so happened that Mr. Aziz, the grocer, was visiting, overseeing staff who were delivering cardboard boxes from his van into the kitchen pantry.
Up until then I had always had a favourable impression of Mr. Aziz, on account of his aristocratic bearing and magnificent moustache. Had he been a cat, Mr. Aziz would surely have been a rather splendid Persian Tom.
“I don’t know why you shower your affections on that cat,” he remarked to Mrs. Trinci, glancing to where I noisily mashed my food. “She never thanks you.”
“Oh, she does,” out of loyalty, Mrs. Trinci hastened to my defence. “In her own way.”
I shot Mr. Aziz a blue-eyed glance. What the devil did he expect a cat to do when presented with a plate of food? Sing the Hallelujah chorus? Perform full-length prostrations on the kitchen counter? Seldom had a human so swiftly plummeted in my estimation.
Soon after this, I was in the kitchen when Mrs. Trinci was garnishing a sumptuous chocolate cake with strawberries and cream. Head tilted, she was evidently listening for the sound of footfall on the staircase. Geshe Wangpo was currently upstairs, discussing a new translation of a book by the First Panchen Lama. Was she, perhaps, planning an impromptu visit to His Holiness afterwards to present him with a cake?
As it turned out, she had other plans. No sooner were the sounds of descending sandals audible, along with the sound of Geshe Wangpo’s distinctive voice, than Mrs. Trinci had the cake in her hands and was going to greet him. The cake, she explained, was a small offering of thanks. She attended Geshe-la’s classes most Tuesday nights and had learned so much. There was, however, one point he’d discussed in last Tuesday’s class that troubled her and she was eager for his advice. Could she make a time to see him?
Typically forthright, Geshe-la had suggested that there was no time like the present. Moments later they were sitting at the kitchen table, the chocolate cake between them, while I looked on from a benchtop on which a pile of quilted placemats formed a comfortable cushion.
“It was when you were talking about the ten virtues and non-virtues!” Mrs. Trinci murmured in confessional mode.
“Body, speech and mind?” confirmed the lama.
Living in a non-harmful way was outlined by Buddha in terms of avoiding ten non-virtues and cultivating their opposite. Of the ten, three had to do with body, four with speech and three with mind.
“Si,” confirmed Mrs. Trinci. “Speech.”
“Lying,” Geshe Wangpo listed the first non-virtue of speech. “Harsh speech,” he named a second. “Idle gossip.”
“Yes. When I’m with certain friends we talk and talk about nothing, really. Sometimes,” she paused, before looking down at the table, “usually, it turns into divisive speech.”
As Geshe-la had mentioned at his class, in Dharma terms, idle gossip means talking about things that are meaningless and unimportant as if they are both meaningful and significant. It is not only a waste of precious human time. Idle gossip usually stirs up resentments and other harmful thoughts. In Mrs. Trinci’s case, idle gossip had led to that other non-virtue: divisive speech – conversations that inflame animosity and deepen distrust.
“I want to stop,” Mrs. Trinci regarded her teacher fervently across the table. “I can succeed. Now and then when people babble on about this or that – especially one particular group of people - I remember, ‘idle gossip,’ and I don’t get involved. But there are other times,” she inhaled deeply before sighing, “I don’t remember. Out of habit I join in. Many minutes can go by before I realise. And by then, I have already said things I shouldn’t have.”
Across the table, Geshe Wangpo’s nodded briskly, “Best to take note as quickly as possible.”
Mrs. Trinci was nodding. “I am wondering if there is some practice, some technique you can suggest on how to do that?”
The lama tilted his head to one side, contemplating her request. “When you meditate in the mornings,” he confirmed. “You visualise Shakyamuni Buddha in space before you?”
“Si,” she confirmed. “About the height of my forehead, a few yards in front. Just like when you guide us in the temple.”
“Very good,” he said. “And you recall that from the crown, throat and heart of the Buddha we visualise three beams of light coming to our own crown, throat and heart?”
“White for the body, red for speech, blue for mind?” confirmed my great benefactor.
Seeing that this was already part of her practice, Geshe Wangpo leaned forward in his seat. “Then I recommend that you set apart time in your daily practice especially to focus on red light streaming from the throat of the visualised Buddha to your throat. Repeat his mantra, for one or more rounds of your mala, and as you do, imagine strongly that the red light purifies all negativities of speech. Any tendency to exaggerate or to encourage distrust, cynicism and hostility in the minds of others. Harsh speech, words said in anger. Idle gossip and suchlike – imagine that they all dissolve.
“It is useful, when you do this, to recollect particular cases when you said something that you now regret. That helps cultivate remorse for such behaviour. And when you finish, do so confident that your speech is now completely purified. Feel determined that you will not lapse into the habit of non-virtuous speech again.”
Mrs. Trinci was following Geshe-la intently, committing to memory all that he was saying. At the same time, a certain puzzlement hovered about her features. “Thank you, thank you,” she leaned forward, grasping his hands between hers impulsively before, recollecting who he was, and sitting back respectfully.
“That is only the first part,” Geshe Wangpo responded smoothly. “What is the way that the Buddhas are best able to help us?”
It was a question he sometimes posed in class. One to which all his regulars knew the answer by heart. “Through the speech of the teacher,” Mrs Trinci replied instinctively.
“All of us who study the Dharma are teachers.”
Mrs. Trinci regarded him with a sceptical expression.
“Not sitting on the teaching throne at the temple,” he clarified. “Not overtly. Not constantly talking about this text or that Buddha. But by example. Through our actions. Our words,” he pointed to his mouth. If other people see how we are and wish to be like us in some way,” he shrugged, “isn’t that the most powerful form of communication?”
From the look on her face it was clear that Mrs. Trinci felt quite inadequate.
“Including you, my dear,” Geshe Wangpo was emphatic, reaching over and grasping her hands for a moment, in a gesture so rare she was unlikely ever to forget it. “You are a strong communicator!”
“Me?” she said, her voice squeaking unusually.
“People pay attention to you. So, when you visualize red light streaming from the Buddha’s throat to yours, this is not only to purify negativities. It is also to empower virtuous speech. Speech that is truthful - devoid of deception. Speech that is beneficial – words that inspire, give comfort and hope. And speech that is timely – choosing the right words at the right moment. These are three types of excellent speech. Imagine rapidly developing the capacity for all three.”
“So,” Mrs. Trinci wanted to be quite clear. “As part of my meditation, I do the red-light visualisation and recite Shakyamuni’s mantra while purifying negative speech for a few rounds of the mala. Then I do the same thing while focusing on cultivating excellent speech?”
“Exactly.”
“But how can that help when, much later in the day, I am with my friends who are talking about this and that ..?”
“What you focus on with your heart when you meditate, you take with you into the day,” replied the lama. “Not the first day you do it, perhaps. Nor even the first week. But after a few weeks, with a strong focus on speech in your meditation sessions, you will find that your awareness begins to permeate your mind between meditation session.” With a glint in his eye, he added. “There is only one way for you to find out.”
“Oh, Geshe-la,” Mrs. Trinci’s expression was a portrait of gratitude. “I am going to! How can I thank you?”
“You already have,” Geshe Wangpo looked down at the cake. “My brother arrives from Sera monastery this afternoon. I am looking forward to sharing this with him!”
Several months had passed since that encounter between Mrs. Trinci and Geshe Wangpo on the afternoon I was dozing on the top shelf of the magazine rack at The Himalaya Book Café. Lunch service was drawing to a close, the restaurant section was beginning to empty and Head Waiter Kusali was on duty, all of which pointed to one thing: soon I would be served my own portion of that day’s plat du jour.
The most boisterous table in the restaurant was a group of women occupying a banquette not far from me. Among them, my benefactor, Mrs. Trinci, along with her dear friend Dorothy Cartwright, who I had also come to know well. A group who’d been together since school days, the women would meet every few months, quaff copious quantities of Prosecco, and discuss everything and anything with forthright abandon and much hilarity.
I paid little attention on such occasions. Even so, as I drowsily anticipated the lunchtime treat yet to come, I noticed that when conversation turned to a particular US politician whose name instantly sparked divisive and harsh speech, Mrs. Trinci was soon talking about a visit by the US Ambassador to the Dalai Lama. How the diplomat had described the wonder of Fall leaves in his home state of Vermont, and how one of the women was planning a trip to see this very spectacle: when was she due to leave, inquired my great benefactor?
On a different occasion, talk turned to Dionné, their semi-famous, twice-divorced actress friend from schooldays, now in a relationship with a man twenty years her junior. Interrupting a recital of Dionné’s plastic surgery procedures and questionable boyfriends, Mrs. Trinci told the group that Dionné had invited her to the premier of her new movie in Delhi. Did anyone else want to come?
Later, when only Mrs. Trinci and Dorothy remained at the table, after a lull in conversation Dorothy observed, “You know, my dear, you’ve become quite sage.”
Mrs. Trinci’s forehead furrowed.
“I can’t say why, exactly,” continued Dorothy. “It’s just a feeling. Perhaps working for so long with His Holiness is rubbing off on you.”
“Perhaps,” a quizzical smile played about Mrs. Trinci’s lips.
“What?” demanded Dorothy feistily, wiggling a finger at her. “You’re hiding something, I can tell. Out with it!”
Mrs. Trinci shrugged. “Not hiding.”
“No?”
“I’m trying to be more mindful of what I say, that’s all.”
Dorothy regarded her carefully for a long pause. “Well, it’s working.” She lifted her nearly empty glass of Prosecco in a final toast, “To mindful speech!”
“Mindful speech!” chimed Mrs. Trinci.
A short while later, Kusali swept from the kitchen door with a small bowl of the most succulent goulash. Animated by the mouthwatering aroma, I got to my feet at the very same moment, it turned out, that Mr. Aziz arrived with an urgent delivery of groceries. As Kusali placed the bowl before me, I chirruped. Not in an attention-seeking way. I can assure you, dear reader, that it was no Hallelujah chorus. Nor full length prostration. Simply, the kind of grateful acknowledgement you might expect of a well-bred feline.
Halting in his tracks, Mr. Aziz stared at me in amazement.
“You said she was a polite cat,” he turned to where Mrs. Trinci was still sitting at the nearby banquette.
“A most gracious cat!” effused Kusali.
“The Most Beautiful Creature That Ever Lived,” Mrs. Trinci’s eyelids, dark with mascara, fluttered heavily.
“I didn’t believe you,” confessed Mr. Aziz, stroking his moustache with a pensive expression.
And was I mistaken, or did I feel, for just a moment, a warm, red glow in my throat as I looked up to meet his eyes?
In the video below I share how to pronounce the Shakyamuni Buddha mantra: Om Muni Muni Maha Muniye Soha. I also go on to share a guided meditation using the visualisation described in my story.
If you just wish to find out out to recite the mantra, I do so in the first minute of the video, before going on to the guided meditation which is just under 20 minutes long. I didn’t plan this guided meditation, but when I sat down to record the mantra I felt moved to do it. Please let me know if you find guided meditations like this helpful.
Repetition of meditations like the one I share, have a very powerful impact on our awareness and therefore ability to manage actions of mind, speech and body.
About half the money readers help me raise through subscriptions goes to the following four charities. Feel free to click on the underlined links to read more about them:
Wild is Life - home to endangered wildlife and the Zimbabwe Elephant Nursery; Twala Trust Animal Sanctuary - supporting indigenous animals as well as pets in extremely disadvantaged communities; Dongyu Gyatsal Ling Nunnery - supporting Buddhist nuns from the Himalaya regions; Gaden Relief - supporting Buddhist communities in Mongolia, Tibet, Nepal and India.
Many thanks for this offering🙏☸️
It will be very helpful to see the mantra in written form 😻
Thank you for this newsletter. Just came at the right time for me, I've been thinking about this since a while. Regards from Switzerland, BM