Mindful Waking

This is a short review of the particular topic from the book titled "Mindful living in Bhutan" by Khenpo Phuntshok Tashi. The topic of 'mindful waking' is of great interest to me as it was talking about meditation. For the last couple of days, I have been trying to meditate few minutes per day. It was a quite difficult experience and I have been beseeching the new experiences. I knew this will be the new venture so I reflected in the daily diaries and committed to practice mindful waking in my life. These days after reading "The 5 Am Club" by Robin Sharma, I have been waking up early at 7:00 am and hoping to wake up at 6:00 am and then join the 5 Am club in my life. Morning is considered victory hour provided it is used productively when the mind is refreshed and the body rejuvenated. 

As soon as the alarm goes off, I would wake up rejoicing and thanking God for one more opportunity to practice kindness and compassion. I would swear in front of the altar to invest energy for the liberation of sentient beings. This might sound skeptical to some of you. I am certainly not a capable truelku or great saint but I am an ordinary being with the solemn belief that I can be of help to somebody in need. It doesn't have to be a great saint to offer help, we can be the rescuer or reliever to the needy. 

The book suggests us to remember and realize that we are awakened by the sound of pleasant Dharma sung and played by celestial flying God and Goddess from above.  We believe what starts well, ends well. Therefore, before we do anything, right after we wake up, on the bed itself, we have to perform the three breath cleansing practice. We sit in the Vajrayana or lotus posture by envisioning smiling root teacher or Guru sitting on your head. With the help of the forefinger on the right hand, block the right nostril and exhale. When you exhale, it should be gentle in the beginning, harsher in the middle, and again gentle at the end. While exhaling imagines that the wind of desire is expelled from your body in the form of ash-colored smoke and feel that your desire is completely exited your body. Then rest your hand on the lap and inhale gently with the serene feeling of free of desire and its consequences like pain, attachment, and suffering.  For the next round of exhalation, exhale through the right nostril by blocking the left nostril with the forefinger of the left hand. Imagine that the wind of anger exits our body and mind in the form of red-colored smoke into the vast space. Rest the hand on the lap and inhale with the thought that you have achieved the mirror-like wisdom. Then finally exhale from both nostrils thinking that the ignorance exits with blackish smoke. When you inhale, visualize obtaining the wisdom of accomplishment of activity (dharmadatu) both by mind and body. Then dissolve your root lama into clear light and merge your mind with the wisdom mind of your lama. Remain in the state of meditation as long as you could and it is mandatory that we keep our lips closed throughout the session. 

Only after the cleansing practice, we are recommended to proceed with the daily activity of the day. If we do not practice this, we tend to be agitated quickly and get messed up with the remnant feeling from the previous day's activities. This feeling would impede us from moving forward with the day's activity. Employing this mindful waking practice will assure us to become more alert and engaged in positivities. It is believed to be much like cleaning the vessel for the proper storage of food that would nourish the body later.