Dharma session: Developing a calm and focused mind by Venerable Tenzin Namjong
The world as we know today is replete with thronging stressors, impacting our everyday mindset and overall wellness significantly. Developing a calm and focused mind is not just a good-to-do but has now become a necessary-to-do. At Shikshantar, we strive to foster a conducive environment for our children to be their true authentic selves. Whilst we do that, we also endeavour to make sure that the process brings with itself a calm in their lives and not the stress of cancelling another task off of a checklist.
In wake of this realisation, a Dharma teaching session on how to nurture a calm and focused mind was requested-for from Venerable Tenzin Namjong and was organised for the students of grade XI, on Thursday, 2nd November, 2023.
The session commenced with the practice of centering energies, followed by a reposeful chanting of Om Mani Padme Hum. What struck a chord with the students early-on was not merely a customary lighting of the lamp for an auspicious beginning, but also sharing of a simple, reason-oriented logic of why we do so by the venerable. He steered the audience into questioning and trying to see the significance behind rituals, saving them from becoming empty and rote.
An introduction of the venerable Tenzin Namjong by Minoti Didi was followed by a warm welcome extended by a student expressing how the young adults today have to combat stress on so many levels and feel overwhelmed. With a request to guide them in the direction of a calm state of being and mindfulness, the teaching was initiated.
Venerable Namjong addressed the above and started to explain with a metaphor that how being overwhelmed is similar to juggling too many balls at the same time. He brought to our attention the fact that how we are a part of a busy world and that in itself is not a problem. Being busy doing good things is a great thing to be occupied with. But on a larger level, we must be able to differentiate between being busy and stressed; followed by an awareness and learning of when to keep some of the balls down while we juggle.
Venerable Namjong went on to teach, with relevant references, how motivation helps us reach our goals. He explained, using the analogy of chopping a tree, what it means to be focused and why it is important to do so. He further spoke about how having a focused mind ultimately leads to a stress-free being and ways with which we can structure our lives, in general, in a way that we organically have less stress to deal with. He talked comprehensively about the kind of hindrances or deterrents that we face while trying to focus and how they can be combated. Doable solutions to avoid procrastination for fear of failure, inadequacy and the like included, keeping a beginner’s mind and a willingness to make mistakes and learn from them. Other practical solutions like breaking a daunting task in bite-size chunks were related. A reminder that echoed with one and all- as he quotes, ‘A journey of thousand miles begins with a single step’.
Further, he shed light on the importance of our general well-being, mental and physical. Deliberation moved to pondering over how having a consistent routing affects the release of hormones in our body and how this is directly related to our productivity levels and eventually the amount of stress that it creates. He brought to our attention that stress as a body’s evolutionary response (like a fight or flight reflex) is good, if produced in required levels. However, over stimulation leads to its excesses and the unfortunate anxiety that comes along with it.
The assembly was then aptly led into a meditation session. Breathing in a pattern of 4-7-8 (inhale-hold-exhale) to activate the parasympathetic nervous system was practised.
The floor then was opened for a Q/A interaction, whence students posed questions about various things, ranging from the origin of monk’s name, his views on eastern versus western philosophy, to combatting relative stress, to external and internal stressors and the like among concerns ranging from a general to specific kinds. Thoughts were exchanged on building an understanding of fundamental constructs like morality, guilt, shame and jealousy.
The session indeed proved effectual in providing a window to the students to envision a calmer world for themselves, within and without. It is safe to say that a universal take-away was a realisation that calming the chaos with mindfulness can prove to be the key to unlock great potentialities that lie within.