Discover Your Sky-Like Mind
It's like the sun—there even when you can't see it 🌤️
New! Listen to me read this letter at the link above 🎧
I went on retreat last weekend, where I learned to practice Sky-Gazing meditation with Lama Willa Blythe Baker, a teacher in the Tibetan tradition. It’s exactly as its name describes — a group of forty or so people sat on our cushions on a wooden deck outside of the Won Dharma Center meditation hall, and stared at the sky. The instructions were to “let the sky outside mingle with the sky inside”.
If you read my recent letter, “What to Do When Pigeons are Sh*tting on Your Head”, you’ll remember that I shared with you my fascination with the togdens (pronounced toque-dins) — a sect of Tibetan Buddhists who famously devote themselves to long retreats. So you can imagine my delight when Lama Willa told us that the togdens main practice is Sky-Gazing meditation, which they do from their Himalayan caves! This is why they’re also called the sky-eyed ones.
The instructions were to “let the sky outside mingle with the sky inside”.
The purpose of this type of practice is to experience the aspect of ourselves that is spacious and luminous—our sky-like mind. That’s the experience we have when let go of our tendency to grasp, cling, and hold on to our thoughts, beliefs, stories, plans, and strategies. But it’s not easy to not-do, and during the weekend I often found myself lost in fantasies or figuring something out — because trying and doing are such powerful habits that they’re hard to stop. But Lama Willa assured us that we were “strengthening the muscle of not-doing” and that with time our minds would be become more receptive and open and the practice would get easier. And over the next few days, it did.
As I watched from morning until after sunset, the sky never stayed the same. It was cloudy and clear and sunny and dull and it even rained a few times. I simply allowed myself to receive it and didn’t try to capture it or describe it or judge it or compare it—and slowly, the sky stopped being an object that I was watching. Instead, it was just an experience of sky. It wasn’t a big exciting feeling or a blissed-out state, but rather a sense of ease that any barriers or defenses between me and the world had been surrendered — because they weren’t necessary. Though these moments were brief, they reminded me of the possibility of living less encumbered by my old stuff, with deeper awareness and greater connection to my heart and to the world.
I wish for you and for all of us to have such moments of wakefulness and freedom. May you be healthy, happy, connected, and gentle with yourself. May you let go of what you don’t need and share your radiance with yourself and all you encounter. May it be so!
→ If you’re interested in learning more about Sky Gazing, read Lama Willa’s book, The Wakeful Body.
→ Learn more about her work and about Wonderwell, her center in New Hampshire.
→ Visit Won Dharma Center in Claverack NY.
→ Read “What to Do When Pigeons are Sh*tting on Your Head”
Metta+++,
Kim✨
Thank you for sharing your experience Kim.