The Tibetan Sky-Gazing Practice Helps Us Remain Inwardly Spacious in Mind and Heart

Making a regular practice of gazing on far horizons is a major component in my own spiritual journey. Because external Nature-based and internal mind-based realities seem to mirror each other so seamlessly, this practice helps me stay in touch with the inner spaciousness of pure and loving awareness. It is no wonder, then, that both the Indigenous Bon and Buddhist Dzogchen traditions of Tibet maintain a formal spiritual practice called "Sky Gazing." Hence, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche can say: 

"It can be said that when we experience the fruition of the sky gazing practice we are seeing primordial awareness itself through our physical eyes, experiencing and realizing it while the moving-mind awareness is continuously and undistractedly present through the eye-sense consciousness. In this way we develop the trekcho contemplation practice of remaining in union with space."

Today, may each of us find a bit of sky to help us remain inwardly spacious and free!

Photo: Stephen gazing out across the wide-open expanses of Jackson Lake, with the Tetons looming in the distance; Grand Teton National Park, WY, September 7, 2015

Sky-Gazing

"It is of great importance to have experiential, and not merely conceptual, understanding of the inseparability of external surrounding space, the internal space within objects, and the secret space in the mind.  When the [Tibetan] Dzogchen teachings talk about integrating the mind with space through the practice of gazing into the sky, the practitioner is trying to be present in the inseparability of these three spaces."

Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche

Photo: Arthur's Rock gazes up at the western sky after a snow; Lory State Park, CO; March 2, 2014