 My name is Winston Welch and this is a special edition of Out and About, a show where we explore a variety of topics, people, organizations, events that fuel our rich lives here in Hawaii and around the world. And as a disclaimer, this show is just from my brain and the folks that come on and not associated with any organization that I might be. That said, I am delighted today to have Kit and Kit. We have known each other a number of years already and now it seems like suddenly we're a decade older or maybe more. And I'm happy to have you on the show today. You've had a really interesting journey since I first met you. So today we entitled the show, Heal Yourself, Heal the World. And it's sort of just talking about Shambhala Tibetan Buddhist meditation. So can you tell us, what is Shambhala? What does that mean? What is Tibetan Buddhist meditation and how would that differ? Or is that a part of Buddhist meditation or a sect or how would you describe it? Well, Shambhala is a sect of Tibetan Buddhism and it was, I mean, its history is 2,500 years old. The king of Shambhala, Dawa Zangpo, had gone down to India, met the Buddha and said, Is there something you can give me that I can take back to my city, which is called Shambhala? Because there's great strife and negativity and killing and whatnot, but we don't want to become monks. So the Buddha gave him the teachings that come out of Shambhala Buddhism, something that's secular and can be practiced in our daily lives out in the world. So it's a very practical meditation, like you said, for those people who don't necessarily want to become monks or nuns and steep themselves entirely in the traditions. Indeed, but if you want to become a monk, you're welcome to. We do have that within Shambhala, but most practitioners are in the world. They have full jobs and wives and relationships and families. They want to keep that. Okay, and would when we think of Tibetan Buddhism, are we thinking of Shambhala? Are they synonymous in our minds? Would you say or is that not true? I think Shambhala is more of a modern Tibetan Buddhist sect brought over by one of the High Lamas of the Kaguya lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. So, Jim Trump, he came to the United States or eventually landed in the United States and started his practice here in 1969, where I was in Vermont for five years at Karmic Children. And it quickly spread over the 18 years he lived past them. He created a worldwide organization, Tibetan Buddhism that really spoke to Westerners. He was able to translate some of the more esoteric terminology and ideas into how the Western mind could understand it. That's so important because a lot of the times I know these teachings are so rich and so important for us and ancient and yet they may be couched in a way that we're not used to receiving the information. So it doesn't get translated, if you will, into our way of thinking. You have spent a lot of time on this, just so people can get a frame of reference and if they want more information. I wanted to get your website out there right away. We'll repeat it later. What is that? It's hoikaha.org. That's H-O-I-K-A-H-A.org. Okay, and people can get there and learn about some things and about what your teachings are, what maybe your philosophy, your approach to things. And you do have a class coming up or a course, I guess, starting. And when is that going to be? It's now going to be on the 15th of August on Saturday for an hour and a half. It's an introduction to the path of meditation that leads the living. This is a very interesting and uncanny relationship between Tibetan Buddhist culture and the Hawaiian culture. Many similarities that I could go into for days, but aloha is what the aim of Tibetan meditation is to get to that point of experiencing it and trying to align with it and live from that point. What does aloha mean to you? It is the consciousness, intelligence, and life force energy of all existence. Only that. And this is actually supported by many of the native Hawaiian kupuna, the keepers of the secret, like Ilahipaki, Morna Simuono, Antinomno Fieri. They all spoke of this way of life that the ancient Hawaiians had. And I actually experienced it up until the late 60s that people were living from this place of being in alignment with nature and with underlying life force energy of it. And so you are local, howly, right? Is that true or did you? I was not born here. I was born in L.A. You were? Okay, yeah. You're so familiar to Hawai'i. I feel like you've been here all your life. Maybe you had a past life here or something. I have no doubt actually, but when my parents moved here, things were familiar. The language was familiar, the music was familiar, the energy of the land was familiar, and I took to the culture like water. I was very lucky actually where we lived when we first moved to Otsu, Kailua, Oma'u Street. And there was an older couple down the block whose children, grandchildren moved to the mainland, which was very unusual, but they adopted me. They didn't have anybody to have a grandparent with. So you had some local Hanae grandparents. And they just shared everything with me. They saw that I didn't have any friends. I was a mainland Hawai'i boy and no local friends yet in the school. And so they taught me about the culture and about Hawai'i. Oh, what a lucky and wonderful experience that that was for you. And how old were you when you moved here? Nine. Okay, so this is it. And were your parents Buddhists or how did you come to find this tradition? No, my parents have described themselves as metaphysical. They didn't want to believe in any one thing. And actually, they deliberately left it up to me to find my own path in what did I do at age 16, but convert to Catholicism. In college, I realized I had a wonderful teacher at UH who taught religion 101, which you would never probably see again. And he spoke of his travels around the world and experiencing different belief systems and religions and joining them and whatnot. And I actually followed his example. And I ended up at Buddhism. Buddhism always sort of rose its head throughout that path. But as we were talking earlier, I couldn't understand a thing. In the sixties, seventies, eighties, the translation of Tibetan or Chinese or Japanese or Buddhist texts was awful. You know, and I couldn't do the math, the three of these and the four of those and eighties. It didn't make any sense until I read Shogun, Trump. And can you say his name again for us? And how do you spell this? D-H-O-G-Y-A-M is his first name. Trump, T-R-U-N-G-P-A. And Rinpoche. I think most people know that. Well, what did they say when the student is ready, the master will appear? Oh, I read my very first book that I read about had been in my bookshelf for years and it almost literally dropped into my hand. And I said, okay, I need something greener and I read it and I thought, how is this very interesting? And so I picked up another book. That first one was called Life of the Buddha or the Heart of the Buddha. And the second one I read was Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism. No light text, but the words that were in that book had been running through my mind for years. And I thought, okay, this guy is my teacher. I need to find him and I read the back of the book, of course he's dead. But he mentions Shambhala. And so I followed the breadcrumbs to Shambhala and the rest is history. That's so interesting and you hear that so often. Is it people who had it on their bookshelf for years or they're walking in the bookstore and it literally falls on their heads. This is not an unusual thing. I think it's just meant to be so. And probably as you have been in this searching and your parents were metaphysically inclined. So they were open and certainly opened whatever worked for you. But you probably found a lot of strengths in the different traditions you've studied that are similar of course throughout everything. And have woven a rich tapestry with having the background that you've had. You know, when you were describing what the king of Shambhala did when he went down, talk to the Buddha, kind of sounded like today a little bit. You know, people were strife. They're killing each other, if not physically, metaphysically or in their hearts and you know, and yet they got to go home and work and figure it all out. And we live in a very complex society. But humans are humans and they've been about the same for the last, I don't know, maybe forever. So this, these traditions, are they just as relevant or more relevant today than they were before just about the same? I mean, have we evolved at all as a species? Well, this time was actually predicted 2500 years ago. And they call it the dark times. This is through the Shambhala teachings that we received this. And the practices and the teachings that Dala Sanpo received from the Buddha are the practices that are meant for this very time right now. And it's very interesting, you know, what the world is going through. And especially right now with this pandemic, we're trust into a time where all of a sudden we've been worked into this addiction of distraction. And, you know, fill my time and being busy and all that stuff and keeping the kids going. And the breaks are put on and we're in the middle of complete emptiness. And, you know, not knowing what's going to happen. And so this, this time is the perfect time to actually start to look within ourselves and that's what the teachings guide us to do is to look inward. To look inward to find the answers to deal with the inward and the outward. Well, yeah. And so we're looking inward, we're creating a new, a new habit, let's say, of being quiet, being able to drop into a quiet, silent place in our minds within the midst of chaos that we're strengthening our minds using meditation to actually hold that place. And while chaos is happening, and then we start to look at ourselves, what are some of the habits that I'm on, you know, automatically going through or things I'm saying to people. You know, things I'm doing that no longer serve me or these other people. And so we start to look at that and then we have a choice. You know, that, that habitual pattern no longer serves me. And I have many friends, especially now with black lives matter with many friends who are saying, you know, I'm, I'm a good person. I love everybody, but I hear these things come out of my mouth and it is not very nice, but they don't have any way to actually go in and deal with that more. And I find for myself that this Shambhala meditation practice is the way to actually go in and change her habitual patterns. And so it allows us the space to have some more reflection would create a space for that. Those patterns does create space and then it creates this connection with the greater consciousness intelligence. Yeah, I remember when I were chatting once and I said something like oh well meditation allows us to escape reality or something and you said no it's not that it allows us to be with reality to be very with reality and I thought that was, it was like, of course, yes, thank you. I, you know, we're going to do a meditation here and I one thing I appreciated when when I've sat on your meditation before is that you know, you know the mind is going to wander like that is you're not punished for the mind wandering it is one it's going to wander and it's just sort of bringing back your attention and you do that in a very gentle and wonderful way. But just before we do that, can we still stay engaged in the world. I mean there's so much going on and there's so much noise and busyness. Can we still be aware of the injustices or outrages or, or maybe even the more mundane. Can we still do that and have an active meditative practice and be how can we be in the world and of the world at the same time. Yeah, or do we have to really just go to the mountain and sit in the cave, or can we be, can we be an active practicing contemplated meditating Buddhist or even without a label and still be active with the shambhala training and the shambhala levels of meditation techniques. Yes. And again, this is what was given to Dallas on hold for that very purpose other meditation or other Buddhist lineages. It really is applicable to going in a cave for solitary retreat and but this is all about being in the midst of chaos and strengthening our mind to be ground grounded in peaceful abiding. And being able to respond better to the but actually exists around us in a more centered and balanced way. Yeah, it's it's it's very practical because you don't have to go in the cave, although I do recommend you know if the pasta meditation if you can get away for a week or 10 days, by all means do it. It's a wonderful amazing experience that you'll not regret, but this is it's it's a different it's a different form and I love this. Why don't you lead us in a meditation here and I'll ask you to keep track of the time so we have a couple minutes at the end so that we can leave people with some hope and some aloha and then, and also to please remind them of the class that you have coming up and where they can find that again. Very good. So this is a seated meditation, just as you are Winston I'll speak to you and everybody who's watching. And we're in an upright position, and we don't want to be leaning against anything we want to be forward and self upright. And our hands are flat like this on our thighs, and we're in this posture of that of a monarch on their throne or respected warrior. So there's this sense of being uplifted in everything is relaxed. And our eyes are open. And if we just gaze out at the horizon and allow our eyes to drop to the floor about four feet out in front of us. And we're inviting all the sense perceptions into this meditation. Feel yourself completely in this posture, feeling the warmth and weight of your hands on your thighs, feeling your butt in the chair, feet on the floor, maybe feeling the quality of the air on your skin. And just notice in this posture and your body breathing. What does that feel like, you might feel your chest and belly rise and fall air, moving through your nasal passageways in this obstacle. You might even feel your lungs taking in an expelling air. Just notice and feel the body breathing. Now become aware of just the out breath. Follow the out breath. As it comes out from the lungs, warm air traveling through your esophagus, sinuses and nasal passageways. And imagine it exiting the body, falling out and dissolving into the space around you. And on the in breath, check your posture. Make sure you haven't slumped over the lungs. And on the out breath, following and feeling the breath, feeling it exiting the body, dissolving into space. And on the in breath, check your posture. And on the out breath, completely identify with the out breath. Be the breath flowing out and dissolving into space. And hear something or see something in your peripheral vision that will spark mind to label it and categorize it to make up a story about it. And then it'll take you on some other story about it and then a completely unrelated story. And another story like in all of a sudden you're not even here. When you notice that happening, simply acknowledge it by saying to yourself, thinking and come back to the out breath, feeling it, following it, flowing out and dissolving into space. On the in breath, check your posture. Keep returning to the out breath. Relaxing out thoughts and emotions can seem very solid. You might take the attitude that they're more like clouds on an open sky. Acknowledge them by saying to yourself, thinking and let them dissolve right back into the sky. We're just sitting here. Breathing, regarding thoughts as clouds on a fast open sky. So in this technique, which was very short, we're not trying to get rid of thoughts or distractions or chaos. It would be impossible. Rather, we're seeing their transparency, then returning to feel the out breath over and over again. Out breath is our aim during this meditation. So by returning to the out breath over and over again, it's not considered suppression. It's simply returning to where we begin. Our task of following the out breath has been rudely interrupted by thoughts and interruptions and sensory input. So we just simply keep coming back to the out breath. And it's that no different than the gym. When we go to the gym, we first go, we're feeling really weak. But if we keep going back, we get stronger and stronger. Playing the piano, same thing. We don't know what we're doing at the beginning, but the more we come back to it, the stronger we get at the better we get at it. The same thing applies to meditation. The more we do it, it's recommended daily for at least 10 minutes a day. This was about seven minutes. And on a daily basis, we're creating a new habit. We're creating a habit that will bring peaceful abiding into our life. And we're getting closer to that place of the natural resting stage of the mind, which is our connection to alcohol. You know, I appreciate when you just say thinking and just labeling it as thinking, and it brings you back and also mentioning it like posture. And I found myself leaning forward or whatever, or just being tense and then realizing, oh, it's just a moment to get back in. And even a short time like that, it's amazing how the system just calms down because it's a willful willful desire to reduce the chatter and the noise, even though we know it's going to happen. But it's willfully just saying I'm going to try and create an intentional space here and it may only be for half of a breath or maybe just on a breath out if you can even do that. But like you said, baby steps, you said 10 minutes a day, your class that you're going to have coming up, it's going to be on from this Saturday. What time is that going to be? Sorry, the 15th. The 15th. I'm sorry. That's not Saturday. That's going to be Friday. Following work. Maybe it's the 16th. It's a Saturday, the second Saturday of August, whatever it is. Second Saturday. We're looking at, I think it's going to be the 15th. Yeah, I think so. Actually, yeah. Actually, that is going to be the third Saturday. That's the week. Yeah. Yeah. So it's going to be, but it will be Saturday. At what time is that going to take place? 9am Hawaii time. It'll go an hour and a half to 1030. And will you have a little discourse and then a meditation or what's the structure going to be? So I'll give a little background similar to what I've done today, a little more background to the history of meditation. I'll get into what is the path meditation. I'll go into the sections of people understand what they might get into if they want to do it. And then we'll have an extended version of what I did today in terms of the meditation. We'll allow that to go into a silent meditation and there'll be Q&A discussion. And where do people go again to find out more information about this? On my website, H-O-I-K-A-H-A.org, you know, there is a learn to meditate as a drop down and under that you'll find the calendar, the link and everything is there. Okay. And you know, this is, it's our time together is already so very quickly passed. I would like to ask you to come back on and share more with folks because we really need this now. Like you said, it's some dark days out there, but any of these practices that can help us connect with our true nature are low and that with our fellow humans. It's so incredibly valuable and I really appreciate your method and your knowledge and your willingness to share this with other people. So thank you Winston for having me on and really appreciate it. It's wonderful to see and chat with you again. I know, I know it's just we're all in our virtual world, but this too shall pass. And I look forward to seeing you on Saturday and joined by as many of other people that can come in and do what they can and take a moment for themselves to become more mindful so that they can deal with everything else that's going on in a much better, better way. So with that, I want to just thank you for being on today kit and kit is a wonderful meditation teacher. Please go to his website. You'll see the link in the notes below and I look forward to having you on again in the very near future as you share with us some more wonderful ideas and thoughts and practices. Thank you kit and thank you.