Bringing the Mind Home

Sogyal Rinpoche’s instructions (paraphrased faithfully; short quoted phrases attributed):

1. Sit like a mountain. Take a comfortable, upright seat — cross-legged on a cushion, or on a chair with feet flat. “Sit, then, as if you were a mountain, with all the unshakeable, steadfast majesty of a mountain.” The spine is straight but not rigid; the body relaxed and grounded.
2. Hands and eyes. Rest the hands comfortably (often the back of the right hand in the left palm, or hands on the knees). Keep the eyes open, gaze soft and lowered, resting in the space a little in front of you — not staring, not focusing on anything in particular. Open eyes keep the practice fresh and connected to life rather than withdrawn.
3. Bring the mind home — gently. Don’t force concentration. Let the mind “come home” by giving it a light support: the breath.
4. Watch the breath, lightly — 25% / 75%. Rest your awareness on the natural breath, especially the out-breath. Crucially: keep only about “twenty-five percent of your attention on the breath, and seventy-five percent relaxed” and spacious. Don’t grip. Better still, he says, “identify with the breathing, rather than just watching it” — become the breath rather than observing it from outside.
5. Let thoughts be waves. When thoughts and emotions arise, neither suppress them nor chase them. “Just as the ocean has waves. so the mind’s own radiance is its thoughts.” Let them rise and dissolve back into spacious awareness; gently return to the breath.
6. Rest in the gap. As the mind settles, rest in the natural spaciousness and calm that opens up — the “gap” where thinking quiets. In Sogyal Rinpoche’s Dzogchen framing, this settled openness is the doorway to glimpsing the nature of mind itself.
7. Short sessions, often. He recommends short sessions repeated rather than one long strained sitting — “short but good,” ending while it is still fresh, so the practice stays alive and you return to it gladly. (Sourcing note: posture, the 25%/75% guidance, “identify with the breathing,” and “bring the mind home” are Sogyal Rinpoche’s documented teaching in The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying ch. 5 and his meditation talks. Wording here is faithful paraphrase with short attributed quotes.)

Sogyal Rinpoche (1947–2019) was a Tibetan Dzogchen teacher in the Nyingma lineage, student of Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, and founder of the Rigpa network.

His 1992 book The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying brought these methods to a vast Western audience. The calm-abiding method he teaches is classical shamatha, the universal base of Buddhist meditation; the “nature of mind” framing draws on Dzogchen (the Great Perfection).

(Note for fair use: assess the teaching on its merits; Sogyal Rinpoche was also the subject of serious abuse allegations within Rigpa, documented separately.)

Mindfulness of breathing (ānāpānasati) — the Theravāda/secular-mindfulness root; same anchor, often with more sustained focus.

• Zen shikantaza / following the breath — open, posture-centred sitting; “just sitting” parallels his “rest in the gap.” - Secular MBSR breath awareness — the clinically studied descendant.
• Dzogchen trekchö / resting in rigpa — the deeper practice his calm-abiding is a gateway to.
• Relaxed-effort autosuggestion (Coué) — shares the “don’t force it” principle.

Gripping the breath. The #1 error. He explicitly caps attention at ~25% — over-concentration creates strain and makes the mind tighter, not calmer.

• Fighting thoughts. Trying to force a blank mind backfires. Let them be waves; return lightly.
• Closed eyes / withdrawal. He teaches open, soft eyes to keep the practice connected and awake; closing them invites dullness or fantasy.
• Marathon sessions. “Short but good.” End while fresh; many short sittings beat one long, strained one.
• Hunting for a special experience. Chasing bliss or blankness misses the point — the aim is simply coming home.