Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 28-minute meditation and reflection session, Ven Lobsang Namgyel guides practitioners through a structured technique for transforming habitual emotional reactions. He begins with breath-focused settling, then asks students to recall a specific situation where their response—anger, pride, impatience, or resentment—fell short of their intention. Working dispassionately, they examine the situation from multiple viewpoints, investigate the actual harm caused by the negative emotion, and then mentally replay the same scenario with a calm, balanced, and humble mind instead. The closing phase returns to breath awareness, resting in the mind’s underlying clarity and spaciousness beneath surface emotions. The teaching emphasizes that recognizing mistakes is the first step toward genuine change, and concludes by dedicating the positive energy developed to the wellbeing of all beings. Suited for practitioners at any level seeking practical tools for emotional regulation and self-awareness.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 12 IC_A_003.mp3
UUID: e5454456-5200-4fac-824d-782bb4fb9135
Teacher: Ven Lobsang Namgyel
Collection: VenNamgyel Thought Transformation (Ven Lobsang Namgyel)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 27.9 minutes
Words: ~1,086
And then focus on the sensation of the breath. Breathing in and out through the nostrils. Breathing all the way down into the abdomen. Only concentrating on the sensation of the breath. Of course you’re going to lose concentration.
It’s natural. At the moment we don’t have much concentration. Concentration. So be aware when your mind drifts off an interesting thought or sound and gently bring it back to the breath. So we’re going to do that for a few minutes before we start the analytical meditation.
Trying to hold all your concentration on the sensation of the breath. Placing all your attention on the sensation of the breath. So now what I’d like you to think about is that situation that you’d like to change. So you think of one situation where your response wasn’t as good as you’d like it to be. It can be any situation you like.
During the meditation, you’re not getting emotionally involved. You’re just looking at the situation dispassionately as if it’s happening to somebody else. Being aware of the emotions involved. You just replay the whole situation as it happened. Looking at it from your point of view and also trying to see the point of view of the other person or people involved.
So I’ll give you a little time to do that. Don’t rush. And if it becomes too difficult, just stop, go back to the breath, concentrate on the breath for a few moments and then go back to the meditation. Remember, in order to change, we need to know what to change. So just like a doctor looking for the sickness, you have to look for the problem in the situation.
What needs to be transformed? What’s the energy in the situation? How do I feel? How does the other person feel? Remember that as a human being, we’re not perfect.
Of course, we’re going to make mistakes. But when we can acknowledge the mistakes, we can learn and we can grow. If we don’t think we’re making mistakes, then we can’t change. So now you’ve seen the the situation, and you start to think about the disadvantages, The harmful nature of the negative response that took place in the situation. How did you feel when you were being impatient or angry or proud?
Did you feel happy? Were you comfortable? Did you feel peaceful in your heart? So particularly if you have pride, you think you know better than others. So you can look down on others and then lecture to them.
So instead of being on the same level, you put yourself above them. So if you do that, you look at the effect on the other person. Does it help them to understand, to change, to grow? Or if you are angry, that anger can lead to angry words and actions. So what effect does that have on you?
Anger is so disturbing to the body and to the mind. What effect does it have on the people around you? Does it make them happy? Does it make the situation better? Did the pride or the anger resolve the situation?
Does it bring a positive solution? Is it of help? So you’ve thought about all the emotions involved and the effect of the emotions on you and the others around you. And you can see the damage that it does, Not just to them, but to you also. And now we’re going to see how we could do it differently.
So you go back to the situation. And this time, instead of using the emotion that you had before, try to imagine that you’re balanced. You have an open attitude without any preconceptions, without anger or pride or impatience or resentment. Think, if I brought this type of attitude into the situation, wouldn’t it have been different? So instead of acting with a negative mind, you’re acting with a calm and peaceful mind.
And then from the beginning, you go back through the same situation, what you said, what they said. But now imagine yourself being calm and balanced, and using all your skill to try and produce a positive solution. Take your time. Just do your best. Keep your mind focused on how you want the situation to be rather than how it was.
How you’re going to behave in the future. With a calmer, more humble, more patient attitude. Just take a few minutes more. And come to the conclusion But how I behave in the past is not how I’m going to behave in the future. I have the choice.
I can choose to behave in a better way. So doing this meditation has helped me to see that when I’m very emotional or I’m proud, it’s difficult for others to talk to me, difficult to communicate, and it doesn’t necessarily bring about a positive result. But what I want is to bring about a positive result. So I need to change my behavior. What do I need to change?
What would I do in the future that is different from the past? And that’s the conclusion that you come to. This is what I’m going to change. And then for the last few minutes, after you come to your conclusion, just go back to the sensation of the breath. Letting go of thoughts and emotions.
Just breathing deeply all the way down into the abdomen. Getting to know the true nature of your own mind, which is not the pride or the anger or the resentment, the hatred. Your mind is vast and spacious, just like the sky. So allow your mind to become spacious, to become open. Without any thoughts, without any distractions.
Just a few minutes, try to really hold your mind on the spaciousness, The clarity, which is your mind’s quality, that’s who you are. You’re not the negative emotions. Just two minutes more. Always coming back to my mind, being clear and knowing. My mind is not the confusion.
It’s not the emotions. My mind is clear just like the blue sky. The sky is not the clouds. Your mind is not the thoughts. And at the end of the meditation, we recognize that we have so much positive energy that we’ve just developed individually and as a group.
So we can dedicate all that positive energy and any insight to the well-being and happiness of yourself and of all living beings. Thinking may all sentient beings have all the causes of happiness.