Jasperites were treated to an evening with Tibetan Buddhist Monk Kushok Lobsang Dhamchöe last Friday at St. Mary’s and St. George Anglican Church Hall.

A senior monk from Namgyal Monastery, Kushok has been living in Edmonton for the last ten years, and was in Jasper for the sixth annual Retreat in the Rockies at the Palisades Environmental Centre.

Kushok spent about an hour discussing how to find happiness every day followed by a small demonstration on how to meditate and deal with angry or frustrating situations. “The antidote is in ourselves,” he said, “it’s not complicated.”

His talk focused on cooling ourselves when we get frustrated. “It’s very hard when our temperatures are raising when we’re frustrated, but we need to cool ourselves,” he said.

“Cool your mind, then you have time to relax, and therefore there’s time to transform,” he added, noting that on many occasions people forget to do this and instead let their emotions control them.

For Kushok, unhappiness is a state of mind as human beings are naturally peaceful people. He said that mindfulness, consciousness and introspection are three elements that everybody has that people need to use more often.

“We have it, but we are not using that,” he said, noting that instead jealousy, pride, attachment and other negative feelings are destroying our every day happiness.

“Happiness is within us,” he said.

After his talk, Kushok lead the audience in a small meditation practice where he asked everybody to imagine inhaling through their right nostril and exhaling through their left nostril, for seven counts. Then, switch so you inhale through the left and exhale through their right, for seven counts. Lastly, inhale and exhale for seven counts through both nostrils.

The focus here, he said, is on relaxing by inhaling and exhaling softly and gently – without any noise. “Your mind pays attention and focuses on breathing,” he said.

By the end of the 21 counts you have focused only on your breath and given yourself time to cool down, time to think positive and analyse yourself. “Think compassion,” he said.