Taking My Seat

Beloved Sangha,

I hope this message finds you well. I’m sending you all my love. At this moment in time, finding ways to support our hearts and minds feels more essential than ever – so that we can respond to the cries of the world with at least some measure of steadiness.

This winter, during my yearly Retreat at Purple Valley I was asked to share the practice closest to my heart: Shamatha – a meditation that has been part of my daily morning ritual for decades now. Shamatha means “Calm Abiding” or “Peacefully Remaining.” If you were to go down the Buddhist path, you would begin with this practice.

“It opens with something simple: Taking our Seat. Not as a turning away from the world, but as a quiet act of renunciation and compassion.
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For now, I’m putting down distractions and concerns – to simply be with myself, without fixing or changing anything. Instead, I’m learning to befriend myself as I am – I offer my entire mess of a person up to the practice!

This, to me, is one of the most valuable gifts of a daily meditation practice. It carves out a space in our day where experience inner landscape without needing to improve or fix anything.

“I view this pause as a peace offering to both my inner and outer world.”

There is nothing more simple and mundane than meditation – yet, its consequences has profound implications. That befriending towards ourselves, becomes a softening towards others. We begin to feel others in our hearts. Genuine, empathic openheartedness becomes organic capacity rather than contrived, mental construct.

🌀 The full “recipe” of Shamatha is now available on the Purple Valley YouTube channel.

No, meditation won’t make the world’s problems disappear. But it does allow us to become more intimate with how things are – so that maybe, we can meet each other with a little more sanity.

With love and blessings

x kia, Paris July 2025

I will return to Purple Valley Goa December 6-20th and to Purple Valley Tenerife February 14-21st. Would love for you to join me there. x