e are fascinated by the material world, which creates a lot of despair, fears, worries to not succeed, not have enough. It is therefor very important to take time to relax our mind. We always want more. Even scientists says that is it essential for us to relax and calm our mind. The first step in the meditation is called calm the mind. It it important to have the appropriate posture here so that the energy flow in our physical body to quiet the mind. It is difficult at first to maintain this position but little by little we get used to it. We do out best to relax in this position and then adopt techniques to learn how to relax the mind. his is why the posture is essential here. There are 7 areas to pay attention to such as how to place your legs, your arms and your neck. Channels of energy can then circulate in your body and that will influence your mind to relax and quiet down. What is also a challenge here is to also hold your mind on a point of reference without being carried away in conceptual thoughts, that will rise no matter what! So don't try to block it all. That is not the purpose of meditation. Don't tell yourself "I need to block all those thoughts". All you need to do here is allow naturally those thoughts to arise and disappear. This is why it is important to have a point of reference to stay aware, without blocking anything, just observing and stay conscious. hen Buddha starting on his spiritual quest he spent 6 years to go without anything as he thought that he had to put himself in extreme and difficult conditions to reach enlightenment. But he learned that finding a balance and harmony was the most important to be in good health, to live in good living conditions, to eat well, without falling in the luxury. Buddhism is the middle road; did not choose to live South of France. That was the wish of my masters, Karmapa and Shamar Rinpoch?, that I come and manage the Institute Karmapa located near here.