01/14/2026
WHAT'S "SHINÉ" ANYWAY???
I chose this as the name of our collective because the word itself reflects the meeting ground (so to speak) between my interest in Eastern ways of knowing and my lifelong Quakerism, with its emphasis on inner light.
As a meditation technique, Shiné (or shi ne) shares the spaciousness I cherish in Quaker worship.
If you're curious, here's some writing about it, pulled together from a couple articles by meditation teacher Rin'dzin Pamo:
Shi-ne, pronounced “shi-nay” is a meditation designed to produce a clear state of mind, without thought or other mental phenomena like visual images or ideation. Shi-ne is the Tibetan translation of the Sanskrit “shamatha” - meaning “calm abiding.” Shi-ne/shamatha may have distinct characteristics according to tradition and teacher. When it’s called shamatha, the meditation tends towards deep focused, breath-centered concentration. When it’s called shi-ne, it’s more usually taught as an expansive practice. But there are exceptions. Some teachers suggest finding a continuum between focused concentration and expansive awareness. I don’t: I think concentration and expansive awareness result in distinct and qualitatively different capacities and that it’s interestingly useful not to attempt to merge the outcomes.
In practice, the style of shi-ne in which I’ve been trained is not the same as concentration practice. It leads to an experience of effortless, clear awareness. Concentrative meditation techniques focus the attention. Focused concentration is a kind of skilled, mental manipulation. That’s natural. There’s a tendency in silent sitting practice to want to manipulate, because that’s what we do all the time. Our mental activity is habitually manipulative – it’s similar to how molding a piece of clay in our hands is manipulative. We manipulate thought, automatically, even without thinking about our thinking. Also we develop the capacity to go one or more levels meta to that automatic process and consciously manipulate our thoughts. Concentration practices make good use of this manipulative skill, putting it in service of a conscious intent. Focusing on an object for extended periods of time has fairly definable results: improved capacity for concentration, fully involved absorption, more awareness of the minute detail and variation of the object of attention.
Shi-ne practice without an object refrains from mental manipulation. The principle of this kind of "focus-free" practice is to “remain uninvolved” with the content of mind. The method is to find awareness without manipulation of mental, sensory or emotional content. Focused concentration is a particular kind of involvement – it is consciously directed, exclusive. Expansive shi-ne is the practice of finding awareness without specific, exclusive focus. It is unnatural, in that it is not habitual for us. It’s not a variation or an intensification of what we do normally. This kind of shi-ne is useful because of its non-ordinary nature. Remaining uninvolved with the content of being, maintaining clear expansive presence at the same time, can be shockingly, humorously, poignantly revealing.
The simple instruction for shi-ne is to maintain presence of awareness without focusing on anything, that is, remain uninvolved with whatever arises in mind. This is not easy, particularly if you have not meditated much, or if you have become used to meditating on the breath, or use focused concentration as a method to maintain awareness. For that reason, there are ways to approach shi-ne meditation which gradually move towards it. These supportive methods are not shi-ne proper: they are preliminaries, involving concentrative methods like those in shamatha practice.
Most meditations and secular mindfulness are dissimilar to shi-ne as I am describing it here, so it is helpful, particularly for practitioners who have meditated in different contexts, to define this style of shi-ne by what it is not. The method is to remain uninvolved with whatever phenomenon arise in mind, in the body, in the environment.
This is not:
Focused concentration
Meditation on an object, including the breath
Ignoring or repressing thoughts, feelings or sensations
Noting or labeling
Contemplation
Intentionally slowing down, or slowing the breath
Going inward
Body scanning
Approaching shi-ne:
Less stimulation from outside the body encourages thoughts to settle. Close your eyelids most of the way, letting in only a little light to maintain alertness. There’s a spot at which this feels comfortable but it can take a while to find. Rest palms faced downwards on the thighs or cupped in your lap. Tilt your head slightly downwards. The purpose of the posture is to remain relaxed and still, without tension. Some meditation instructions emphasize rigid stillness. This is not necessary in this style of shi-ne meditation. There will always be some discipline and some movement – the point is to remain present yet uninvolved with what arises, not to ignore it. It can be interesting to practice not responding habitually to stimuli such as itches and tickles, but do not sit through pain. Adjust your position, maintaining presence.
The primary preparatory practice for shi-ne does use the breath, but does not regard the breath as object. Ngakchang Rinpoche coined the phrase “find presence of awareness in the dimension of the breath.” The attitude is always one of finding, not of observing. In practice, the difference may seem subtle and small. Over years, the difference is profound. Watching through the “witness mind” creates the experience of an observer, separate to that which is observed. In concentrative practice this is intentional and necessary: the end point is sometimes described as the experience of no-self, or as the nonduality of subject and object. The method works with the duality of self and other in order to expose its inaccuracy. In expansive shi-ne, when the method is remaining uninvolved, this is not necessary: subject and object are irrelevant. The method creates space not between an observer and the breath, but in and around the breath as experience.
If you have practiced concentration intensively, moving to an expansive style of shi-ne can be frustrating. The difference I describe here may be difficult to find. It may seem insignificant, or another way of describing the same experience. But it might also be helpfully revealing, or even liberating, to re-frame your practice in this way.
Shi-ne is designed to lead to an effortless, spacious experience: expansive non-conceptual clarity. Many meditative practices rely on having at least some familiarity with this state of mind. Without it, other practices are liable to seem pointlessly dull or overwhelmingly intense. If you practice shi-ne consistently there’s a high probability that you’ll experience glimpses of this state of mind within a year. Stabilizing the experience usually takes at least three years, but can take many more.
If you've read all the way to here, you just might be nerdy enough to want to read the full articles, so here are links:
https://vajrayananow.com/shi-ne-meditation
https://vajrayananow.com/faq
