His Holiness Dalai Lama’s Awakening the mind, Lightening the Heart
His Holiness Dalai Lama’s Awakening the mind, Lightening the Heart
From the book,His Holiness Dalai Lama’s Awakening the mind, Lightening the heart
2nd September 2008,
FIRST TRAIN IN THE PRELIMINARY PRACTICES
• Thinking about the rarity and potential of life as a free and fortunate human being.
• Reflecting on death and impermanence
• Thinking about actions and their results
• And reflecting on the faults of the cycle of existence
Sentient beings are equal in wishing to find happiness and avoiding suffering.They have right to seek happiness.You cultivate the awakening mind by recognizing this and resolving to work for their well being.To stimulate and increase the power of your awakening mind ,meditate on what are called the four immeasurable’s.
• immeasurable love
• immeasurable equanimity
• immeasurable compassion
• immeasurable joy
Then reflect that although sentient beings desire happiness and wish to avoid suffering,out of ignorance their behavior contradicts their wishes.
So with awareness of the Buddha’s great qualities and the ability of the three jewels to protect you from the fears of the cycle of existence ,take refuge in them and cultivate a strong determination to achieve the fully awakened state of a Buddha for the sake of all other sentient beings.This will increase the force of your awakening mind.
Seeking a qualified spiritual master is the first important step in our spiritual life.This determines our future spiritual development and attainments.Whatever practice of integration with spiritual master you decide to do,recite seven branch prayer
• paying respect
• making offerings
• openly admitting your misdeeds
• rejoicing at the qualities of yourself and others
• requesting Buddhas to teach
• beseeching them not to pass away
• dedicating the resultant merit to the welfare of all beings
Offer in visualization,a mandala,a symbolic representation of the entire universe.
Life as a free and fortunate human being is rare and precious,we should reflect that it is not permanent.It is short lived and does not last.We should meditate here on three fundamental topics.
• Certainty of death:- Everyone agrees that sooner or later we all have to die.So certainty of death is not in question.
• What fools us is the uncertainty of the time of the death.Even though we know very well we have to die,we cling to a false belief that death will not occur for years and years.This notion of a long and indefinite future stretching out ahead of us deters us from serious spiritual endeavor.
• And when death does take place,only the individual’s spiritual realization will be of any help.
3rd September 2008,
We do not take birth voluntarily, we are compelled to do so through the force of our actions.If we are to ensure our future well being,it is important to cultivate wholesome actions.The principal way to to fulfill this wish is to abstain from the ten unvirtuous actions.
These ten misdeeds include three physical activities
• Taking life
• Taking what is not given
• Abusive sexual behavior
Four verbal activities include
• Lying
• Slander
• Harsh words
• Idle gossip
Three mental activities include
• Covetousness
• Malice
• Wrong view
There are two ways to collect virtue.The collection of merit is acquired by generating love,compassion and the awakening mind.The collection of wisdom is acquired by reflecting on the meaning of emptiness and by generating the wisdom understanding emptiness
Train in five powers
• Power of intention. Think,” from henceforth until I attain buddhahood at all times in this life until I die,particularly this year,this month,and this very day.”Success depends mainly on our firm intention.
• Power of the see of the virtuous practice.This means to preserve and enhance the precious awakening mind through giving ethics and meditation,making an effort to accumulate merit and wisdom.
• Power of countering negativity.This refers to the effort you make to eliminate negative forces like self centered attitude and the misconception of self that gives rise to it.
• Power of prayer.Dedicate all the virtuous qualities you have gathered physically,verbally and mentally in three times (past,present and future) to the welfare of other sentient beings.At the end of every virtuous action,with awareness that it is empty of intrinsic existence, dedicate it to other beings.If you have committed some negativities, develop a strong sense of regret towards it.
• Power of acquaintance.The great quality of mind is that if you acquaint it with the practice and maintain the condition for doing so,you will achieve perfection.The great teacher Che Ka Wa also said that this mind which is full of faults has one great quality-it complies with the way you train it.
There are five great marks of a trained mind.
• First of the five signs of greatness is seeing the awakening mind as the essence of all practice,this indicates that you have become a great bodhisattva.
• When you refrain from performing the slightest unwholesome deed because of your trust in the pattern of actions and result,you have become a great observer of discipline.
• When you are able to undergo any hardships in disciplining your mind and eliminating disturbing emotions,you have become a great ascetic.
• When you consistently behave in word and deed according to the conduct of the great vehicle,you have become a great practitioner of virtue.
• Finally when your mind is constantly engaged in the yoga of generating the awakening mind and its auxiliary practices,you have become a great yogin.
All Buddhist philosophical schools accept what are the four seals.
• First –phenomena are transitory which means that everything depends on other factors.
• Second-all contaminated things are miserable.This does not mean that we have simply to give in to suffering,because the
• Third seal is that phenomena are selfless.They are empty of intrinsic existence.Although this is their true nature ,because of our misconception ,we see phenomena existing independently.
• The fourth seal states that nirvana or liberation is peace.
There two types of illusion.One refers to emptiness,which means that although things exist,they do not have intrinsic nature.
The other interpretation is that although they lack true existence,they project the appearance of existing in that way.
The commitments of mind training:-
• Engage vigorously in forceful means to cultivate qualities and abandon disturbing emotions.
• Train consistently to deal with difficult situations.
• Don’t rely on other conditions
• Transform your attitude but maintain your natural behavior.
• Don’t speak of other’s faults.
• Don’t concern yourself with other’s business.
• Give up every hope of reward.
• Don’t maintain misplaced loyalty
• Don’t make malicious banter
• Don’t lie in ambush
• Don’t strike at the heart
• Don’t place the load of a horse on a pony
• Don’t sprint to win the race
• Don’t turn gods into devils
• Don’t seek other’s misery as a means to happiness.
The precepts of mind training:-
• Practice what is more effective
• Engage in the principal practices right now
• Don’t apply a wrong understanding.
• Don’t be sporadic.
• Practice unflinchingly
• Don’t be boastful
• Don’t be short tempered
• Don’t make a short lived attempt
• Don’t expect gratitude
Training in the ultimate awakening mind:-
When stability has been attained,impart the secret teaching.Consider all phenomena like dreams.Examine the nature of unborn awareness.The remedy itself is released in its own place.Place the essenceof the path on the nature of the basis of all
In between meditation sessions,be like a conjugator,a creator of illusions.
This is the short piece written by Gesho Lang Ri Tang Pa (1054-1123) known as the “Eight Verses for Training the Mind”.This was the work that inspired Geshe Che Ka Wa( 1101-1175) to go in search of a living holder of the mind training tradition.
EIGHT VERSES FOR TRAINING THE MIND
With the determination to accomplish
The highest welfare of all sentient beings
Who surpass even a wish granting jewel
I will learn how to hold them supremely dear
Whenever I associate with others I will learn
To think of myself as the lowest amongst all
And respectfully hold others to be supreme
From very depths of my heart
In all actions I will turn to search into my mind
And as soon as a disturbing emotion arises
Endangering myself and others
I will firmly face and avert it
I will learn to cherish ill-nature beings
And those oppressed by strong misdeeds and sufferings
As if I had found a precious
Treasure difficult to find
When others out of envy treat me badly
With abuse,slander and the like
I will learn to take all loss
And offer the victory to them
When the one whom I have
Benefited with great hope
Hurts me very badly without reason
I will reach to view that person
As an excellent spiritual guide
In short I will learn to offer to everyone without exception
All help and happiness directly and indirectly
And respectfully take upon myself
All harm and suffering of my mothers
I will learn to keep all those practice
Undefined by the stains of eight wordly concerns
And by understanding all phenomena as like illusions
Be released from the bondage of attachment.
Taken from: http://www.lotusinthehills.blogspot.com/
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