Saturday, January 18, 2014
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Happiness is a Skill
Contrary
to popular belief, true happiness is not a state of mind,. True
Happiness is a SKILL! Follow the panel discussion by neuroscientist
Richard Davidson, mindfulness guru & MBSR founder Jon Kabat-Zinn,
and Amishi Jha.
http://youtu.be/Ak0-toYTRiE
|
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Dhammapada Reflection Verse 290
Verse 290
It is wisdom
that enables letting go
of a lesser happiness
in pursuit of a happiness
which is greater.
It is wisdom
that enables letting go
of a lesser happiness
in pursuit of a happiness
which is greater.
Monday, January 13, 2014
Vajrayana Teaching Part 13
Part three: MIND TRAININGS/LOJONG
TEACHINGS
The practice involves refining and purifying
one's motivation and attitudes. Lojong - taming ones mind, pacifies all
suffering. By using and transforming problems into the spiritual path,
one gain mastery over life now and in the future.
Four Reminders
a) Maintain an awareness of the precious
human life.
b) Be aware of the reality that life ends, death
comes for everyone, impermanence.
c) Recalls that whatever you do, whether virtuous
or not has a result - karma.
d) Contemplate that as long as you are too
focused on self-importance and too caught up in thinking about how good or
bad you are, you will suffer. Obsessing about getting what you want & avoidance of
what you don't want does not result in happiness - uproot petty ego.
MIND TRAINING-LOJONG TEACHINGS: 8 Verses of
Thought Transformation by Langri Thangpa
This teachings take a look at ordinary human
life and how Buddhism is relevant, analysing tough life-issues and take
pragmatic steps to get Dharma & Life together. This is the practice
of 'Method and Wisdom':
(1) Determined to accomplish all success I shall
always practice holding dear all sentient beings who are more precious than
wish fulfilling Gems
We ourselves and all other beings want to be happy
and free from suffering. We are equal. However, each of us is only one,
while other beings are infinite number.
Two-Attitudes to consider
a) Selfishly cherishing ourselves: This attitude makes us
very uptight, we think we are very important & our basic desire is for
ourselves to be happy & for things to go well for us. Result: acting like this can never make us happy.
b) Cherishing others: Value helping others;
regard all beings as more important. Result: one becomes happy.
(2) Wherever I go & whomever I accompany, I
shall practice seeing myself as the lowest of all & sincerely hold others
dear and supreme
No matter who we are with, we often think things
like: 'I am smarter", I am more beautiful than her', 'I am richer', etc. This
is not good, we should always be humble, do not generate much pride - 'I'/Self.
(3) In all actions I shall examine my mind and
the moment an unsubdued thought arises, endangering myself and others, I shall
face and avert it
If we investigate our mind, at times
we are selfish & self-cherishing, we shall find the disturbing
negative minds are the root of this behaviour. Apply antidote to it.
example:
-when you have negative mind then meditate on
Emptiness,
-when you have strong Attachment (see things as
attractive), meditate on ugliness (counteracts that),
-when you have Anger meditate on
Loving-kindness,
-when you are close-minded (ignorance) meditate
on 12-link Dependent arising or interdependent origination (things are empty of
true existance).
(4) Whenever I see beings who are wicked
nature overwhelmed by violent negative actions and suffering, I shall hold him
dear as if I had found a precious treasure
If we run into somebody who is by nature very
cruel, rough, nasty and unpleasant, our usual reaction is to avoid him.
In such situations our loving concern for others is liable to decrease.
Instead of allowing our love for others to weaken by thinking what
an evil person he is, we should see him as a special object of love and
compassion and cherish that person as though we had come across a precious
treasure difficult to find.
(5) When, out of Envy, others mistreat me with
abuse, insults, I shall accept defeat and offer the victory to others
If somebody insults, abuse or criticizes us,
saying we are incompetent & don't know how to do anything & so forth,
we are likely to get angry & contradict what the person has said. We
should not react in this way, instead with humility and tolerance we
should accept what has been said.
Two-kinds of situation
a) If we are obsessed with our own welfare &
very selfishly motivated, we should accept defeat & offer victory to the
other even if our life is at stake.
b) If the situation is such that the welfare of
others is at stake, we have to work very hard & fight for the rights of
others & not accept the loss at all.
(6) When someone whom I have benefited & in
whom I have great hopes give me terrible harm, I shall practice regarding him
as my holy guru
Usually we expect people whom we have helped a
great deal to be very grateful & if they react to us with in-gratitude we
are likely to get angry. In such a situation, we should not get upset but
practice Patience. See such people as teachers testing our patience &
treat them with Respect.
(7) In short both directly & indirectly, do I offer every happiness & benefit to all my mothers. I shall practice
taking all their harmful actions & suffering
This refers to the practice of taking upon
ourselves all the suffering of others & giving away to them all our happiness.
Motivated by strong compassion and love. Without a trace of
miserliness, we should offer them our happiness-our merits & pray for it to
ripen on them immediately.
(8) Undefiled by the stains of the supertitions
of the 8-Worldly concerns, may I by perceiving without grasping to relieve all
sentient beings from bondage of attachment
This deals with wisdom. All preceding
practices should not be defiled by the stains of 8 Worldly dharmas/concern.
By recognizing all existence as illusion (objects) & not cling to
true existence. One is liberated from bondage of clinging.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)