Equanimity

We have been going through one of the methods for generating bodhichitta, which is an expansion of the meditations on equalizing and exchanging our attitudes about self and others. It derives from the teachings of Shantideva in Engaging in Bodhisattva Behavior (Skt....

Review Let us set the proper motivation for listening to these teachings, namely a heart of bodhichitta, dedicated to helping others and to achieving enlightenment in order to be able to do so. These teachings have been presented in terms of the three levels of motivation. On...

5 Decisions There are five decisions that come from thinking about the nine points for equalizing our attitude toward ourselves: 1. I Shall Stop Being Fickle, But Rather Develop a Kind Attitude toward Myself Equally All the Time The first decision is: No matter how well or...

Review: Precious Human Life and Working toward Getting Rid of Suffering In the progression of the lam-rim, the graded stages, we have gone through the initial and intermediate scopes. Based on our discussions so far, we’ve seen that before we start to deconstruct the false...

The Decision That We Definitely Will Rid Ourselves of Self-Cherishing  The second decision that we make is that we definitely shall rid ourselves of self-cherishing. This we do by thinking of the faults of having the self-cherishing attitude. The main emphasis here is that...

The Determination to Be Free, the First of the Three Principal Aspects of the Path   In Buddhism, we speak of three principal aspects of the path: the determination to be free, usually translated as “renunciation,” a vast enlightening aim of bodhichitta, and a profound,...

Affection  In making cherishing others our main practice, we need to take into consideration the fact that everybody appreciates kindness and affection, but sometimes the word “affection” is misunderstood. It is more than just love. Love is (in the Buddhist definition) the...

Foundation for Development of Equanimity In order to generate the enlightening aim of bodhichitta with which we wish to attain enlightenment in order to benefit all living beings, it is first necessary to develop a sense of equanimity and an equal attitude toward everyone. If...

How to Practice Giving and Taking: Tonglen  Now, that leads us into our discussion of tonglen and the understanding of how important it is and why then it can be our core practice. “Tonglen” is giving and taking, and is an extremely, extremely advanced and difficult practice...

(1) Having increased my zestful vigor like that, I shall set my mind in absorbed concentration; since a person having a distracted mind is set between the fangs of disturbing emotions. (2) Through dissociating (both my) body and mind, there'll be no occurrence of any...