Lam-rim 10: Eight Worldly Dharmas; Ten Gem-like Attitudes

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We have been going through the meditations on mindfulness of death.  If we are not mindful of death, we won’t be mindful of the preventive measures, Dharma. Preventive measures are actions we take – something that we do – to avoid worse rebirths. So, we’re thinking in terms of future lives and beyond – “beyond” meaning liberation and enlightenment – rather than this lifetime. Although there are benefits to thinking in terms of this lifetime, this lifetime is not our main focus. If it is, we’re doing a Dharma-lite version of this practice. 

We’ve begun the meditations on the shortcomings of not being mindful of death. There are six of these. We’ve gone through the first three – that (1) we will not be mindful of the preventive measures, (2) even if we are mindful of them, we will not put them into practice, and (3) even if we do practice, we will not do so purely. 

Last time, we had a long discussion about the assertion that the purity of our spiritual practice depends on the level of our detachment from this life. Detachment, as we discussed, is a state of mind. To be detached from this life means to give up clinging to life’s fleeting pleasures. This is gained by being mindful of the fact that no situation in life is static. Nothing is going to last forever; everything is going to change.

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