Guide, but the offering of our own practice of Dharma is the most pleasing. It is the supreme act of devotion.
When we engage in practices such as Six Session Yoga we visualize our Spiritual Guide as Buddha Vajradhara. When we practise Offering to the Spiritual Guide – making prostrations, offerings and requests – we visualize our Spiritual Guide as Lama Losang Tubwang Dorjechang. When we engage in the six preparatory practices, called Jorbai Cho Drug in Tibetan, for meditation on Lamrim, we visualize our Spiritual Guide as Buddha Shakyamuni. All these practices are ways of relying upon our Spiritual Guide by engaging in actions of devotion.
concluding the meditation
At the conclusion of each session of meditation we imagine that Guru Buddha Shakyamuni at our crown reduces in size and gradually descends from our crown to our heart, where he radiates wisdom light which purifies our body and mind. Our body of wisdom light immediately transforms into the aspect of Buddha Shakyamuni and our mind becomes one with his mind. From our heart, light rays radiate and reach all living beings and their environments. All the countless living beings and their environments are purified and their bodies of wisdom light are transformed into the aspect of Buddha Shakyamuni. At our heart, and at the hearts of all the Buddhas surrounding us, is a moon disc supporting a yellow HUM surrounded by the mantra, OM MUNI MUNI MAHA MUNIYE SOHA. We recite the mantra, imagining that all the Buddhas are reciting it with us.
When we have finished reciting the mantra we complete our session by dedicating our virtue to the full enlightenment of all living beings.
how to train the mind during the meditation break
When we are out of meditation we can read books and receive further instructions on whatever stage of the path we have been practising in our meditation session. We should never completely forget our object of meditation. Instead we can use the opportunity of the meditation break to recollect and contemplate the points of our meditation, and to talk with our Dharma friends about the instructions we have received and the experiences we are having. Besides maintaining mindfulness of our object of meditation, our main practice during the meditation break is to protect the doors of the sense powers. Usually, when our sense powers (the eye sense power, the ear sense power, the nose sense power, the tongue sense power and the body sense power) or our mental power come into contact with their respective objects (forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile objects and other phenomena), delusions easily arise in the mind, causing us to engage in harmful actions that bring suffering as their result. When we have eliminated self-grasping, which is the root of all delusions, our sense powers and their objects can come into contact without our generating delusions. Until that time, we can practise protecting the doors of our sense powers.
We can do this in either of two ways. The first is to avoid making contact with the objects of the sense powers. For example, we avoid letting our gaze fall upon beautiful forms, we avoid crossing paths with our enemies or we avoid listening to pleasing music. This way of practising is difficult for most people. We could practise like this only if we were living, like Milarepa, in a cave. Therefore, most of us have to practise in the second way.
The second way to protect the sense doors is not by preventing contact with the objects of the sense powers but by protecting our mind from becoming influenced by them. We do this as soon as the sense power and its object have made contact. For example, when we see a very beautiful object we immediately move our attention to something else. The reason why we develop desirous attachment for beautiful objects is that as soon as we have made contact with them we let our attention dwell there and we become engrossed. We start to engage in quite an intense process of thought that resembles analytical meditation, familiarizing our mind with every aspect of the object, both manifest and hidden. As a result of our ‘analytical meditation’ a powerful feeling of desirous attachment arises clearly in our mind and we hold it there until, eventually, we cannot get rid of it! For example, when we meet a handsome man or a beautiful woman we keep thinking about how beautiful they are and we visualize them in detail – their hair, their complexion, their smile, their eyes, their expression, their figure. We remember all their features from the crown of their head to the tips of their toes. On these occasions our powers of visualization are superb. This ‘analytical meditation’ makes strong desirous attachment arise in our mind, and this makes us seek the object that we have been visualizing. If we fail to make contact again, we feel depressed. Where does this pain of disappointment come from? It comes from our own ‘meditation’! Thus, if we want to be free from such suffering, whenever we encounter a beautiful object we should leave it alone and not allow our mind to dwell upon it. Similarly, if someone says unpleasant things to us we should let these things fall upon deaf ears and avoid dwelling upon them. In this way we will avoid becoming angry. The same kind of practice is to be applied with regard to all other objects of the sense powers.
If we protect the doors of our sense powers during the meditation break, our concentration in the meditation session will be very good. Je Tsongkhapa taught that the meditation break is more important than the meditation session because our meditation session may last for only a few hours every day, but our meditation break is as long as the rest of our life. If we practise well during the meditation break we will be practising well for most of our life, and we will greatly improve the concentration that we have in our meditation session.
During our meditation break we can use our Dharma wisdom to transform all our experiences into spiritual practice. If we are able to do this we will not have to rely upon books alone to keep our mind on Dharma when we are not meditating. For example, when we go shopping we can use our wisdom to see how some things teach impermanence, some things teach the faults of samsara, some things teach compassion, and some things teach patience. If we practise like this, we will bring home many virtuous states of mind. Otherwise, when we come home from town we will be carrying a heavy bag full of delusions.
Contents Page
Nagarjuna
Our Precious Human Life
how to take the essence of our human life
This section is presented under the following two headings:
1 How to develop the determination to take the essence of our precious human life
2 Training the mind in the actual methods for taking the essence of our precious human life
how to develop the determination to take the essence of our precious human life
This has three parts:
1 Recognizing that we now possess a precious human life
2 Meditating on the great value of our precious human life
3 Meditating on the great rarity of our precious human life
recognizing that we now possess a precious human life
A precious human life is a life that has eight special freedoms and ten special endowments that make it an ideal opportunity for training the mind in all the stages of the path to enlightenment. Each of the eight special freedoms is freedom from one of eight conditions that either prevent or seriously impede our spiritual practice. If we have a human life with all these eight freedoms we will find it relatively easy to overcome any other unfavourable conditions that we might experience. The ten special endowments are all necessary conditions for our practice of Dharma.
By meditating on these eight freedoms and ten endowments we will recognize that we now possess a life that provides the very best opportunity for spiritual development. Such
