Monday, April 23, 2012

Four Essentials of Practice


Refuge and Awakening
Recognize that suffering arises. Form the intention to discover and renounce the causes of suffering. Cultivate the intention to wake up and generate good for all beings, actually practice doing that. Appreciating the difficulty of doing so, respect and rely upon those who have shown the way.


Awareness: Shamatha ~ Vipashyana
Ground your body in the here and now. Rely on the chair or floor or ground supporting you. Rest attention in the sensations and movements of breathing. Ride the breath a while. Open awareness to the whole experience of bodyheartmind, here in this place. See sensations and perceptions arise and dissolve. See feelings of like, dislike, and indifference arise and dissolve. See thoughts, images, emotions, and memories come and go. See the space between thoughts and feelings. Rest in just recognizing.


Caring and Relating: The Four Immeasurables
Consider others -- friends, strangers, and enemies -- and notice how you feel about them. Recognize that everyone wants to be happy, wants to be free of suffering. No matter how you feel about them, cultivate the wish that they have happiness and the causes of happiness. Cultivate the wish that they be free of suffering and its causes. Share their suffering and celebrate their successes and happinesses.


Sharing the Benefits
Appreciate the effort you are making. Recognize the benefits of your practice. Dedicate the benefits to others -- to all others. Actually share them, in real life.


an awareness of impermanence 
a heart of compassion 
a foundation of faith
~ Sangye Nyeton, Jamgon Kongtrul, Ken McLeod

1 comment:

  1. Easy and free in its expression. Clean and simple in concept. Just plain nicely written. Thanks, George.

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