Reema Lamrimpa

the second benefit

2011-01-27T12:17:00.000-08:00

Remember, in order to pass on these precious teachings of liberation, realized beings manifest a type of body that is suitable to our level. Our teacher is an emanation of a realized being. They come to us in a form that we can relate to, make friends with, talk to openly and candidly. So, take your time to find a teacher that you resonate with - they could be a famous teacher or they could be your next door neighbor or child or partner. They can come in any form. The perfect emanation is out there waiting for you to recognize him/her :)

The second benefit of serving our spiritual teacher well is that we please all the realized practitioners of the past. We please them by fulfilling their aim to see us liberated. They know that having a teacher, being close to them, serving them, learning from them...creates the foundation for our practice and our liberation. So, they are pleased when we serve our teacher because they know we are on our way to liberation and their aim is being fulfilled.

Also, when we serve our teacher well, all the realized beings of the past enter our teacher's body and receive our offerings. When we make an offering to our teacher, we receive the benefit from making the offering and the benefit from it being accepted.

The kindness of your teacher is not just in teaching you the open and secret teachings of yoga, but, also in giving you the opportunity to accumulate merit, cleanse the mind of obstacles, and plant seeds for living in a generous, kind, joyful, ethical, blissful, peaceful and aware world, all leading to the state of Zung jug, ultimate union.

Remember the form of all lamrim meditations:

Preliminaries
Review meditation (the information above - the second benefit of serving your teacher)
Analytical meditation (is their truth to the information above. do you believe in it. do you doubt it. why? debate the reasons in your mind)
Placement meditation (what conclusion do you come up with after your analysis? Place your mind there one-pointedly.) After reviewing and analyzing the information above, place your mind one-pointedly on your determination to serve your teacher well.

***

Get together with a group of 2 or 3 or 4 people and practice these daily meditations together. It is much better to practice as a group than to do this alone. Create a group. Inspire each other. After you debate in your meditation, carry the debate on with your sangha. Share the journey. It is better this way than doing the meditations alone. This is not my opinion! The importance of having companions to meditate with who have similar aspirations is recommended in these very books. It is much more powerful to meditate with a group of people. Especially as beginners, meditating alone can be problematic. At least make a group of three. You can make great progress alone, but, to have a group is better as a beginner.

Enthusiasm for a Teacher

2011-01-26T09:34:00.000-08:00

Generating enthusiasm for relying on and serving a spiritual teacher

With the guidance and blessings of a spiritual guide, we will reach the ultimate goal of Yoga faster - the state of Zung jug - a tantric term for Ultimate Union. How quickly we move towards this goal depends on our ability to rely on a spiritual teacher.

The great philosopher-yogi Nagarjuna said:

Someone who falls from a high mountain peak

May not wish to, but he'll drop nonetheless.

Someone who receives a guru's kind teachings

May not wish freedom, yet he will be freed.

Just like a person falling off a cliff cannot reverse the motion of his body, so too, someone serving a spiritual teacher cannot help but experience freedom. If we fail to rely on a teacher, we may not make progress.

Our nearness to Zung jug also depends on how quickly we are able to accumulate merit. Offering help to our teacher is the most powerful way to accumulate merit.

Yesterday, we realized that we will be closer to our ultimate goals if we serve our teacher, honor them, follow their instructions. Today, we continue to contemplate the advantages of properly serving a spiritual guide, and, thus, generate enthusiasm for serving such a teacher.

Today's meditation:

Preliminaries (If you are not familiar with the classic and necessary preliminaries of lamrim meditations, see the blog post from this summer that explains them: http://reemayoga.blogspot.com/2010/07/day-1-preliminaries.html

1. Review the benefits of how serving a teacher will get you closer to the goal fast. (receiving teachings and blessings, accumulating merit)

2. Analyze/debate this in your mind (if you don't need a teacher, why are you not at the state of Union now? why can you not see beyond your senses now? why can't you create a bliss that lasts now? Sure, everything is within, but, perhaps we need guidance to bring these abilities to the surface and use them)

3. Hold your attention one pointedly in your determination to and enthusiasm for relying on and serving a teacher.

***

Subsequent practice - Not as part of the above meditation, but, later - If you have a teacher(s), thank them, make a commitment to spend more time with them, to serve them more (there are countless, creative ways in how you can serve). If you don't have a spiritual guide that you feel you can rely on in this way to help you reach the highest goals of yoga, then go deep into your heart and pray; ask for them to come into your life.

Find a teacher. Stay close to them. Serve them. Help them in any way - whether it is running their errands, cleaning their home, cooking them meals, helping them with their research, writing and organization of teachings, help them. Ask them to teach you. Let your ego go. They will teach you and you will be open to receive.

Lamrim: Round 2

2011-01-25T16:45:00.000-08:00

Dear Loves,

If you were not following the blog when it started in July, 2010, please check out the first entry for an overview of what Lamrim is all about:

http://reemayoga.blogspot.com/2010/07/lamrim-big-picture.html

There's been a bit of a hiatus since the very last entry in the fall of 2010. The incredible teacher, Geshe Michael Roach, conducted two Lamrim retreats in Phoenix over the last couple months. The teachings were recorded and are available for free on line. Please, please, please take the time to listen. And, if you can, attend his next set of teachings in Phoenix in April, 2011.

Geshe Michael's Lamrim teachings can be found at:

http://aciphx.org/downloads - scroll down to the section entitled: "The Deepest Meditation: A Course on How to See the Ultimate"

Also, see teachings from his first Lamrim retreat at: https://www.dmes.org:443/index.php/Lam_Rim_1_Retreat

Geshe-hla's apprach to the lamrim is to start (after learning the preliminaries) at the end of the 3 volumes of Pabongka Rinpoche's books, where we learn how to develop quiescence (one pointed concentration) and then understand Emptiness. He is following this approach so that after we learn techniques to meditate and have an understanding of emptiness, we can then go to the lamrim meditations outlined in volumes 2 and 3, and experience these meditations after some training in meditation techniques and emptiness understanding. The Dalai Lama also used this approach when teaching the Lamrim.

I suggest taking some time today to become familiar with the web links above.

After listening to these teachings over the last couple months -- which has been an incredible experience in sharpening my meditation skills -- I went back today to the first classic Lamrim meditation, which is Serving a Spiritual Teacher. There are many reasons to do this. I meditated just on the first reason: We will be closer to Buddhahood.

It is so clear this time around: the importance of having a teacher, of serving a teacher. When you serve a teacher, the ego softens (hopefully, eventually it is destroyed completely). When you serve a teacher, your mind is filled with beautiful thoughts. Mental afflictions dissolve. The teacher has reached the goals and so can help you get there faster than if you were on your own. It is so clear. I didn't have to do too much analysis, so most of my meditation was spent on holding my attention one-pointedly on the determination to serve my spiritual teachers.

This resulted in a blissful feeling and after the meditation, I had a surge of energy, and went to work on a couple projects I am involved in with two of my teachers. I got a significant amount done in a short amount of time...and it felt awesome. My mind has been light, positive, happy and efficient all day.

Just to review, there are three parts of a classic lamrim meditation.

1. Shar Gom - Review/Familiarization -- Review the topic of meditation ( for ex., today's review would be remembering the reasons serving a spiritual teacher would lead you closer to buddhahood - see Pabongka Rinpoche's Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand or Geshe Gyatso's The Meditation Handbook - both books are listed in the book recommendations at the beginning of this blog)

2. Che Gom - Analyze/Debate the topic (for ex., today you debate if serving a spiritual teacher would, in fact, lead you to Buddhahood)

3. Jok Gom - Placement Meditation: Hold the mind one-pointedly on the conclusion of your meditation. (For ex., today, you would hold your mind on the determination to serve your teacher.)

Thank You, Welcome back, Please practice!

Please don't hesitate to write your experiences, comments, questions. Remember, your open, humble, honest heart, helps us all to learn and progress!

LOVE
Reema

Lamrim 2nd time around

2010-09-23T08:26:00.000-07:00

The first time around with the lamrim my least favorite meditations were those where we contemplated lower rebirths and the hell realms. I wanted anything but to think of being reborn in hell! Of course, developing renunciation inspires one to never do or think anything harmful to avoid future suffering, but, still it was unpleasant to think of hell realms and suffeing so much.

This time around was very different because after doing bodhichitta/heart opening meditations the first time around with lamrim, meditating on the hell realms the second time around with lamrim was not about me anymore. I was thinking of others much more. I don't want anyone to have a lower rebirth and to suffer in hell! This second time around was filled with the desire to teach and share and love others so that not one single person in this world will ever have to experience the sufferings of lower rebirths.

I understand now why my teacher wanted me to do the lamrim meditations again. It is entirely different now. My heart has expanded and it continues to expand. I am less self-absorbed. And, these are all the ingredients for tantra, bliss, enlightenment. Thank you, dear Teacher.

Confession

2010-09-22T17:29:00.000-07:00

I have a confession to make. I haven't been keeping up with my lamrim meditations. After my 10 day retreat, I got busy with other activities and work, and although I did other meditations, I did not keep up with these specific lamrim meditations.

Today, after about three weeks since my last lamrim meditation, I went back to start them again (as my teacher advised me to). I started where I had left off, which was the subject of action and its consequences (karma).

Incredible. The meditation was amazing. I felt my prana move into my central channel and then bliss. Pure bliss. Joy. Complete relaxation. A letting go. Not a trace of worries or anxiety. Just simple pure elation, presence, gratitude.

I am left wondering why. What is it about these meditations that does this to me? Honestly, I was meditating every day in the time lapse between today and my last lamrim meditation. The meditations I was doing were beautiful, guided meditations and they made me feel great. But, they didn't give me this bliss. They didn't give me this prana shooting through my central channel, leaving me feeling such utter joy.

Perhaps there is something to the silence. Learning a technique and then guiding oneself through the meditation. Remember the lamrim meditations have three parts - after the preliminaries - review, analysis and then placement. You review the topic to be meditated upon that day. Today it was karma. How all our negative, hurtful actions lead to all the unhappiness in our lives. And, all our kindness results in the good things we are experiencing now. The next step is the analyze this point - is this true? look at your life, do these theories about karma ring true for you and for the people around you? After debating the point from all angles, you then place your mind on the subject. And, then, prana just starts to move. You feel the winds. You feel your subtle body. You feel the reality that lies behind what is visible and physical.

And, I am inspired to make lamrim part of my every day again. May I practice well - at the same time daily - so I can experience realizations and then teach others. May we all break free from our afflicted minds. May we experience bliss. May we learn to make it a permanent feeling. May we lead ourselves and others out of the cycle of samsara.

Love,
Reema

Retreat Reflections

2010-08-31T09:45:00.001-07:00

Well, the ten day silent, solitary retreat is over. It was amazing.

Ten days alone with my mind...oooohhhhh....I have to say I learned so much.

The meditations I did (4 per day - each 45 min to an hour long) are designed for practitioners to have direct realizations of yoga's teachings. They are analytical meditations taken from the classic "Lamrim" teachings, the mastering of which are prerequisites to practicing the highest yoga Tantra. These profound meditations are surprisingly not very well known, mostly because they were just translated from Sanskrit to English in the 1990s.

My teacher helped me choose two types of meditations to focus on during these 10 days. One type is to realize the true nature of reality, especially, the true nature of one's mind. We have all heard that everything comes from our minds, but, I honestly did not realize how true this is until this retreat. While being alone and meditating so intensely, the dream and waking state became blurred. It was the first time I understood how the waking life and dream life are similar in that it is all coming from our minds. And, through these very intricate meditations, I realized how indeed everything - our world and our experience of the world - every object, person, situation - comes entirely from our minds. We must fill our minds with beautiful thoughts to experience a beautiful world. It's really simply and absolutely how things work. The greatest challenge is to maintain loving thoughts in our minds in the midst of any and every situation. And, the Lamrim is so perfect and brilliant that it has a set of meditations that help us to do just that.

The second type of meditation I did was to simply cultivate a heart/mind (in Yoga scriptures there is no difference between the heart and mind), that loves all beings - even beings that appear to hurt us. Since it is all coming from us, how can we think ill of anyone? There is no one "out there" loving us or hurting us - it is all coming from our mind's mental images, stored from our past actions. If we hurt people in our past, we project a person out there that is hurting us. The truth is that every person is empty of any qualities. Our minds give people and objects and events qualities based on our own projections which come from the way we have treated others in the past. So, if we perceive a person out there that is hurting us, it is more the reason to love them and transform the mental images in our minds to see a loving world.

All these philosophical truths we can read in books for lifetimes, but, there is something about letting the truths come to you directly from the emptiness of your mind. When you experience such truths directly, there is a shift in your subtle body and this shift allows you to carry the teachings with you into your life and actually remain aware of them in the most difficult situations. And, if we can stay loving, kind, patient, generous, joyous all the time, then we can maintain beautiful thoughts in our minds and we will experience a beautiful world.

It is not easy. But, the good news is we have the teachings to cultivate such a way of being. It entails discipline and practice, but, the path is the path of bliss. The result is bliss and the path is blissful. I am so grateful to be on it.

We are so lucky as a humanity. We have every teaching available to get us out of samsara; cyclic existence of the ups and downs of life. We have every teaching available to get us out of that cycle and move us into an upward spiral of bliss and more bliss until all there exists is bliss, permanently.

Yoga asana, pranayama, meditation, mantra, scriptural studies...can transform our body into pure light. We can cultivate the ability to move across time and space and help and love every being in infinite ways. We can heal our hearts completely and not only end pain but end death. This is not a fantasy. This is not a fairy tale. This is as real as your very breath.

Keep loving,
Reema

Retreat

2010-08-31T09:30:00.000-07:00

What is covered in this blog is a lot to learn! How do you absorb it all? If you are overwhelmed, no worries. It is almost impossible to realize these teachings without going into a retreat. For over 1,000 years, the way these teachings were realized has been by going into deep silent, solitary retreat. This is exactly what my teacher advised me to do after going through the Lamrim once as we did through these blogs.

I just returned from doing a 10 day solitary retreat in my neighbor's empty home. They had gone away and offered me to use their home. There are several things to do to prepare for retreat.

1) Do not do it in your home! It is too distracting. Be in a place where you feel comfortable and safe.

2) Have plenty of food. You can have a caretaker, but, I think it's best to cook for yourself and keep it simple. I lived on rice and beans/daal and fresh fruits and vegetables. You will most likely be eating quite light.

3) Take plenty of clean clothes so you don't have to worry about laundry while on retreat. Take a fresh, new notebook that you will enjoy journaling in. Take anything you feel you would want for an alter if you choose to have one. Take a little chocolate or anything you feel you might crave while in retreat. No need to be super strict about diet. The idea is to be comfortable. You can even take a bag of potato chips in case you get the munchies. I took one bar of dark chocolate and ate a little piece of everyday and was very happy :)

4) Have a caretaker check up on you once a day. A good system that works (as you will be in complete silence) is to leave a note for your caretaker in case you need something or are feeling sick. If you are fine, don't leave a note (the less communication, the better). If there is no note, the caretaker will know that you are fine. I had my caretaker bring me groceries once during the ten days. No other notes were exchanged as I didn't need anything else and though I felt fluish one day, it passed and I was fine without even mentioning it.

5) If you do decide to do retreat, there are some other details to be aware of, so please ask your teacher for advise and if you don't have a teacher yet, please email me at reemayoga@gmail.com to go over a few more things.

In the retreat my teacher advised me to do four meditations per day which is a classic system where one meditation takes place before sunrise, one meditation before noon, one before sunset and one before midnight. Each meditation can be anywhere between 30 minutes and 2 hours. Mine were 45 minutes to an hour. Below is my schedule. Again, if you are planning to do a retreat like this, please talk to your teacher or feel very free to email me.

My schedule changed a bit during retreat as I was figuring out what felt best to me. So, feel free allow yourselves flexibility as long as you get your 4 meditations in during the time slots mentioned above.

It's not exactly a vacation of free time. It's hard work, but amazing as you get to know your mind and heart very well! If you have been following this blog, then you will understand that there are so many meditations...so how do you structure the retreat? My teacher advised me to do one emptiness meditation/day, one tonglen meditation/day and two bodhichitta meditations/ day which go through the seven step cause and effect to bodhichitta (beginning with equanimity and then wanting to be enlightened for the benefit of all). You have to spend a lot of time with this blog or read Pobangka Rinpoche's books Liberation In Your Hands Parts 1,2 and 3 to understand what all that means. It is a lot of preparation, but, so worth it.

My schedule

3:30- 4am Wake Up!

4:30-5:30am Meditation (7step cause and effect)

6-8am Sleep/Shower/Rest

8:30-9:30am Study

10-11am Meditation (Emptiness/Mahamudra)

11-11:45 Sing!

12-1 Lunch - first and main meal of the day

1-2pm - Study

2-3pm - Sing!

3-4:30pm Asana

4:45-5:45pm Meditation and Pranayama (specific sequence with Tonglen)

6-7pm Light Dinner

7-9pm Study, rest

9-10pm Meditation (specific)

10:30pm Sleep

The Bliss of Emptiness

2010-08-03T09:21:00.000-07:00

What more bliss is there than realizing your own emptiness? It is liberating. It's not that you feel free. You realize that you are free. All those things that you think you are -- they are just projections. All those things that you think you should be doing -- also, projections, illusions. What happens when you look behind the projections? What do you find? An absence. Behind the images you project of yourself, there is an absence. You are not any of those things. The things you hold most dearly - you are not even that. The things you think so strongly that you must do, you do not even have to do that. With an ignorant mind, those projections, those feelings seem to be so real. With a mind of wisdom, you see those images are illusions. They are nothing more than projections. Look behind the projections. What do you see.
Look behind the projections, and you have that "ah ha" moment. Like when you go into your pocket to find your wallet and it is not there. "ah ha..." With a mind of wisdom, you experience the absence of anything behind the projection. Meditate. Have a direct realizatoin of the Emptiness of you and you will feel liberation. You will know that you are free, eternal and boundless. Meditate on emptiness and you will feel this direclty and you will know it without doubt. You will feel so high, meditation will be like a drug. You will want to experience it everyday, maybe more than once a day. You will not be able to wait to get to your meditation cushion because you will want that bliss of experiencing emptiness directly. You will want reminders because it is easy to lose the vision when we go into the world. This is why we meditate daily. To keep the vision of reality. To remind ourselves of what is true, of where things really come from. Remember our projections come from our past seeds ripening.

The biggest tip I can give you, is what my teachers said to me....spend time to find the Goktcha. This is the most important part of Emptiness meditations. Spend time to have a very clear image of the goktcha - the thing that does not exist, that you will negate in your meditation.

When meditating on the emptiness of the "I" spend time finding those characteristics, those images that you most identify yourself with. The things that you so firmly think that you are. This is what is to be negated. So spend time getting that firm vision of what your body and mind is to you. Only after that image is very clear, see it with an ignorant mind (that thinks they are fixed, inherent, true qualities) and then see it with a mind of wisdom (that knows it is all a projection). Then, see what is behind the projection...if you can stay with your wisdom mind, you will see that behind the projection is a pure absence of anything...Emptiness...you don't have to hold on to all those images you have of yourself - of who you are, of what you have to do, of who you have to be - you are empty and because you are empty you are free. Emptiness is beyond even feelings, let alone thoughts. Even feelings are not things we can trust to be real because even feelings are projections.

Enjoy the bliss of emptiness. Take care of others. Keep planting beautiful seeds. Remember to realize emptiness directly, you must have merit. Helping people, not only plants seeds so that people help you, but, by helping people you also cultivate merit to have direct realizations and then to help people in ever profound ways. It is upward spiral.

Your paradise awaits you - you create it through your present actions, thoughts and words. Practice the six perfections, staying aware of emptiness. The six perfections are generosity, ethics, patience, joyful effort, concentration, and wisdom (of emptiness).

.

Superior Seeing

2010-08-01T11:15:00.000-07:00

The Emptiness of Yourself

Repeat the meditation from yesterday.

1.
Remember, first identify the 'goktcha,' the object that you are going to deny.

The Goktcha is a fixed, solid "I" with inherent qualities and characteristics; a specific nature.

2.
In the next step, we are going to try to deny this fixed 'I,' (the goktcha), by contemplating whether I am my body or my mind.

Go through the contemplations, there are many ways to deny this.

3.
Perhaps by now, the 'I' has vaporized - it doesn't feel so fixed anymore. Meditate on the vapor. Hold that as long as you can.

**

Can you see that the "I" is just a projection. The 'I' is empty of any inherent qualities. The way that you perceive the "I" depends on your karma; your past actions. Your karma forces projections upon you. You are not actually in control in this moment. Everything is empty. Everything you experience, the world and all its objects including you, are empty. Everything is a projection. Realize what seeds you planted in the past that color your reality now. What don't you like? Don't plant similar seeds. What do you like? Continue to plant those seeds.

Though we don't have control in the present moment because it has already been determined by our past karma, we do have complete control of our future. What do you want? Plant those seeds now. What don't you want? Stop planting those seeds now. You can create your future paradise. All of these realizations come from first seeing the Emptiness of the "I"

It may take days just to get to step 1 - identifying the goktcha. So, don't worry. This entire meditation of seeing the emptiness of the "I" should be done for several days.

If you have questions, please don't hesitate to write them through the comments section of this blog. You questions will help us all.

Love
Reema

Go inwards, contemplate: Can you find an "I"?

Is the 'I' always changing? Is there some fixed quality the 'I' possesses?

It may take days just to identify the Gotcha - to meditate long enough to see that there is no fixed "I."

Med #16 Emptiness

2010-07-31T12:36:00.000-07:00

We now train in the wisdom that realizes ultimate reality/emptiness.

After we achieve tranquil abiding, we attain a suppleness of mind that allows us to fix our mind on Emptiness. Since we grasp most strongly to ourself, we will meditate on the emptiness of the "I."

In all emptiness meditations, first we identify the way something appears to our mind to be inherently existent, and the way we firmly believe in the truth of this appearance. This is called 'identifying the object of negation,' or in Tibetan, the 'goktcha.'

For example, you may believe in an "I" that exists as a solid, unchanging entity with some qualities or essence. You may perceive this "I" as something that receives things from the outside world. This is the "I" that feels embarrassed or happy or scared. It is the I that we cherish, the I that we defend when criticized or are proud of when praised. Once we have an image of this inherently existent, I (the goktcha), we fix our minds on it for a moment and then proceed to the contemplation. This inherently existent 'I' is the object we are going to try to negate in order to realize Emptiness.

Contemplation

We are trying to understand the emptiness of the I, so we are trying to refute this object, "I." If the "I" exists in the way that it appears, it would have to exist in one of four ways. Either 1) I am my body, 2) I am my mind, 3) I am a collection of my body and mind or 4) I am not related to body and mind at all.

1. I am my body. Debate and analyze this in your mind. You can think of many reasons I am not my body. If I fell off a cliff and my body seized to function, would there not be something - a mind or mindstream, thoughts, soul, feelings? If I was in an accident and lost some body parts, will I not still have some sensation of I? I is not my arm or my leg. What if I lose those, will an "I" still be there?

2. I am not my mind. Debate this point from every direction you can. For ex., if I get amnesia, won't there still be some "I" that I identify with? Or, what about a coma? Is the "I" all the memories and concepts I have of me? Then, what if I lose my memory? My mind is always changing, so what is the "I" - a moment of consciousness? Is it a different "I" in one moment than a previous?

Just these two points are enough to contemplate today. Analyze and see what you come up with.

Meditation

Through our contemplation, we are trying to smash this feeling of a fixed "I." We are smashing the solid way we feel about things. Can you really find a fixed "I" as you meditate? The self-grasping mind holds on to an 'I" but can you find a solid, fixed 'I' behind the label "I"? What you may have thought was fixed, solid, having inherent qualities, slowly turns into vapor. In this meditation, you hold on to the vapor.

When you experience and hold on to the vapor, there comes a kind of an "a-ha" moment where you may feel either fear or a sense of freedom. Both feelings are natural. If you can hold with one-pointed concentration on the vapor, you will not be able to find the 'I.' This is the emptiness of the 'I.' This is the ultimate nature of the 'I.' We find the ultimate nature of all objects through a process of negation which is similar in Vedanta (Neti-neti).

Conclusion

The 'I' that you experience is a projection. You perceive the 'I' in a certain way based on your past actions. Projections are forced upon us by our past karma. Things exist, but, the way that we experience them comes from us; our past actions. Even the way you perceive yourself is forced upon you by the way you have treated others in the past.

The whole world is a projection. The whole world is empty - every object in it is empty. The way you perceive the world and its objects comes entirely from you; your past actions.

How do you want to experience yourself, the "I"? Plant the right seeds.

How do you want to experience your world? The answer is always the same: plant the right seeds. Everything is empty and you can create yourself to be perfect and your world to be a paradise.

Dedicate: May I realize Emptiness directly and quickly get enlightened for the benefit of all.

Subsequent practice:

During breaks in your meditation, try to recognize that whatever appears to your mind lacks true existence. Like in a dream, every appearance comes from your mind. All phenomenon is the same. Though they appear vividly, they lack inherent existence.

We must have a direct realization of Emptiness. The entire Lamrim, as stated on day one, is designed for us to first become familiar with the topics and techniques and then to eventually have uncontrived direct realizations.

Please read 107-115 in Geshe Gyatso's Meditation Handbook and pp 261-300 in Part 3 of Liberation in our Hands. In the latter, Pobangka Rinpoche states that we cannot gain a true realization of ultimate reality without a teacher, without receiving instructions that explain emptiness, without carrying out actions to accumulate merit and remove mental obscurations. So, as was stated on the very first day of this course, right now we are simply getting an introduction to these teachings. For the ultimate experiences, we must have a teacher and be close them to receive their guidance. Thank your teachers and/or ask for them to come to you and please teach.

Namaste.

Med # 15 Preparing for Emptiness

2010-07-30T13:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we covered some basic instructions that can be used in any meditation practice. Whatever object you choose to fix your mind on, you can use these instructions. A few more tips before we get into today's meditation, are:

Before you sit, know what your meditation object is. Be very clear about the object you are meditating on so that you develop this capacity called watchfulness. If you are not clear on your meditation object from the very beginning, you are wasting your time! (Yesterday, our object of meditation was compassion). Before you sit on your meditation cushion, choose your object -- it must be only one object.

Watchfulness is the art of stepping away from your self and looking back with an element of detachment. So, when you first sit and close your eyes, you may focus on your breath. You watch the air as it flows out and back in your nostrils. You step away and feel there's someone watching the air flow out and back in. We call this the 'Watcher State of Mind'. If Compassion is your meditation object, then instead of watching your breath, you transform your mind into compassion and with this Watcher State Of Mind, you watch your mind, keeping your mind firm on Compassion.

So, there's this little part of your mind that is like an alarm. 3 or 4 minutes may go by before you even realize you are off the object. The nine-steps yesterday helps us to apply anti-dotes to distraction and dullness in more and more subtle ways. We then develop clarity and intensity.

One anti-dote to languor and excitation is vigilance; to repeatedly examine the state of your mind. Through vigilance you first recognize that the mind is not fixed on the object, and then you immediately apply the appropriate antidote according to the specific way the mind is faltering.

For example, if you are experiencing subtle languor, where stability and clarity are present but your grasp of the object has slackened to the point that your clarity lacks sharpness, then instead of stopping your meditation practice all together, you simply grasp the object more firmly. If you try to grasp the object too forcefully, excitation may occur, so you have to work on using just the right amount of effort. So, if your hold on the object is too strong and the mind gets excited, then loosen the grasp. If the mind is dull, tighten your grasp slightly. Finding the right balance comes with practice alone.

If you experience coarse languor, the mind is too narrowly constricted and you have to draw the mind out somewhat and try again. If that fails, you can give up the meditation object for a moment and review topics like leisure and fortune, the difficulty of obtaining a human life, the benefits of this practice, etc. You can also bring to mind an image of brightness to reinvigorate your mind.

When the mind is excited or distracted, reflect on topics such as impermanence and suffering, which will diminish the mind's animated state. If this does not work, a more forceful way to stop excitation is to step away from the object of meditation for a moment and focus your mind on your breath. As you complete the exhalation, think to yourself, 'the breath has gone out.' As you complete an inhalation, think, 'Now it has come back in'. Then, reflect, 'this is one breath.' When you can count to 21 breaths without distraction, you have reached the first of the nine levels of mental stability.

To make your meditation the highest experience, support your meditation with 1) enlightenment mind, 2) the wish to escape samsara, and 3) taking refuge in the path, knowing it is a sure way to liberation. All of these three topics were covered over the last few days. So, learn them well and bring them to your meditation cushion.

Contemplation and Meditation

Follow the contemplation and meditation from yesterday but this time use Emptiness as your object (instead of Compassion). We have touched upon Emptiness in previous classes...the idea that things do not have any inherent quality. The way we experience something comes from us; our past karma.

Choose one object. See the emptiness of that object. Fill your mind with the Emptiness of the object and then hold your mind still on emptiness.

For example, you can choose a flower. Every person will experience that flower in a different way depending on their karma. Contemplate this and then move into your meditation by making the Emptiness of the flower your object and filling your mind with Emptiness and then holding it. Use the techniques in the past two days to help you hold your mind on Emptiness. Practice overcoming distraction and dullness.

Tomorrow, we will focus on gaining a deeper understanding of Emptiness.

Dedication: May the merit and virtue of my studies and meditation today go towards my quick enlightenment so i can help others as meaningfully and quickly as possible

Subsequent Practice: To prepare for tomorrow, keep the idea of emptiness in your consciousness as much as possible today. Contemplate on the emptiness of different objects - a cup, a tree, a mountain, an ocean, a person. We all experience each of these things in a different way -- why?

Reading: pp 261-301 in P Rinpoche's Part 3, Liberation in our Hands

Med #14 Developing Quiescence

2010-07-29T18:53:00.000-07:00

This topic consists of how to train oneself in one-pointed concentration and insight, the essence of wisdom. To accomplish the goal of cutting samsara's roots and achieving ultimate liberation, we need to develop the insight that realizes Emptiness directly. It is not just the direct realization of emptiness that depends upon mental quiescence, we also need it to attain clairvoyance, miracle powers, spontaneous realizations and decrease in mental afflictions.

In order to achieve quiescence, we must stay in a favorable place, have few wants, be satisfied with what we have, avoid the disturbance caused by being involved in many activities, have a pure moral practice, overcome thoughts about sense objects. A favorable place is one where material needs are acquired easily, is safe, quiet, and has good companions and pleasant weather.

To succeed in achieving one - pointed concentration we must overcome laziness, the antidote to which is mental and physical agility as well as remembering the benefits of quiescence stated above. When holding our attention on an object, we must be relaxed and find the right balance between languor and excitation. We can stop excitation by bringing to mind topics such as impermanence. It is also better to start with short meditation periods rather than longer ones which might get us exhausted.

To develop a state when the mind remains fixed, we must learn nine levels of mental stability and combine that with a special bliss of mental and physical agility. The nine levels of mental stability are: placement on an object, continued placement, renewed placement, close placement, subduing, pacification, heightened pacification, one-pointedness, equipose.

We can choose any object from the previous meditations such as equanimity, compassion, love, emptiness, impermanence, the preciousness of this life. We transform our mind into that particular state of mind and then hold that state of mind with single-pointed concentration.

In the first level, placement, the mind may easily get distracted and wander. But, you are at least becoming aware of discursive thoughts as they occur.

In he second level, you are able to place your mind on the meditation object for at least a brief period. You will still have discursive thoughts but they will be less. By the third level - renewed placement - your mind is fixed on the object for longer and you quickly realize when the mind strays. You are also more adept at bringing it back.

By the fourth level, the meditation object no longer escapes your mind, yet some form of languor and excitation still occur. On the fifth level -subduing - it is necessary to generate powerful vigilance to keep watch over the mind and also to enliven it by reflecting on the benefits of one-pointed concentration. At the sixth level, subtle excitation may occur, so we overcome this by generating a powerful form of vigilance that recognizes subtle excitation and also avoids subtle languor.

By the seventh level, you develop recollection and vigilance and your efforts have the power to remove languor and excitation completely. From level five to seven, you develop more and more one-pointed concentration.

By the eighth level, you only need slight effort to keep from developing any languor or excitation throughout the entire meditation period. This form of mental attention is called uninterrupted conveying. This mental stability is gained through the power of effort.

An analogy of how languor and excitation are gradually overcome is the way that an enemy gradually loses strength as he is being defeated.

By the ninth level, the mind is fixed without any effort. You freely and easily engage the object through repeated practice and enter the state of one-pointed concentration without the slightest exertion. This level is gained through the power of continued practice.

***

This is hard! Together, we can appreciate how amazing it is to have a teacher face to face teaching us this after years of their meditation experience...if you have a teacher like that, thank them! If you don't, pray for them to enter your life!

***

Contemplation
Recalling our previous meditations, first bring into mind the object. Soon, our object will be Emptiness, but that requires a little more teaching on the subject which will happen tomorrow. For today, bring to mind the love that cherishes all beings. Think about the suffering of others and when a strong feeling of compassion arises in your mind, you have found your object of meditation.

Meditation
Having transformed your mind into compassion, hold this with strong concentration. This is the first of the nine mental stability. When the object fades or the mind wanders to another object, return to the contemplations to bring the object back to mind. Then discontinue your contemplations and hold the object with single pointed concentration. Continue in this way, alternating between contemplation and meditation for the rest of the session.

You improve your concentration in this way until you can until you can remain concentrated on the object for five minutes. At this point, you advance to the second level of mental stability. By gradually improving our concentration, we progress through the nine mental stabilities.

Dedication: May my efforts today lead to my quick enlightenment so i can help others achieve the same as fast as possible.

Subsequent Practice
Observe your morality as this will lead to better concentration. Again and again think about the benefits of this mind training to keep or increase your enthusiasm for the practice. Read more instructions on this important practice in Pabongka Rinpoche's Book 3: pp 231-261. Also, see instruction in Joyful Path of Good Fortune by Geshe Gyatso.

***
Thank you for all your beautiful efforts. Keep remembering the benefits of this practice!

Love
Reema

Med # 13 Giving and Taking

2010-07-28T08:39:00.000-07:00

Once we have practiced Equalizing and Exchanging Self and Other, we can meditate on Giving and Taking, a practice which strengthens the attitude explained in Exchanging Self and Others.

The first step is to take or remove the suffering of others. Start by developing compassion for the other(s), who you can see as mother beings (Remember the meditation on seeing everyone as your mother. The lamrim, again, is a progression, each meditation is preparing for the next.) Then imagine that you actually do remove their suffering by visualizing that it separates from them, appears in the form of black light and then dissolves into the self-cherishing mind that resides in your own heart. There is a diamond light in your heart, far deeper than the self-cherishing tendencies. This diamond light in your heart destroys the pain of the person or people who you are meditating on.

If this is scary, that's a good sign that you are actually really trying. It's ok. It's natural for fear to come up in this meditation. There are many levels of ability amongst practitioners. Often beginning practitioners cannot meditate on Giving and Taking right away. For this type of person, the scriptures say, "The order for taking should start with yourself." In other words, if you are mediating in the morning, you can use your meditation to take upon yourself, the difficulties you may experience later in the day. Then, extend the practice by taking upon yourself today, the sufferings of tomorrow, and then gradually increase the visualization to include the sufferings of the next month, year, etc.

Eventually we develop the practice by then focusing on people close to us that we love, and then people we feel neutral towards, and then to people we dislike. In the scriptures it says that the only objects you should not choose in your practice of Taking, is your Guru(s), Buddhas, or any enlightened Being.
***
The practice of Giving is done by mentally giving away such things as wealth, health, anything. The focus is on generating loving-kindness by reflecting on the various forms of happiness that beings lack. One way to practice this is to mentally transform your body into wheatever object the being needs and then give them to those beings. For instance you can emanate your body in the form of rain or a beautiful house or sunlight, clothing, food, drink, wealth, virtue, patience, wisdom, anything, and then visualize yourself giving that object away.

A common visualization is to see yourself giving away one or all of the "six perfections:" generosity, ethics, patience, joyful actions, concentration, wisdom. Remember each meditation in the lamrim is a lifetime practice. You can spend years mastering Giving and Taking or any of these meditations. This is just an introduction!! For more on this, read 169-230 in Part 3 of Pabongka Rinpoche's Liberation In Our Hands.

***

Meditation:
Once you achieve some proficiency with the Giving and Taking practice, perform the visualization of 'Giving' in conjunction with each exhalation of breath and the 'Taking' visualization in conjunction with each inhalation.

"Let these two practices ride on your breath"

By practicing the visualizations, you will gain the ability to let your thoughts ride on your breath. Your thoughts ride on the winds which run through your subtle body; your inner channels (nadis and chakras). Ill-thoughts towards others create blockages in your inner channels. Loving thoughts create openings for prana to run smoothly through your system. Your yoga asana will work so much better when incorporating such meditations into your physical practice. You have to try it and try it for at least 6 months to feel the benefits.

This is a powerful exercise to generate enlightenment mind which is the cause to have pure prana run through your central channel and experience complete bliss. This bliss is normally only experienced three times in your life: at the moment of death, the moment of orgasm and when you are doing these practices. But, as you generate enlightenment mind and have pure prana run up your central channel (awakening kundalini), you will feel bliss all the time. More on this later.

Dedication: May my studies and practice today lead towards my quick enlightenment so I can help others achieve the same.

Subsequent Practice: Start to get in the habit of practicing Giving and Taking on the subway, in your car, while you wait in line at the grocery store. Fill your mind with beautiful loving thoughts and feel how this changes the way the winds move in your body.

**
We do asana, mantra, pranayama for the same reasons - to move the prana into the central channel and feel good. We know that the mind is connected to the body, but do we bring this awareness into our practice?

Much love,
Reema

Important Note: Love Yourself Too!

2010-07-28T07:46:00.000-07:00

I feel a need to remind you beautiful meditators out there that Lamrim is a preparation for Tantra, the path of desire. It is okay to think of yourself too. It is okay to want to make yourself happy too. The best way to give to people is by giving them something that you love. If you love to build houses, build people houses to make them happy. If you love to write songs, write people songs to make them happy. What you give will be most powerful if it comes from a place deep within your heart.

The power of Lamrim is it's teachings not only on love, but, on emptiness and karma.
It is teaching us that the happiness we seek for ourselves and others does not come from the object that we give or want. Happiness does not come from the house or the song. So, we must not grasp to the house or the song. We must not get caught up in 'ignorant liking and ignorant disliking' (remember the lesson a few days ago on mental afflictions and 'ignorant desire.')

The house and the song are empty. They have no inherent qualities in and of themselves that will make us happy or unhappy. Everything we experience comes from us; our past actions, our karma. The house will make us happy if we have the karma for the house to make us happy. How do we generate the karma for the house to make us happy? If we made people happy in our past.

The song is empty. How do we cultivate the karma to make the song something that will make us or others happy? The answer is always the same: if we helped people in the past, our good karma will lead to an experience of enjoying the song. Or our good karma will lead to other's enjoyment of the song. The song, the house, every object is empty and we fuel these objects with the ability to make us happy or unhappy by our past actions. If we think the song or the house in and of themselves is making us happy, we are caught up in an illusion. The song or house appear to make us happy. But, this is an appearance. It is our past actions that empower the song or house to make us happy or unhappy.

Everything we experience comes from us. There is nothing out there with any inherent qualities that makes us happy or unhappy. It is all our karma. This is why one person can hear a song and feel great. Another person can hear the same song and feel horrible. Another person can hear the same song and feel neutral. The song has no qualities. Whether you enjoy it or not, comes from you.

One person can live in the same big, beautiful house and feel great. Another can live in the exact same house and feel horrible. Another can feel neutral. The house has no qualities. Your experience comes from you. Everything we experience is a different karma ripening in the moment. It has nothing to do with the object.

The entire world is empty. You are empty. When we realize this, we become experts at planting seeds, at observing our actions, at planting the exact seeds to get everything that we want and to create the future of our dreams, our paradise...and the person of our dreams - in ourselves, in our partner, in our friends, etc...

Emptiness will be the topics of the last meditations in the Lamrim. Let's master it...and then months and years from now, we can share our stories on how we created our life to be our perfect world. That perfection will come from your awareness of what seeds your actions, thoughts and words are planting. You are creating your future world right now. Dedicate all your efforts, studies and practice to your quick enlightenment for the benefit of all. When you dedicate, your seeds ripen faster.

Love,
Reema

Med # 12 Exchanging Self and Other

2010-07-27T12:44:00.000-07:00

All our training so far is leading to this powerful meditation, one of the highest practices of yoga called Exchanging Self and Other.

This practice is based on the recognition of the disadvantages associated with the self-cherishing mind and the benefits associated with the mind that cherishes others. All the good things we have in our lives right now result from cherishing others in the past. All our challenges result from self-cherishing because self-cherishing is the root of our negative thoughts and actions - our mental afflictions and negative karma which cause us to be reborn in samsara.

Contemplation
While we formerly spent most of our time cherishing ourselves, and not having a deep concern for most others, we now reverse the focus of these attitudes. Exchanging oneself and others means to transfer the focus of our self-cherishing attitude by directing it to others. The way to train our mind in this practice is to cultivate the following attitudes: "Just as I previously had no concern for others, now I will abandon concern for myself. And just as I previously cherished myself, now I will cherish others."

We make a switch in our minds like this. And, this switch - abandoning self-cherishing and regarding the happiness of others as supremely important - is among the most powerful things we can do. It will plant all the positive seeds we need to see ultimate reality and escape samsara and then help others to do the same.

Meditation
Contemplate the above until you come to the conclusion: I must abandon self cherishing and cherish others because self cherishing is the root of samsara and cherishing others is the root of liberation and full enlightenment. When this determination arises in our mind, meditate on it single-pointedly.

Dedicate: Dedicate all virtues you have created in this meditation to your and all being's quick enlightenment.

Subsequent Practice:
Try not to follow our instinctive self cherishing but instead try to cherish others.

Med #11: Equalizing Self and Others

2010-07-26T10:48:00.000-07:00

The next type of mind training is called "Equalizing Self and Others," which is to cherish others as much as we cherish ourselves. Shantideva says it all in his commentary:

"All the suffering there is in this world
comes from desiring happiness for oneself.
All the well-being there is in the world
comes from desiring happiness for others."

Until now, we have mostly cherished ourselves. The aim of this meditation is tho share our feeling of cherishing so that we come to cherish ourself and others equally.

Contemplation
There are three reasons to cherish myself and others the same:

1. All beings have shown me great kindness in both this and previous lives

2. Just as I wish to be free from suffering and experience only happiness, so do all others. In this respect I am no different from any one else. We are all equal.

3. I am only one, whereas others are countless, so how can I cherish myself alone while I neglect to cherish others? My happiness and suffering are insignificant when compared with the happiness and suffering of all.

Meditation
We contemplate these three reasons until a determination to cherish ourself and others equally arises strongly in our mind. we then hold this feeling single-pointedly for as long as possible

Dedication: We dedicate all the virtue we have created in this practice to the welfare of all living beings.

Subsequent Practice: When you meet someone today or think of someone, remember this determination from your meditation and cherish them sincerely. Feel a real affectionate love for all beings and value their happiness and freedom. This type of training will gradually result in the our daily life problems disappearing, because most of our problems arise from regarding ourself as more important than others.

Note: To truly crack the heart open and love other beings equally is hard. If you find this difficult, know that it is hard for everyone...this is the reason we have such detailed and thorough teachings to make it real...beyond poetic words to true love and practice...

Please read pp 152-166 in Pabongka Rinpoche's Liberation In Our Hands, Part 3

Congratulations! We are progressing well through this rigorous mind training!

Love
Reema

Med #10 Love continued...

2010-07-25T11:03:00.000-07:00

There are two methods of mind training designed to help us cultivate a sincere love for all beings. Today, we will explore the first, the 7-fold instruction of cause and effect

The first step of the 7-fold instruction is developing immeasurable equanimity, which we covered in the last two meditations. The next step to affirm this feeling of affectionate love is to recognize all beings as our mothers.

This may sound a bit strange (!?) but, consider this. It is impossible to find a beginning to our soul. We have all lived countless lives. So, we must have had countless mothers! Where are they all now? They are all the living beings around us today.

We can't really reason that our mothers of former lives are no longer our mothers now just because a long time has passed. Even if our mother of this life dies, we would still regard her as our mother and pray for her happiness. The same is true of all our previous mothers. They die, but they remain our mothers. Because they change in their external appearance, we do not recognize them.

Just like yesterday's meditation, we see so many people and regard some as friends, some as strangers some as enemies. But, they are alike in that in some of our previous lives, all these people were our friends and loved and cared for us. Because of the way we treated all these people, some of them now appear as attractive and some as unattractive, but, that is because of our past actions, it is not about them (they are empty!) So, rather than follow a mistaken mind, it is better to remember the kindness all people have shared with us at some point in our past.

If we regard all beings as our mothers we will find it easy to develop pure love and compassion in our everyday relationships. We will naturally avoid negatave actions.

When you remember all beings as your mother, you also remember their kindness. They carried you for nine months, went through labor pains for you, fed you, gave up years of their lives for you, they took care of your every little need until you could take care of yourself. Naturally, you want to repay their kindness. You want to take care of them too. You want to take away their pains and discomforts too. Remembering how much they did for you, you actually feel a personal responsibility to provide them with happiness and free them of any pain. Once you take that responsibility, you might realize that you actually don't have the ability to bring ultimate well-being to even one being, let alone all these beings who have been your mother. In order to truly help them in significant ways - to give them lasting bliss - you must achieve the highest states of yoga yourself. You must become omniscient and have a direct realization of ultimate truth.

Our desire to achieve enlightenment must be based on our interest in serving others as well as fulfilling our own interests. We are making our love for others real and our desire to help firm. By doing this we generate merit to experience ultimate truth.

The 7 steps are as follows:

1) Immeasurable Equanimity

2) Recognizing all sentient beings as our mothers

3) Recalling the kindness of all mother sentient beings

4) Developing the intention to repay their kindness

5) The loving-ness that regards all beings as dear

6) Compassion

7) Extraordinary intention

These 7 steps are causes which generate the result of enlightenment mind.

Meditation

Contemplate these points until you develop the conviction that all beings are our mothers and that you want to repay their kindness with ultimate wellbeing. Then meditate on this conviction single-pointedly to make it firm. Let this meditation result in you having 'enlightenment mind,' a prerequisite for the deepest teachings of yoga to open to you.

Dedication- Same as everyday.

Subsequent Practice: See all beings you interact with today as your mother in the countless lives you have lived. Think of their immeasurable kindnesses towards you. Feel a real affection for them and a desire to help them. Watch the seven steps unfold for you. Remember, it is okay if it seems strange to regard all beings as your mother. It took me months to get used to this idea and then one day when your mind is ready to go beyond time and space, a realization will occur. At the least, we are planting powerful seeds. Rejoice!

Thank you,

Love

Reema

Med #9 Crack Your Heart Open

2010-07-24T11:13:00.000-07:00

Generating warmth and love for all beings, also known as "Enlightenment mind," is not a practice like asana, mantra, and other meditations. Generating enlightened mind is far more important and worth spending time on because we will gain very little from those other practices unless we have first cultivated a sincere love for all.

In Liberation In our Hands, Book 3, please read pp 99-130. If you are short on time, read pp 124-130.

Here, Pabongka Rinpoche offers another meditation technique we can use to develop equanimity:

Contemplation and Meditation

Focus on all three types of objects: a neutral person, friend and enemy, at the same time.
Choose one person for each type and focus on all three people.
You will experience three different reactions. Towards the friend, you will feel attachment. Towards the enemy, you will fee aversion. Towards the neutral person, you will not have any concern or care.

Like yesterday, again, reflect that this enemy has also been a close friend in the past - either in this life or in past lives. Reflect that your friend has also hurt you in past lives, perhaps countless times. The neutral object is someone who has both been your friend and your enemy in the past.

If all three of these people are similar in having been both our enemy and our friend at different times, then each of them is alike in having been an enemy, friend and neutral person. Reflect that it is improper to feel attachment for a current friend because he has been our enemy in our past. Reflect that it is improper to feel hatred toward a current enemy, because he has been a close friend many times in the past. There is no one who remains our enemy or friend constantly so we have no justification for generating feelings of attachment for some and aversion towards others.

Furthermore, all these beings are alike in that they are all subject to samsara and they are all desiring to find happiness. Since we are all alike, it does not make sense to look upon each other in a biased way.

Also, an individual who harmed you in a past life and someone else who harmed you in this life are identical in that they harmed you. Someone who helped you in a past life and another who helped you in this life are identical in that the have helped you. Why treat them differently? We have lived so many lives that everyone around us has helped us and hurt us...so it does not make sense to treat people differently.

Also, the way that someone treats you actually comes from you - a result of your own past actions (emptiness wisdom). So, how can you feel these strong feelings towards others, when it is all coming from you in the first place? It doesn't make sense. Everything you experience is a result of the way you have treated others in the past; the seeds that you planted in the past. Someone who helps you is a result of you helping someone in the past. If someone hurts you, it is your own karmic seeds ripening from hurting someone in the past. So, why feel aversion to someone who hurts you when you know it is coming from your own seeds? If anything, be happy that you are purifying by watching those seeds sprout and maintaining warmth towards all.

Like Jesus said, "Love your enemies." And, like Shantideva said, "I bow down to those within whom enlightened mind has arisen; I take refuge in those minds of goodness who bring happiness even to those who harm them."

After contemplating these points, if you succeed in developing evenmindedness towards these three people, shift your focus to include all beings. With everyone as your meditation object, once again try to develop the same feeling of evenmindedness.

Dedication: Always same. Look back to previous meditation and memorize it! :)

Subsequent Practice: Keep cultivating equanimity throughout your day and rejoice because your yoga/spiritual practice will start to generate very fast results.

Remember, the reason we are born into samsara is because we have karma to purify. If we purify our karma now, we free ourselves from samsara. We cultivate karma by hurting others. We free ourselves from karma by loving everyone all the time.

When you are in the midst of a challenge, let the situation (or person) help you purify the karma by maintaining an attitude of love in the midst of the challenge.

Meditation #8 The Great Scope: LOVE !

2010-07-23T15:46:00.000-07:00

The wish to escape samsara (cyclic existence), should be maintained day and night as this is the main path to liberation and the basis of more advanced realizations.

By eradicating all mental afflictions, we can attain liberation. But, we can aim even higher.

We should not be content with seeking merely our own liberation; we must consider the welfare of others. There are countless beings trapped in the prison of samsara and suffering. Each one of us is just one person, other people are countless in number. So, the happiness of others is actually much more important than our own happiness. For this reason, we enter the highest path, which offers the way to benefit all.

Feel your mind expand and enlighten as you consider this path to liberate all. The first thing on this stage of the path is to develop equanimity.

Contemplation

Usually our attitudes towards others are unbalanced - we feel pleased to see a friend who is attractive and familiar. A feeling of dislike may arise when we see someone who is unattractive to us. A feeling of indifference may arise for a stranger. Such unbalance impedes us from developing unbiased love and compassion which are essential for higher realizations.

Consider that in previous lives, a person who is now a friend may have been an enemy or vice versa. Even within one life, a close friend may become a stranger. There is no certainty. In the past, people who were strangers may now be our closest friends. Every being we meet is full of potential to be one thing or another to us. So, it does not make sense in being attached to some and feeling aversion or indifference to others. We must overcome such unbalance and cultivate a feeling of warmth for all beings.

Meditation

We meditate single-pointedly on these three resolutions that you may come to after the above contemplation:

1. I will free my mind from unbalanced attitudes
2. I will not feel attachment, aversion or indifference towards anyone.
3. I will develop and maintain a warm and friendly feeling towards all beings, equally.

Dedication: May all the virtue that I have collected in this meditation go towards the fast enlightenment of myself and everyone.

Subsequent practice: Maintain these three resolutions all day. Keep warm feeling in your heart towards everyone you encounter. Notice...does your mind remain at peace...

Meditation #7 Cruising onto the Path!

2010-07-22T12:26:00.000-07:00

Rejoice! Today's meditation will complete our experience with the Intermediary Scope. Tomorrow, we will move on to the "Great" scope, where we indulge in topics of love, joy, bliss...!

For today, we will go deeper into the type of human form and mind we need to cultivate to make this path work fast...

The type of human form we need to be on the path of liberation is one which is moral. We must become hyper-sensitive in observing ourselves, making sure we are not hurting others through our words, thoughts and actions. Just because we don't kill and steal does not really mean that we are purely moral. Even if we speak harshly to someone for a fraction of a moment or even look at someone with a bad thought in our minds...this is hurtful...people feel our energy. We have great responsibility. If we engage in helping others throughout our day and life, naturally, our immoral acts - stark and subtle- will become minimal. The more we clean up our morality, the more these meditations will work, and the faster our attainment of liberation.

The type of path that we must practice to escape samsara is one in which we understand that everything we experience comes from us. There is no person out there screaming at us. There is no perfect job out there coming to us. Everything we experience is a result of our past actions. We yell at someone 5 years ago or 5 lifetimes ago, and we plant a seed. Any moment seeds can ripen and there will come a person in your life who yells at you. At some point in your past you helped someone get a perfect job and at that moment you planted a seed. Seeds can take time to grow until they one day sprout. When this particular seed sprouts - one never knows the exact time - the perfect job will come to you as if by magic. It is not really magic, it is your own good actions coming back to you.

This is an idea that takes time to get used to. The Buddhists call it "Emptiness." When you know that everything is empty, you take responsibility for everything that happens to you. You never blame anyone. At the same time, you are patient and forgiving with yourself and you are actually really happy because when you understand emptiness, you can create your perfect future by being ultra-conscious of your present actions.

There is nothing you can really do about the present moment. So, you might as well accept it, make the most of it and label it as positive in your mind because that will enable you to experience it in a positive way. The present moment has already been determined by your past actions. BUT, your future is completely in your control. Right now, you can plant all the specific types of seeds that you want to sprout in the future. You want to take painting classes in the future? Maybe you can help someone get connected to a painting teacher now. It's ok if you don't have money to pay for their painting class - maybe you can just do a little research for them, make a connection for them...and then rejoice that not only did you make someone happy, you planted seeds so in the future you will have the perfect painting teacher.

In general, as the great teacher Geshe Michael Roach says, "everything you want in life, give it to others first." You see how planting seeds works? Understand this, contemplate on it, dream about what you want, and then start making other people's dreams come true...Do you doubt that this works? Great. Doubt it with all your heart. Let your doubt inspire you to give it a try. Try...and just see what unfolds...remember seeds take time to ripen. Start living this way and give it six months for some sprouting to begin...

We will get much deeper into Emptiness in later meditations. For now, we just need to keep getting familiar with this idea that every object (including a person) is empty of any inherent nature. The way we experience something or someone comes entirely from us; our past actions.

These teachings are preparing us for an upward spiral to Liberation. The more ethical we are, the better we will be able to concentrate and meditate. The better we meditate, the more we will be able to grasp wisdom such as the wisdom of Emptiness.

Today's Contemplation
To crusie on this path, let's clean up our morality right now. In the Yoga Scriptures we have the Yamas and Niyamas as a great ethical guide. For a list of the yamas and niyamas see pp of Sacred Sanskrit Words.

In Buddhist scriptures, we have the 10 nonvirtues listed below. Elaborations on these can be found on pp 244-255 of Liberation In Our Hands Part II:

10 non virtues:

3 done by body
4 done verbally
3 done by mind

Body - Killing, Stealing, Sexual Misconduct
Verbal - Lying, Slander, Harsh Speech, Idle/Meaningless speech
Mental - Coveting, Malice, Wrong views (such as those of karma and of reality)

Meditation:

Just look at the past 48 hours. When may you have indulged in one of the nonvirtues listed above? Think about how it hurt someone else. Think about how it planted a negative seed. Think of what you might have to experience when that seed sprouts. Make a promise to yourself to not indulge in such an action for a certain amount of time (choose an amount of time that you know will allow you to keep your promise). When your determination is firm, hold. Single pointed concentration on your determination to not act in that way for the amount of time you chose.

Dedication: Same everyday. See previous blog.

Subsequent practice: As you observe yourself today and tomorrow, be especially conscious of what seeds you are planting. Every time you act, say or think something, a seed is planted. Go into your future and think about what kinds of seeds you need to plant now to have the future of your dreams...and then act on it. Observe yourself planting beautiful seeds for a perfect future and rejoice!

***

Be happy -- tomorrow, after all this hard work - we will begin the "Great" scope.

Thank you for all your hard work. When it gets tough, remember, you are doing this for others! Remember the person in your life that you dedicated this two-week course to. You are learning how to create bliss so that you can teach them and then so many others...Keep that motivation strong - all those people in your world who are having a hard time will benefit from your practice!

Have a beautiful day.

Love,
Reema

Meditation #6 Establishing the Path to Liberation

2010-07-21T13:28:00.000-07:00

To escape samsaric human life and establish ourselves on the path to liberation, we have to understand what keeps us in samsara. Mental afflictions are the root causes to rebirth in samsara.

Afflictions in our mind cause us to engage in negative actions or thoughts and thus collect negative karma. As long as we have negative karma, we will be reborn in samsara - either as a human (if the negative karma is light) or as an animal or in a lower realm (if the karma is heavier). We must understand these mental afflictions so that we can recognize them immediately and stop them!

Mental afflictions which drive karma and the realm of samsara:

Ignorant Desire - The important word here is ignorant. There is nothing wrong with desire! We desire to be enlightened, to be happy, for all beings to be happy, to have love, etc. This desire is valuable for our practice and our desire can guide our behavior in meaningful ways. The important thing is to let desire guide us wisely, not ignorantly.

Ignorance comes in when we mistaken the nature of the object. We think the thing that attracts us to the object is in the nature of the object. We think the nature of the object comes from its own side and has the happiness that we get from it.

If the power of the pleasure is in the object itself, the important thing to us is to have it...to get it even if it hurts others. We see this all the time in relationships. Because we want someone who is beautiful and smart, we may be willing to hurt someone to get that person, that object.

It is not wrong to desire things. The point of this whole path is to learn how reality really works so that we can get all of our desires. The pleasure is not in the object. The pleasure is your own (good) karma ripening.

Understanding the true nature of reality will come later in this course as it is an entire topic in itself. To put it very briefly, objects do not have any inherent nature of their own. The way we experience an object comes from us (not from the object itself). The way we experience an object depends on what karma is ripening for us at the moment of perception. If I spoke beautifully to someone in the past, I may meet someone and perceive them as speaking beautifully to me. That person's beautiful words are coming from me (my past actions), not the person.

If I spoke harshly to someone in my past, at a particular moment, that karma will ripen and I will meet someone who I perceive as speaking harshly to me. But, that harshness is not coming from that other person, it is coming from me; my past actions, my karma that is ripening at that moment. Much more on this later...don't worry if this is hard to grasp or seems completely bazaar - we will have much more time to contemplate how reality works in the lessons to come....
-

Other mental afflictions which keep us in samsara:

Anger: feeling of malice directed towards another, a harshness of mind, a hostile mental state when an unwelcome object or person is perceived. Very harmful to others and creates immense negative karma for ourselves while destroying good karma. We can't move to higher states of being if we have negative karma. Antidote: cultivate patience (more on this later)

Pride: perceiving self as having great power, wealth or spiritual knowledge, being from a better family, having superior intelligence, or pure morality, etc...difficult for a proud person to gain spiritual knowledge or for the teachings to have benefit. Antidote: contemplate the diversity of the elements within and around us - earth, water, fire, air, space - and recognize how little we know about them!

Ignorance: not being able to understand things such as karma and its consequences, not being able to perceive reality.

Doubt: uncertainty about teachings such as karma and its consequences will keep us from achieving births in the higher realms. Doubting the authenticity of your teacher or the teachings you receive may slow your progress and prevent liberation in this lifetime...reasons why doubt is so harmful!

***

The causes for mental afflictions to arise in our mind, are

1) karma - bad karma from our past negative actions and thoughts can ripen at any time! Sometimes when bad karma ripens we feel one of the above mental afflictions

2) an object perceived as attractive or unattractive exists to bring on a mental affliction

3) meaningless interactions with others

4) bad advice

5) bad habits

6) improper attention to things that lead us to develop desire, hatred, etc.

Mental afflictions lead to negative thoughts and/or actions which cause us to accumulate karma leading to rebirth. This is why it is so hard to break out of the cycle of samsara! But, with all these tools and our firm determination and love, we can do it!

We can either let our mental afflictions lead us to misdeeds, bad karma, similar mental afflictions to be generated continually, more misdeeds, unhappiness to ourself and others --- endless cycle ---

Or, we immediately recognize our mental afflictions and try to overcome them. We can begin to catch afflictions a fraction of a moment before they even arise, and instead of ever thinking or acting in a harmful way to others, remember that everyone 'out there' is just trying to teach us how to be more loving, patient, kind, and joyful. So, in the midst of your most difficult time - when someone is yelling at you or so upset with you --- see if you can remember that everything is just your own karma ripening - and instead of getting upset, smile and maintain your disposition of love and kindness. This is so hard, but, it is the beginning to freeing ourself from samsara and establishing ourselves on the path of liberation.

--

Preliminaries: If you feel overwhelmed with the length of the preliminaries - since this course is about getting an overview of this path -- feel free to do just #4 of the Preliminaries (the 7-fold path). If you have the time, please continue and enjoy all the prelim's!

Contemplation: review the mental afflictions described above. debate in your mind on how these afflictions are leading you to nonvirtuous thoughts and actions, which cultivate bad karma and the cause of more mental afflictions to arise...which lead to more disdeeds and general unhappiness to yourself and others.

As you contemplate, think of one person who bothers you the most in your world - who annoys you, or upsets you or just drives you crazy. Imagine your next encounter with them. Imagine them upsetting you as usual. This time, instead of getting upset and thinking or saying or doing anything negative...imagine seeing that person as a holy angel who is just trying to make you more patient, kind, loving, generous and joyous. This holy angel is appearing as an annoying person just so you can evolve into a being who maintains the energy of love in the midst of every challenge and obstacle. See yourself being kind to this person no matter how they appear. See yourself walking away from the encounter with having no mental afflictions and without having accumulated any new negative karma. See yourself feeling so happy with yourself for overcoming this mental affliction - such difficult work! Rejoice!

Meditation: After contemplating the negative consequences of mental afflictions and bad karma, feel a firm determination to immediately identify mental afflictions before they take hold of you and to counter them tirelessly by reminding yourself relentlessly that everything comes from you, not the object. This consciousness will eventually end your mental afflictions, clean up your karma and establish you on the path to liberation. Once this feeling is firm within you, hold it and meditate for as long as you can.

Again, I recommend 10 minutes for preliminaries and then 10 minutes each for contemplation and meditation. Feel free to meditate and contemplate for longer...or to do two sessions in the day.

Dedication: May the virtue of my study and meditation today go towards the benefit of all - towards my quick enlightenment as well as my ability to quickly enlighten others...May the virtue of this meditation not be destroyed by a mental affliction...

Subsequent practice: When you are off your meditation cushion, start to get sharp in identifying mental afflictions and in countering them.

Thank you, dear readers and meditators.

Much love
Reema

Meditation #5: The Intermediate Scope

2010-07-20T13:14:00.000-07:00

The meditations we have done so far combined with moral discipline (yamas, niyamas, avoiding the 10 nonvirtues) will free us from dangerous lower rebirths and ensure us to obtain a precious human life again in the future. This completes the lower scope of this path.

Topic 7: Developing the Wish to go Beyond

Contemplation
Now we wonder, do we even want another precious human life? Though the human life is amazing, we are not completely free from pain here and the happiness we experience here is impermanent. Everything is uncertain. Things can change in a moment - accidents, disease, death, parting from loved ones, sometimes having to leave our own country, wars, violence, danger, etc, etc. Just read any newspaper and this is clear. Even this precious human life is in the realm of samsara - cycles of joy and sorrow, ups and downs, uncertainty, beautiful things pass, challenges come...and we may think, well "this is life." Suffering is just the nature of this life.

But, this is this life. This is not the only possible realm. This is just the way that this human realm operates. It can be different. There is a possibility to have a life where pleasures do not end, and where suffering and dissatisfaction are no longer a part of your life.

If we think deeply about this, we realize that if we want real freedom and real happiness we must go beyond this samsaric human life. The stages of the intermediary scope teach us how to go beyond samsara and attain permanent inner peace and complete freedom. This is real liberation or nirvana.

The first step in moving beyond samsara is to contemplate the many faults of samsara and develop a strong aspiration to achieve liberation. For elaboration on this point, read pp 1-41 in Part 3 of Pabongka Rinpoche's Liberation in Our Hands.

Meditation

By contemplating the painful nature of samsara, you may conclude "I have experienced these sufferings in the past and if I do not attain liberation, I shall have to experience such things again and again. Therefore, I must escape from samsara. I must go beyond even the miracles of this human life and achieve liberation/nirvana. This is not the only possible realm. I can live in a world where pleasures never cease and dissatisfaction is not experienced." When this thought arises clearly and definitely in your mind, hold it and meditate on it single-pointedly for as long as you can.

Dedication: Same as precious days. Always dedicating the virtue of your study and meditation to the benefit of all. May I reach enlightenment quickly and help others to get there quickly as well. May I not experience mental afflictions that will wash away the virtues of this meditation.

Subsequent practice: During breaks in your day, maintain the firm wish to attain liberation from samsara. When you face life challenges or see other people facing obstacles, remember the disadvantages of samsara and that things can be very different.

Tomorrow we will establish the nature of the path that leads to liberation. Please read pp 43-99 in Liberation In Our Hands: Part 3

Review and Glimpse of What's Ahead

2010-07-20T09:42:00.000-07:00

By meditating and realizing the topics covered so far, we ensure ourselves that life after life, we will obtain a precious human rebirth (not a lower rebirth) and we will have all the conditions to continue a spiritual practice leading to the ultimate goals.

We meditate on this precious human life to realize how we have a special opportunity to practice now. When we appreciate the great potential of this life, will do not waste it by meaningless activities. When we meditate on impermanence and death, we overcome procrastination and become less attached to worldly things and concerns. By meditating on the danger of lower rebirth, taking refuge and avoiding harmful actions while engaging in helpful, virtuous actions, we protect ourself from taking lower rebirth. This is called the "lower scope" of the path.

Once we have realizations of the above topics, we are ready for the "intermediate" scope where we meditate on the sufferings of human life so that we develop a spontaneous wish to attain permanent liberation from even a human life. This wish gives us the strong motivation and encouragement to complete the practice of this comprehensive spiritual path.

When we get to the "great" scope, we will meditate on love, compassion, service, ways to overcome our self-cherishing and develop a true and equal for all. This will provide us the heart with which we will go on to meditate on ultimate reality so that we can go beyond all illusions and enjoy bliss for ourselves and others.

Is this Silencing the mind...or what??!

2010-07-19T13:02:00.000-07:00

Silencing the Mind vs Training the Mind

I thought meditation was about silencing the mind…what is going on?!

You may have noticed by now that, in these meditations, the mind is working hard – one thing after another – this is not silence! What’s up??!

***

Around the year 770AD, the great Indian Yoga Master Kamalashila was called to Tibet to participate in a debate with a Chinese monk. The Chinese monk was teaching that students could reach enlightenment only by clearing the mind of all thought. In the debate, Master Kamalashila proved him wrong and wrote the classic book, Bhavanakrama or “The Steps of Meditation.”

Centuries later, we are still trying to reach high states of yoga – ultimate wisdom and lasting bliss - by simply sitting and silencing the mind. Try it yourself…it does not work…we need some training!

***

There are two ways to meditate with two very different results:

1) You can sit to meditate without much instruction, and simply work on slowing down your thoughts, and the mind will calm. You will experience peace. You will experience joy. It is so nice. You may just love it because it will feel good. You will be happy to disconnect from the busy world and allow your mind to rest in a sweet, slow, quiet place. With practice, your mind will become clear and focused. You will be able to do more things in your day. It is wonderful.

2) Or, you can train your mind to see ultimate reality, to become omniscient, to see past all illusions. You can train your mind to be able to get yourself and others out of pain and into experiencing pure and lasting bliss. To do this quickly, we must practice Tantra, but it is necessary for us to be able to get into deep states of meditation in order for our Tantra practice to work.

The Lamrim is mind-training to experience the highest goals of yoga. This is not meditation to feel some calm and peace – all that will come too, but, we have to work hard for the bigger results...

***

Stick with it. You are doing so well. Few people reach the highest goals because it is hard to practice so intensively especially when we are juggling so many things in our lives. You can do it. Even half an hour a day can get you there. You can study the meditation topics before you sleep or on the train to work or in-between meetings --- you just need that half an hour of real solitude and quiet to do the actual meditations.

***

Some tips:

Do this meditation course for someone else. Be firm in your motivation. You are doing this for others.

These meditations are hard work, requiring great discipline and patience. If you are doing them for yourself - your own peace - you will not make it to the end goals...you will not get very far...serving yourself is not a very strong motivation. If you do this for others, you have a very good chance.

The love you have for others will fuel your practice. Your great burning desire to help others and take away the pain of others - that is what will get you to your meditation cushion everyday. Love has that power. It is your love for others that will get you to the end goals of this path.

***

When it all feels overwhelming, remember the magic of Direct Realizations

The magic of direct realizations is that once you realize them, the feeling never goes away - you don't have to spend time doubting or contemplating these topics again because you have realized them directly - it is a permanent stage and it will save you so much time...it may feel slow at the beginning...but in the long run, it will actually speed your progress substantially. If you stick with this, you will reach the ultimate stages in this lifetime; jivanmukti. (Remember Lamrim means Stages on the Path. The final stage will be realizing ultimate reality.)

***

The right attitude

When listening to (or reading) these teachings, it is important to allow your mind to be open and supple. A great teacher Geshe Potowa went to the discourse of another great scholar, Geshe Chokyi Woser. Potowa benefitedd immensely from the teaching and said, "I didn't learn anything I had not learned before, but I did gain understandings I had never understood before." This is the the attitude we must also observe when learning these meditations. You may have heard about these realizations many times, but, have you understood them and realized them directly?

Meditation #4: Before the Bliss

2010-07-19T06:35:00.000-07:00

Meditation topics for this session: The danger of lower rebirth, refuge practice, and actions and their effects (Topics 4,5, & 6)

Ok...we are almost through the darker topics...stick with it, and remember topics of love, bliss, and truth are coming up...

For now, we still have to come to terms with all possibilities...after that, we will focus on the potential for permanent bliss.

There is a lot of information to contemplate today. I suggest reading through all of the below first (Parts 1, 2 and 3). Then go back and take some time to study the points of contemplation. Then go into the preliminaries, contemplation (again - this time with some familiarity since you read through them and studied them), meditation, dedication, subsequent practice. If you have time to meditate twice today, that will be great so you have a chance to process all the information and come to single pointed concentration.

To be clear, take at least 10-15 minutes to read and study what is in this blog before going through the classic 5 steps of your meditation (prelim, contemplation, meditation, dedication, subsequent practice).

Enjoy, and know that brighter topics are coming up in the following days!

Topic 4: The Danger of Lower Rebirth

When we die, negative karma may take us to rebirth in one of the lower realms. Meditating on this danger, develops fear of the suffering of the lower (hell) realms. This fear becomes a cause to go for refuge in order to purify and practice well and learn about the creation of bliss.

Contemplation Part 1
When our body dies, our consciousness will find another abode. Our mind doesn't really have freedom or choice about where to go next. Our past actions -- our karma -- will determine the place of our next rebirth.
Heavy negative karma can cause rebirth in hell, less negative karma can cause rebirth as an unhappy ghost, and the least negative karma causes rebirth as an animal.

It's pretty easy to commit negative karma - lying, hurting other's feelings, speaking harshly - unless we purify and practice, the potentialities of negative actions remains and can ripen at the moment of death. We should ask ourselves, "If I die today, where will I be tomorrow?"

Meditation Part 1

Contemplate on the sufferings of the three lower realms, the dangers of being reborn there, until you generate a strong fear of being there. This fear is actually the object of meditation.

**

I know it may seem strange to meditate on fear when yoga is all about letting go of our fears. But, yoga is also about personal responsibility for everything that we do, say and think. Yoga is about being hyper sensitive to how we treat others and ourselves. Are we honest? Are we helping people? Are we hurting people? Do we, as yogis, truly understand Oneness - that if I hurt you, I hurt myself because you are an extension of me...you are a part of me...the only way for me to experience bliss is if I give bliss to others by helping others in countless creative ways - big ways, small ways - perhaps just a smile or putting someone through school - the actual act does not matter - is my heart open and warm towards others?

There are ramifications to our actions. Karma is not just an eastern, esoteric teaching. As, Jesus said, "As you sow, so shall you reap." This is karma in a nutshell.

***

Contemplation Part 2: Refuge

Having developed fear of lower rebirth, we now consider how Yoga has the power to protect us.
If we look for refuge in our teacher or our yoga studio or our home, we will be disappointed. The only thing that has the power to free us, the only thing that we can truly take refuge in, is our own understanding of ultimate reality - our own wisdom of how things work, what actions lead to liberation, and what actions bind us to cyclic existence.

Our real refuge is our spiritual realizations that protect us from delusions. For example, if we gain realizations of impermanence and death (yesterday's meditation topic), it will help us to reduce our attachment to things in this life. If we have a firm awareness of the inevitability of death and the uncertainty of its time, we naturally will value disciplined spiritual practice over transitory sense pleasures, wealth and power. If we realize karma and its consequences, we will not be tempted to engage in non-virtuous actions such as lying, stealing, hurting others in any stark or subtle way.

So, we build a strong determination to build the foundation for realizing ultimate reality within our minds by relying on/taking refuge in a teacher, these teachings and a sangha (group of friends to encourage us to practice).

Meditation Part 2:
Generate a strong conviction that these teachings, a teacher and a sangha are together your objects of refuge. Meditate on the mental attitude of faith until your feel your mind is transformed into that state and then hold it single-pointedly as if your mind has merged with an ocean of faith.

***

Contemplation Part 3

The actual method to protect ourselves from rebirth in the lower realms and the way to lay a foundation for spiritual realizations, is by observing the laws of karma and generating good, positive karma so that nothing comes in the way of your practice.

All our suffering comes from hurting people in the past. All our joy comes from helping people. Conviction in the laws of karma is the root of future happiness.

Contemplate these points until we develop a conviction in the truth of karma. Again, don't believe anything anyone says! Debate these points in your mind, with your teachers, with your sangha. Debate karma from every angle until you feel clear and firm in your belief. Is karma true?

Meditation Part 3

Contemplate the above until you develop conviction in the truth of karma. Take your time. Consult with many people. Consult with every aspect of your mind. Then, make the determination: Since I wish to be free from every misfortune and enjoy uninterrupted happiness, I must abandon harmful actions and engage only in kind, helpful actions. Make this determination firm by meditation on it.

*******

Dedication (see previous meditations - it is always the same)

******

Subsequent practices: During the day, remember the danger of taking lower rebirth. This helps maintain mindfulness and conscientiously avoid harmful actions that would hurt others. Be inspired to seek refuge in training your mind to be free of delusions. Feel inspired to spend time with teachers, teachings and a spiritual community that will help you to train your mind to reach the ultimate goals. Keep reminding yourself to engage in actions that help others and avoid actions that harm others in order to make your life meaningful and avoid any negative karma that would come in the way of your practice and your liberation. Generate faith in the laws of karma and its consequences - actions and their effects - engage in as much contemplation and debate as you wish.

*****

There is a lot to contemplate today! There is a lot to get comfortable with. This is why we have two meditations in a day! By the time we meditate, we almost have to have the points of contemplation memorized so that we don't spend all our meditation contemplating (which is more like study and review) and we spend some of the meditation time actually engaged in single-pointed concentration on the meditation topic.

This is why the lamrim can take months or years to master. Remember, in these two weeks, we are just getting a glimpse of the path leading to bliss...

With Love,
Reema

Journaling

2010-07-18T15:12:00.000-07:00

Please keep a daily meditation journal!

Include:

Date
Time and length of Meditation
Approximately how much of the meditation time did you use doing the preliminaries, contemplation, and meditation?
Any realizations you had during that session. Your general experience.
What affected your meditation in good ways and in bad ways? For ex, checking email right before meditation really affected my mind in a bad way...or eating light the night before made me feel great in my morning meditation or practicing at 7am is much better for me than practicing at 8am, etc...
Diet - write everything you ate that day - quantity, timing, quality of food, who prepared it, where did it come from, main ingredients
Asana, Pranayama, Mantra, Study...any other activity for your spiritual, mental, and/or physical wellbeing (what time and for how long)
Dreams
What did you do today for someone else

Try to be consistent. For example, if you meditate at 7am, make it 7am every morning. Do this with your diet too. Eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at the same time daily. Practice asana at the same time daily. As much as you can. This will make everything more beneficial. Be open to taking months to experiment with different times until you find a schedule that really works well with your system. But, if you are meditating once a day -- there is no decision-making necessary -- the time is early morning.

Meditation #3: Impermanence

2010-07-18T12:43:00.000-07:00

As you get more familiar with the prelim's and the flow to contemplation, meditation and dedication, you will enjoy the meditations more and more. This is the good news: Like yoga asana, meditation becomes more and more enjoyable and natural. The beginning is tough.

***

A Note on Preliminaries: Since the purpose of these two weeks is simply to get an overview of this path, if you are finding the preliminaries a bit overwhelming, you may just do the 7-limb practice (Preliminary #4 on the blog named "Preliminaries"). Just getting comfortable with these 7-limbs will be fantastic. If you have the time and the drive, go for the whole thing!

Topic 3: Impermanence

As you may have already experienced, it is hard to get to your meditation cushion everyday and work on the mind so intensively. It is hard for all of us.

One of the main reasons it is so tough to practice is because we are attached to worldly activities, and so may not have a strong wish to practice. To overcome this obstacle, we need to remind ourselves that everything in our lives, including our body, is impermanent.

The ways to make this life meaningful is to ensure that we will take a higher rebirth, we will attain liberation, we will achieve full enlightenment; realize ultimate truth, experience pure bliss and help others to do the same.

To motivate ourselves to work on the above goals, we meditate on impermanence and death. It may sound dark but again think of the long term. The purpose is to cultivate a strong motivation to pursue these intense practices. This path is challenging and we will need the motivation to be firm. Remember the power of realizations - once your have a direct uncontrived realization of something, it stays with you always and you don't ever have to spend a second contemplating the topic again.

Contemplation:

I am going to die. The timing of my death is uncertain. I may die any moment. Day by day, moment by moment, my life is slipping away.
Many young people die before their parents. Some die in accidents or due to illness. There is no certainty of how long we will live.

Meditation:

Mentally repeat: "I may die any day." Concentrate on the feeling it evokes.
You may come to a conclusion such as "Since I shall soon have to leave this world, it doesn't make sense to be attached to worldly things. I will devote at least a little bit of time everyday to practice spirituality so that by the time of my death, I will experience true liberation."

Meditate on this conclusion for as long as you can.

Dedication: Same everyday - see previous blogs. (In brief: I dedicate the virtue I have created in this meditation practice to the welfare of all)

Subsequent Practice: throughout the day, feel less attached to worldly objects remembering that at the moment of death you will have to part with all of them. All you will have is your mindstream - will you know about liberation? will you know about pure light? will you know about bliss? will you know how to take yourself to a higher rebirth? This path has all the answers. Be happy you have the karma to learn. Be happy we are training our minds together and preparing for beautiful, high states of being.

Practice these meditations. Even though they are not the brightest topic (death!), there is a brilliant reason for it. Practice, practice, practice, trust the yogis of past...soon we will come to more blissful topics of meditation, but for now we have to do the harder work....

Love,
Reema

Meditation Topic #2: Your Precious Life

2010-07-17T12:39:00.000-07:00

Hi Dears,

We are all on different time zones, so please meditate in the mornings.

***

Preliminaries (See blog labeled "Preliminaries)

Contemplation : Our precious human life

The purpose of today's meditation is to come to realize how incredibly precious this human life is because we have the opportunity to engage in a spiritual practice. We have teachings, we have teachers, we have our physical and mental health. Once we realize how precious this life is, we will have a strong determination to not waste one moment of this life and to use it to practice purely.

Specific points to contemplate:
We have all lived many, many lives here on Earth. We may have lived lives where we did not have access to such teachings. We may have lived in countries where we did not have freedom to practice what we want. We may have been born into families that were struggling too much to give us an education. This life we are living now is probably the best that we have ever had. We have an opportunity now to evolve fast and we must seize this opportunity because it may not come again and it will pass, like everything does.

Many beings take rebirth as animals or in hell and don't have the opportunity to practice. Even those who are born as humans, they may not have the leisure and fortune to listen to spiritual teachings or read about them and practice. Even today, not all people have freedom to practice what they wish. Some people are physically or mentally handicapped or incapacitated by accidents. Others suffer extreme poverty and are caught up in wars or natural disasters. Any day, this could be us. And perhaps we have lived countless lifetimes where we have experience such sufferings.

Realizing how lucky we are, we can think "Now I am free from all these impediments. I am very fortunate. I have the opportunity to listen to instructions and to put them into practice. I have faith in these instructions. I have complete mental and physical faculties and I can find the conditions necessary to practice."

***

From p 35 of Meditation Handbook

Think: "If I use this human life well by practicing, I shall be able to overcome all the problems of this life and protect myself from falling into a lower rebirth in the future. But practising the stages of the path I will be free from lower rebirths and attain the peace of liberation. By practising the stages of the greater scope, I can attain full enlightenment and then benefit all beings. This human life enables me to fulfill my principal wish - ultimate freedom and real happiness. I can only fulfill this with this human form."

******

As you may feel, the purpose of this meditation, is to realize how precious our life is and how lucky we are so that we use our time well. It inspires us to cut out all meaningless activity out of our life (like gossiping, putting others down, needless shopping...any activity that is just filling our time and not fulfilling our goals). At the same time, we must not judge each other. It is important to relax and engage in spontaneous, pleasurable activites.

Notice the power of this meditation. We all know that our life is precious and that we use our time well. But, when you engage in these kinds of meditations and allow stillness and silence and one-pointed concentration to allow the mind to shift from contemplation to meditation to contrived realization to uncontrived realizations -- then something shifts in your entire being, your entire consciousness that will prevent you from ever wasting a moment in your life.

You see this is why these meditations are actually saving you time. It may take an hour today to get used to the contemplations so that you can eventually meditate on them. But, that hour just saved you countless hours. This is the beauty and the power of lamrim;of realizing things very intimately and directly.

*******

MEDITATION: Contemplate all of the above points until you generate a feeling of deep appreciation for the preciousness of this human life, seeing that you have all the conditions for a successful spiritual practice. Think "I am very fortunate" and meditate on this feeling single-pointedly.

After a few minutes, think to yourself "I will use this precious human life to practice without wasting a moment." Meditate on this determination single-pointedly and hold your mind there for as long as you can -- hopefully long enough to experience the shifts in your mind.

****

Dedication:
Dedicate all the virtue you created in this meditation practice to the welfare of all.

****

Subsequent practice

Throughout your day, stay appreciative of this precious life. Even when things feel a little tough today, keep the big picture in mind all the time. Really maintain it and enjoy your mind and your resolve strengthen.

***

Thank you for your consistent practice and for sharing the journey.

Namaste,
Reema

Finding your teacher

2010-07-16T14:53:00.000-07:00

How do we find a teacher?

I. Teach!

Geshe Michael Roach reminds us that "Everything you want in life, give it to others first." Let this be our mantra, he says.

And, this is the teaching of the Buddha, of Confucius, and of St Francis of Assisi, who said, "It is in giving that we receive."

You don't have to go out and teach yoga or meditation necessarily...we all have something to offer...we all have people in our lives that we can help. We probably have people in our lives that have asked us for help and we just haven't made the time yet to serve them. We have to make the effort to teach and help others to the best of our capability. We each have much more to offer than we think. Teaching, giving, serving, helping others plants powerful seeds for a teacher to appear in our lives.

II. Ask

There is a power in simply humbling ourselves and asking for help. When you meditate or pray or close your eyes to dream or to sleep, in your heart, just ask for a teacher to come to you. Make it a daily habit until it happens. Check your motivation. Why do you want this teacher? Is it for your own goals? Or, is it because you want to be able to serve others in a meaningful way too? When our intention is to benefit ourselves as well as others, our prayers are answered.

Our yogis of the past were so humble, they said we can even beg for teachers or realizations or blessings. The realized being, Je Tsongkapa wrote the book, "Begging for a Mountain of Blessings," which is all about finding and serving a teacher. This book is also popularly known as "The Source of All My Good."

III. Recognize your teacher

Our teachers may very well appear to us as beings just like ourselves (ordinary and flawed!). They appear to us like this and may come into our lives as a friend or partner or "ordinary" teacher just because this is the way that they can get close to us and teach us. We must be receptive. Look around you. I'm sure there is a high holy being(s) in your life right now. Be receptive to their teachings and their subtle ways. Do not be deceived by their ordinary appearance.

High, realized being who are beyond this world come to us and emanate as ordinary beings - it is a kindness of theirs to come to us in this way and give us the opportunity to learn from them.

IV. Power of Surrender and Service

It can take years to recognize your teacher. And, it is natural to have doubts. Choosing your teacher is like choosing your partner. It has to feel right. You need a little time to check the teacher out and know whether there is potential for a strong bond...do you have a way to understand each other well? a way to communicate together well? is the relationship natural or forced? A good way to get to know a teacher is to get to know their students.

My teacher's students are incredibly bright, successful, generous, kind, selfless, loving, adventurous, artistic, free-spirited, fearless, creative, and entrepreneurial. Getting to know them helped me to know that this is the teacher for me. It can take years to make that decision, and that is fine. It is common and normal to take your time.

If you have someone in your life who you think might be the teacher for you, but are not sure, still act towards them as if they are your teacher. Until you know for sure, just pretend. Learn from them, serve them, surrender to them, and then it will start to become clear whether they are the one or not. Why should you do this? Because there is a power to service and surrender.

The more you surrender to a teacher and serve them, the more you empower them to teach you. It is beautiful. It may sound strange. And, it is just one of those things you have to experience yourself. You give the teacher power to teach you through your surrender and service. Again, if the ego is present, you won't even hear or see or be receptive to the teachings.

So you serve a teacher through your thoughts by building faith in them and regarding them as the emanation of the highest being. You generate respect for your teacher by recalling their kindness of teaching you, blessing you, being present for you. You serve a teacher by offering material things, showing them honor and respect, and following their instructions precisely. Again, even if you are not sure they are the one, pretend until it becomes clear...

***

You can read more on this subject in Pabongka Rinpoche's Liberation in Our Hands: Volume 2, pp 25-97.

A little excerpt from that section:

Qualities of a qualified teacher:

Energetic, but calm
Compassionate and patient
Eloquent
Learned in the scriptures
Realized ultimate reality
Ignores weariness
Virtuous qualities (that are superior to our own)
More concerned about others than him/herself

Qualities of a student:

Impartial and unbiased - neither attached to his own views nor averse to the views of others
Intelligent enough to distinguish good from bad
Hardworking
Great respect for teacher
Listen with attentive mind

***

Thank you. I know this is a lot of information so thank you for your time and great efforts!

For your evening meditation, use the above information as part of your contemplation. Go back to the entry "Day 2, Part 1" and go through the preliminaries, contemplation, meditation, dedication and subsequent practice. The only difference between this morning's meditation and this evening's meditation is that you have more information to contemplate.

Enjoy!

With love
Reema

Meditation # 1 A Teacher

2010-07-16T10:06:00.000-07:00

When listening to (or reading) these teachings, it is important to allow your mind to be open and supple. A great teacher Geshe Potowa went to the discourse of another great scholar, Geshe Chokyi Woser. Potowa benefited immensely from the teaching and said, "I didn't learn anything I had not learned before, but I did gain understandings I had never understood before." This is the the attitude we must also observe when learning these meditations. You may have heard about these realizations many times, but, have you understood them and realized them directly?

The magic of direct realizations is that once you realize them, the feeling never goes away - you never have to spend time doubting or contemplating these topics again because you have realized them directly - it is a permanent stage and it will save you so much time...it may feel slow at the beginning...but in the long run, it will actually speed your progress substantially. If you stick with this, you will reach the ultimate stages in this lifetime; jivanmukti. (Remember Lamrim means Stages on the Path. The final stage will be realizing ultimate reality.)

The first topic: Relying upon a Spiritual Guide

A few years ago, I would have brushed aside such a teaching or rolled my eyes believing this path is really about tapping into our intuition, and letting our intuition guide us to perfection because in our hearts we know what is best for us. I relied on my intuition for years and it was amazing! My intuition led me to focus on this path, to excel in my practice, to release fears and travel to unknown places with unknown people, to live a really wonderful, beautiful life that I am so so grateful for.

But, my intuition can only take me so far. If my goal is to move beyond my body, see past the physical, be as free and unbounded as light itself, truly make a significant difference in people's lives, experience lasting peace and happiness and ultimate truth...then, without doubt, I need a guide.

Remember, every spiritual tradition on this planet shares one teaching: Our Ego will Stop us from progressing on the spiritual path. We must destroy our ego. We have so much to experience, and it is coming in the way. If we knew how to attain these goals ourselves, we would be there now.
We need a teacher. In fact, our teacher is our path. Our teacher is the most important aspect of our path. Our teachers have achieved these goals and so they can get us there and they can get us there fast. Much faster than our intuition. if we rely on our intuition, it will take lifetimes - it will take lifetimes for our intuition to finally submit to the teachings of a higher being. But, if we release our ego now, and are receptive to a teacher (who is probably around us now and just waiting for us to recognize him/her) than we can achieve full Enlightenment/Freedom/Samadhi in this lifetime. Only with the help of a guide.

It took me years to realize this one teaching. I am sure you will realize it faster than me, and I rejoice for you :)

By the way, I am not your teacher :) I am your friend, giving you a humble snapshot of this path. A teacher is someone who you must have a personal relationship with. Someone you see face to face, who you can talk to, sit with, ask questions to. Eventually, you will build such a strong heart connection with your teacher that the physical distance of space and time will not matter. But, in the beginning you need a teacher that is close to you. So, if you have a teacher, thank them, serve them, learn from them, spend time with them, shower them with gifts. This teacher is the one who is going to guide you to clear and pure light. By following the directions of this teacher, you will attain the highest goals and will also be able to help others achieve the highest states. This teacher will get to know you so well, not only will they guide you, they will guide you perfectly and swiftly. And, if you don't have a teacher, close your eyes and ask for them to grace your life- like in the preliminaries. We will get into this topic of finding and serving a teacher in more detail in a moment.

Each of the 21 meditations in the Lamrim has five parts: Preliminaries, Contemplation, Meditation, Dedication and Subsequent Practice.

The purpose of contemplation is to bring to mind the object we will eventually meditate on. Contemplation includes reasoning, contemplating analogies, reflecting on scriptures, debating a given point from all angles. Remember, we never accept things on this path until we feel them directly. For example, I am not writing all of these things about a teacher so that you go on and accept that you need a teacher because of my words. No, no! You must - yourself - come to the conclusion that you need a teacher to rely upon. So, in the contemplation, you will debate this point in your own mind until it becomes clear to you. Only then, will the single-pointed meditation begin. And, of course, if and when you have a teacher, you can supplement your daily meditations with debates on all of the meditation topics with your teacher and/or with your spiritual friends or sangha.

Today's Contemplation: See page 31 of "A Meditation Handbook" (on your reading list)

We think -- If I rely sincerely upon a Spiritual Guide, he or she will lead me along the spiritual path, which is the only way I can solve all my problems and make my life meaningful. I shall gradually draw closer to the the attainments of full freedom and truth. All beings will be delighted with me. I shall be protected from harm. I shall find it easy to abandon delusions and harmful actions. My practical experience of the spiritual path will increase. I shall never be born in lower hell realms. In all my future lives, I will meet well qualified Spiritual Guides. All my virtuous wishes for beneficial conditions in this world as well as for liberation beyond this world, will be fulfilled.

Contemplate these benefits until you generate a determination to rely upon a Spiritual Guide sincerely and with faith. The object of your meditation is this determination. You must contemplate the above points - debate them from every angel in your mind (and on this blog, feel free to debate by leaving comments) - debate, analyze, contemplate, reflect, until you have an experience of clarity on this topic. Once you experience that shift in your mind - from debate to solid clarity - you meditate on the determination to rely upon a spiritual guide for as long as possible.

With practice, shifts will occur in your mind. From contemplation to clarity to holding the clarity (meditation)- to contrived realizations to uncontrived realizations. When the shift in your mind truly happens, you will know it. It is a strong experience.

--

So far we have gone over Preliminaries, Contemplation and Meditation.

The fourth part of the session is Dedication. Dedicate all the merit you have cultivated by engaging in the preliminaries, contemplation and meditation to protect that virtue so that it will not be destroyed by a mental affliction like anger or jealousy once you leave your meditation cushion. Dedicate the merit to really bring you closer to Truth. You can think, "May I realize these instructions so that I may experience ultimate freedom and bliss quickly and lead others there quickly as well."

--

Congratulations! The first day of meditation is the hardest! So much instruction...but, it will just start to get more natural and effortless.

Thank you for your patience and practice!

If you don't have a stop watch, please invest in a stop watch that gives you the option of setting two times - Set one for 35 minutes and one for 10 minutes. Allow 10 minutes for the preliminaries, 25 minutes for contemplation and meditation, and then after the second timer goes off, take a minute or two to dedicate.

Once you leave your cushion today, when you have some breaks in your day, think about your teacher. If you have one, think of their positive qualities and in your heart thank them for their presence in your life. Feel inspired to listen to them and follow their advise and instructions. If you don't have a teacher, be encouraged by the determination made in your meditation to find one. In the next session, we will go into more depth on how to find and serve and learn from a qualified teacher.

Namaste,
Reema

Day 1 The Preliminaries

2010-07-15T09:03:00.000-07:00

Welcome!

Pabongka Rinpoche wrote three books (Liberation in Our Hands: Volumes 1, 2 and 3) to cover the Lamrim Meditations. The first entire book (Volume 1) is dedicated to the Preliminaries. Having a solid practice of the preliminaries is the foundation for success in your meditation; a direct uncontrived realization of the topic of the day.

For now, I recommend 30-40 minutes per meditation session. The preliminaries will make up about 10 minutes of that meditation session, so you will have at least 20 solid minutes to rest your mind on that day's topic of meditation.

Today, we will use the entire meditation time to go through the preliminaries, so that they become comfortable enough for you to go through with ease over the following days and weeks.

Every detail in the preliminaries exists to benefit every complexity of our minds. Everyday, you will become more proficient with the preliminaries so that what today may take you 35 minutes to go over, will only take you 10 minutes in the coming days...

Know that all of the teachings in the Lamrim are the authentic teachings of the Buddha, who I personally feel is the greatest yogi that we know of, whose teachings have miraculously been preserved and passed down over generations...whose teachings have survived despite the destruction of monasteries and temples throughout India, Nepal and Tibet throughout history. Let's be grateful that these teachings have appeared in our lives, handed down with such respect and care and vision for each of our Liberation.

Preliminary #1: Clean!

Clean your meditation space - not to satisfy the desire to live in a comfortable, attractive surrounding, but for the purpose of serving and honoring all the holy beings of the past and present, from every spiritual tradition and every corner of the globe, so that they may bless our minds and our practice.

By cleaning, our own mind becomes clear. You can think of sweeping your floor like sweeping your mind free of anxiety, jealously, and any ill feelings towards others and yourself. Once we rid ourselves of impure thoughts, our minds are ready to receive teachings.

Other benefits of cleaning:
-Your mind and the minds of other people around you become clear.
-Holy beings across time and space are pleased.
-You plant beautiful seeds to be in clean surroundings in the future.

Preliminary #2: Offerings!

In your meditation space, you may want to create an alter. This is not necessary, but, completely your choice, something you can have fun with, something that will simply make you feel good. Remember, this is not about being religious, this path is about clearing and training our minds to experience things beyond the physical, to ultimately experience the clear light of truth and bliss, a light which can take us beyond the ups and downs of daily life, beyond illusions, beyond mental afflictions like fear and sadness. This is a practice to develop our minds.

On your alter, you may place flowers or candles to simply honor yourself and all holy beings. If you have someone in your life that you admire, place a photo of them on your alter - someone like Jesus, the Buddha, Krishna, Allah, St Teresa of Avila...or someone like your Grandmother or Mother or Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Beethoven, Jimi Hendrix, William Blake! Whoever you perceive as holy is perfect. It can even be a photo of the ocean or mountains --- anything that brings peace and calm to your mind...you are free - be creative and happy! This is for the benefit of your mind -- give yourself this time -- we have such amazing guidance to step by step make our minds light, open, happy...

Once you have an image on your alter, place an offering such as a flower or candle, fruit or even just water or a simple leaf! The actual item does not matter...what matters is your motivation...to gain control of your mind so that you can experience full freedom, pure truth and a lasting bliss for yourself and for all beings. (Everything you do now in these meditations is for this purpose.) Having the blessings of holy beings is priceless.

Preliminary #3: Sit on your meditation cushion!

Be comfortable. You don't have to sit in lotus! Half lotus or simple cross legged position is fine. And, sitting on a chair is also just fine. Please be comfortable...we are going to sit for at least 30 minutes!

If you are sitting on the floor, invest in a nice meditation cushion. (You can find one on www.sunandmoonoriginals.com)
A cushion is important because when you sit, your back should be slightly higher than your front. This will have special purpose in the practice of tantra.

A few important points on your meditation posture:

-The body's midsection should be held erect so that the vertebrae are lined up like a stack of coins. When the body is erect, the channels become aligned. This allows the psychic winds to move through the channels more freely, thus promoting mental fitness. Actually, through one-pointed concentration, which we will engage in, you will attain states of mental and physical ease - you have to experience it to believe it... :)

-The head should be bent forward so as to press lightly on the larynx. (Slight engagement of Jalahandhra Bandha).

- Lower the eyes to the tip of the nose or gaze with your eyes slightly open to the space on the floor in front of you. I tend to close my eyes, but, the scriptures recommend keeping the eyes slightly open to avoid languor and excitation.

- Place the right hand over the left, thumbs touching and held at the level of the navel.

- Shoulders level

Once you have you are comfortable in your seat:

1. Calm the mind through a brief breathing meditation. Take your gaze inwards and begin to listen to your heart beat. Make the inhale 4 heartbeats and the exhale 4 heartbeats. Like this, steady your breath and begin to steady your mind. 10 breaths like this. If the mind is being unruly, imagine that you exhale your negative, distracting thoughts, and you inhale the pure light within and around you.

2. The holy being(s) you thought of while doing your offerings in prelim #2, think of them now and ask them to protect you from the illusions and dangers of worldly life and to bless you to have higher experiences.

3. In your heart, state your motivation firmly. We want to have a direct realization of ultimate truth for our own welfare as well as that of all beings. This feeling that we are meditating and practicing for others as much as for ourselves is crucial. It is common for all of us -- of course, myself included -- to think of ourselves more than we think of others. When we practice lamrim and later tantra, the motivation must be firm in our beings that we are practicing to bring truth and bliss to ourselves and others.

Preliminary #4 7-limbs to accumulate worthiness for Wisdom and to purify obstacles

1. Call to mind that person or teacher- or set of people on your alter- that you admire, that is holy to you...that being(s) that has all the qualities that you want to cultivate within yourself - wisdom, love, beauty, generosity. Whoever that person/teacher is to you - whether they are living or have passed on -- imagine them in the space in front of you. With your eyes closed, imagine that being in front of you. Feel that they are really present in front of you. Stay seated on your meditation cushion with your eyes closed, heart open, ego gone, and bow to them. In your heart -- without physically moving -- bow to them simply to show your respect and appreciation that they have given you something to aspire towards. Feel your heart swell. Feel the joy of letting your ego go.

2. In your mind, present an offering to this being. This time use your imagination. It can be a simple flower like before or it can be an entire garden or luxurious feast or a world free of hunger and hatred. Let your mind expand. Use your imagination. My teacher suggests to use this time to offer one good thing you did in your life. For example, a moment that you battled anger. Perhaps you gave into anger and then you apologized. This is an example of something you can offer to this being - one good think that you did. Offerings have an incredibly beneficial effect on our mind, creating a vast amount of merit for the teachings and also countering any tendency towards miserliness. Remember, these teachings take into account the many complexities of the human mind.

3. Confess something to this being/teacher that you are not proud of. Confession is a powerful too in many traditions for purification. If you have something on your conscience, you can't concentrate. Just get rid of it! Give it to your teacher or any high being!

4. Rejoice in one good thing that someone else did that inspires you. Think of the great things that will come to that person's life because of their good action, and rejoice for them. Now, think of one more good thing that you did and rejoice for yourself too! Rejoicing for other's good things is a great way to overcome jealousy and competitiveness...all obstacles to our goal of experiencing ultimate truth :)

5. Ask that special teacher in your life to teach you, guide you, inspire you, help you. If you don't have a teacher yet - close your eyes, go deep inside your heart, and from the core of your heart, ask your teacher to come to you. With all sincerity, with pure motivation to want to progress on this path for the benefit of all beings, ask your teacher (even if you don't have someone specific in mind) to enter your life. Say that you are ready and ask them to please come, to please stay, to please bless you.

We each have a guide out there that is perfect for us. If you already have one, use this time to remember them and cultivate a strong heart connection with them, wherever they may be. If you don't have one yet, ask them to come, ask daily with pure love, and they will come.

6. Ask your teacher to stay in your life, in your heart, even if they are on the other side of the world.

7. Dedicate all the goodness of this 7-limb practice towards attaining our goal of having a direct perception of Truth for the benefit of all.

--

Now that we have purified our mind, accumulated merit and received blessings, we are ready to go to the actual meditation object. We will go into that tomorrow. For now, acquaint yourself with these preliminaries, which are perfectly preparing our minds for profound meditations.

If you have Liberation in Our Hands, read as much of the first volume as you can. If you have Geshe Kelsang Gyatso's Meditation handbook, read pp 3-27.

Thank you for your patience and practice! Rejoice in your great efforts! Enjoy, Enjoy, Enjoy! Feel your mind expand and enlighten, your heart break open, your ego disappear.

Practice the preliminaries twice today. Two 35 minute sessions!

Namaste,
Reema

Lamrim: The Big Picture

2010-07-14T15:03:00.001-07:00

The most exquisite teachings of Meditation were translated into English for the first time in the 1990s. So recent!

These particular teachings, called the "Lamrim," were brought to Tibet from India by the Indian Yoga Master, Atisha, in the eleventh century. Atisha condensed all the mind training teachings of the Buddha (563-483BC) into the Lamrim because he himself felt that after decades of practicing yoga intensively, he needed specific techniques to train his mind to experience ultimate reality.

Lamrim is also the essential preparation for Tantra, the fast path to omniscience where bliss is the vehicle used to experience ultimate truth and permanent bliss for ourselves and all beings. The success of one's Tantra practice depends on the ability to gather and dissolve prana into the central channel through the power of meditation and subtle body yoga practices. You need a qualified teacher to guide you in the practice of Tantra. For now, our task is to master the Lamrim teachings.

I have been in the world of yoga since I was born, and only recently - ten years after teaching yoga and a lifetime of practicing - have I realized the brilliance of the "Lamrim," which means "Stages on the Path (to Enlightenment)." The Lamrim takes into account all the complexities of the human mind and offers a systemic and comprehensive approach to train the mind. Realizations experienced in lamrim meditations build upon each other until we realize ultimate reality.

Lamrim is designed to be a self study. The three books, "Liberation in Our Hands, Parts 1, 2 and 3," by Pabongka Rinpoche offer a complete guide to the Lamrim meditations which practitioners can read on their own and guide themselves through. This is the first translation of the complete Lamrim into English - just published in the 1990s!

In this blog, we will go through the brilliant, step by step Lamrim meditations. I urge you to join me on this journey. Please buy the 3 volumes of "Liberation in Our Hands," and in case you don't have them, I will offer a brief description of each meditation in this blog so that you can then guide yourself and your students through them.

Our practice of asana, pranayama, and nutrtion must continue as we engage in Lamrim. The blog will offer ayurvedic recipes, mantra, and yoga tips throughout our course of study...

Direct Realizations: How the Lamrim Works
The Lamrim is designed for each practitioner to take themselves through a guided meditation and then hold their concentration on the meditation object of that day until they experience a direct realization of that day's topic. It is stated in the Vedas, "Only what you experience is real. What you learn from a teacher is Knowledge. What you learn through your own direct experience is Wisdom." The Lamrim gives you the experience of Wisdom; direct, uncontrived realizations.

In can take years to master the Lamrim meditations. Pobongka Rinpoche encourages us to first become proficient at the meditation topics - get to know them - get a good overview of all the Lamrim teachings - and then go over them again more slowly in order to elicit contrived and eventually uncontrived experiential realizations.

For now, we will go through the meditation topics fairly quickly to get a good feeling of this path. We will take two weeks to go through the 21 meditation topics of the Lamrim. We may go into this with just a modest feeling of wanting to get to know these topics and become familiar with the meditations...but, you might just have uncontrived realizations sooner than later.

We will meditate twice a day - once in the morning and once in the evening. Each meditation will be a minimum of 30 minutes and a maximum of one hour. Please try not to fall behind because doing the meditations daily and at a steady pace like this is powerful in itself. If you do fall behind, don't worry too much...just pick up where you left off.

14 days. 21 meditations. A chance to prepare for a direct experience of a bliss that lasts, and a reality beyond illusions.

Today's homework:
1) Create a nice, clean space in your home where you will meditate.

2) Look at your schedule for the next two weeks. Find at least half an hour twice a day to do the meditations. In case you need to do the two meditations in one sitting, that is ok. Two shorter meditations per day are recommended over one long meditation. For example, two half hour sittings are recommended over one 60 minute sitting.

3) Purchase a meditation journal, where you will keep track of your meditation, diet, and yoga each day.

4) Close your eyes. Think of one person in your life who is having an especially hard time. Dedicate this two week meditation journey to them. In your heart, say to them, "I am doing this for you. I will experience peace, clarity, truth, bliss and wisdom...for you." Imagine yourself being that person's refuge. Keep them in your heart. All day today, feel happy that you are about to embark on this journey, not only for your own evolution, but for theirs as well and then imagine the snowball effect.

5) Be so happy to not only experience these meditations, but to also be able to share the journey with Lamrimpa's (practitioners of Lamrim) everywhere.

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Personally, I could have spent this summer going to Brazil with one of my best friends to spend time with Shamans in the Amazon. I could have toured around the world to the most sublime retreat centers and yoga studios teaching yoga and singing mantra. I could have planned trips with my beautiful friends and gone home to spend time with my newborn, precious nephew. But, I have decided to use my time ---finally, finally, finally --- to be still.

I am choosing to make meditation the most important part of my day...to let everything i need to do in the day be scheduled around my two meditation sessions. Make stillness, silence, and solitude my priority. This is my choice. This is what I feel we must do to truly meditate and have our own realizations - beyond what we read in books or hear in lectures.

The Lamrim, Yoga, Tantra are far beyond religion. These are practices that enable us to develop our minds and experience ultimate truth, bliss and freedom for ourselves and all beings. Every spiritual tradition has a practice of meditation - Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, Shamans, Sufiis...every spiritual practice leads to silence and stillness - the conditions for Wisdom. I am choosing the way of the Lamrim because the Lamrim is part of the original teachings of Yoga and offers very specific instructions from the beginning of the path (having a Teacher) to the very end of the path (Enlightenment/Moksha/Samadhi).

My practice of yoga asana, pranayama, and mantra help me on this path, but, I need more instruction to purify and train my mind as did Atisha in the 11th Century. Having mastered the Lamrim, Atisha succeeded in experiencing ultimate Bliss and Wisdom directly as did generations of Tantric masters that followed him.

Today, we prepare. On Thursday, July 15th, we begin our first meditation.

Thank you to my teachers for your blessings on this journey.

Namaste!

PS I feel compelled to write this blog and inspire you to join me because the Lamrim is having such an incredible impact on me. Though I have been following aspects of the Lamrim meditations for over 4 years, it is only in the past five days - twice a day - that I have been going through each topic in its original sequence as it was intended to be practiced centuries ago. On day one, I felt a surge of bliss, an opening in my heart that brought on so much elation, I didn't know what to do with myself! By day 3, not only did I feel bliss and lightness after meditation, but also a great urgency to help others in all the best ways I know how. By day 4, along with the post-meditation bliss and clarity, I was able to use the energy to focus on my work, being more productive than usual and finding extra time in my day to do things for others...