meditation #1: is it true that great compassion helps single-pointed concentration? sit in a...

Meditation #1: Is it true that Great Compassion helps single-pointed concentration?

Sit in a comfortable position. Focus on the breath single-pointedly for the benefit of others.

Let’s review what Master Kamilashila taught us.

To reach single-pointed concentration we have to open our hearts to others.

Decide from your own experience, if it is true.

– Would wanting to end others’ suffering get you out of bed to meditate?

– Would Great Compassion push you in meditation to find the cure for suffering.

– Would Great Compassion keep you from hurting others, adding to their pain, and disturbing your mind.

Tip: Sometimes people have difficulty with analytical meditation.

The key is that you have to play two sides. You have to have an opponent there.

– And then it’s a debate coming up with reasons and counter-reasons until you reach a conclusion.

– So you can prove to yourself what is the truth.

The analytical meditation is a tool to root out doubt.

– Don’t just accept things as the truth. Bring the doubt to the surface and question it.

– Is it valid? or is it something else?

– You have to come to the answer by yourself. Not because someone told you, but because you saw it. That is the purpose of an analytical meditation. It’s the doubt destroyer.

– When you have conviction, then you will implement it.

– People don’t act because they still have doubt.

What to Track in your Meditation. (That that gets measured, get done. )15-30 minutes time in the beginning. Better concentration for shorter periods is better to habituating long periods of distraction.

– Track your meditation. Every time you meditate. Write down:

• How long the meditation. What % did you feel you were on the object or note how many times your mind left the object.

• The quality of the meditation. (Use 9 stages of meditation, where you are, if you can)

• Something you learned. Simple or profound realization. Short, your more likely to do it.

• Resolution about what to do from your meditation.1

Bok Jinpa Course 1: Class 1: The Key

Bok Jinpa Course I: Class 1: The Key

Meditation #2: The Embodiment of Great Compassion

Your Holy Root Lama or whoever you see as the highest incarnation of goodness sits in front of you.

See them looking at you with eyes of total love. (Describe them in words to make their image clearer to your mind)

You’re so thankful that they have great compassion.

– See that they want to keep you out of suffering.

– That they want to raise you to your highest level.

– Or they wouldn’t be able to teach you.

They wouldn’t have sacrificed themselves over and over to teach you.

Think about their qualities and how it relates to having great love in their hearts.

See a light coming from their heart. It fills your heart with Great Compassion for others.

– You receive the blessing and feel what they feel.

They shrink smaller into the light and enter your heart, so you can carry them with you all day long.

Tip: Those are the two meditations you will do for class one.

You will have a natural propensity to do 29 minutes analytical and 1 minute Lama devotion or the 29 minutes Lama devotion and 1 minute analytical. This depends on your natural propensity. Try to do an even amount of both and become a balanced practitioner.

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Meditation #1 The Three Sufferings

We’re going to focus on the Suffering of Change.

Try to find something in your life that you will be able to keep.

Maybe you like your mind. Ask yourself if even the thoughts in your mind will go.

Suffering of Change is connected to the first Mahamudra level. Everything changes. There is nothing you can grasp on to.

Then try to get in touch with the Third type of suffering. This constant impulse to go after things that won’t make us happy.

– It’s this same ignorance that makes us so out of control in our lives.

When you do this meditation. Apply this not only to yourself. Apply it to others as well.

– That will increase your compassion.

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Bok Jinpa Course I: Class 2: Opening Our Heart

Meditation #2: The pain of the lower realms.

– Just remember you have been asking the Holy Lama for great compassion all week. Now is your chance.

– Think of some situation you know of in which a person would have felt like they are in hell.

– Think about their pain.

– Think about how that pain is a projection of your mind

– Think about what you can do with your practice to change it.

– Then think about how somebody is experiencing the pain of a craving spirit

– Again think about that coming from your own mind and what you must do to change it.

– Go on to someone you know who has experienced some kind of fear like being attacked mentally or physically. Or someone under the will of another person who can’t decide how to live their own life.

– Again think about that coming from your own mind and what you must do to change it.

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Bok Jinpa Course I: Class 2: Opening Our Heart

Meditation #1: Compassion and Equanimity meditation to expand your circle.

Feel compassion and sorrow for those close to us. – See how their life is full of pain. And want to help them.

See how you have decided that this is a person inside my circle, that I want to care about. — See that it was a concept. A choice.

Look at the suffering of those not close to us, outside of your circle. — Think about widening your circle to accompany them. — How hard would it be? Isn’t just a mental choice?

Think about how their pain is the same as people that are close to you. — They also don’t like pain. — Think how they also need you.

Meditation #2: Creating a secret identity to care for all beings.

Picture someone who is slightly more advanced than you.— Think about how you normally relate to them.— That’s o.k. in your outside world, but in your inner world, now you are going to

have a secret, different relationship with them.

Think about their pain. Think about how they are going to stop their pain. — In our projection, the only way they can stop their pain is if we stop their pain

through our practice.— So investigate how they need us to help them. Does everything rely on you.

Create a vision in your mind as the person who will save them.— Because no matter what relationship you have with them now, when you become

enlightened you won’t leave any being behind.

Now think of this person, and see inside their heart, that they are still a little child, because they don’t know any of the answers yet. — They are in need of guidance and you need to help them.

Bok Jinpa Course I: Class 3: Creating the Wish

Meditation #1: Making our activities Bodhisattva Practices.

1. Think about the activities that you normally do during the day.

– Wake up, brush your teeth, meditate, shower, eat, go to work etc.

2. Think about, according to the definition, how many of these are Bodhisattva activities.

– Bodhisattvas want to do the thing that will get them to enlightenment as quickly as possible, because that will be the best benefit to others.

3. Think about the ones that weren’t Bodhisattva activities.

— Ask yourself, what would it take to make them Bodhisattva activities.

4. Picture yourself already a Bodhisattva and picture yourself how your mind would go through the day.

(You can also focus on just one of the stages of this meditation)

Meditation #2: Diagnostic of the mind. Focus on the breath.

1. Simply focus on the breath and really try to track your own mind, using the obstacles to meditation and the antidotes

2. You will have to find a reason to do this to make it important, so way to increase your motivation.

— Make it a Bodhisattva activity. You are doing this to still your mind to have a platform for gaining wisdom needed to achieve enlightenment.

3. Obstacles to Meditation (5)

n Laziness (Not wanting to do it)

n Forgetting the instruction(Losing the Object)

n Dullness and Agitation

n Not Taking Action

n Taking Action when unneccessary

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Bok Jinpa Course I: Class 5: This Bodhisattva

List of Antidotes (8)

1. Conviction (Know the benefits)

2. Aspiring (Wanting it)

3. Making effort.

4. Gaining agility.

5. Recollection of the object.

6. Vigilence (Watchfulness)

7. Taking Action.

8. Not taking action.

Meditation #1: Bringing the Lama to Navel and Heart

1. Focus on your breath for just a minute.

2. Now picture the purest being you can imagine sitting above your head. They have the essence of your heart lama. If you don’t have a heart lama, picture the person you feel most indebted towards.

3. Imagine their body is glowing with a white or gold light. Pouring out of their body. Don’t worry about the details, just try to really feel them up there.

4. They make a clone of themselves, like a flame from one butter lamp to another butter lamp and suddenly there are two flames. See the second angel being go down inside your body. And rests right at the spot level with your navel.

5. They shrink down to the size of a split pea. Try to hold your mind on that one single point.

6. We can zoom in to this tiny point. We are picturing the Lama at this tiny point, but they are larger so we can see every detail.

7. The Lama at the top them gets smaller and goes down and rests at your heart. The Lama at your navel comes up and merges with the Lama at the heart so there is just one Lama there.

Meditation # 2: Controlling the breath to control the mind.

1. First remember why we are sitting here. Bring someone who is suffering in front of you to work for them. You must get to your goals in order to help them.

2. Now focus on your breath going out and coming in.

3. Now try and see how long your out breath is. Measure it in heart beats. How long the out breath is. How long the in breath is. Try to equal them out. Have the same number of beats for the the out breath as the in breath.

4. Now try to increase the exhale by one beat and the inhale by one beat. Quiet your breath. Make it thin and long.

5. The quality of your breath tells you about the quality of your mind. If the mind is still try to add another beat on either side of the breath.

6. Now go back to breathing normally. On every exhale, think of some negative quality. But still keep the same calm, thin, breath.

7. With every inhale picture that you are receiving blessings from a holy being. The blessings can be an antidote. And still on the exhale you can release negative qualities.

8. Now exhale the bad qualities through your right nostril and inhale all the good qualities through your left nostril.

Bok Jinpa Course I: Class 6: The Two Combined

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Bok Jinpa Course I: Class 7: All the Way

#1 Breath Meditation: Withdrawing the World

First remember why you are here, by now you have developed your own personal intention that works best for you so just call upon it.

So now put your main focus on your breath and at the same time we will have this peripheral focus of the feeling that we are here at Shanti Yoga.

– Feel the space around you.

Then we are going to narrow our focus a bit, Drop the outside of this building and just keep the awareness of being inside this building.

– Focusing in slowly.

Now focus a bit more and just include this room.

– So everyone is clear, we are putting our main focus on our breath but putting our peripheral focus on this room.

Now focus the mind in a little bit further so that perhaps it’s just you and the people right next to you.

Now focus in so that it just your own body that’s on the outside.

– Your focusing on your breath but you are a little bit aware that you are in your body.

Now drop the lower part of your body and you are in your head.

– You are breath and that’s the main focus but you are aware of the rest of your skull.

Then drop that and just have a peripheral awareness of your nose as you focus on a tiny point inside of it.

Bok Jinpa Course I: Class 8: The Middle Way

Meditation #1: Why does method create bliss?

This is an analytical meditation.

The scriptures say that the way karma works and the only way to become happy is to serve others: putting your focus on someone else.

We’ve gone through the scriptures. Now we need to look for ourselves why this is the case.

Why, when we focus outside ourselves do we get happiness inside ourselves.

– How does that work karmically?

You can do a test in your mind… think about eating a dinner for yourself compared to cooking a dinner for someone else.

Think about how you feel in each case and think about why that is.

– Then take this to the furthest extreme.

Why is it the case that you get physical and mental total bliss as final result of all the method activities?

What is it about acting within the world of your projections that creates a world of bliss?

Last Step.

– Think about one good karma in your life and think about how you caused it.

Meditation #2:Creating a secret identity to care for all beings.

Picture someone who is slightly more advanced than you.— Think about how you normally relate to them.— That’s o.k. in your outside world, but in your inner world, now you are going to have a secret,

different relationship with them.

Think about their pain. Think about how they are going to stop their pain. — In our projection, the only way they can stop their pain is if we stop their pain through our practice.— So investigate how they need us to help them. Does everything rely on you.

Create a vision in your mind as the person who will save them.— Because no matter what relationship you have with them now, when you become enlightened you

won’t leave any being behind.

Now think of this person, and see inside their heart, that they are still a little child, because they don’t know any of the answers yet. — They are in need of guidance and you need to help them.

This could radically change your view of the people around you, if you practice that state of mind as seeing everyone, even the people you don’t care for everyday, as someone like a child inside.

Master Kamilashila got this practice of equanimity and great compassion from Lord Buddha in the Abhidharma.

This is the quintessential text on meditation for the Tibetans. This is what they first started on.

— So it’s really kind of Christie-hla to give us this text. This is really what Americans should be starting on.

By doing these five meditations:

– 1. On the three types of suffering. 2. On the suffering of the realms. 3. On the pain of people who are friends, neutral, or enemies. 4. On people who are better, equal, or less than us in some way. 5. On becoming a person to end suffering.

– By meditating like this, we will end up making a commitment to guide every living being.

– The wish for enlightenment will come without strain, just by meditating on other people’s pain.

Meditating on other people’s pain is the key to setting your meditation on fire.

– It’s the fast track to gaining every good quality and understanding wisdom.

– Which is why these last two classes on Great Compassion, Nying Je Chenpo, were so important.

Bok Jinpa Course 1: Class 3: Creating the Wish

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Meditation to start the class: Focus on the breath with intention.

1. Focus on the breath.

2. Bring someone you know is in pain in front of you. Think about the way you could help them to get rid of this pain, through our own practice.

3. Make a resolution for the next few minutes, that you will focus your mind single-pointedly for them.

4. Now go back to your breath, letting the person fade from your view. Focus your mind on your breath, at your nostrils, where the breath leaves the body. Stay there single-pointedly.

5. Watch how fast the breath is flowing out at the exhale. See how it tapers off before the inhale.

So as Master Kamilshila says: It’s not the object. It’s the intention.

– We have a motivation behind our actions, based on trying to help other people.

– This is the key to really moving along quickly on our path.

It’s not always easy. At times you will feel like you are going backwards, not making progress for extend time periods.

– Without a strong motivation to help others, you won’t be able to keep going.

We went through all the realms. And found there wasn’t a good situation. No good options, no way to succeed

There is a no way in the outside world that you can manipulate the situation conventionally to help someone else.

– There is no amount of listening to other people’s troubles that is going to make them happy.

– There is no amount of food that you can give to make them happy.

– It won’t happen like that.

There is nothing we can do to help them except succeed in our own practice.

– That knowledge has to be strong in your mind when you are sitting in your retreat during your second year and things aren’t going well.

– Your motivation has to be so strong.

You have to know you can help others more by doing your own practice, then going out and helping others in the world

– We’re not used to thinking this way, so we have to confront our doubt.

– Your whole life you have been helping people conventionally and it hasn’t given them any happiness that will last.


They say the best thing to do is to teach other people.

– But you won’t be able to teach them without realizing the teachings in your own mind.

– And ultimately, if any in the room will get what you are teaching has to do with the quality of your own practice anyway. They are a projection of your mind.

Every single person is relying on you, to do your own practice, rely on your realizations, and change the projections of them.

Master Kamilashila reminds us that every appearance is filled with suffering.

– We’re out of control. Don’t understand what is going on.

Today is the second step to getting great compassion in our hearts.

Now that we have gone through suffering in general, he wants to bring us back to look at people close to us, and feel their pain.

1. Feel compassion and sorrow for those close to us.

2. Look at the suffering of those not close to us, neutral. Feel compassion for them.

3. Look at the suffering of those who don’t like you. Feel compassion for them.

To create more compassion you have to look at how you define you and others and how they really exist.

– You definition of I at a subtle level is very fluid. When you say “I am looking at my hand.” You have subtly separated hand from I.

– The county will let us build here. Now we have a conglomerate us. A group of composite parts that is somehow me.

– You have almost nothing in common with the you at seven. Yet you are overlaying something in your mind and calling it me.

– So I is really a concept. And really quite flexible.

Meditation #1:Kamilashila’s Compassion and Equanimity meditation to expand your circle.

1. Feel compassion and sorrow for those close to us. See how their life is full of pain. And want to help them.

2. See how you have decided that this is a person inside my circle, that I want to care about. See that it was a concept. A choice.

3. Look at the suffering of those not close to us, outside of your circle. Think about widening your circle to accompany them. How hard would it be?

4. Think about how their pain is the same as people that are close to you. They also don’t like pain. Think how they also need you.


There are two ways to get beyond that sense of a border between ourselves and the other people that we see.

One way is to investigate the line between you and others. To investigate the emptiness of who you include and who you do not.

– To see what a concept it is. How fluid it is.

The other is to practice an inner secret identity toward the three divisions of people.

1. This person is lower than me

2. This person is equal to me

3. This person is better than me

(Or they are better is this way, I am better in that way)

– It’s the discrimination heap at work, automatically.

The problem is when someone is perceived as our peer or better than us, it becomes really hard to want to help them.

– (Or then you are helping them because you think you will get something).

The antidote for this is interesting. It’s creating a stronger sense of yourself, that doesn’t rely on other people’s opinions of you. Doesn’t rely on your status.

– (It’s you as a secret agent, who will take care of everybody. Who will save every being on this planet. You know your true identity, independent of how they see you)

Who we like is also funny.

– We call someone a friend, who we perceive as liking us.

– We call someone neutral, who we perceive as being neutral to us.

– We call someone an enemy, who we perceive as not liking us.

– In a way, this is letting other people direct who we are going to be. You have to overcome this. You don’t have to do this. You can be consistent with everyone.

We need a strong sense of self that won’t be shaken by someone having a different opinion about you.


Meditation #2:Creating a secret identity to care for all beings.

1. Picture someone who is slightly more advanced than you.

2. Think about how you normally relate to them.

3. That’s o.k. in your outside world, but in your inner world, now you are going to have a secret, different relationship with them.

4. Think about their pain. Think about how they are going to stop their pain. In our projection, the only way they can stop their pain is if we stop their pain through our practice.

5. So investigate how they need us to help them. Does everything rely on you.

6. Create a vision in your mind as the person who will save them.

7. Because no matter what relationship you have with them now, when you become enlightened you won’t leave any being behind.

8. Now think of this person, and see inside their heart, that they are still a little child, because they don’t know any of the answers yet. They are in need of guidance and you need to help them.

This could radically change your view of the people around you, if you practice that state of mind as seeing everyone, even the people you don’t care for everyday, as someone like a child inside.

Master Kamilashila got this practice of equanimity and great compassion from Lord Buddha in the Abhidharma.

This is the quintessential text on meditation for the Tibetans. This is what they first started on.— So it’s really kind of Christie-hla to give us this text. This is really what Americans should be

starting on.

If you get this kind of great compassion through this practice, then the wish for enlightenment will come automatically to you.— You won’t have to work at it at all.— You will have such a saddness for them, that you will automatically start to work for them.— Looking at their pain is enough to trigger everything else you need for Bodhichitta.— He also says, you can get the wish for enlightenment by vows, but that is not as strong as

developing great compassion through this practice.

Encouragement: If you are discouraged because you are just able to keep your mind on the object for one minute. Don’t be. You are just being really good at watching your mind. It’s very hard to focus on the object for one minute. Even harder for 10. But developing mindfulness about being on the object will help you get there. Track verses % of time on the object. (30 minutes, -2, -5, -2 equals what %)


There then is a debate. Someone says, just because you have great compassion doesn’t mean you will practice the Six perfections

He responds by saying a person who gets Great Compassion, even if they don’t practice all the other things, they are still better than everyone else, because it’s beyond what others are doing.

Master Kamilashila compares it to a Diamond and he says, “even if this Diamond Jewel were to shatter, it still would outshine any kind of gold jewelry that you would make, and it still would be called Diamond. And that sliver of diamond would still eradicate poverty.”

This wish that has no action still deserves to be called a Bodhisattva.

But he is setting us up, because in the next class he will talk about how we want to take on Bodhisattva actions.

Hatha Yoga Pradipika:

Reviewing the 10 Yamas. (Modes of self-control).

1. Ahnisa: Not harming

2. Satya: Telling the truth

3. Asteya: Not stealing

4. Brahamacharya: Keeping sexual purity

5. Aparigraha: Non-possessiveness (Not ill-will, not coveting)

6. Shama: Patience

7. Dhirti: Joyful Effort

8. Dhya: Love

9. Arjeva: Sincerity, Straight-forwardness

10. Mitahara: Moderate amount of food

11. Sauchau: Cleanliness

Today we are going to talk about the last two.

Je Tsongkapa has the same kind of quote about Mitahara. He gives 4 causes for getting to stillness. This is advice after you have conviction in the Three Principle Paths. You are now ready to sequester yourself in retreat.


1. Controlling our doors of the senses.

— Previous reading in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika suggests this. Don’t talk to too many people, don’t associate with too many people, don’t spend your time idling talking.

— This is the idea of limiting your sense input. Not going outside too much. Not being in a place that is too noisy.

— This is the whole reason for Diamond Mtn. Geshe Michael and Christie-hla want people to do retreat and this is the type of place you need for retreat.

— Your senses are lying to you. They are contrary to the truth that you are trying to reach. They tell you that things are out there.

— Limiting your senses, creates a richer inner world. Our minds are vast. We are creating the entire universe.

— Je Tsongkapa is pretty severe about objects of the senses. He says an object appears to your consciousness. A second later, liking or disliking appears. That is what you have to stop. He wants you just to acknowledge things as appearances.

2. Keeping awareness of our bodies and minds.

— So we don’t collect negative karma.

— If we can check our bodies and minds throughout the day, we won’t have problems with the five obstacles. These refer to the five obstacles listed in your secondary Bodhisattva vows. Restless Desire (missing someone or something), Malice, Fogginess or Dullness, Attraction to objects of the senses, and unresolved doubts.

3. Measuring your food.

— Don’t eat too little; don’t eat too much. Eat only what will sustain your practice.

— It’s very individual. You have to find the food that is suitable for your body.

— While your eating you have to have the proper intention why you eat.

— Hatha Yoga Pradipika says you have to eat food you really like.

In Master Nagarjuna’s Letter to a Friend he says:

We must rely on what we eatWithout craving or dislikeBy seeing it as medicine.It is not for gluttony,Nor for the sake of pride,It’s not used for our appearance,It solely keeps this flesh alive.

Anything you put in your body effects it like a drug. Some foods make you agitated. Some drowsy. When you really want to work on meditation you have to find the balance



4. Sleep.

– You have to get enough sleep to meditate properly.

– Sleep is like food. It’s individual. You have decide what is the right amount of sleep for you.

– In retreat, Je Tsongkapa advises only sleeping in the middle part of the night. At dawn and dusk you should be meditating. This is for retreat. Not for someone who is living in the outside world.

– Maybe in retreat you can sleep less, because your concentration is so good.

– You should sleep on your right side. Traditionally, this is how Lord Buddha passed from this world.

– It’s also more relaxing on the channels. You are less likely to dream about sex.

– What do you think about as you fall asleep. If you have a tantric practice for falling asleep, do that.

– If you don’t do this practice. Don’t even waste your sleeping time. Fall asleep thinking about the virtuous things you have done. The virtuous things others are doing.

– Make a resolution about how you will get up. From what time you will get up excited about sitting on the meditation cushion. Or how you will wake up thinking of myself as a secret agent.

Food Meditation: Take Jelly Bellies or other food.

Je Tsongkapa gives us descriptions of how we are supposed to eat. Three meditations to make eating a meaningful practice.

1. I’m going to eat this jelly bean to get rid of all your mental afflictions.

2. Think of all the people who worked to bring the food in front of you. All lot of people who had a hand in getting this food to you.

– May all those people get good karma, due to providing food to a person who is going to save them, by practicing sincerely.

3. Picture all the living organisms from bacteria to parasites. Things that live off your body.

— See yourself as their Teacher. There are the 6 perfections and then the four ways of relating to disciples.

1. Give them material things they need. If you do that, then later they will be more attracted to you and you can teach them dharma. In Tibet, they say you have 80,000 little creatures inside.

Meditation to start the class

Watch your breath as it flows out and in.

Think about someone who you could do this meditation for. Use Master Kamilashila’s method of compassion.

– Let this help you to focus single-pointedly on your breath.

Like a camera focus, you can zoom in and out of your object.

– So zoom in to the nostrils, like big giant caves. You are there at the mouth of those caves, with the air going back and forth.

You are trying to get the point where if someone were playing a violin in the other room, you would not hear it because you are single-pointed on your object and know that this is the most important thing.

This course is about how to do it, and make it easy and effortless.

Last class was about equanimity, working for all beings. Seeing the child inside of the that needed us, that you must take responsibility for.

– This is Master Kamilashila’s method to get us to want to achieve enlightenment with urgency.

Then Master Kamilashila compares the wish for enlightenment to a diamond jewel.

– Even if you shattered the diamond it still outshine gold, because even if you weren’t doing any bodhisattva activities, it would still end the suffering for all beings.

– He does talk about it as broken diamond.

Today he talks about skillful means. This is when you have a student, but they aren’t quite ready for all the things you must do to get enlightened.

– Just get them to open their heart. This what Lord Buddha did.

– Feel all the pain around you, how many people are suffering, how many people need you.

– Then you want to do something about it. And open heart will cause you to take action. Kamilashila says your students, but he has done this to us.

Lord Buddha advices to the King.

– The Buddha is talking to a King. He says you are busy ruling a kingdom. You don’t have time to go to the monastery, practice the six perfections, do this other stuff.

– Just transform your work into your practice.19

Bok Jinpa Course 1: Class 4: A King’s Wish

In one sense transforming your work into your practice is harder. Because you can fool yourself.

A person in an office in NYC could be practicing harder than someone listening to dharma all day in Diamond Mountain.

– It’s harder because you may not have the discipline to keep your mind focused on the essential spiritual things when you are around people who are focused on worldly things.

– You don’t have the discipline to keep your mind focused on renunciation, bodhichitta, emptiness as you go through your day. But you can ask the same thing of someone at Diamond Mountain.

– But on the other hand, practices like Tantra were made for Kings. They are harder, but faster.

– If you practice them properly, you will start to do all the things the monks do in their daily life.

– If you put the wish for enlightenment in your heart, it will come to you.

Four instructions to the King during his day.

1. You must long for enlightenment, no matter what you are doing. Why your are working, talking to someone else, Focus on that. Emotionally want our for the sake of others. (Master Kamilashila has set us up for this)

— This means in our meditations and in our waking life, see that the things we can do in the outside world can’t really effect things. See that we can’t make enough change conventionally to save people. The change has come from within. See everything as a reflection of your mind. Nothing that you do in the outside world really has any benefit. Ghadhi. Be the change you want to see in the world.

— If you think of your mind in terms of the world, you see there is a huge part of your mind that is ignorant and still needs fixing. That’s the scope you have to think about, when you think about this longing.

— Remember your mind is also a projection, with the same amount of reality as everything else that comes from seeds.

— Once you understand that you can change your reality, you get really interested in what you can do to change things.

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2. Rejoice in the good qualities of the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and your own good karma.

— This like getting a role model. Thinking about their good qualities.

— It makes you want to be like them. This is like the Lama.

— Lord Buddha, didn’t tell him directly to go find a Lama, but it’s inevitable this kind of thinking will cause you to find the highest being with good qualities.

— The more emotion you have to something the more powerful it is.

3 Make offerings to the enlightened beings, Bodhisattvas, and living beings.

— What’s the karma of making offering to beings like that. They become more real to you. And then you create them. You bring them to you and then they help you.

4 Dedicate every one of these three thoughts and acts to your enlightenment, so everyone can be enlightened.

— Dedicate is powerful intention, that brings things into reality.

— If you get very good at this, this is how you could heal someone.

What kind of practice is Lord Buddha teaching him.

– He’s teaching him the meditation preliminaries.

When you are practicing this, you have to try to make it new each time.

– Don’t let them become dull preliminaries, you don’t think about very much.

Meditation: Reinvigorate your preliminaries, through the Kings Preliminaries.

1. Want to become enlightened.

– Start by calling up an almost desperate need to help people and the way we are going to do it through Karma and Emptiness. Want

2. Rejoice.

– Think of good qualities of enlightenment beings and rejoice. Just be happy that they exist. Feel happy that you exist in a place that they exist.

– Think about some good things that you have done and take joy as well. You have the good seeds to see the appearance of you doing it.

n Make an offering in your mind to the holiest being you can think of.

– Offer Material things. Offer your practice.

– You can even give away your mental afflictions. I abandon them to you.

n Dedicate

– Think of the good karma you’ve done. Choose your target. Like getting to a deep state of meditation, so you are still to see emptiness directly. Dedicate these practices to that. 21


Hatha Yoga Pradipika

Niyamas: Commitments to collect good karma

1. Tapah: Spiritual hardship. Making sacrifices for your practice. (Tapah for one is not tapah for another).

2. Santosha: Contentment. Keep your wants few and be happy with what you have.

3. Astikya: Being a seeker of higher things.

4. Dana: Giving

5. Ishvara Pujana: To honor your Guru

6. Siddhanta: Studying different schools views about emptiness.

7. Vakya Shravana: Listening to dharma teachings.

8. Hrimat: A Sense of Shame. (You can’t hear a teaching unless you have modesty).

9. Japo: Reciting Mantras

10. Huta: Performing fire offerings

Here’s the point. The Yamas and the Niyamas combined make up the first four perfections.

– By doing them you reach perfection 5 and 6.

– They lead you to a state of being better able to concentrate and that leads you to wisdom.

So how does that work exactly.

– Here’s the dilemma. You have to keep your morality to get to a state of concentration. But you need concentration to keep your morality.

• You need mindfulness to keep your vows, so you can have mindfulness.

How do you get on that upward spiral. The niyamas serve to get us easy good karma to get us on an upward spiral.

Then we will be better able to keep our vows. Then we will be able to better meditate.

Only one meditation. Doing the preliminaries.

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Meditation to start the class. Setting Your Motivation

Ask yourself why do you want to meditate? Find your motivation.

Call to mind one of the people you have been thinking about. To help end their suffering. Think about why you have to meditate to help them.

Think about how this person and their pain is your projection.

Because they are your projection, you can’t help them in any outside conventional way.

You have to help them by changing yourself.

Think about how little we understand this. How much farther we need to go, to really grasp that they are a projection.

Just imagine to get into deeper and deeper states of concentration so you can direct your mind more clearly and more powerfully to understand that object, so you can really help them.

Every time you sit down to meditate you must set you motivation to give it your full effort.

The point of this class is to really make an effort.

Bhavana Krama

Master Kamilashila says that the wish for enlightenment in the form of a prayer is rare and wonderful.

However, a person who acts on it, puts it into practice, that person is infinitely more valuable.

Two forms of the wish: 1. Mun Pay Sem. 2. Shuk Pay Sem. Shuk Pay means to throw yourself into something. This person throws themselves into acting like a Bodhisattva.

The Buddha in the King of Concentration Sutra answers why someone should throw themselves into the practices of a Bodhisattva:

– “It is not difficult for someone who makes actual practice the essence of their life to come across unsurpassed, totally perfect enlightenment.”

Kamilashila says to do it, because it is the way out. The powerful upward spiral.

– And what it means is you can’t get enlightened unless you throw yourself into the activities of a Bodhisattva.

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Bok Jinpa Course 1: Class 5: This Bodhisattva

Christie-hla really wants to make Bodhisattva activity real and personal.

– She reminds us. People are suffering. They are my projection. Because they are my projection, I can’t help them conventionally.

– The only way to stop their suffering is to take up Bodhisattva activities and get enlightened.

This way, the activities aren’t self-existently out-there.

Even with teaching, you are not doing it to effect the people you talk to.

– You are doing it with an understanding of wisdom, to plant seeds of wisdom in your own mind, so in the future you are projecting yourself surrounded by people with great world-view.

– This is really a Bodhisattva activity. Understanding how we are planting seeds to change our world.

Give Pate peace example.

The Tibetans are really kind. As soon as you decide you want to be a Bodhisattva, they call you a Bodhisattva.

– So that you can see yourself in a different way. So you can become that.

Bodhisattvas want to do the thing that will get them to enlightenment as quickly as possible, because that will be the best benefit to others.

So then the issue is prioritizing.

– Then it becomes an art, to look at your own personal mind and see what you have to work on the most to further yourself on the Path.

– You can relate it by how your meditative concentration is going.

– This is important. You can tell the karma that you need by looking at your meditation and your six-time book.

This kind of activity is a Bodhisattva activity.

– It seems like it’s directed at yourself.

– But it is all intention in how you are doing it. Are you doing things focusing on the emptiness of the three spheres to move yourself quickly down the Path?

If you are stagnating in your meditation, you have to go out into the world and do more outer activities to create the karma to go further in meditation.

– Most of us are too focused on the outer activities. You are not taking your meditation seriously enough.

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Meditation #1

1. Think about the activities that you normally do during the day.

– Wake up, brush your teeth, meditate, shower, eat, go to work etc.

2. Think about, according to the definition, how many of these are Bodhisattva activities.

– Bodhisattvas want to do the thing that will get them to enlightenment as quickly as possible, because that will be the best benefit to others.

3. Think about the ones that weren’t Bodhisattva activities. Ask yourself, what would it take to make them Bodhisattva activities.

4. Picture yourself already a Bodhisattva and picture yourself how your mind would go through the day.

(You can also focus on just one of the stages of this meditation)

The one thing that Christie-hla says she realized doing this meditation is that her mind would be totally concentrated all day about what is going on in her world.

– Then she would use that awareness. And it doesn’t really matter as much about the outside activities. It would matter about the intention behind it.

So how do we get this awareness throughout the day?

– Get to a state of awareness in meditation that allows us to be so focused on the goal.

Text from Lobsang Chukyi Gyeltsen, on Meditation:

Christie-hla is concerned no one is eliminating the five obstacles to meditation, using the 8 antidotes and working up the nine stages of meditation. That’s why we are reviewing this.

Obstacles to Meditation (5)

1. Laziness (Not wanting to do it)

2. Forgetting the instruction(Losing the Object)

3. Dullness and Agitation

4. Lack of Application

5. Application when unneccessary

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List of Antidotes (8)

1. Conviction (Know the benefits)

2. Aspiring (Wanting it)

3. Making effort.

4. Gaining agility.

5. Recollection of the object.

6. Vigilence

7. Taking Action.

8. Not taking action.

1. Obstacle #1: Laziness. Lelo. Christie-hla calls it: Not wanting to do it.

– Christie-hla says all of us have the ability to get to Shamata in a few years.

– You have to make the commitment and do things inside and outside meditation to get your personal best meditation. Build everything else in your life around that.

– You don’t do it, because you don’t know what you’re going to get out of it.

– Perhaps you believe that you can reach your spiritual goals without Shamata. You will have to confront that doubt first.

Antidotes #1-4 for Laziness.

1. Gaining conviction that arises from analyzing the benefit of Shiné. Just understand what you are going to get out of it.

2. Aspiring for shiné. Means wanting it.

3. Making effort. Means getting up in the morning when you don’t want to.

4. Gaining Agility—practiced ease. (This is the ultimate antidote. Everything leads to this).

2. Obstacle #2: Forgetting the Instruction. (Losing the object)

– Instruction means to take an appropriate object.

– Forgetting the instruction means to lose the object from your mind.

Essence of the Middle Way

“Fasten the wandering elephant mindTo the firm post of a meditation objectWith the rope of recollection;Then subdue it gradually using the hook of wisdom.”

– In order to cultivate quiescence, we need to have a mental object we can fasten our mind to.

– Pursued with mind consciousness and not the eyes.

– Aryashura:“Fasten the mind firmlyTo only one meditation object.Holding many different objectsWill only disturb and confuse the mind.”

Antidote #5: Recollection.

– Means bringing the object back. Saying “No! You’re off the object. Get back.”

– If it keeps occuring, sometimes its worth identifying when your mind leaves the object.

– Pabongka Rinpoche says: “One of the main reasons that some people can achieve quiescence more easily than others is that they have strong recollection.”

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The Compendium of Higher Learning: Vasubandhu“What is recollection?It is the mind’s ability to avoid Being drawn away from a familiar object,And it serves the function of preventing distraction.”

Three elements to recollection:

1. About the object: Recollection can only grasp an object that the mind is familiar with.

2. The way recollection holds an object: Recollection keeps the object present in the mind continuously.

3. The function of recollection: It keeps the mind from being distracted by another object.

Obstacle # 3: Dullness and Agitation (Mind is too slow/ Mind is too fast)

– Talking about qualities of the mind, not the object. Of course it’s always about the quality of the mind.

Gross dullness (still have the object (stability or fixation), but not very clear (clarity). This is fogginess. Like you’re half asleep. Or when you eaten too much.

Subtle dullness. Lacks intensity (passion). Not lost the object. Have clarity. You have that all the time, you’re about to drop the object’s clarity by losing passion (so you need to call up your emotions)

– Subtle Dullness is the most dangerous, because it can be mistaken for progress.You just dull out.

– This makes you stupid. Your mental capacity diminishes, like smoking marijuana.

The Compendium of Higher Learning. Vasubandhu“What is excitation?It is an unsettled state of mind That follows attractive images and constitutes a form of desire.It serves to obstruct the attainment of quiescence.”

– Excitation is a state in which the mind is drawn toward an attractive object—that is, one that we desire. 90% your mind drifts toward food & sex.

10% of the time it’s mental scattering. This is chasing another virtuous object or having thoughts of aversion toward an enemy. (These occur less frequently and do not last as long).

We are worried about excitation.

– Gross excitation is being drawn to another object. Restlessness. You want to get up.

– Subtle is a thought beneath the surface (like water running under ice).27


Antidote is Vigilence (#6 of antidotes).

– Root text on Mahamudra Teachings“Exercise the vigilence that perceives movement.”

– It means to catch yourself on the verge of sliding into dullness or agitation.

– Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life“In short, the definition of vigilence is nothing more than this:To examine repeatedlyThe state of your body and mind.”

– Check about every five minutes, not continuously

– Recollection is holding the object (like a cup)

– Vigilence is making sure that it doesn’t spill.

4 Obstacle # 4: Not taking action.

– Watchfulness catches it, then you have to do something about it. You have to apply effort.

Antidote #7: Taking action. To remove dullness or agitation.

Dullness.

– Identify if it is gross dullness or subtle dullness.

– If the object is stable but lacks clarity its gross dullness. If it is stable, has clarity, but lacks intensity (passion) it’s subtle dullness.

Gross dullness will occur before subtle dullness. Vigilence should catch it and mind should take action.

For Gross dullness: Occurs when the mind is too narrowly constricted. It can also occur by lose of confidence or depression.

– Try to draw the mind out a bit more.

– If that fails switch objects and use something that will gladden your mind. Learn the art of tuning up your mind.

• Rejoicing is the best.

• Great value of achieving a human life (Leisure and fortunes) The great qualities of the Three Jewels

• The benefits of serving a spiritual teacher. A Lama is anyone who has taught you as much as your ABC’s because it’s helping you gain skills to study to achieve enlightenment.

• The benefits of enlightenment.

• A bright object like a lamp or the sun.

• Contemplating Bodhichitta through one of the perfections or Four Immeasurables.28


For subtle dullness: Simply grasp the object more firmly in your mind. Christie-hla recommends bringing up more emotion. Be careful of too much agitation.

– This is where Buddha’s famous quote about the lute string comes from: “If it’s too loose or too tight, it won’t play. You have to find the Middle Way.” He was talking about meditation.

– You have to exercise practice and vigilence to find the right balance.

Pabongka Rinpoche: “If none of these practices removes your languor, then you should envision your mind as a ball of white light (like a small birds egg) in your heart.

• Say Pet! As you visualize that your mind leaves your body through the crown of your head and rises high into the sky.

• Imagine that your mind merges with space.

– If that doesn’t work stop your meditation and engage in activities that remove drowsiness.

• Sitting in a cool place.

• Looking at wide open spaces.

• Walking back and forth.

• Washing your face. (Or Ven. Puntsok’s favorite. Standing in cold water).

Agitation or Excitation: The Tibetan translates to Wild Monkey Mind.

Subtle agitation is a form of distraction in which the meditation object is not completely lost. The fault appears when you try to hold the object too tightly.

– Try to relax your grip on the meditation object slightly.

– Gross restlessness. You forgot why you are meditating.

– When you experience agitation or excitation it isn’t necessary to suspend your meditation period. Instead, reflect on topics that will diminish the mind’s animated state somewhat and evoke a sense of renunciation and disgust for Samsara.

– Meditate on your coming death.

– The Three types of suffering.

• Suffering of suffering (back-ache)

• Suffering of change (good meal that you can’t eat any more of)

• Pervasive suffering (being propelled by karma)

Essence of the Middle Way:“Stop excitation by bringing to mindTopics such as impermanence and the like.”

– If this doesn’t work, use the forceful method.

– Gross Agitation. Meditate on your breath. Specific antidote to Discursive Thought (talking to yourself)

– If this doesn’t work. Stop your meditation.

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Big tip for meditation: Stop on a good note. Very important.

– Short sessions at first.

– “Stop meditating while you still want to practice.”• “If two people part on good terms, they will feel happy the next time they see each other.”• “A practice that has clarity should be stopped while it has clarity; one that lacks clarity

should be stopped while it lacks clarity.”• We should stop practicing while we still feel that it would be good to continue a little

longer.• This allows you to begin again with enthusiasm where you stopped off.

5 Obstacle: Taking Action when it is not necessary.

– Means exerting effort at a time when languor and excitation are not present.

Antidote #8: Don’t take action. Cultivate the equanimity in which all mental effort is suspended.

– Dullness and Agitation are eliminated when you reach the 8th Stage of meditation.• Therefore it becomes a hindrance to the mind’s steadiness if we continue to examine

whether they have arisen and to exert ourselves in attempting to generate an antidote.• Therefore relax effort to cultivate vigilence and cultivate equanimity:

The Compendium of Higher Learning (Abhidharmasamuccayah)“Equanimity is an eveness of mind, a composure of mind, and an effortless steadiness of mind that is achieved through cultivating absence of desire, hatred, and ignorance, along with effort. It keeps the mind from becoming agitated and serves the function of helping not to give the mental afflictions any opportunity to arise.”

• Evenness describes equanimity at the beginning of one’s effort to cultivate shiné• Composure in the middle.• Effortless steadiness at the end

Big misunderstanding: “Supreme relaxation is supreme meditation.”

– Pabongka Rinpoche: “Teachers have declared that relaxation is a necessary element of meditation. This should be understood to mean that when the practitioner reaches the end of the eighth level of mental stability, he no longer comes under the influence of dullness and excitation.

– It does not mean that the practitioner should stop applying vigilance at any other level prior to this, or that he should relax his recollection or the intensity with which he grasps the meditation object.”

“The instructions on how to cultivate one-pointed meditation hold true for all the stages of the path except the completion stage of Anuttarayoga Tantra. In all the stages before then, the only thing that changes is the meditation object that you focus on.


Meditation #2: Diagnostic of the mind. Focus on the breath

1. Simply focus on the breath and really try to track your own mind, using the obstacles to meditation and the antidotes

2. You will have to find a reason to do this to make it important, so way to increase your motivation. Perhaps make it a Bodhisattva activity.

Hatha Yoga Pradipika:

Asana: Means seat.

Want to talk about it in two ways:

1. The poses that help the winds to move in your body to help you get to single-pointed concentration faster.

— So this is a very good Bodhisattva thing to be doing, because it will get us to single-pointed concentration faster. Yoga is great.

— You have to do some type of physical exercise to get you to prepare you to meditate.

2. Different kinds of meditation seats.

The way you put your body in meditation is a certain kind of mudra, that would move subtle energy in the body.

Sitting poses are very individual. You have to be comfortable. If you need to be in chair then do it.

It’s your obligation as a meditator to find your meditation cushion that works for you. Do it as a Bodhisattva act.

Meditation postures:

Cross legged pose. Use video.


Meditation # 1: Controlling the breath to control the mind.

1. First remember why we are sitting here. Bring someone who is suffering in front of you to work for them. You must get to your goals in order to help them.

2. Now focus on your breath going out and coming in.

3. Now try and see how long your out breath is. Measure it in heart beats. How long the outbreath is. How long the in breath is. Try to equal them out. Have the same number of beats for the the out breath as the in breath.

4. Now try to increase the exhale by one beat and the inhale by one beat. Quiet your breath. Make it thin and long.

5. The quality of your breath tells you about the quality of your mind. If the mind is still try to add another beat on either side of the breath.

6. Now go back to breathing normally. On every exhale, think of some negative quality. But still keep the same calm, thin, breath.

7. With every inhale picture that you are receiving blessings from a holy being. The blessings can be an antidote. And still on the exhale you can release negative qualities.

8. Now exhale the bad qualities through your right nostril and inhale all the good qualities through your left nostril.

This meditation differs from just watching the breath because we are trying to control the breath and we are putting an object on the breath. That’s what is known a pranayama.

– That is what is known as pranayama. Because you are using the breath for control and infusing it with multiple meanings. Like an asana. So it is not single-pointed.

– Not like just watching breathing as one object. Be the breath.

– This is coming at it like an exercise. Pranayama to calm down the mind so you can then meditate and get to a point of stillness.

This is what the Hatha Yoga Pradipika means by: if you can control the breath, you can control the mind.

– The breath is linked to the mind through the inner winds. The thoughts ride on the inner winds. So we can use the breath to help us get to a state of meditation.

– The implication: If you have a very good stillness meditation, your breath will slow to the point of stopping, without even trying to do it.

– The more concentrated and fixed your focus is. The stiller your breath. And we can use the breath to get to stillness. That is what Pranayama is.

The first extending the breath and trying to control how fine and thin and how many heart beats. That’s more an Indian Pranayama.

Bok Jinpa Course 1: Class 6: W

The second, that’s more of a Tibetan pranayama. Exhaling the mental afflictions; inhailing the blessings of the Lamas. They both serve the same purpose. Except in Tibet, they never would want you to do anything without a karmic motivation.

Of course, sometimes it’s best karmically to just focus on the breath. You have to judge for you. We’re just giving you all the tools.

Pranayama comes directly from the physical practices, where you are focusing on the breath. From Asana then comes Pranayama

– Then you sit down and use it in even a greater way to enter a aware, almost trancelike state.

– This will help you to enter Pratyahara: withdrawing the outside physical senses.

– This is the true purpose of Pranayama. You will never get to a state of Pratyahara if you move even just a bit. Because you have to forget the body.

– You have to commit to a certain amount of time to pranayama.

Bhavana Krama

Bodhisattva activities weren’t about the outward form. It is about intention.

– It is about mindfulness for the purpose of purifying your world.

So you see you need meditation to become more mindful.

– Christie-hla says that meditation and mindfulness has to be your life, so you can continually create the good seeds that we need to get to our goal.

Also the more intensity you have in your life, the more intensity you will have in meditation.

Everything crosses over in meditation.

– Use the day for the hour. Use the hour for the day.

Always remember that the circumstances for use practicing aren’t going to last.

– Your mind wants to practice now. That’s hard to maintain.

– So this time in which we want to practice, have the mind to, and have the body to, so we have to cultivate it by focusing on our motivation.

When you go into retreat, you have to go in like scientist, how am I going to tweak my mind to get to stillness. You have to have that desire.

Glass cups catch flies. Christie and Geshe-la would take up to 100 flies outside before they meditated.

– They would take 30 minutes, even if they were just going to meditate briefly.

– Put little mantras on the paper you slide under, so the flies can earn merit.. 41:30


Master Kamilashila is talking about method and wisdom.

– Doing Bodhisattva activities in a way that you understand it’s all about getting to your highest goal.

– It doing things, with the understanding that it doesn’t self-existently affect the outside world.

– In order to help others, it’s all about collecting merit and purifying obstacles in your own mind to get yourself to a higher level

Method is collecting goodness to you.

Wisdom is the purifying force for that goodness.

A little like Yama and Niyamas. They echo each other so much.

You can’t succeed just having method without wisdom. This is people who are being a good person. But they can’t truly help others, or end their mental afflictions without wisdom. They can’t experience heaven without wisdom.

– Sure they are collecting good karma. But it is weak karma that won’t ripen in this life. Only in another life weakly.

Using wisdom with method, is like putting a magic spell over poison and then being able to eat it without experiencing harm.

– Master Kamilashila is acknowledging that method without wisdom is a kind of poison that keeps you in the cycle.

– This goes back to Wa Shong’s reasoning for why we shouldn’t do Bodhisattva activities to collect goodness. Because it will just come back to you as worldly things.

– Master Kamilashila says, Yes, this is true. You will just perpetuate the cycle without wisdom. You will just buy into the lie of outside things. This is why you need wisdom.

What about wisdom without method?

– It’s hard to meditate each day. Particularly if you don’t have the desire to help others.

– If you didn’t have this desire, then it would just be for ourselves. • Most of the time we are in a state of denial that we are in pain, so working for ourselves

would be quite difficult.• It’s very hard to collect good karma when you think about taking care of yourself.

So Master Kamilashila is saying that Bodhisattva activities are not a distraction. They are a neccessity.


Master Kamilashila then talks about what are the most powerful karmic activities.

– Serving your root Lama is the most powerful karma. Because it presupposes a commitment to the Path. You have a Lama, because you no longer care about this life’s goals. Because you make a strong commitment, they trigger powerful realizations. And the stronger the commitment, the more powerful the realizations.

– Of course understanding emptiness, how to use wisdom is one of the top.

– But if you haven’t collected enough merit you won’t be able to understand and you will feel like you are beating your head against the wall.

– Teaching other people is a very, very powerful karma, because you are teaching the ignorant projections of your own mind in a very direct way.

– Any kind of risks you take for the dharma. Something that you are scared to do, but when you look at it from correct world view, you take the leap and do it. This is trusting in world-view even when you are on shaky ground with it. It’s an act of truth, and it will help you to better understand emptiness.

– Dedicating is really powerful.

– And of course doing each of these with wisdom makes it even more powerful and prevents it from becoming a poison.

Why do we dedicate?

– It turns your deed into a limitless action. This is because it was done for the ultimate goal. Now it can’t ripen as a dirty good karma. Means it can’t be destroyed by getting angry.

The other thing you need to do is identify the specific things you need to purify and the specific things you need to do to collect merit.

You can really figure out what you need to purify by keeping a book.

– Try to think of the book as not I’ve been good. I’ve been bad.

– Think of it as I’m going to eliminate the things from my mind that would keep me from going deeper in meditation.

– Step back and think scientifically about this person. What do they need to go deeper in meditation. You are calculated and analytical about getting to the next step in moving down your path.

– The more conscious you are about it, the faster it can ripen. It can be months. But if it’s a really powerful object, you can do it in a few days. Even write down how long it takes to overcome an obstacle.

– Think of your book as a meditation book.

– Just trying to watch your mind is powerful in an of itself. Because it presupposes and understanding that the world and your mind comes from your deeds. You are living your life based on cause and effect. That kind of living could be a more powerful trigger for seeing emptiness, then just sitting on the cushion. All day long you are reminding yourself where the world really comes from. So this becomes a very important practice.


Just trying to watch your mind is powerful in an of itself. Because it presupposes and understanding that the world and your mind comes from your deeds. You are living your life based on cause and effect. That kind of living could be a more powerful trigger for seeing emptiness, then just sitting on the cushion. All day long you are reminding yourself where the world really comes from. So this becomes a very important practice.

You are traininng yourself more in where the world is really coming from.

Kachik. One mouth comes and says there has to be a point where you stop focusing on the outside world, you stop needing to do all the method exercises, and you just need to sit on your cushion and focus on wisdom.

Master Kamilashila responds by quoting a sutra:

– Lord Buddha comes to an 8th level Bodhisattva, who has seen emptiness, eliminated all mental afflictions, and is sitting in a state of bliss.

– Lord Buddha wants him to come back and finish the job.

– Lord Buddha reminds him that he made a promise as Bodhisattva and that’s how he got to this place. That there are people still suffering that need him.

– He describes the emptiness the Bodhisattva saw as one light that lights his soul. But the Buddhas have billions of lights like that.

– He reminds the Bodhisattva of what it would be like to be omniscient.

Even Bodhisattvas on the eighth level need their Bodhisattva activities to reach Buddhahood.

– It’s not by wisdom. They have already finished their mental afflictions through wisdom. They have to finish the rest of their collecting to go for the ultimate goal.


Meditation:

1. Focus on your breath for just a minute.

2. Now picture the purest being you can imagine sitting above your head. They have the essence of your heart lama. If you don’t have a heart lama, picture the person you feel most indebted towards.

3. Imagine their body is glowing with a white or gold light. Pouring out of their body. Don’t worry about the details, just try to really feel them up there.

4. They make a clone of themselves, like a flame from one butter lamp to another butter lamp and suddenly there are two flames. See the second angel being go down inside your body. And rests right at the spot level with your navel.

5. They shrink down to the size of a split pea. Try to hold your mind on that one single point.

6. We can zoom in to this tiny point. We are picturing the Lama at this tiny point, but they are larger so we can see every detail.

7. The Lama at the top them gets smaller and goes down and rests at your heart. The Lama at your navel comes up and merges with the Lama at the heart so there is just one Lama there.

The first Panchen Lama advises focusing on the Lama in order to get stillness, is because he is a virtuous object. It’s a preparation for Tantric practice.

– So some people ask, should I visualize the Lama in his outside form, or inner form like a tantric form, or most perfect form I can think of.

– If you don’t have a root Lama, it’s good for you to picture the most pure being you can, because it creates the causes for you to get the same causes.

– If you do have a root Lama, picture them looking like themselves in a very pure form, because that’s who you have the most powerful connection with. This way you are getting the best of both worlds. A close connection, which causes the karma to ripen faster and a stronger imprint as seeing yourself eventually as perfect.

– Some people it’s just black. So work with other senses. Feel that there presence is there. A specific presence. In perfect form.

Comments on books.

– Don’t spend too much time on the preliminaries or you will be burned out for your meditation.

– If you are in Tantra it’s o.k. to spend 30 minutes on them and 30 minutes on Bok Jinpa. But do them both everyday. This is from Geshe Michael.

– Breath meditation actually goes after the preliminaries. When you are using it as a stillness meditation. Pranayama.


If you sit and plant the seeds for lazy meditation, you will always have lazy meditation.

– So shorter is better.

– Every time you sit on the cushion, you should be sharp.

Meditate at the same time every day.

– Even if you are sick, and sleepy. It’s better to get up and sit on the cushion and make effort. That is a great seed.

– You don’t have to follow the King’s Preliminaries forever, it was just to refresh your intensity.


Fix your mind on something or other,Fix it steadily,Continue to fix it,Fix it closely,Tame it,Quiet it,Pacify it,Make it single-pointed,Place it in balance.

What are the 9 stages of meditation.

1. Sem Jok PaMind Putting. Placement. Fix your mind on an object.

• Means can only keep your mind on the object very briefly.

• Achieved by hearing the instructions from the Lama about the meditation object.

• Feel the objects presence. Bring to mind by discursively describing the object.

• You develop a feeling through greater awareness of your discursive thoughts.

• Also may notice how easily distracted you are. You’re just seeing your mind for the first time.

• Periods of distraction are much longer than periods of concentration.

2. Gyun-Du Jok-PaIn a stream putting the mind on the object. Continued Placement. Fix it steadily.

• Means you can keep your mind on the object for around 3 minutes. (length of time on object longer)

• Key difference from the first level is that discursive thoughts “occasionally take a rest.”

• Achieved through the power of reflection. Subtly examining the object.

• Periods of distraction are longer than periods of concentration.

First of Four Mental Modes for 1&2: Forceful Conveying. Have to concentrate to focus using recollection and vigilance.

n Len-Te Jok-Papatch putting the mind on the object. Renewed Placement. Continue to fix it.

• Means we should quickly catch ourselves getting distracted and then stop it.

• Your concentration breaks and you have to go back to the object, patching the gaps.

• You’ve gained pretty powerful recollection, and can easily go back to the object. (Distraction is shorter)

• On the third level you feel your discursive thoughts are becoming too heavy.

• Achieved through the power of recollection.

9 Stages of Meditation: The Path for Stillness explained by Lord Buddha in the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras.

concentration.

concentration.. . . . . .

concentration.

4 Nyewar Jek-Paclosely mind is placed on object. Close Placement. Fix it Closely.

• Means you have generated strong recollection and removed distractions, so you don’t lose the object.

• Stability, but no clarity.

• Coarse drowsiness and coarse agitation exist, so you have to cultivate antidotes.

• Need to draw the mind inward.

5 Dulwar JepaBring under control To do it. Subduing. Tame it.

• You should start to take pleasure in meditation.

• Stability and clarity, but no intensity.

• When drawing in the mind subtle dullness occurs.

• Key difference is on the fifth level coarse dullness and agitation no longer occur

• Achieved by the power of vigilence, then brightening the mind by meditating on the benefits of one-pointed meditation (for example).

• Subtle dullness is still strong enough to disrupt your practice.

6 Shiwar JepaPeace Make it. Pacification. Quiet it.

• Means we should put a stop to any lack of enthusiam for medititation, by observing what a menace distraction is.

• When enlivening the mind, subtle agitation occurs.

• Key difference is subtle dullness doesn’t occur on the sixth level.

• Achieved by the power of vigilence, then bringing the mind by loosening grip or meditating on the three sufferings (for example), particularly moment to moment suffering.

• Vigilence is fully developed after 5 and 6.

• Subtle agitation is still strong enough to disrupt your practice.

concentration.

Agitation

Dullness

concentration.

subtle dullness

concentration.

subtle agitation

7 Nampar Shiwar JepaTotally Peace Make Mind. Enhanced Pacification. Pacify it.

• Means we should clear away any fogginess or lethargy or the like which threaten to come.

• You are no longer worried about subtle dullness and agitation.

• Still have to exert some effort to eliminate subtle dullness and agitation.

• They aren’t attacking you. You are attacking them.

Second of Four Mental Modes for 3-7: Interrupted Conveying. Have to continuously apply recollection and vigilance.

8 Tse Chek-Tu JepaOne-pointed Make it. One-Pointedness. Make it single-pointed.

• Means we should make a concerted effot to enter into a state of balance, but without forcing it.

• You need only generate a slight degree of effort through recollection in the beginning.

• It remains there effortlessly.

Third of Four Mental Modes for 8: Uninterrupted Conveying. Only at the beginning effort is needed.

9 Nam-par Jok Pa.Even place mind on object. Equipoise. Place it in balance.

• Means that once our mind has reached a state of balanced meditation, we should leave it alone. Another way of saying it is “maintain the blanace.”

• The mind is placed on the object of meditation without any effort.

• Goes into meditation spontaneously.

• Achieved by repeated practice in the eighth stage.

• This is desire realm form of single-pointed quietude.

Fourth of Four Mental Modes for 9: Effortless Conveying.

concentration.

concentration.

concentration.

subtle agitation

subtle dullness

meditation #1: is it true that great compassion helps single-pointed concentration? sit in a...

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