46. Practice the five strengths, the condensed heart instructions.

This slogan and the following one refer to the Five Strengths, a potent condensed teaching about how to live and die. In this slogan, they offer us encouragement in how live our precious human life:

1. Strong Determination: Life is practice. Practice is life. I am ceaselessly motivated to awaken Basic Goodness in myself and others and to be of benefit to all beings.
2. Familiarization: I am familiar with the Dharma, so everything becomes a reminder of the path. I learn to live with awareness and sanity.
3. Seed of Virtue: I don’t take a break from letting even the most difficult of circumstances wake me up. I recognize that even when I experience grasping, aversion and indifference I have the opportunity to be present to my direct experience.
4. Reproach: I do my best to let go of ego clinging and transform it into presence. By seeing the hold that ego has on my mind, I am motivated to liberate myself from its tyranny.
5. Aspiration: I continually aspire to infuse my whole life with these practices. In the traditional practice of Lojong there are also three specific aspirations:
   • May I save all sentient beings;
   • May I remember two-fold bodhicitta; and
   • May I practice two-fold bodhicitta.

These strengths flow in a logical progression. First, I cultivate the motivation or determination to practice. Then I become familiar with the teachings and practices. This helps me experience everything in my life as an opportunity to wake up, even the three poisons. I begin to slowly dissolve the tyranny of ego and rest in my aspiration to free all beings from suffering by practicing bodhicitta.

11.2025