In the past few weeks I have updated the written and audio commentary for Slogan 19, “Don’t seek others’ pain as the limbs of your own happiness” and Slogan 23, “Whatever you meet unexpectedly, join with meditation.” These updates are based on a more sophisticated understanding of German in the first case and recent reflection …
After writing the update in the previous post, I wonder once again why I am doing a blog. Is anybody reading it? Nobody has commented on my posts other than spam. I have not received any feedback on the website itself except from those I’ve asked directly, so I don’t even know how frequently (or …
Earlier this week my partner and I came to Slogan 40, Two activities, one at the beginning and one at the end. The two activities are 1) in the morning, setting an intention for the day; and 2) before sleeping, reflecting on how it went bringing this intention to life. As usual when encountering this …
My partner and I try to sit every day, and as part of our practice we listen to the commentary from one of the revised Lojong slogans. Usually I use the Search function at the top of each page to easily navigate to the commentary page and listen to the recording. We started the sequence …
Read more “An outrageous, serendipitous, auspicious coincidence”
My partner recently started serving in a caregiving position and we’ve been talking a lot about how she wants to show up in this role. This morning she said something like, “I want to remember that whatever happens is not about me.” This got me thinking about my experience in a chaplaincy internship when I …
This morning my partner and I practiced with Slogan 46: Observe these two, even at the risk of your life. The slogan refers to the Refuge and Bodhisattva vows one takes as part of the Mahayana Buddhist path. This slogan led me to recall my experience of taking these vows. I took the refuge vow …
This morning when I listened to the commentary for Slogan 45, This time, practice the main points, I found it a bit sparse! So I have added a bit of explanation and updated the commentary page.
Earlier this week I watched the Brad Pitt film Moneyball for the first time. While I liked the movie well enough, what really touched me was the song “The Show” performed by Kerris Dorsey, a young actor playing Pitt’s 12-year-old daughter. I loved the sweetness of her voice and the poignant lyrics. Today in our …
19. Don’t seek others’ pain as the limbs of your own happiness. This final first difficulty slogan points to another familiar habitual pattern: deriving pleasure from the mishaps and suffering of others. The German word schadenfreude (literally “joy of harm or damage”) pithily reminds us of this conditioning. I want to remember that joy based …
1. First, train in the preliminaries. In this case there are two “preliminaries:” First, maintaining an awareness of the Four Reminders; second, practicing shamatha-vipasyana (mindfulness -awareness) meditation. They are preliminaries in the sense that they are the ongoing basis of all that follows, not that they are ever finally completed. The Four Reminders is a …