Mind

On the auspicious Treldha Tsechu, Phakchok Rinpoche shares with us four profound verses from the 5th chapter of introspection of Shantideva’s Bodhisattvacharyavattara to recall the kindness of the Buddha, of Guru Rinpoche and of the lineage masters who have transmitted the sacred Dharma to us.

A sense of panic isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But how we deal with panic can make a huge difference. Train your mind to slowly turn inwards. Like a lion!

My aspiration for you in this start of a new year is that you grasp the key points of practice—in particular, keeping a big heart and a strong mind which in Tibetan is called “khokpa chenpo”. First of all, to be honest, even though we do need to study in order to gain deeper knowledge of the Dharma, when it comes to practice, a key ingredient is to keep it simple.

Repeated Placement is the third stage of our calm abiding meditation.  In shamatha meditation, our practice proceeds gradually so that we are able to quickly recognize when our attention wanders off.  Here, Tulku Migmar Tsering explains how repeated placement works.Repeated placement means that as soon as we notice we are distracted we bring the mind back.  Here Tulku explains that if we allow our wandering to go on, it makes the mind very “heavy”.  And then it is harder for us to be mindful and to meditate.  So he suggests that we learn to do this in three seconds–don’t forget our focus.

Continuous placement, or establishing continuity, is the second stage of calm abiding meditation.  When we practice calm-abiding or shamatha meditation, we’re gradually retraining our minds. When we practice continuous placement we don’t have more thoughts than we had before.  In fact, we are making a big step in managing our minds.  We are noticing when the mind wanders and how many thoughts we have.  Normally we don’t pay any attention to that process. 

Tulku Migmar explains that Mindfulness is an exercise everyone can practice, notwithstanding their religion or lifestyle.

“Meditation training with focus” takes many forms. As we begin to build a habit of mindfulness, we can use one or more of these techniques. For example, in a meditation session or sometime in our day, we may focus our attention lightly on a sound. How so? We simply rest our mind on the sound of our choice. Then, when we notice that our mind has wandered away, we gently guide it back to the sound. That’s all there is to it–bringing our mind back to the object of focus again and again. We call that process “mindfulness”. In this video teaching, Tulku Migmar Tsering advises us on how we can use meditation training with focus to cultivate a habit of mindfulness.

“Mental Maintenance” means working with our own minds. Anxiety, depression, and stress can affect anybody.  First, we need to take care of our actual physical needs, but then we also should care for our minds.  Mental maintenance signifies stability.  So first, it is good to investigate our own minds.  Are they stable?  Are we in control of our minds?

When we really want to practice Dharma we wish to carry on until we die. We don’t want to stop! Dharma practice is a continuous journey. Of course, we want to continue until enlightenment but as we begin, we can think, “I want to practice at least until death”.

Science of mind occupies a great deal of attention in Buddhist philosophy. This is not some new development; ancient Buddhist texts include major treatises investigating the mind. So, when we begin investigating the mind scientifically, we need to ask some fundamental questions. What is the mind? And how does mind arise–what causes it? How does our mind function?

Learning Buddhadharma can be done in a number of ways. Especially in these modern times. We can go to retreats, listen to teachings, take courses, and of course read lots of books. Phakchok Rinpoche reminds us here, however, that learning Dharma actually means understanding the essence: the crucial points.

Overcoming resistance means understanding our own behavior and habits.  And many of us have patterns of laziness or of rebelling against rules and regulations.  So, when we are beginning a meditation practice, we can explore overcoming resistance. We observe how our own attitudes may get in the way of developing meditation experience.  But as we inquire gently. we remember not to be overly rigid or extreme in our expectations.  Meditation should be approached gently; we aren’t putting ourselves in jail!