Motivation

Phakchok Rinpoche encourages us to meditate correctly every morning. Don’t meditate like a dead tree! That means that we are approaching the session alone.

Phakchok Rinpoche shares a few fundamental points one needs to understand with regards to one’s Dharma practice.

Practitioners should take advantage of all opportunities to increase the accumulation of merit easily and swiftly. We need to know how to magnify our virtues. Phakchok Rinpoche reminds us regularly that we need to consistently accumulate merit.

Hilary Herdman shows how ritual practice tames our minds as we perform particular physical and verbal actions.

Phakchok Rinpoche reminds us that all of the Buddha’s teachings revolve around developing kindness.

In this teaching, Phakchok Rinpoche challenges us to come to understand the correct motivation. “Motivation is a reflection of yourself”, he teaches. This shows how important it is to examine our own minds. We can use the analogy of holding up a mirror–let’s examine ourselves honestly. We need to know if we are self-centered, or if we are transforming to be more aware of others. But we can develop more than just concern for others. Going deeper, we can reflect and think about how we can really help.

As Vajrayāna and Mahāyāna practitioners we can regularly engage in self-reflection to check our progress. We gradually train in understanding these crucial points to give our practice a strong foundation.

Motivation or intention precedes any activity, even if we don’t realize or acknowledge it. According to traditional Buddhist teachings, the initial motivation really determines whether action is virtuous or non-virtuous.  Giving rise to the right motivation or intention guarantees that we will accumulate a lot of merit and that our activity will be virtuous. 

This article discusses the importance of our aspirations and motivations to truly benefit other sentient beings.

We all can benefit from learning how to be sincere–to be genuine. Phakchok Rinpoche acknowledges that being genuine is very difficult. When we try to apply it in daily life, this can be challenging for us.We think we are sincere and genuine, but actually, if we examine, we often aren’t. Since we were very young, we’ve trained in a form of l\projecting a certain image, haven’t we

Phakchok Rinpoche presents one classic view of three levels of teaching as laid out in the Tibetan Buddhist perspective.   Here, he explains that buddhas teach differently according to the capabilities and inclinations of their audience.  Therefore, we see different levels of teaching depending upon the interest and the motivation of disciples. Rinpoche reminds us that we begin with the teachings that we can understand and digest.

When we practice meditation, we should aim for unselfish meditation. That means we need to learn how to set our motivation. In this audio teaching from a teaching in Malaysia, Phakchok Rinpoche discusses how to generate proper motivation.