Equanimity is the quality of mind that allows us to capacity to be in touch with the suffering of others when we are doing the compassion meditations, and at the same time not be overwhelmed or become undone by what comes up for us.

Equanimity gives us a stable, quiet calm, and a sense of trust that allows us to meet the world in all its naked force and sublime beauty and at the same time to fully let go of the world.

The main work of equanimity meditation is a kind of radical, open and healing acceptance.

Jon Kabat-Zinn describes this healing aspect of acceptance very nicely:

The traditional reflections on equanimity meditation from the Theravada tradition allow us to integrate the truth of impermanence and karma with these phrases:

For some people this may feel a little too hard-hearted, and clinical. But we have to remember these series of reflections happen after much work has already been done in the three previous meditations on love, compassion and joy.

Joan Halifax Roshi says that equanimity is “ruthless compassion.”

In the following guided meditation we practice equanimity meditation in the same way as we have done with the three previous meditations on love, compassion and joy: we may start with ourselves, progress with close friends, neutral persons and finally with persons with whom we may be having difficulties.

We are now incorporating in our practice aspiration verses, offering the four immeasurable phrases and phrases to share the benefit of the practice with all. Those phrases appear below the video. You can simply play the video and use it as an audio guided meditation if you wish.

Beginning the meditation session:

Reflect on why it is you meditate, why you practice, and give voice to this by the recitation of the aspirations.

With boundless compassion and wisdom I will work for the welfare of all, may we be free from hunger and discord, and have joy and the world at peace.

……

 Offering the 4 Immeasurables phrases:

 May all beings have happiness and its causes;

May they be free from suffering and its causes;

May they never be parted from sublime bliss free from suffering;

May they dwell in great equanimity, free from attachment and aversion toward those who are near and far.

…..

Sharing the benefit of practice for the happiness and benefit of all:

By the power of this compassionate practice,

may suffering be transformed into peace,

may the hearts of all beings be opened,

and their wisdom radiate from within.

Feel free to leave a comment below.

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As we discussed in the previous post, we practice Joy in stages, just as we did in the guided meditation posts on Love and Compassion. You start with finding you Basic Inner Goodness, that clear knowing inside that all is well, and reflecting on your own qualities that reflect this knowing.

You then reflect on the fortunate circumstances of your life, much as we did in the practice of contemplating the precious human birth (see YMD5 for a  summary).

Once you settle in with meditation on the precious and rare qualities you have if you are reading this, you use as a way to discover your Basic Inner Goodness. From here you simply expand this realization towards others.

How To Proceed Through These Meditations on Joy

You proceed in all each Four Immeasurable guided meditation by allowing each stage to mature before proceeding on to the next. Once you are comfortable with connecting, appreciating and rejoicing at the marvel of your life, you choose someone with whom it is easy for you to feel this.

You work when you feel comfortable with meditations focused on indifferent or neutral persons, and ultimately with persons with whom you may be in conflict, persons who may push your buttons, or for whom the mere mention of their name may elicit unpleasant emotions.

The process of the meditations on Love and Compassion is to reflect that just as I want happiness and don’t want suffering, others also are the same as I. We progress in those meditations by feeling these reflections deep in our hearts to the point that these wishes arise spontaneously for all beings.

Progress With Meditation on Joy

The process in the meditations on Joy proceed just the same. The key difference here is that rather than feeling Love and Compassion for all beings, we begin to work with cultivating Joy in their basic goodness, they’re good fortune, and their Buddha Nature.

Cultivating Joy may sound clinical, when it’s really emotional. We are learning how to rejoice in the good fortune of others. This practice opens some of the initial obstacles we may experience in the earlier meditations in ways you may see as you start these wonderful meditation practices.

Beginning with Joy and going forward into Equanimity, our meditations will bring in what we have experienced with the simple Buddha Nature meditations we have been doing up to now — simply resting in open awareness.

Aspiration and Dedication Verses

In these meditations I thought we could introduce opening aspiration and closing dedication verses, in addition to the Four Immeasurable reflections we have been doing.

So let’s begin.

Set aside twenty minutes or so when you can sit without distractions, and turn off your phone.

Reflect in such a way as it helps  u to connect with your motivation in practicing, and giving voice to this thru the reciting of the aspiration prayer.

With boundless compassion and wisdom I will work for the welfare of all, may we be free from hunger and discord, and have joy and the world at peace.

Begin by settling into your posture.

Having a sense of uprightness, wakefulness and relaxation in body and mind.

Letting the mind rest in open awareness.

Letting everything be as it is without out blocking anything or needing to chase after anything thing

Relaxing and letting be – in open awareness.

Sit like this for a few minutes.

Then reflecting on own basic goodness and desire to be happy and free from suffering

Recognizing the good qualities within you, and your unique fortunate circumstances.

That you have a body, that you can see, hear, smell, feel.

And you have a mind that knows this is so.

That you have a mind that can reflect that not only do we recognize these qualities

We can also appreciate and rejoice this is so.

Recognizing

Appreciating

Rejoicing

Reflect like this for a while.

And then offering the verses of the Four Immeasurables:

May all beings have happiness and its causes;

May they be free from suffering and its causes;

May they never be parted from sublime bliss free from suffering;

May they dwell in great equanimity, free from attachment and aversion toward those who are near and far.

Alternate reflecting on these verses and resting in open awareness for some time.

If you find you are getting disconnected or lost in thought,

You can again reflect on all the good and beautiful qualities within you or the fortunate circumstances in your life.

And appreciating and rejoicing,

And offering the phrases once again.

Resting in open awareness.

You can either continue practicing this way with yourself as the object,

or bring to mind someone it is easy for you in whom to see the good and beautiful qualities,

Someone who is living with good fortunate circumstances.

Get a visual image or felt sense of that person,

Then reflecting just as we have done when focusing on yourself.

As you progress you can move on to neutral person, and then to difficult persons.

Reflect that just like you they just want to be happy and free from suffering.

Bring to mind the qualities you can see in them that you appreciate,

Perhaps their capacity to express love kindness compassion.

The wisdom they exude that benefits others.

Rejoicing they have this body and this mind that makes it all possible;

Appreciating and rejoicing in their good fortune.

And then offering the phrase from the Four Immeasurable reflections

May you never be parted from sublime bliss, free from suffering.

If you find that you are feeling jealous or envious of them,

see if you can shift your focus from wanting something to just being happy for them.

That they have this good fortune.

Be happy with them.

Appreciating with them.

Rejoicing with them.

Then just resting in open awareness

Closing with a dedication verse, such as this one:

By the power of this compassionate practice,

may suffering be transformed into peace,

may the hearts of all beings be opened,

and their wisdom radiate from within.

Have a wonderful week.

Please use the comment box below to share your experience or ask any questions.

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In the last four posts we practiced two of these emotions together — Love and Compassion — in progressive meditations starting with ourselves, moving on to neutral persons, then to persons we may dislike and finally extending love and compassion to all beings everywhere.

Today we start a meditation sequence in this similar progressive way, but we will concentrate on cultivating Joy and Equanimity separately, starting with Joy. We work through the meditations in the same way, starting with ourselves and ending on rejoicing in the joy of all beings everywhere.

What Makes Joy an Immeasurable Meditation?

This is what makes each of these four practices an “immeasurable practice” — by developing these four qualities and feeling them for all beings everywhere, we begin to genuinely radiate these spiritual qualities ourselves, and since we use all beings everywhere are our focus, these feelings become immeasurable, as sentient beings are numberless and immeasurable.

One of the key take-aways from this practice, even if you only read about it –  we see with sincere practice that we do not have to create joy, as if somehow we mediate “strongly” enough and poof, we make joy, like rubbing two meditation sticks together.

Joy Is Already There, Just Waiting For Us

We see unerringly that joy is an innate quality already within us, however hidden it initially appear to be. We also just may discover that it is hiding in plain sight, as if it didn’t learn the game of hide and seek very well as a child. As innocent babies we possessed some innocent, natural joy.  For the fortunate folks, at this point in our lives we may be able to get in touch with our natural joy, but only at times, and maybe only if the right circumstances are in place.

Meditation practice shows us very clearly, as our natural state becomes revealed, that we are joy. Our true nature is radiant joy. While so-called advanced meditation practices allow us a direct glimpse of our unconditioned Buddha Nature, and thereby allowing us to discover the Four Immeasurables as already present in our true nature, these meditation practices work to help us progressively develop this awareness of joy from a different angle — the angle of reflective practices that we have been doing in this yearly series of meditations.

These are how these specific practices of the Seven Points of Mind Training and the Meditation on the Four Immeasurables work, they help us live the Bodhisattva ideals and aspirations and discover them as already present full and complete just as we are – through direct access meditation practice and the reflections that are like prayer and spiritual rejoicing practiced in other religions with deep contemplative traditions.

The Joy we cultivate in these meditations helps us settle our often frantic mind, touches our hearts, makes us happy, and feel a profound inner well-being.

These simple meditations also help us dissolve the blockages to feeling happy for others – the main focus of the meditations. By doing these reflections on joy we also set in motion ripple effects. As we access these “divine emotions” in ourselves, and then meditate and feel joy in and for others, our meditations cannot but affect everyone we meet.

The Practice of Immeasurable Joy

With the reflective meditative practice of immeasurable joy, we reflect on the good qualities and positive circumstances that we and others enjoy, rejoicing in them and wishing that they deepen and deepen. These reflections especially recognize and rejoice in our own and others’ basic goodness.

This helps us connect with a deep sense of appreciation for all the good qualities we enjoy. These reflections just plain work, as we have seen with the previous practice of Love and Compassion meditation.

And they work I think because, as the Buddha said in one of the original Pali suttas — “Whatever the practitioner frequently thinks and ponders upon, that will become the inclination of their mind.” As we practice we make new and deeper skillful grooves in our mind, which directly counter the logjams of negative repetitive habitual and conditioned thoughts.

Meditation on the Immeasurables makes Skillful Grooves

These skillful grooves become more and more predominant as we act on those thoughts – which are what these meditations do. They are kind of like dress rehearsals. These divine emotions become more and more our default state, and we become more and more loving, joyous, compassionate and profoundly at peace with ourselves and the world.

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Hell is other people ~ John Paul Sarte

Sure, that is a little bit over-board, but it does make a point.

If we don’t include them, our loving kindness meditation practice will not be all-inclusive. One of the pithy statements we work with sometimes in cultivating the four immeasurables is “put no one out of your heart.”

Easing into All- Inclusiveness in Loving Kindness Meditation

So let’s just have a look at what happens when we do put some people out of our heart. Rick Hanson, PhD., a neuro-scientist and meditation practitioner notes that when we close our-self off to other people –

What are the results? Closing off doesn’t feel good. It makes your heart heavy and contracted. And it primes your brain to be more tense and reactive, which could get you into trouble, plus trigger the other person to act worse than ever.

In practicing loving kindness meditation with difficult people, we need to keep a cool head and not allow ourselves to be swayed by any underlying tendencies to identify with the oppressor —  a Freudian term that predates the idea of the Stockholm syndrome. In cases where we do this practice un-wisely, meaning we jump into this and pick someone who might have traumatized us at an early age.

Let’s have a look at the Wikipedia entry for the Stockholm syndrome:

Stockholm syndrome, or capture–bonding, is a psychological phenomenon in which hostages express empathy and sympathy and have positive feelings toward their captors, sometimes to the point of defending them. These feelings are generally considered irrational in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims, who essentially mistake a lack of abuse from their captors for an act of kindness.^[1][2] The FBI‘s Hostage Barricade Database System shows that roughly 27% of victims show evidence of Stockholm syndrome.^[3]

Clearly, we need to apply the key Buddhism notion of upaya, skillful means, when we begin any of these powerful practices that expose the deepest aspects of our being. It is because these practices work so well as accessing the deepest aspects of our being that they hold the key to lasting personal change in how we see and react to the world and it’s inhabitants.

Loving Kindness Meditation With Difficult People Releases Our Anger

As we do this practice, starting progressively with more and more challenging people, over time our minds will become stronger, more confident. We notice we may hurt less inside, feel less anxious and less fearful, as the practice begins to engender stronger inner foundations of ease, joy, Ok-ness with the world and ourselves just as we are, ok-ness with others just as they are.

We start this practice as we do the previous practices — establishing the inner recognition that we are the same as others, in that we all just want to be happy and don’t want suffering. This has got to be an on-going journey, this simple realization. Many folks who take up the practice of the four immeasurables tend to set this aside as being too obvious and not worth contemplating.

Think again. Allow the possibility that this most simplistic and obvious thought may be more more profound than we allow to be. Just keep contemplating this before every period of meditation. Just try to set aside any misgivings here.

Often in doing this loving kindness meditation practice we uncover feelings of outrage and intense anger towards a specific person may have done to you. Please be careful here. When these intense feelings come up, one of my teachers counseled me to try to shift the perspective that we are angry at the unskillful actions of another person and perhaps not the person herself. That we are angry due to actions the person committed under the influence of what Buddhist called the kleshas, tendencies within a person that are reinforced by their actions and their thoughts. The kleshas are our stuff, our hang-ups. One Buddhist teacher calls them the “adventitious contaminants of the mind.” This teacher told me that if I had to be angry at anything, to be angry at their kleshas, not the person. The person who has little training in recognizing their own mental states is essentially being controlled by their kleshas.

I found that a hard pill to swallow. But after I got the pill down, it eased the fire of resentment and anger.

I was then taught to see that this particular person was not harming me with their actions and thoughts  but they were harming themselves. I was taught to feel compassion for their suffering, the suffering they were causing themselves by acting under the control of their kleshas.

Loving Kindness Meditation Must Be Infused By Wisdom

Loving kindness meditation must be guided by wisdom. The goal of loving-kindness meditation, the goal of the four immeasurables practice, is to benefit ourselves and others. But we start with benefiting ourselves, then as a result of the many benefits we receive, others invariably benefit. This is the goal of Mahayana Buddhism, and to realize this goal we are given many practices.

As we progress in our practice of loving kindness meditation with challenging people, we begin lose little by little the fear and anxiety which is locked up by resentment and ill-will. As those shedding happens we become more skillful at problem solving. As we  see through our own kleshas, our own inner obstacles,we can see through the kleshas of others with greater ease and skill. Loving kindness meditation then becomes a win-win situation for you and others.

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What I have found helpful in this case is to relax just when this kind of thought arises and simply be aware of what is happening. Our “default” meditation instruction over-rides all the others in any circumstances of perceived difficulty, and that instruction is simple:

Be aware of what is happening as it is happening no matter what that experience may be. This is the key to mindfulness meditation.

What we are doing this week  in the this series of guided meditations of the Four Immeasurables is adding various “objects” of meditation to the list we use for basic mindfulness: the breath, sounds, sensations in the body, and thoughts in the mind. As in basic mindfulness meditation, whenever we feel we are drifting off into distraction, we use the perceived distraction itself as the new “object” of meditation.

Similarly here, when we are practicing feeling loving-kindness or reciting the phrases toward persons with whom we feel close, whenever so-called distractions occur, such as the thought that we are not doing this well, or that it is not coming along as it should, we simply shift to becoming aware of these thoughts, and of the emotions which may be underlying them.

Or we can practice one of the “Buddha Nature meditations” of simply resting in the nature of mind just as it is. I just referred to “Buddha Nature meditations” – just my way of talking about those little moments when we open to the vastness of the mind as it is. We have been merging these Buddha Nature meditations into the ongoing yearly project these last few weeks.

But let’s back up for a few moments, as this is crucial.

It’s important that we reflect on what we are trying to do in these guided meditation sessions.

In the big picture we are working on the year-long project of practicing the Seven Point Mind Training. We have practiced the first Two Points– doing the ground work by contemplating the Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind toward the Dharma, and exploring the Nature of Mind as being no different from Buddha Nature.

The second point is foundational stuff: that our mind, right here, right now – just as it is – without needing any modifications whatsoever – is Buddha Nature. And Buddha Nature = freedom from suffering.

So what we have been doing ever since we first studied, practiced and explored Point Two is to try to bring this home. With each new meditation session we try to look at this utterly magnificent teaching this way and that, so it finally sinks in experimentally.

There is nothing to do or undue. Our mind just as it is, is already liberated.

So we are already liberated. We are just adding the other meditations so we become well rounded in our liberation.

We need to reflect on this matter over and over.

This guided meditation on the Four Immeasurables is simply a way to bring the realization of the here and now-ness of our already accomplished Buddha Nature into the world — the essence of the Mahayana path.

Last week we practiced feeling love towards people with whom we are close.

This week we practice feeling love for people with whom we neither feel close to or feel animosity toward– what in Buddhist contemplative nomenclature are called “neutral people.”

Just a reminder – these are all Buddhist mindfulness practices: whenever we feel they are not working, or feel they are contrived practices, we simply shift into becoming aware of whatever is happening as it is happening, no matter what that is.

We could also rest in “Buddha Nature Gaps” – those little gaps between thoughts or sensations or emotions, when there is only mind, only awareness.

This week we again look into this matter: our mind just as it is, is Buddha Nature.

We begin the session as always, we reflect on why we even are doing this stuff with our precious time.

Then we try to bring to mind qualities we have ourselves that show us we have a basic inner goodness, like the feeling of wanting to be of help to others.

We reflect that others are just like us – we just want to be happy and not want suffering, so also others have this basic desire.

We see in our lives there are people with whom we are close and people toward whom we have complex feelings.

Then there are those toward whom we have no particular feelings at all. Such as a bank teller, a co-worker in another department we see only rarely. When you look at your life you may see a number of folks that fall into this category.

With this guided meditation we do not rely on a traditional support for mindfulness practice—such as breath, sensations, or even thoughts. We use the nature of mind as our support for mindfulness – awareness of awareness itself.

note: some issue with audio when i uploaded this — will re-record it perhaps by the end of this week…sorry.

Guided Meditation: Loving Kindness with Neutral Persons

We attend to our posture.

We relax the mind just as it is.

Do not indulge your thoughts or try to rein them in.

The mind just as it is — pure awareness – is clear yet ungraspable; lucid, yet without inside or out.

It is inherently radiant, yet cannot be identified.

It is transparent, expansive, and even.

Radiant from within, just as it is, like an autumn sky free of clouds.

This naked mind, just as it is.

Simply maintain recognition of this ungraspable naked radiance.

This present moment of consciousness manifests, yet is unidentifiable.

Without trying to add or remove anything, just let be in the state of naked reality itself.

However still your mind may be,

Rest in that as the state of awareness.

However your mind may manifest,

Rest in that as the radiance of awareness.

Now find someone in your life toward whom you feel neither closeness nor animosity.

When we place our attention on them, this is mindfulness of form.

We feel that person as if physically close to use.

We reflect that you and this person are the same – we both just want happiness and don’t want suffering.

Try to see that just as we discovered in previous meditations a basic goodness in our self, this person also has basic inner goodness.

Feel that person and you are the same – you both just want happiness and don’t want suffering.

Now make the wish, pray the wish, that may she/he have happiness and the causes of happiness.

May she/he have good health, success, safety, good friendships, and peace of mind.

May she/he have happiness and the causes of happiness.

Now feel that just like you she/he doesn’t want to suffer.

Make the wish/ pray the wish may she/he be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.

Pray these wishes in whatever form you wish: you may try whispering these wishes or prayers in a very low voice, or silently, or sometimes one way, sometimes another way.

Try to be mindful of  these wishing thoughts toward a neutral person..

And if the mindfulness decays mid-phrase – perfect opportunity to rest in the radiance of awareness itself.

Practice like this for the meditation session: alternating mindfulness of feeling the wishes/prayers and resting in the mind just as it is.

As always, feel free to comment below, or to use the contact form if you want to ask me any questions.

Wishing you well on your journey.

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•  why spiritual practice is a good use of our remaining time on Earth,
•  the possibility that our true nature is un-created consummate happiness,
•  that our true nature is always here, yet slightly hidden from view,
•  that the practice of the four wonderful qualities of love, compassion, joy, equanimity and universal compassion is an effective way to reveal our birthright, true happiness,
• how to balance the practice of these wonderful qualities with the practices of calming the mind and directly seeing the mind’s true nature.

In our guided meditation session this week we will practice calming the mind with breath awareness, introduce giving voice to our deepest motivation for spiritual practice, recognize our basic goodness, sense our deepest feelings, see into our true nature and replenish our heart with loving kindness and compassion. 

It’s actually a simple to practice, but takes a lot of words to describe what we are up to this week.

The Four Immeasurables and a bird’s eye view of this year’s project

We are dedicating the year to practicing and studying the well-known Lojong text –Mind Training in Seven point, written in the 12th century by Geshe Chekawa. Getting to know the practice of the Four Immeasurables of love, joy, equanimity and universal compassion is a fantastic way to prepare for the radical teachings coming up in Seven Points.

Meditation on Love and compassion: We start with ourselves

In 8^th century India, Shantideva wrote in his classic Guide to The Bodhisattva’s Way of Life –

“All joy in this world comes from wanting others to be happy, and suffering I this word comes from wanting only oneself to be happy”

This is the heart blood of Mahayana Buddhism.  Compassion is the wish that someone not suffer; loving kindness is the wish that he or she be happy.  Just “practicing” these, reflecting on them on and off the cushion – this intentional activity is its own reward.

The meditation session for this week

We begin by calming the mind with simple breath awareness meditation. Everyone is different and there is no one size fits all way to structure your own meditation session. These are just suggestions from what I have found helpful.

This week let’s introduce the practice of giving voice to our deepest motivations for practice, talking up the Mahayana aspect of actually voicing the very short verses on the Four Immeasurables:

May all beings have happiness and its causes;

May they be free from suffering and its causes;

May they never be parted from sublime bliss free from suffering;

May they dwell in great equanimity, free from attachment and aversion toward those who are near and far.

I have found that, over the years, this practice—formally voicing verses such as these during formal meditation and reflecting on them, is quite powerful  It  gives me a warm feeling, like coming home from a tiring journey. It has a feeling of prayer –a prayer of the heart. I experience formal contemplation like this as a wide, open road leading directly to my heart. In contemplating like this we are in good company: John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, innumerable Sufi and Jewish contemplatives, The Dalai Lama, your grandmother (maybe…).

Recognizing Your Basic Goodness

This is a simple yet subtle practice. Start to look at small good qualities within you, even if your attention naturally gravitates toward negative qualifies. Nudge yourself back into the nonjudgmental space of mindfulness practice, and from within this warm space recognize simple wholesome qualifies you have, such as the willingness to wash the dishes without needing to be reminded again and again. Just this, nothing special. Your ordinary daily life, I am willing to wager, contains a treasure trove of effective contemplations of your basic goodness.

Recognizing Your Buddha Nature

Each week’s meditation includes ways to recognize this inner treasure, your birthright, Buddha nature. This week we work on teasing out pure awareness, the nature of mind itself, from the activities of the mind we usually take the mind to be – thoughts and pictures in the mind, sensations in the body, hearing, smelling, seeing.

Mind itself is experienced as pure awareness. Open, vast, with no beginning or end, no up or down, no birth or death.

When we rest, even for a moment, as mind itself, we are for “undistracted and natural,” as Khenpo Gansar explains –

“If you are undistracted and natural, there can be neither help nor harm, this is awareness … When experiencing the continuity of undistracted naturalness, awareness is free from any reference point, like the sky, without even a speck of joy or sorrow, hope or fear, benefit or harm, whether you meet with positive or negative conditions.”

For the rest of our life, the practice is just this simple: rest in undistracted natural mind, when you realize you were distracted, just then without an inkling of begrudging distraction, pick up the practice of ease-fully calming the mind like on an object of meditation such as the breath or the body, and ever so gently nudge yourself into the already free, liberated, delightful undistracted naturalness, your Buddha Nature.

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We are developing and balancing two aspects of our practice: wisdom and compassion. Wisdom is practiced by recognizing awareness itself, and one way to practice compassion is by guided meditation practices focusing on different aspects of compassion.

For the next six weeks we will continue with practices to help you recognize awareness itself, and we will practice compassion by exploring the four immeasurables:  love, joy, equanimity and all–encompassing compassion, offering guided meditation for your support.

Each week, starting this week, I will and present one guided meditation session you can do every day for the week.

Each session you do is aimed on nurturing just these two things: ongoing recognition of awareness and expanding our compassion practices.

At the end of the next six weeks, we will take up the next set of the Lojong slogans. I am afraid that if we don’t work with nurturing awareness practice through guided meditation more systematically and working with these four immeasurables, the rest of the Lojong Slogans just won’t make any sense — you will just drag the Seven Points of Mind Training into the Recycle Bin (that is, if you are a PC person), if you haven’t done so already!

The essence of meditation that we have practiced thus far is to experience fully the richness of awareness, meaning awareness itself. By practicing resting in unborn awareness over and over again, little glimpse after little glimpse, we recognize that the fundamental nature of awareness is good and pure, and from there that our true nature is good and pure.

Once we have an opening into this recognition we just have to be patient in gradual cultivation of recognizing awareness itself. Once we have some inkling of this exponentially, the meditation path is simply one of nurturing this recognition.

This week’s guided meditation is about meditating on sound as a gateway to recognizing awareness. There are many gateways to recognizing awareness itself, so let’s keep exploring this inner treasure from different angles. We will also meditate on one aspect of love, the first of the four immeasurables: loving-kindness and compassion for oneself.

You can either do this week’s guided meditation by following these written instructions or by viewing or listening to the video below.

- – - – - – - – - – -

Begin by checking in with your posture, keeping your spine straight but not rigid, and your muscles loose and relaxed.

Bring your attention to the present moment by feeling the sensations in your body.

Let go of any hope or expectation. Let everything in your body, mind, and surroundings be as it is.

After a few moments, bring your attention to the sounds in your environment. You don’t have to focus intensely or concentrate; simply be aware that sounds are occurring – just listen.

Your mind will wander from time to time. When you notice that you have been caught up in thoughts and feelings, note that you were distracted and bring your attention gently back to the sounds that are occurring around you.

Have the intention to bring your awareness to sounds just as they arise in your environment, just as they are.

Gently listen to each sound as it arises and as it passes away in a non-judgmental way.

You can imagine that sounds are like a flower and your awareness is like a bee, and just allow the bee to drink the nectar of the flower.

Practice like this for a while.

Now forget all about awareness, and just try to just “be” sound.

Don’t try to meditate on the sound, just rest as awareness of the sound.

No me, no doing anything, just sound.

Follow one sound truly releasing into the sound and being the sound.

Allow this “being the sound” to be open, relaxed and spacious.

As the sound fades see if awareness “purifies” itself of the sound and continues to rest as awareness with no object.

Just awareness aware of itself. Rest there.

As this recognition of awareness fades, gently repeat the practice a few times.

About half-way through the time you have set aside for this session, try to connect with your own basic goodness and see if the recognition of awareness is a gentle bridge to this feeling.

Notice your own desire to be happy and free from suffering.

As you proceed with this meditation this week, try to extend this recognition to others as well, that just as you have this basic goodness and just want to be happy and not suffer, so too, others have this basic goodness and just want to be happy and not suffer.

You may wish to use a phrase such as “May I be happy. May I be free from suffering.”

In the last half of this week, bring to mind someone toward whom you feel warmth and regard this person with a sense of caring. You may wish to work with phrases such as “May you be happy. May you be free from suffering.”

Toward the end of your session, simply rest in whatever feelings or emotions may arise in you.

Conclude the session and rest for a little while before taking up your life tasks.

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In your life this week, try to notice when you can, your simple desire to be happy and free from suffering. In the last few days of this week, try to spread this to others, noticing that they also just want to be happy and be free from suffering.

Try do practice as much as you can following the suggestions in the guided meditation exercise.

Have a good week. Feel free to comment below or to contact me privately through the contact form on the upper right sidebar. I would love to hear about your practice, how it’s going and any reflections on this process.

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This is the gentle work of a lifetime.

This week we will start familiarizing ourselves with some simple reflections; the slogans for relative bodhicitta, or compassion, start after we get some basic experience with this practice.

The goal is to work with our mind in such a way that unbiased compassion toward us and others naturally arise. We need to systematically train our minds over time. As we do so we break up large chunks of conditioning and touch a deep, natural radiance of the heart.

Unbiased compassion runs across the grain of our conditioning, so it will take time. We will take this is in little steps. But this work is not something separate from what we have already been doing.

We start with simple mindfulness of the breath. As the mind begins to settle, we try to look directly at the mind itself. Little glimpses of unborn awareness, the natural state of the mind as thoughts thin out.

It is recommended that we do short sessions of 20 – 30 minutes or so – that way we remain fresh, and avoid struggles and dullness.

Developing the kind of compassion that is needed to work with the slogans of the Seven Point Mind training is realized through dedicated incremental progress. What we need more than anything is steadiness. But this won’t take up any more than the 20 – 30 minutes that you are already doing. We just add some reflections on compassin into our regular practice.

We do short sessions followed by resting, taking it easy, as it gives our brains a chance to develop new patterns. We can actually change our brains by working with contemplative reflections.

It’s a good idea to start with ourselves, and then work on including others slowly.

Let’s allow the possibility that compassion is a natural quality of our minds; better yet it’s a quality of the natural mind, the mind at least temporarily freed from worry, stress, fear. We habitually block this quality of the natural mind, as when we do so we often feel it, although we may not be aware of it. Perhaps a vague dullness or a momentary malaise.

We start by developing a kind of compassionate feeling toward ourselves and try to extend that to some friends.

The goal of these first weeks with the practice of compassions is to develop equanimity, recognizing that we all just want to be happy and avoid suffering; this is the basis for the deeper meditations on compassion that the slogans reveal for the remainder of our practice of the Seven Points.

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Point two has nine slogans, which are divided into understanding the two bodhicittas, ultimate and relative.

Ultimate bodhicitta, Buddha Nature, is mind as reality itself, an already awake yet slightly obscured aspect of mind. It is the precious Mystery of reality/ being itself.

This uncovering of Ultimate Mind/ Reality/ Buddha Nature is what Mahayana Buddhism means by “wisdom.”

Relative bodhicitta is all about developing a mind of compassion, and has four slogans. There is a special meditation practice we will start to learn next week as we take up the path of compassion called Tonglen, giving and taking mounted on the breath.

There are many references in Mahayana Buddhism to “cultivating the two bodhicittas.” This simply means never letting go of training in wisdom and compassion. This is the ultimate goal of Mahayana Buddhism. And we can’t train in one at the expense of the other.

Wisdom and compassion are like the two wings of a bird—the two must be cultivated in a balanced way for the bird to fly to its destination.

Bodhicitta is what makes a Bodhisattva a Bodhisattva. Anyone who aspires to cultivate the awakening mind for the sake of all suffering beings is a Bodhisattva. This is what makes Mahayana Buddhism Mahayana Buddhism. All of Mahayana Buddhism can be summarized in one sentence – Every day do your best to cultivate wisdom and compassion for the sake of all beings everywhere.

What makes the Seven Point Mind training so special to me is that all of Mahayana Buddhism is distilled into the first ten slogans of the text, the rest of them, forty-nine to be specific, are just reminders, tips and hands-on pointers on how to do this is our daily life.

Oh, I forgot to say, this text is meant for everyday folks, not monks or nuns hidden away in caves. It’s practical. It’s not all about theory (theory is dispensed with after we steep in the Buddha nature wisdom teachings we are about to finish in this post).

So the three remaining slogans of the wisdom teachings are these:

Even the remedy is free to self liberate.

Rest in the natural state, the basis of all.

In post-meditation be a child of illusion.”

Let’s try to see if we can get a big picture of Buddha Nature, the mind of reality.

Atisha, who wrote the original text on which the Seven Points are based, made this aspiration as he wrote the original wisdom slogans: “May I purify the untruth of duality into the open space of mind itself.”

The untrue duality that bogs us down every single day, every single moment of every day.

Training in ultimate bodhicitta results in a subtle, slow eruption within us of something trans-personal, beyond our every day mind, which re-sets our inner GPS.  It’s not a personal experience in the usual ego-ic sense, that’s why I call it a trans-personal experience.

It starts with just a glimmer. Or a glimmer of a glimmer. That’s good enough as a starting point. It’s  a glimpse of a glimpse of unborn awareness.

Ultimate bodhicitta, Buddha Nature, is impossible to put into words. But we can try, and I have found that the attempts made at describing it are helpful to me as pointers. It’s beyond all words, all concepts. It’s beyond time and space.

Buddha Mind, our true mind:

It is radiant and immaculate. Unshakable like the steady warm glow of a lamp. And it is imbued with compassion.

It is above all mysterious and the same as reality itself. And wonder of wonders, it is the same as the mind, the every day mind itself. It is not some special mind at all – nothing extraordinary –as the great Soto Zen master Suzuki Roshi said when he called it “nothing special.”

There is an apparent contradiction here which is quickly resolved as you steep in Buddha Nature – nothing special yet very special.

In Mahayana Buddhism, Buddha Nature is described in images and metaphors, which are often used as instructions for practice:

The sun, the full moon, a treasure, supreme medicine, a wish-fulfilling gem, a might ocean, the sweetest song, the extra-ordinary jewel of the mind, a magic vase, supreme ambrosia. Even – a wish fulfilling cow.

Reality itself – which is a Mystery we can only point at.

The light of the sun refracted through the individual prisms of everyday Bodhisattvas like you and I.

Shantideva says it’s like a blind person finding a diamond in a dung heap at night. The dung heap is conditioned existence. The jewel is bodhicitta.

At the beginning we need to suspend disbelief and just trust … with this trust we gain confidence. With confidence we find the inspiration to stay on the path.

But these glimpses arise as we create the causes on conditions for them to arise, starting with simple mindfulness meditation.

It always comes back to mindfulness.

With a base of mindfulness we reflect on the three remaining pithy aphorisms of Point Two.

As we “examine the nature of unborn awareness” as we did last week, we try to get a peek of mind itself in brief glimpses. We try to look at mind itself, at Buddha nature.

A shepherd boy asked the famous Buddhist yogi Milarepa how to achieve enlightenment, and Milarepa just asked him to look at his own mind for a week then come back and report his findings.

He comes back to Milarepa and says he couldn’t control it, it was wild, elusive, but then he says as he just left it alone as let it settle, it was lucid and clear, with no color, shape, or form, it is like vast space, yet aware of itself.

One of my teachers in India described Buddha Nature, which he called The Nature Of Mind, as empty cognizance. Aware yet empty, empty yet aware.

Looking at the mind with the mind is tricky as many of you reported in email and comments. As soon as think you have it, the mind, you don’t, as you have made the mind into an object, and the mind can’t be an object.

It’s not like a chair or a cup …  it’s awareness itself.

So how do you it? You just let the mind settle.

Awareness is unborn, as it settles and you take a glimpse, meaning you look at the settled, quiet, still mind, and for  that moment you are out of time, out of conditioned experience. For a moment you experience the Unconditioned, Buddha nature itself, the mind as reality itself.

Mind is said to have three characteristics:

–it’s open or empty like space,

–but it’s not dead like space as it is imbued with awareness,

–and it’s unimpeded, everything happens inside the mind with no blocks or obstructions.

Now  — “Even the remedy is free to self liberate.”

This is a pointer to not get bound up in concepts. The “remedy” are all the pointers we have in this and in the last post. Don’t get caught in concepts about Buddha Nature, just go there. The specific “remedy” referred to here is the crucial slogan/ instruction from last week “examine the nature of unborn awareness.”

Even this remedy or instruction self-liberates, or dissolves into unborn awareness.

As it says in the Diamond Sutra, “develop a mind which clings to nothing” — not even the instructions.

It also teaches the point made by the Zenn saying – don’t get caught looking at the finger pointing at the moon of (Buddha Nature). Just look at the moon.

Don’t take the map for the boundless territory of Buddha Nature.

Norman Fischer in his excellent Zen commentary on the Seven Points has used this line instead of “even the remedy is free to self-liberate” – he has this one as “Don’t get stuck on peace” – which takes this a little further.

See the spaciousness of mind, and just let it be.

The next slogan is Rest in the natural state, the basis of all.

Just relax in the free and clear natural openness of mind. This is all we do once we have a good look at the Mind.

Our last slogan here of the wisdom teachings on ultimate bodhicitta is:

“In post-meditation be a child of illusion.”

The previous slogans of the wisdom teachings were all about what we do in actual sitting practice. Now this last one is all about what we do as we go around bopping around town, drinking coffee, or tea, and picking up the kids and taking them to track practice or picking up food for dinner tonight.

Norman Fischer again on this slogan writes that it’s about  letting go of the false distinction between meditation and non-meditation, which can be a huge hang up. Trust me on this, as I was hung up on this for over twenty years.

Norman quotes a Zen master as saying: “Don’t be so fixated on meditation as a way of calming the mind and getting insight. Just pay attention to your life right now.”

Ken Mcleod, who has translated the text from Tibetan, and whose commentaries are based on the original Tibetan, says the slogan actually means “In post-mediation be like a sorcerer” who creates the illusions herself; when we recognize our self as a sorcerer, creator of illusions, we experience a have a huge relief!

Just remember that the slogans here are pointing at Mystery, and try not to get hung up in the process.

Next week we take up the second wing of the bird, the cultivation of compassion and the practice of Tonglen.

I would love to hear what you think about our work so far. Please use the comment section below, or use the Contact form if you want some private communication about Buddha nature, the wisdom teachings, your own practice, anything at all.

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The first comes from CNN: This past Valentine’s Day CNN ran a story on the top five places to break up — and #5 was at a Buddhist meditation retreat, specifically a Vipassana meditation retreat.

Check it out below:

Best places for a breakup – CNN.com

Vipassana is an ancient Buddhist way of meditation for self-awakening. Wellness and meditation retreats. Meditation retreats mean you don’t even need to talk to one another. Wellness and meditation retreats, Thailand/India.

 

Our next item is from the venerable publication The Atlantic. The piece is entitled “Should Buddhist meditation make you happy?” Below is a post by Robert Wright, the author of the book The Evolution of God, which was a New York Times bestseller. In this short article he recounts his experience at a Vipassana retreat in Barre, Massachusetts.

By the way, he answers the question he posed in the article by saying that:

“This is the irony: Buddhist meditation teachers counsel a kind of detachment that should in theory leave you neither happy nor sad. But by the end of one of these retreats, almost invariably, you’re happy. And you’re happy in particular ways: more appreciative of beauty, feeling more distance from ordinary anxieties, feeling more kinship with other humans and with other forms of life.”

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/12/should-buddhist-meditation-make-you-happy/266703/

Our third piece comes from Mother Nature Network, where Michael d’Estries reports that former President Bill Clinton,  who has been plagued by medical issues for years and recently turned vegan, likes to unwind in private classes as he learns the art of meditation with the help of a Buddhist monk.  See the full article here:

Chill Bill! Clinton Turns To Meditation For Enlightenment & Stress …

Radar Reporter Bill Clinton’s health kick has hit spiritual heights – as well as getting his body into shape he is also concentrating on his inner wellbeing, embracing Buddhist meditation as a means to achieving …

That’s it for this weeks edition of the Weekly Wrap. Hope you have a nice meditative weekend.

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