So, Rucher sends his apologies. He wants to complete translating the text on impermanence with Jampa. So he’s working on that. And he’s asked us to do some a short meditation on impermanence and death and then to do walking meditation which they all describe that after the the sitting meditation to circumambulate the gompa and the prayer wheel and the stupa. So first we’ll we’ll meditate on the recognizing the the eight freedoms that constitute the perfect human rebirth and and recognizing the what the freedom is the the opportunity that we have to practice Dharma, how sort of wonderful and rare and unique it is.
And so to generate the sort of motivation the stimulus for the walking meditation, so this the two are connected. As we do the walking we’re doing in complete silence and and and just maintain awareness of the points that we meditate upon now. Okay. All right. So begin by checking your posture, ensuring your back is straight, your muscles relaxed.
Then check your mind. All of the sort of gossip that you’ve been indulging in, all of these points let them fade away, unimportant. And remember what is meaningful in our lives is not the self centered pursuit of pleasure but the attitude which wishes to bring happiness in the minds of others, all beings other than ourselves, and to ease their burden of suffering. This makes life meaningful. Self centered concern makes life meaningless and the cause of suffering.
Focus on the coming and going of your breath. Make your mind still. So I think that due to the power of the mental afflictions, particularly the dominating disturbing attitudes of anger and hatred. There are more beings existing in the hell realms than in any other realm. And so in previous lives most of our rebirths have been in the hell realms.
In a state where because of the continual external and internal torment there’s no opportunity to generate a virtuous thought, let alone practice Dharma. So most of my previous lives I’ve had no chance to practice Dharma. So not only am I now free from suffering, the torment of the hells, but I also have the opportunity to cultivate the virtuous attitudes, renunciation, bodhicitta, and wisdom in my mind. I’m I have a temporary visa for the human realm. Very temporary.
As soon as it expires, I have to get back. So while I’m here it’s possible to create the causes for not only permanent residents, but I can close the doors to the hell realms forever. And on top of that, by becoming enlightened, I can be a guide, forever present. For all of my past lovers, my past mothers, whenever they also, my past lovers. Whenever they need help.
So there’s no time to waste. On top of that, the times I was not born in the hells I was born as a hungry ghost. So now I’m free from the agony of thirst of hunger. I have this unique opportunity to eliminate the causes, so I can’t waste a second. I’m free from being born as an animal, where through dullness, it’s impossible to understand the Dharma.
So instead of using this human rebirth to make my mind dull with mindless entertainment, with alcohol, drugs, which creates the cause to be born as an animal. That I won’t waste a second to practice the causes for enlightenment and be a guide to all others. When through the rare practice of virtue I was born as a long lived God, I was too swept up in pleasure to bother about Dharma practice. And I burnt all of the accumulated merit in indulgence. So now I’m free from such a state.
I can use my life, the practice of Dharma. Even the few times I’ve been born as a human, sometimes I was born in countries where there was repression of religion or where there was no practice of Dharma at all. Or amongst tribes in very primitive regions. But now I’m free from such a being born in such a place. At other times, I was born in central lands where society was developed and but still the Buddhas had not appeared, and there were no Dharma teachings to practice.
I’m free from that situation. I’ve been able to meet the Dharma to understand and practice. Other times I’ve been born in a region where the Dharma is flourishing, but through physical or mental infirmity or impairment I’ve been unable to learn and practice the Dharma. And finally I’ve put that I’ve been born without any physical impairment in a central region where the Dharma is flourishing. But through holding fixed views denying the reality of cause and effect, denying rebirth, denying emptiness, Bodhicitta, denying Buddhahood, then those very views themselves prevented me from practicing.
So especially I have the opportunity now to repay the kindness of all living beings. But as much as I love them and have compassion for them as my own life is not free from suffering, I can only give limited help. So I must quickly eliminate the causes of my own suffering so that I can be a perfect guide to repay the kindness of all living beings. So then the motivation for the walking meditation is Bodhicitta. With each step we should think that I’m now moving closer one more step to death.
And if I don’t practice Dharma then I’m moving one step closer to the three lower realms. And if we doubt that we’re going to be born in the three lower realms then remember karma, how easy it is to accumulate the four branches of a negative action such as killing a mosquito, which definitely creates a throwing karma for rebirth in the three lower realms. And how difficult it is to create the four branches of a virtuous action for rebirth as a human or as a god. Because of attachment, when we give, we give with reluctance. It’s not pure.
Or we give with the anticipation of expecting reward, to be thought of as kind person, for reputation, or we give out of sense of duty, obligation. Absorb your minds. Let all the busyness of what’s been happening over the lunchtime all fade away. Try to manifest a clear ground of your mind. So we talk about mindfulness and introspection being aids to meditation, but the best aids come in the motivation, refuge in Bodhicitta.
If we don’t consciously So during the the meditation then, I’ll lead some a little bit of checking analytical meditation. Examples from your own life, from your own experience and look at them in the light of the teachings on Bodhicitta. It’s very important to see how it relates to our own personal experience. We get to create a greater taste for the more taste for the teachings on the shortcomings of self-cherishing. If we see it as not relating to ourselves, then we won’t gain any development realization in our minds.
Begin by first checking your physical posture. Make sure you are comfortable, your back is straight, shoulders level and so on. Consciously relax any tension in the muscles of your brow, around your eyes, your face. Progressively go down your neck and shoulders, your limbs, and your trunk, releasing any tension from tightened up muscles. Now check the posture of your mind.
Whatever busy thoughts are running through your mind or the echoes of your recent conversations, let them die down and fade away, but stay alert and clear. Now, energize your mind with Refuge and Bodhicitta. You don’t have to intellectually think about, just from your previous understanding. Feel the motivation of Bodhicitta, in dependence upon refuge, invigorating your mind. This should give you the power to maintain good concentration, a sense of responsibility for all living beings.
You are going to follow the completely safe direction indicated by the Buddha. To know how to achieve this path in your mind and then be able to show others. So with this strong intention to benefit others, focus upon your breathing, just the coming and going of your breath at the nostrils. Clearly without distraction. So think that for the whole of this life, I have been grasping the appearance of the truly existing self to be real, to be the true me, obsessed with the thought of I.
I have considered my own happiness of more importance than anyone else’s. And so my life has been dominated by self centeredness, feeling a sense of superiority through pride and arrogance. I’ve hurt others through words I’ve spoken, actions I’ve done, even thoughts that I’ve that have gone through my mind. I’ve discriminated, pushed others away, and hurt their feelings. Even they had friendly intentions towards me.
Towards me. My self-cherishing and arrogance has made these friends my enemies. Even when I’ve felt bad about things I’ve done to others, my self-cherishing thought has made it impossible for me to apologize, to heal the wounds that I’ve caused and the bodies and minds of others. Instead, I’ve been thrown into denial, pretending that I’m innocent on the outside. But inside, a sense of guilt, of responsibility has been there.
But I’ve been too afraid to admit it and so resolve the problem, and it has got worse and worse. By dismissing feelings, and the shortcomings of others. I’ve made enemies, even amongst my relatives. Selfishly considering my own wishes to be of more importance, not practicing patience. Even my mother and father, my spouse, my children.
I’m unwilling to open my mind to new directions, new thoughts, thinking that I know best in every way. I’ve even fought with my guru, thinking that the guru’s understanding is not equal to my own, and I’ve discarded instructions or just ignored them. Eliminating any chance of development along the path? Through self-cherishing, I’ve been even turned my body into an enemy, identifying with the physical aggregate as me. I’ve eaten too much, eaten too little, become a slave to the physical appearance, obsessed with how do I look, sometimes hating my body, sometimes hating my mind, destroying it with drugs, alcohol, but still rooted in self-cherishing, wanting to be best, the most attractive.
I’ve slept with the partners of my friends wanting to be superior, causing only heartache and despair. Not caring about others but only myself, my own pleasure, trying to prove my superiority in the Even I’ve been born in the happy realms. The self-cherishing thought has kept me obsessed with countless problems, one after another. Anything that I don’t want, I label as problem and generate aversion and then anger and hatred. My mind is caught up in a tornado of destruction.
It’s been self created. If my partner has stopped loving me, then for twelve months I live in ignorance, and I’m happy. But as soon as my partner is brave enough to tell me that I’m no longer loved, then world falls apart. I am not loved. I’m completely overcome by misery.
The misery is not due to the withdrawal of love. It’s due to my own mental imputation. Because the love had been withdrawn a year ago, and I remained blissfully ignorant of that. So the pain now is a product of my own mind. self-cherishing thought has prevented receiving any realizations on the path right up to enlightenment.
Having met the Dharma in previous lives, I was unable to practice purely or follow the advice of the teacher because of self-cherishing. It has prevented me even enjoying temporal pleasure. I cannot enjoy food, friends at a party because I am obsessed with some minor, ridiculous affront to my personality, a bad look from somebody, a frown instead of a smile, frown instead of a smile, maybe a small stain on my new clothes. My hair out of place totally destroys the evening. How absurd is the self-cherishing thought?
How utterly ridiculous. I create my own suffering. And not only as a self-cherishing being doing this in this life and all previous lives, but it will continue to impede my experience of happiness in all future lives. Position where you will be able to remain without moving. And focus on the the muscles of your brow and around your eyes and your face, and relax the tension in the muscles, feeling it flow away, and go down in a wave progressively through the neck and shoulders, Down your arms, your trunk, and your legs.
Then then deal with your mind. Establish the the base of calmness. Let the thoughts and the busyness of the break time slow down and cease to cause disturbance. Gain control of your mind. Like a horse rider who can control and then through careful use of the the reins, setting the horse in the direction he wants to go, then set the set your mind in the direction you wish to follow.
Bring out the the feeling, the understanding you have for refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha. Let it rise strongly in your mind as well as the universal responsibility born out of loving kindness and great compassion. So realizing that the only way that we can help others is by gaining calm abiding, which is the basis of cultivation of Bodhicitta and the wisdom realizing emptiness, then determine to strongly cultivate mindfulness and introspection as your assist assistance in maintaining clear concentration. So focus your mind upon the coming and going of the breath at the nostrils, either the nine round breathing or simply coming and going of the breath. Abide on the object without distraction.
Now let go of the breathing, and imagine in space in front of you, a large golden throne decorated with many jewels supported by eight living white snow lions. Upon the throne, it’s multicolored lotus. In the center of that, sun and moon discs. And seated upon the moon is Guru Śākyamūni Buddha, wearing saffron robes, legs in the vajra position. Right hand on his right knee, Left hand at his waist with a bowl filled with nectar.
His golden colored body radiating light of realizations, dark blue hair. His crown protuberance on top, narrow eyes, and a peaceful smile upon his face. He’s surrounded by an aura of light. So stabilize your mind upon the image of Guru Śākyamūni Buddha, mainly the the form of the body, either out in space in front of you, or you can bring the visualization down towards the tip of your nose, reducing in size to the size of your thumbnail. With mindfulness and introspection, hold uninterrupted concentration.
You can relax your mind from the object, but by thinking of the sufferings of three lower realms and compassion, maintain your mind in a virtuous state. So even if it’s difficult to hold the object, and it seems their mind is blown by powerful wind this way and that, These thoughts are just like waves on the surface of the ocean. They come and they they go away. And when the conditions of wind and so on slow down, the water becomes still. So by holding your mind, returning again and again to the object, then the natural stillness will definitely manifest.
That’s your goal. Never forget the goal of calm abiding. So again, establish the image in front of your nose, and try to hold as clearly as you can, remembering that all your previous mothers are depending upon you. Relax again. So the final time, then again, hold the image of Śākyamūni Buddha.
If you find that your mind is too disturbed, then do some breathing. Just focus on the breathing and then get back to the image. It was the last time, so try to hold good concentration. So now dissolve the image into space and dedicate the merits of meditating to the actual achievement of calm abiding and all the realizations up to enlightenment to become a perfect guide to lead all mother sentient beings out of suffering.