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The Lojong Thoughts Coaching Slogans (Mahayana Buddhist Observe)
The lojong thoughts coaching slogans are temporary, pith statements that function mindfulness reminders. Collectively, they kind a thoughts coaching apply for integrating the knowledge of meditation into our every day lives and strolling the bodhisattva path.
What Is Lojong Thoughts Coaching?
Lojong (a Tibetan phrase that means thoughts coaching) is a contemplative Tibetan Buddhist apply, based mostly on 59 aphorisms that function slogans for mindfulness. These brief statements of fact map the bodhisattva path and encourage us to domesticate the ideas and actions that carry us nearer to enlightenment. By distilling profound Buddhist teachings into catchy proverbs, lojong gives us a sensible technique of remembering what issues.
Known as Mahayana thoughts coaching slogans, lojong helps us break away from the unconscious habits that maintain us in a cycle of struggling. They remind us to domesticate the selfless, useful habits of a bodhisattva, summarized by the thought of exchanging ourselves for others. By considering lojong slogans in consciousness meditation, we enhance the probability that when wanted, these reminders will come up for us in every day life.
It’s our behavior, for instance, to not meditate till situations are good. We would wait till our to-do record is full, till we really feel calm, or till the thoughts is settled. After all, this behavior retains us from progressing in our apply. What if, in the meanwhile we determine to place off our meditation till later, lojong slogan quantity 50 got here to thoughts? Don’t be swayed by exterior circumstances.
Because the slogan pops up, we discover ourselves in a second of consciousness, our behavior interrupted. The slogan invitations us to linger on this second and convey consciousness to our alternative. Do we actually need to skip our meditation, or will we select a distinct path? Every time we choose to go together with the that means of the slogan, versus the momentum of behavior, we strengthen the neural pathways that promote a brand new, extra useful method of transferring by way of the world.
And so, we sit right down to meditate, regardless of the imperfect circumstances. This one act, prompted by the slogan, has far-reaching results. By coaching the thoughts to assume otherwise, we communicate and act otherwise, too. In different phrases, the thoughts turns into extra like that of a bodhisattva.
The Seven Factors of Thoughts Coaching Slogans
Lord Atisha, the Eleventh-century meditation grasp, is most frequently credited with creating the lojong apply and introducing it to Tibet. The 59 aphorisms most generally practiced as we speak, organized into 7 factors of thoughts coaching, are the work of the Twelfth-century grasp Chekawa Yeshe Dorje. He wrote a commentary on Atisha’s apply titled Coaching the Thoughts in Seven Factors. His lojong 7 level thoughts coaching is organized within the following method:
Level One: The Preliminaries
Slogan 1: Practice within the preliminaries to apply, the 4 reminders
Level Two: Coaching The Thoughts within the Path to Freedom
Level Three: Remodeling Unfavorable Circumstances by Bringing Them onto the Path
Level 4: Integrating the Practices into Day by day Life
Level 5: Evaluating the Educated Thoughts
Level Six: The Commitments of Thoughts Coaching
Level Seven: Recommendation for Thoughts Coaching
How To Observe With Lojong Slogans
To apply with the slogans, you can work with one per day, or per week. Meditate on the slogan within the morning, then do your finest to stay conscious of it all through the day. Observe what arises. Listed here are 4 examples you can use as guides:
Slogan 2: Regard all dharmas as goals
Meditate on impermanence and the that means of vacancy
All through the day, entertain the concept that all the things exists in a number of methods, from many alternative views
Slogan 13: Be grateful to everybody
Meditate on gratitude and what gratitude seems like in your physique
All through the day, apply bringing gratitude to even your most difficult moments.
Slogan 29: Abandon toxic meals
Meditate on what you might be consuming. This may occasionally embrace meals, media, dialog, or materials items.
All through the day, make some extent to eat solely that which nourishes your bodily and religious well being.
Slogan 39: All actions needs to be carried out with one intention.
Meditate on what your single most significant intention could also be. (Trace: Is it to be of profit to others?)
All through the day, query whether or not every of your ideas and actions is in alignment with this intention, or if it brings you farther from it.
To turn out to be a bodhisattva is a mighty process. We received’t get there by merely wishing it true. However by training the six paramitas and following the trail of the lojong slogans, we make changing into a bodhisattva actual. In little moments all through every day, we practice the thoughts to assume, communicate and act as an enlightened being would. Ultimately, we turn out to be what we do.
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