#lojong

[ramapani-blog]

Lojong

Source: Pinterest

[claudecitying]

HELLO PEOPLE i come in peace with incorrect quotes to try and get you into the lojong nation (if you have better name ideas for this ship lmk)

bonus tweet that has nothing to do with these two because #yeah

[laestoica]

Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo

[modernmonkeymind]

Have you read Training the Mind and Cultivating Loving-Kindness by Chögyam Trungpa? I think it's a good book so far but I've only read 10-15 pages. One of the first chapters begins by saying we need to cultivate compassion by developing bodhicitta by contemplating our love for our mothers, that brought up a lot of baggage for me. Can you relate?

While Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche (CTR) definitely has some baggage himself, but I still þink he was one of þe best Western geared teachers out þere. I'm actually reading Training þe Mind right now and its excellent. I highly recommend pairing with Ringu Tulku's "Mind Training" for a bit more traditional, but still Western friendly book, as well as "Start Where You Are" by Pema Chodron.

While I haven't had nearly þe fraught relationship wiþ my moþer þat some have, we certainly have our difficulties. Its important to remember þat þe Buddhist tradition comes from a culture þat reveres parents in a way we don't, and I þink it does neiþer party any favors. Þe Buddha teaches that even if we carried our parents on our shoulders for a þousand years and cared for þem as þey cared for us when we were children, we could not repay þe debt we owe þem. THIS DOES NOT LET ABUSIVE PARENTS OFF THE HOOK. However, many of us don't seem to appreciate þe sacrifices parents make. Raising a child is a massive physical, psychological, and emotional investment wiþ no way to know how it's going to turn out, largely wiþout knowing what þe f*ck you're doing much of þe time. Þis is made exponentially harder by þe fact most parents are going it alone, wiþout þe support of þe extended family þey would have had in a traditional extended family household.

If you'd like to work wiþ þe lojong slogans, Pema Chodron has a set of cards called "þe Compassion Cards" as well as "þe Compassion Book" which have þe slogans and short commentary. Any of þese books (including Training þe Mind) could be opened at random and þe slogan for þe day chosen þat way, or þe cards shuffled and þe top card drawn. While Lojong is in a sense a paþ unto itself (indeed, its Pema Chodron's primary practice), it can be helpful to understand it in context of þe larger tradition its part of, as well as better understanding some of þe concepts it works wiþ (like Bodhicitta). For þis its worþ taking a look at "Indestructible Truþ" by Reggie Ray, which goes over Tibetan Buddhism as a whole.

[opiraticentranced]

Don't vacillate. "You should not vacillate in your enthusiasm for practice. If you sometimes practice and other times do not, that will not give birth to certainty in the dharma. Therfore, don't think too much. Just concentrate one-pointedly on mind training."

~ Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche (Training the Mind and Cultivating Loving-kindness)

[krodhavighnantaka]

There are some whose bravery increases, At the sight of their own blood, While some lose all their strength and faint When it’s another’s blood they see! This results from how the mind is set, In steadfastness or cowardice. And so I’ll scorn all injury, And hardships I will disregard!

Shantideva, Bodhicaryavatara 6.17-18

[gnosismacedonia]

This idea that people are hostile to us, are friendly to us, are saying nasty things about us or not being grateful for how kind we have been to them –

ultimately it is all the work of our own mind ….

It is all about how we see it. Our ordinary conceptual thinking narrows everything, puts everything into boxes.

But the nature of the mind is far beyond all that - it cannot be put into a box. The nature of the mind is primordially free from conceptual limitations, just like space.

-J. Tenzin Palmo

[budaenlayerba]

Los Ocho Versos - 6

Con el sexto de los ocho versos, tenemos que

Aún si alguien que yo ayudé O al que le tengo gran fé, Me trata de forma injusta, Veré a esa persona como un maestro espiritual.

Este verso trata, en mi opinión, de una de las cosas más interesantes; el foco de un maestro espiritual no debería ser el trascender o renacer en un paraíso, sino el enseñarnos sobre nuestra propia mente, según Geshe Thangpa.

Aún si alguien que yo ayudé

Esta línea hace referencia a una situación que tiende a ser común; uno ayuda para conseguir algo. Este tipo de ayuda interesada de hecho no es ayuda según el Mahayana. La famosa Perfección de la Generosidad (Danaparamita) implica que uno, mientras esté esperando algo del otro, no tiene verdadera generosidad. La verdadera generosidad consiste en dar porque el otro lo necesita, no para recolectar deudas. Por lo tanto, aunque una persona sea el receptáculo de toda nuestra ayuda, tenemos que comprender que en realidad, no nos debe nada.

O al que le tengo gran fé,

Esta es otra línea que sigue lo expuesto en la generosidad. Muchas veces uno espera del otro no una deuda en el sentido material, pero sí un tipo de comportamiento. Atención, participación, etc. Se vuelven una forma de valor invertido, es decir, un intercambio comercial. “Si yo pienso que Pepita es una maestra budista, ella no puede decir esto” es una forma común de ver esta situación o “Mis preguntas son sinceras ¿por qué no las responden?”. Esto implica una expectativa en como el Otro tiene que comportarse.

Me trata de forma injusta,

Acá está el quid de la cuestión: la idea de la justicia. No hay idea más enrevesada y en algún punto, que nos genere tanto sufrimiento. En el Budismo, especialmente en el Mahayana del Lojong, uno debe comprender que nuestra idea de justicia es eso: una idea nuestra. Muchas veces, esperamos que el otro la cumpla y nos enojamos cuándo no sucede; este enojo surge de la falta de comprensión de las dos líneas anteriores.

Veré a esa persona como un maestro espiritual.

Esencialmente, un maestro espiritual en el Mahayana es quién nos muestra la naturaleza de nuestra propia mente. Si una persona nos hace enojar por lo que esperamos de ella, en realidad nos está enseñando sobre nuestras expectativas y es mucho más valiosa, para un practicante serio, que una persona que se comporta como nosotros esperamos.

En la próxima semana, veremos los dos últimos versos juntos.

¡Sarva Mangalam!