Zen in Ten: “Abandon Any Hope of Fruition"
Slogans for Training the Mind to Stay Open & Kind
Hello Spark Zen Readers! I hope you’re doing well today. Today’s “list-icle” is excerpted from Pema Chödrön’s wonderfully pithy & practical Compassion Cards: Teachings for Awakening the Heart in Everyday Life [Shambhala Publications, 2016]. Each of these cards has a slogan and commentary on it; they are used as part of lojong—a Tibetan Buddhist practice that involves working with adages to cultivate a heart-body-mind of compassion and wisdom. Peace from San Francisco, Rev. Shōren Heather
“Regard all dharmas as dreams: Whatever you experience in your life—pain, pleasure, heat, cold, or anything else—is like something happening in a dream. Although you might think things are very solid, they are like passing memory. You can experience this open, unfixated quality and sitting meditation; all that arises in your mind—hate, love, and all the rest—is not solid. Although the experience can get extremely vivid, it is just a product of your mind. Nothing solid is really happening.”
“Examine the nature of unborn awareness: Look at your mind, at just simple awareness itself. ‘Examine’ doesn't mean analyze. It means just looking and seeing if there's anything solid to hold onto. Our mind is constantly shifting and changing. Just look at that!”
“Rest in the nature of alaya, the essence: There is a resting place, a starting place that you can always return to. You can always bring your mind back home and rest right here, right now, in present, unbiased awareness.”
“In post meditation, be a child of illusion: When you finish sitting meditation, if things become heavy and solid, be fully present and realize that everything is actually pliable, open, and workable. This is instruction for meditation in action, realizing that you don't have to feel claustrophobic because there's always a lot of room, lots of space.”
“Don’t ponder others: Don’t ponder others’ weak points, becoming arrogant about your own accomplishments.”
“Change your attitude, but remain natural: Work on reversing your caught-up, self-important attitude and remain relaxed in this process. Instead of always being caught in a prison of self-absorption, look out and express gentleness to all things. Then just relax.”
“Abandon any hope of fruition: The key instruction is to stay in the present. Don’t get caught up in hopes of what you’ll achieve and how good your situaion will be some day in the future. What you do right now is what matters.”
“All dharma agrees at one point: The entire Buddhist teachings (Dharma) are about lessening one’s self absorption, one’s ego-clinging. This is what brings happiness to you and all beings.”
“Train without bias in all areas. It is crucial always to do this pervasively and wholeheartedly: It is important to include everyone and everything that you meet as part of your practice. They become the means by which you cultivate compassion and wisdom.”
“Two activities: one at the beginning, one at the end: In the morning when you wake up, you reflect on the day ahead and aspire to use it to keep a wide-open heart and mind. At the end of the day, before going to sleep, you think over what you have done. If you fulfilled your aspiration, rejoice in that. If you went against your aspiration, rejoice that you are able to see what you did and are no longer living in ignorance. This way you will be inspired to go forward with increasing clarity, confidence, and compassion in the days that follow.”