The Seven-Point Mind Training: A Tibetan Method for Cultivating Mind and Heart
148
The Seven-Point Mind Training: A Tibetan Method for Cultivating Mind and Heart
148Paperback(2nd Edition)
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Overview
In this society, with its hurly-burly pace demanding of our time, it is ever so easy to let life slip by. Looking back after ten, twenty, thirty, years—we wonder what we have really accomplished. The process of simply existing is not necessarily meaningful. And yet there is an unlimited potential for meaning and value in this human existence.
The Seven-Point Mind Training is one eminently practical way of tapping into that meaning. At the heart of the Seven-Point Mind Training lies the transformation of the circumstances that life brings us, however hard as the raw material from which we create our own spiritual path. The central theme of the Seven-Point Mind Training is to make the liberating passage from the constricting solitude of self-centeredness to the warm kinship with others which occurs with the cultivation of cherishing others. This Mind Training is especially well-suited for an active life. It helps us to reexamine our relationships—to family, friends, enemies, and strangers—and gradually transform our responses to whatever life throws our way
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781559393935 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Shambhala |
| Publication date: | 05/16/2012 |
| Edition description: | 2nd Edition |
| Pages: | 148 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.60(d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
The First Point: The Preliminaries, Which Are Fundamental Dharma 9
First of all, train in the preliminaries 19
The Second Point: The Main Practice: Training in the Bodhichittas 19
The Cultivation of Ultimate Bodhichitta 19
Having attained stability, let the mystery be revealed 19
Consider the world as dreamlike 23
Investigate the nature of unborn awareness 26
Even the antidote itself is liberated in its own place 29
Establish the nature of the path in the sphere of the foundation of all 32
Between meditation sessions act as an illusory being 37
The Cultivation of Relative Bodhichitta 41
Alternately practice sending and taking 41
Apply those two to the breath 52
Three objects, three poisons, three roots of virtue 53
In all activities train with words 54
The Third Point: Using Unfavorable Circumstances as Aids to Awakening 55
When the environment and its inhabitants are enslaved by evil, transform unfavorable circumstances into the path of awakening 55
Blame everything on one thing 59
Meditate on great kindness toward everyone 67
Meditation on the deceptive appearances of the Four Bodies is unsurpassed in guarding emptiness 72
The supreme method entails four practices 74
Whatever you encounter, immediately apply it to meditation 78
The Fourth Point: A Synthesis of Practice for One Life 81
To synthesize the essence of this practical guidance, apply yourself to the five powers 81
The Mahayana teaching on transferring consciousness is just these precious five powers 84
The Fifth Point: The Measure of Having Trained the Mind 89
All Dharma is included in one purpose 89
Maintain the chief of the two witnesses 91
Rely continually on mental happiness alone 92
The Sixth Point: The Pledges of Mind Training 95
Always practice the three principles 96
Transform your desires, but remain as you are 98
Speak not of degenerate qualities 99
Think nothing about the other side 100
Abandon all hope for results 106
Abandon poisonous food 108
Do not devote yourself kindly to the central object 109
Do not laugh at malicious jokes 109
Do not wait at the narrow passageway 110
Do not load the burden of a dzo on an ox 111
Do not direct yourself to the summit of the ascent 111
Do not be devious 112
Do not let the gods descend to the devil 112
Do not seek another's misery as a way to your own happiness 114
The Seventh Point: The Practices of Mind Training 117
Practice all yogas by means of one 118
Counteract all withdrawal by means of one 121
There are two actions on two occasions, at the beginning and end 122
Whichever of the opposites occurs, be patient 125
Guard the two at the cost of your life 126
Practice the three austerities 126
Acquire the three principal causes 128
Cultivate the absence of three degenerations 131
Be endowed with the three inseparables 133
Always meditate on those who make you boil 134
Do not rely on other conditions 135
Now practice what is most important 135
Do not be contrary 137
Do not be erratic 139
Practice decisively 140
Free yourself by means of investigation and analysis 140
Do not be boastful 141
Do not bind yourself with hatred 141
Do not be fickle 142
Do not desire gratitude 142
Glossary 149