Back to Lojong
"You can actually practice. You can just follow the book and do as it says, which is extraordinarily powerful and such a relief."
Chogyam Trungpa, Training the Mind and Cultivating Loving-Kindness, 1981
Dear All,
In coming weeks, we'll be diving back into the lojong slogans, popularized by Chogyam Trungpa in the 1980's and more recently by his student Pema Chodren. The slogans originate in the work of Atisha, an Indian Buddhist monk from the 10th century (pictured above), who supposedly brought them to Tibet.
There are about 60 lojong slogans, and we won't do them all. Their subject matter alternates between issues of everyday emotion and a profound non-dualist philosophy. Their aim is to develop the tough mind and tender heart that can stay compassionate even in hell.
My favorite version and commentary is by Judy Lief, but that exists only online and only for subscribers of Tricycle. Instead, we'll use versions and commentaries from several authors. I recommend everyone get a used copy of Trungpa's Training the Mind and Cultivating Loving-Kindness, but I'll quote enough of it in these emails to allow you to follow without the book.
The first slogan is,
First, train in the preliminaries.
This could mean, as Norman Fischer says, include in your whole-hearted training everything from your life so far, your life preliminary to the lojong practice. More traditionally, in Tibetan Buddhism we are directed to these four fundamental and preliminary considerations:
1. Human life is precious.
2. Death is certain for all of us.
3. What you do has consequences.
4. Attached existence entails suffering.
These cheery reflections will occupy us for the next four weeks. We'll recast them or formulate them slightly to use them as central meditations each week. For example, we'll meditate Human life is precious in this form: Ye are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? (Matthew 5:13)
Around the edges of the central meditations, we will continue to develop ourselves as incarnate, self-lit presences, and at the end of each session offer the intensity of our striving for the benefit of the Earth. This week on Tuesday we sent our group's developed energies toward Australia, its suffering flora, fauna, landscapes and humans.
All blessings to all,
Michael
