Last meditation meeting we started looking into the path we are going to analyze through our meditation, as recommended by Lama Samten, in which we have the thinking, contemplating and reposing steps. It was suggested that I put the overview here so you guys could have it fresh in your minds and even help you to start contemplating. The steps presented below are within the approach of my master Lama Samten.
We start off by reminding ourselves of something very important that, in the words from His Holiness The Dalai Lama: “All beings wish to be happy and want to avoid suffering”. All sentient beings move toward this goal, from the tiny little ants to the biggest of the elephants.
By having this in mind we contemplate the fact that happiness is somewhat connected to peace, otherwise happiness is either not possible or is too fragile. Then we contemplate the fact that we do not live alone, we are all interdependent, we depend on others to be successful, to be patient, to obtain peace, even to become enlightened. Peace comes from the positive interactions we have with others, if we hurt someone, we are hurting ourselves, we are making our minds more disturbed and agitated. Therefore the notion of Universal Responsibility arises. Here Lama Samten reminds us of the four directions we should establish positive connections with: first with ourselves, then with other people we know, then with all the humanity, and finally with the environment.
By contemplating that, we come to realize that it is important that we establish a Culture of Peace, in which a good heart will be the central key in accomplishing it. Here Lama Samten says: “Peace is like a medicine, first we take this medicine, and after we are healed, we offer this same medicine to the world”.
Therefore it is important that we understand how we operate, what our current condition is, know ourselves, and then make the necessary changes to manifest ourselves more positively in the world.
So we start contemplating reality and ourselves under the lenses of the teachings from Shakiamuni Buddha, on the Four Noble Truths, and the Noble Eightfold Path.
I. In the First Noble Truth we see that we are stuck in cyclic existence where everything is conditioned, and we fluctuate between mental landscapes and scenarios. Sometimes we are doing well, sometimes not so well, sometimes miserable, and so forth. And that is suffering, we are always following our impulses and are never lucid about the impermanence of all things.
II. In the Second Noble Truth we see that suffering is dependant on causes. We suffer because we rely our happiness on impermanent things, trying to obtain peace by changing the world outside us, trying to make permanent what is actually impermanent.
III. In the Third Noble Truth we see that suffering can be stopped once we remove its causes, once we stop relying our security, our happiness on transitory objects, events, emotional states and so on.
IV. In the Fourth Noble Truth, Buddha then showed a path that leads to cessation of suffering.
1 In the first step of this path we generate the right view. By contemplating suffering and its causes, and the fact that all beings are in this river of suffering, we generate the motivation to get out of it. We want to rely on something permanent, free from conditions and fluctuations, and we want help other as well.
In the next three steps we understand that some actions are unwholesome and produce harm to others and to ourselves, therefore they drive us out of our goal and disturb our minds, so should be avoided:
2 Mind Actions: Greed, Heresy, Aversion
We start off by reminding ourselves of something very important that, in the words from His Holiness The Dalai Lama: “All beings wish to be happy and want to avoid suffering”. All sentient beings move toward this goal, from the tiny little ants to the biggest of the elephants.
By having this in mind we contemplate the fact that happiness is somewhat connected to peace, otherwise happiness is either not possible or is too fragile. Then we contemplate the fact that we do not live alone, we are all interdependent, we depend on others to be successful, to be patient, to obtain peace, even to become enlightened. Peace comes from the positive interactions we have with others, if we hurt someone, we are hurting ourselves, we are making our minds more disturbed and agitated. Therefore the notion of Universal Responsibility arises. Here Lama Samten reminds us of the four directions we should establish positive connections with: first with ourselves, then with other people we know, then with all the humanity, and finally with the environment.
By contemplating that, we come to realize that it is important that we establish a Culture of Peace, in which a good heart will be the central key in accomplishing it. Here Lama Samten says: “Peace is like a medicine, first we take this medicine, and after we are healed, we offer this same medicine to the world”.
Therefore it is important that we understand how we operate, what our current condition is, know ourselves, and then make the necessary changes to manifest ourselves more positively in the world.
So we start contemplating reality and ourselves under the lenses of the teachings from Shakiamuni Buddha, on the Four Noble Truths, and the Noble Eightfold Path.
I. In the First Noble Truth we see that we are stuck in cyclic existence where everything is conditioned, and we fluctuate between mental landscapes and scenarios. Sometimes we are doing well, sometimes not so well, sometimes miserable, and so forth. And that is suffering, we are always following our impulses and are never lucid about the impermanence of all things.
II. In the Second Noble Truth we see that suffering is dependant on causes. We suffer because we rely our happiness on impermanent things, trying to obtain peace by changing the world outside us, trying to make permanent what is actually impermanent.
III. In the Third Noble Truth we see that suffering can be stopped once we remove its causes, once we stop relying our security, our happiness on transitory objects, events, emotional states and so on.
IV. In the Fourth Noble Truth, Buddha then showed a path that leads to cessation of suffering.
1 In the first step of this path we generate the right view. By contemplating suffering and its causes, and the fact that all beings are in this river of suffering, we generate the motivation to get out of it. We want to rely on something permanent, free from conditions and fluctuations, and we want help other as well.
In the next three steps we understand that some actions are unwholesome and produce harm to others and to ourselves, therefore they drive us out of our goal and disturb our minds, so should be avoided:
2 Mind Actions: Greed, Heresy, Aversion
3 Speech Actions: Using harsh language, lying, slandering, gossiping;
4 Body Actions: killing, stealing, having sexual misconduct;
5 By not causing harm we learn how to create ourselves more positively in the world by exercising the Four Immeasurable Qualities:
Compassion
Love
Joy
Equanimity
And the six perfections – Paramittas
Generosity / Morality / Patience / Constant Energy / Concentration / Wisdom
6 In this step we sit and meditate, by doing so, we train ourselves not to follow the impulses that drive us along, and blind us from seeing things in different ways, so we start generating lucidity by not responding to outer stimulus.
7 Here we contemplate emptiness, the realization of the fact that nothing is independent, but interdependent. Objects, ego and phenomena present themselves as if they had an inherent existence when they actually don’t. By contemplating emptiness we come to the realization that everything comes together by the interaction of parts, which will then constitute the whole.
8 In this final step we contemplate the fact that we have an unshakable nature, which creates the possibilities for everything to happen. It is always pure and perfect, free from any oscillation of our identities, for it is stable and not dependent on any conditions. Lama Samten always gives one nice example that goes like this: “When you are watching a movie on the theatre (or on the TV screen), no matter how violent the movie is, how many gunshots were fired, how much blood was spilt; at the end of the movie the projection screen doesn’t have any holes, it is not stained with blood, it doesn’t smell of gun powder. So is our true nature. Unshakable by the fluctuations of the characters we put on.”
This is briefly the path we talked about last meeting!
May all beings benefit from it!
Cris
