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The purpose of this meditation is to generate the strong feeling that all living beings are definitely our mothers, and then to contemplate this feeling in light of wishing love.
I began by thinking about how the flame in a lamp will go out when the oil is exhausted, because the flame arises from the oil – they are the same continuum. But it is different for our minds. When our body dies, our mind is not extinguished because our mind does not arise from our body – they are not the same continuum.
I thought about this for a while and it seemed to me that my mind was a formless continuum of thoughts which extended far far in to the past, far more ancient than the duration of my short life. It will continue far far into the future, way beyond the death of this short lived body. I dwelt on this recognition for a while, and when this idea was firm, I considered that in each of my past lives, I have had a mother. Where are these mothers now? They are all the living beings I see around me now. I thought about my relationship with my mother, and I thought about how my children love their mother dearly. I thought about this connection, and then imputed this connection between myself and all other living beings. I slowly began to feel a very close connection with all living beings because I saw them as my mother. When I had this feeling firmly in mind, I rested my mind upon it, and let it fill my awareness.
After a while I thought about what this means in light of wishing love. It seemed to me more clear than ever that wishing love is not a ‘stand alone’ mind, but a mind made up of parts, one of which is the recognition that all living beings are my mother. It seemed clear that when I think ‘wishing love’ I am really trying to keep a simultaneous awareness of all the Lamrim objects which ‘precede’ it. With this delightful recognition, I returned to that part of wishing love which was the recognition that all living beings are my mother, and stayed in that feeling for the rest of the meditation.
Dedication
Through the virtues I have collected here, may I become a Buddha for the benefit of all my kind mothers, and may they soon be released from their sufferings within samsara.
Practice in the Meditation Break
I will try to remember and ‘see’ that all living beings are my mother.
The purpose of this meditation is to develop a strong feeling of dreadful fear of taking rebirth in the lower realms, and then to see what this means in light of the practice of exchanging self and others.
I began by doing breathing meditation, gently calming my mind until my distracting thoughts subsided, and I was left with a floating, space-like feeling.
After a while, I moved on to the meditation on the sufferings of the lower realms. When this life ends, I will have to experience the results of my karma. Over this life and my many past lives, I have committed many negative actions, and the consequences of those actions must surely be mine to experience. I thought of the terrible things that appear to the minds of beings in the lower realms, and of their suffering. Then I imagined that I had joined these pitiful creatures, and I too was in the grip of unspeakable pain and torment.
I felt a deep dread of this situation, and focused on this dread for a while.
I then thought about what this means in terms of the practice of exchanging self and others. When I exchange self with others, I am exchanging the object of my cherishing – changing it from myself to others. If I can do this, I will have no self-cherishing, and I will be protected from suffering. Self-cherishing is the method by which I am hurt by the appearances to my mind, and without self-cherishing these appearances cannot cause me any suffering. Therefore, without self-cherishing I could journey to the lower realms and be protected from the sufferings there. Knowing that it is possible to protect myself from this suffering, I returned to the idea of being one of the unprotected living beings in the lower realms, and kept my mind focused on it for the rest of the meditation.
Dedication
May all living beings develop a deep fear of rebirth in the lower realms, and by keeping this fear alive in their minds, may they quickly travel along the spiritual path to ultimate freedom.
Practice in the Meditation Break
I will try to always remember that I will die soon, and then I die, I will probably enter the lower realms unless I follow my spiritual path.
The purpose of this meditation is to generate the strong wish for all living beings to be freed from the suffering of their samsara, and then to meditate on this wish in light of the the advantages of cherishing others.
I began with a breathing meditation to settle my mind and then moved on to the main meditation.
I started by imagining my mother and father of this life with me. I thought for a while about their lives and their suffering now. I am very familiar with their lives and I really felt for them both. All they can do is struggle against their suffering with no understanding of how to free themselves from it.
I also thought about the living beings suffering in the other realms of samsara. The beings in the hot and cold hells; the beings in the realm of hungry spirits; other humans; the gods and demi gods. I thought about all their sufferings. Some of their sufferings are manifest while for others, they are accumulating the causes for future suffering while enjoying seemingly good conditions. It was a horrible thought – when living beings are enjoying good conditions, our delusions are like demons working in the background, leading us to create the causes of suffering.
On reviewing samsara, it seemed to me to be an actual chamber of horrors – real horrors.
All my kind mothers are trapped here – all these kind beings who I love so deeply. If I did not love them, then I would not be particularly motivated by considering their suffering, but because I love them, I generated the specific wish that they be free from their unbearable and neverending suffering. When this feeling became strong, I focused on it.
After a while, I thought about what this means in light of the advantages of cherishing others.
It occurred to me that Universal Compassion depends upon the wish to cherish others. Without this wish, I will not be capable of generating the wish for all living beings to be free from their suffering.
With this thought I returned to my meditation on universal compassion, and let it fill my mind.
Dedication
May all living beings develop the wish to cherish others, and on the basis of the contemplation of others’ suffering, develop universal compassion, Bodhichitta and thence the perfect mind of a Buddha.
Practice in the Meditation Break
I will look for the signs of suffering in others, and wish them to be free from this chamber of horrors.
The purpose of this meditation is to meditate on the preciousness of our human life, and then to meditate on this in light of the advantages of cherishing others.
I began with breathing meditation and it was one of those times when I settled immediately into a very nice, deep and stable concentration on space-like emptiness. I was lovely and I wanted to stay there for the whole session, but I had to move on after a while.
I then thought about how precious my human life is. I have all the conditions I need to learn and practise Dharma, and access to pure teachers who can guide me along the path. I see and talk to so many clever and talented people, but very few of them understand how to be happy in their lives. Only Dharma identifies our problems as coming from our delusions, and only Dharma provides the methods for overcoming our delusions.
I felt that my life was really like the proverbial ‘needle in a haystack’. I also remembered the analogy of the blind turtle surfacing with its head passing into a golden yoke floating on the ocean’s surface.
I felt like I had risen from dark depths, and my face had broken the surface of the water – I could see the bright blue sky and water droplets were sparkling in the sunlight as I took in lungfuls of fresh clean air. I felt like I could breathe for the first time in years and years. I felt like I had a fantastic opportunity to use my life. I am alive!
I focused on this feeling for a while.
I then thought about what this means in light of the advantages of cherishing others. It is said that all the happiness in the world comes from wishing others to be happy.
It was immediately clear to me that my precious human life is what gives me the opportunity to cherish others. I imagined my whole life being used to cherish others. It felt like light rays were streaming out of my body towards all other living beings, filling the whole of the universe with cherishing light. It was wonderful, and I remained in that feeling for the rest of the meditation.
Dedication
May all living beings recognise the value of their precious human life, and use this opportunity to cherish others and become enlightened beings for the benefit of all.
Practice in the Meditation Break
I will try to always bear in mind that I have a precious human life with all the attributes necessary to learn, contemplate and meditate on Dharma. How lucky are we that understand this!
The purpose of this meditation is to generate joy through the taking of others’ suffering and the destruction of our own self-cherishing, and then to meditate on this joy in light of the disadvantages of self-cherishing.
I began with breathing meditation and quickly settled into a balanced and still state of mind.
I started by remembering how all living beings are so kind to me, and have been so kind in the past. I thought about how, if someone had saved my life when I was a child, and then many years later I heard that they had died, I would remember their kindness and feel appreciation and gratitude. The amount of time since we received the kindness does not affect the kindness we received.
Since all living beings have been our kind mother in the past, I generated love and gratitude towards them all.
I then moved on to think about a good friend of mine who has severe pain in her arms and wrists. I imagined her and all other living beings who are suffering pain in their arms and wrists. I imagined what is must be like, and how it is really a resembling hell, telling us that real hell realms exist. I imagined that my friend and the others were trapped in hell, with torturers forcing their arms into crushing machines, or hitting their arms with hammers and rocks. The pain was unbearable.
I then imagined that all this pain and suffering rose up and away from them like clouds of black smoke. As it did so, the hell realms disappeared and my friend and the others were free of their suffering. They could relax and sleep in peace and comfort.
The clouds of smoke came over to me and gathered at my heart. The smoke concentrated and wrapped itself around the rotten core of my self-cherishing mind. It crushed my self-cherishing mind and destroyed it completely, so that the smoke and my self-cherishing were completely removed.
I felt completely free from all the suffering caused by my ‘self’. I was completely free and experienced and brilliant joy, knowing that my suffering has ended completely. I looked across at my friend and all other living beings, and their suffering had ended too, and this added to the feeling of complete freedom from suffering. I focused on this feeling for a while, single-pointedly.
After a while, I wondered what this means in light of the disadvantages of self-cherishing. I remembered that self-cherishing is the cause of all my suffering, and the practice of taking the suffering of others as described above is the actual method of destroying my self cherishing. I need others in order to practice taking so I can end my suffering – how kind others are!
Once again, I focused on the feeling of myself and all living beings having freedom from our suffering, and remained with this feeling for the rest of the meditation.
Dedication
Through the power of my practice of willingly accepting the sufferings of myself and others, may all beings be completely free from suffering.
Practice in the Meditation Break
I will mount taking on the breath as advised in Universal Compassion, and practice the precept of ‘Perform Every Suppression of Interference by One’.
The purpose of this meditation is to develop renunciation for samsara, and then to meditate on this wish in light of the kindness of all living beings.
I began with breathing meditation and then moved on to the main topic.
I thought about the sufferings of this life, and the constant problems we all face. It seemed to me like our experience is made up of long periods of mundaneness punctuated by many problems and the occasional brief moment of happiness. How unsatisfactory. We are never sure what is around the corner. There is no dramatic music leading up to our problems like in the movies. We are just as likely to fall ill on a bright sunny day as on a stormy dark winters night. We never can tell what is heading our way.
I thought about this and about how there is a way to end this. We can attain liberation by turning our back on samsara. Towards the end of the meditation it hit me that there really IS a way to escape. It is not just an idea or a story. It is a reality. It happened just at the end of the meditation and I wanted to really sit on that feeling, but I had to move on.
I then through about what this means in the light of the kindness of others. I realised that I can attain liberation through the kindness of others. My moral discipline depends on the presence of others and my contact with them. I focused on this understanding for the rest of the meditation.
Dedication
May all living beings attain liberation and enlightenment for the benefit of all.
Practice in the Meditation Break
I will try to maintain my view that all samsara is unsatisfactory, and that I need to abandon attachment to it in order to be free.
The purpose of this meditation is to develop the sincere wish to abandon samsara and all its sufferings, and then to meditate on this wish in the light of the fact that all living beings are my mother.
I began by doing breathing meditation to settle my mind. I counted my breaths from one to eighteen, trying to keep my attention on my breathing. I cycled through several times, and slowly I felt my mind becoming steadily more and more settled and tranquil. After a while I found I could leave off the counting of breaths, and simply abide in the peace and calm of my settled mind.
After a while of enjoying this state, I moved on to the main Lamrim object of meditation, which was to generate a sincere wish to abandon samsara’s sufferings forever.
For this meditation, I focused on the sufferings of ageing. I am 45 years old. When I was a younger adult, say from the ages of 16 to 38, I did not have any long term ill health issues. I was physically healthy and I engaged in whatever activities I chose. I played football, climbed mountains, jogged, studied martial arts and did anything else that came along.
From about the age of 38 I noticed a subtle change in my body and my abilities. My knees and wrists hurt. I am not supple and can feel a perceived frailty descending over me. When I was younger I would not be concerned with knocks and bumps because I would always simply recover. But now these knocks and bumps take longer to overcome, and some are not improving at all. I feel like I will have wrist and knee pain for the rest of my life.
As I look forward, I can see that my experience in this respect will be to engage in fewer adventurous activities and to be more cautious with my body. I will become more and more concerned to protect it in case it is injured. I will become more scared of injury, and more reluctant to take risks. In short, I will become more and more concerned with myself while at the same time resenting this self for stopping me doing what I would like to do.
As I get steadily older, I can see no hope of improvement, and just a continuing descent into unhappiness due to ageing.
I thought about these points from my own personal experience, and a deep wish to be free of this suffering arose in my heart. I did not wish to avoid ageing, because this is impossible, but I really wished that I could avoid the suffering that ageing could bring. I thought again and again about these points and focused on this wish to be free from the suffering of ageing, and the suffering of samsara in general.
I felt a very deep clarity and purpose – I must free myself from suffering by becoming liberated from samsara! I focused on this wish for a long while. It filled me.
When the time came, I withdrew my attention out of this wish, and thought about what this wish means in the light of the fact that all living beings are our mothers.
To attain liberation from samsara is like escaping a prison of torment. But all other sentient beings – my kind mothers – are still trapped. To attain liberation while failing to remember our kind mother beings is like leaving the prison with the keys in our hand, and failing to unlock the doors to their cells as I walk past. How callous it would be to leave them trapped in suffering!
To attain liberation for ourself is wonderful, but its true meaning is in our subsequent ability to free all living beings.
I focused on the wish to be free from samsara’s sufferings while at the same time rejoicing in the fact that it will allow me to develop into a state where I can free all living beings. Once again I felt a very deep wish to be free and to free all my kind mothers. It was very focused and peaceful, yet full of purpose.
I thought of the triple realisation I get in the Migtsema prayer. Je Tsongkhapa is the manifestation of all the compassion, wisdom and spiritual power of all the Buddhas. His compassion lets him see the suffering of others and wish to alleviate it. His wisdom means he knows exactly what to do to release others from their suffering. His spiritual power gives him the power to release others from their suffering. These three qualities mean that his is perfect for the task of freeing all living beings from suffering. I have Je Tsongkhapa at my heart, and my mind is mixed with his mind. His qualities are my qualities (in my imagination, that is) and I can do what he can do.
I brought this understanding into my main meditation object, and it gathered more power and intensity. I stayed with this feeling for the rest of the precious time I had available for my meditation.
Dedication
May the virtues I have generated through meditating on the stages of the path, and the merit I have generated today be the direct cause for all living beings to be freed from suffering. In particular, may my Aunt Amy in New Zealand be freed from all her samsaric sufferings, and quickly take rebirth in a pure land, free from all her pain, loneliness and suffering.
Practice in the Meditation Break
I will focus on freeing everyone I meet from their distress, unhappiness and dissatisfaction, and remember that through them, I will be able to eventually free all living beings from suffering, forever.
The purpose of this meditation is to develop the complete determination to be free from samsara’s suffering, and then to meditate on this wish in the light of equanimity.
I began the meditation as usual by relaxing all the muscles in my body until it was very tranquil and comfortable. I then focused my mind on my breathing until I experienced a very expansive and tranquil state of concentration.
After a while I moved on to the meditation proper, and called to mind the contemplation given by my kind teacher, Geshe Kelsang, in his book The New Meditation Handbook. He says that all our sufferings have one thing in common – they all arise because we have taken rebirth in samsara. I thought about all the sufferings he describes. There are sufferings to do with our body, such as birth, sickness, ageing and death. Each of these aspects have many different sufferings, which I thought about briefly. In addition to the sufferings associated with our body, there are the sufferings associated with out external world. We suffer when we have to put up with things we find unpleasant, when we are separated from what we find pleasant, and when we fail to satisfy our desires.
In fact, from the very beginning our consciousness entered our body to the moment our body finally losses its ability to survive, our life is drenched in suffering.
I thought about how every step of the way, every moment we are alive, we suffer.
I also thought about how this might be bearable if this only happened once, but it happens every… single… time we take rebirth. And it will never end until I develop the wish to free myself.
I thought about all these sufferings, and how I need to break free. I need to free myself from samsara and all its sufferings. I thought about this again and again and slowly a huge feeling of needing to be free arose in my heart. I became bigger and bigger and stronger and stronger. I thought ‘I WILL free myself from samsara’. It was a complete determination, and I stayed with this determination for quite a while.
Later, it was time to move on and think about what this means in the light of equanimity. I considered this, and it became clear to me that with equanimity in my heart, I will practice moral discipline purely, which will help me achieve liberation from samsara. Seeing how this feeling of equanimity supports my wish to achieve liberation from samsara, I returned to the strong wish to be be free from all this suffering. I reconstructed the feeling of wishing to be free, and then meditated on it for the rest of the session.
Dedication
May all living beings know true sufferings, and through this knowledge set about freeing themselves from the chains of samsaric sufferings, to be come pure enlightened beings for the benefit of all.
Practice in the Meditation Break
I will keep an eye out for my own suffering – my aching shoulder for a start will remind me – and then use it to keep my wish to be free alive.
The purpose of this meditation is to strengthen our compassionate actions by mentally taking the sufferings of others onto ourselves, and then to meditate on this feeling in the light of renunciation – the wish to be free from the sufferings of samsara.
I began by establishing a very calm and peaceful feeling through breathing meditation. I stayed there for about 8 minutes.
I then moved on to think about my compassionate wish for all living beings to be free from suffering – the feeling I established in my previous meditation. I reviewed the cherishing love I have for others and the understanding of their suffering, and let the feeling of compassion arise naturally. I focused on this feeling for a short while and then moved forward with a firm decision to take the sufferings of others away from them.
I imagined standing on a high mountain looking down over a vast plain filled with suffering living beings and declaring ‘I will take on your suffering – I will free you from your suffering’. I mentally repeated those words and tried to connect with them – tried to make every part of my attention connect with their meaning.Then through the power of my declaration, I drew the suffering of all living beings out of their bodies in the aspect of black smoke. Huge amounts of black smoke came from each one – how much suffering they all have!
I envisioned the smoke rising and gathering around me, slowly concentrating in my heart and as it did so, destroying my self-cherishing mind. I felt it go into my heart and destroy my self-cherishing completely. I felt pure and weightless, and I also saw the freedom of all other living beings – completely free from suffering. A world free from suffering. A universe free from all suffering!
I stayed with this feeling of freedom for a while.
I then moved on to see what this feeling meant in the light of renunciation – the wish to attain freedom from personal suffering. Taking results in me destroying my self-cherishing mind and undermines the basis for my own suffering. Therefore Taking moves me forward in my wish to be free from samsara and its sufferings. Although Taking is a practice of the Great Scope, it does not contradict the practice of renunciation. Again, I felt a mutually supporting synergy between the practices, and returned to my feeling of removing the sufferings of all living beings, resulting in both myself and others being free from suffering.
Dedication
May all living beings be able to take on the sufferings of others, and thereby attain liberation and enlightenment.
Practice in the Meditation Break
I will try to unhesitatingly put myself out to help others today, and while doing so remember that my deepest wish is for all living beings to be completely free from all their sufferings and problems.
The purpose of this meditation is to develop the very strong wish that all living being could be free from suffering, and then to see what this wish means in the light of renunciation – the wish for personal freedom from suffering.
I began the meditation by calming my mind and creating an inner space of peace and stillness. I then thought about the contemplation for this meditation provided by the kindness of my teacher, Geshe Kelsang Gyatso in his book, The New Meditation Handbook.
Compassion is based on two thoughts – our cherishing love for others and our recognition of their suffering. I thought about the kindness of my mothers in all my past lives. I remembered how they held me in their arms and regarded me as more precious than any jewel. I remembered how much I owe them and how I want to return their kindness. I remembered the advantages of cherishing them, and my wish to cherish them with all my capacity.
I then thought about how they cannot escape suffering. I imagined my own mother and father in front of me. My mother suffering from dementia is lost in her own mind – moving back and forth in her lifetime, out of control. My father has lost the love of his life, and yet she is still there. How they both suffer.
A similar fate, one way or another, awaits all other living beings too. In the end we will decline and die, suffering throughout. It might not be so bad if this were just to happen once to each of us, but we are bound to suffer these intolerable sufferings again and again and again in life after life.
I let a feeling of sadness arise in my mind, and mixed it with my feeling of love for all these suffering beings. I slowly felt a deep compassion arise for them – a sincere wish that they could be free from their suffering, and this feeling arose out of the feelings of sadness and love. I saw compassion for all these living beings and let it fill my mind for some time.
I then thought about what this means in the light of renunciation – the wish to attain personal freedom from suffering.
These thoughts are quite similar in the respect that they are the wish for freedom from suffering. Compassion is the wish for others to be free from their suffering, and renunciation is the wish to be free from our own personal suffering by attaining liberation from samsara. It felt like these two wishes were like parallel lines or forces, both going in the same direction. Seeing how they echoed each other was satisfying and encouraging. I returned to my wish for all living beings to be free from their suffering, and held that feeling for the rest of the meditation.
Dedication
May all living beings cultivate the seed of compassion and let it grow into the precious mind of Great Compassion, and with this supreme thought quickly attain enlightenment for the sake of all suffering mother beings.
Practice in the Meditation Break
I will think of my mother and father, and redouble my efforts to travel the spiritual path in everything I do.
Meditation 6/14
Daily Lamrim 