STATR WHERE ARE YOU ARE | FULL BOOK | PDF | DOWNLOAD ||.
contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
1. No Escape, No Problem 1
2. No Big Deal 12
3. Pulling Out the Rug 20
4. Let the World Speak for Itself 27
5. Poison as Medicine 36
6. Start Where You Are 44
7. Bringing All That We Meet to the Path 60
8. Drive All Blames into One 69
9. Be Grateful to Everyone 77
10. Cutting the Solidity of Thoughts 87
11. Overcoming Resistance 97
12. Empty Boat 109
13. Teachings for Life and Death 115
14. Loving-Kindness and Compassion 124
15. Lighten Up 130
16. Abandon Any Hope of Fruition 136
17. Compassionate Action 144
18. Taking Responsibility for 156
Your Own Actions
19. Communication from the Heart 165
20. The Big Squeeze 175
21. High-Stakes Practice 190
22. Train Wholeheartedly 201
Appendix: The Root Text of the Seven
Points of Training the Mind 207
Bibliography 213
Resources 215
Index of Slogans 219
About Book:
This book is about awakening the heart. If you
have ever wondered how to awaken your gen-
uine compassionate heart, this book will serve as
a guide.
In our era, when so many people are seeking help
to relate to their own feelings of woundedness and
at the same time wanting to help relieve the suffer-
ing they see around them, the ancient teachings
presented here are especially encouraging and to
the point. When we find that we are closing down to
ourselves and to others, here is instruction on how
to open. When we find that we are holding back,
here is instruction on how to give. That which is un-
wanted and rejected in ourselves and in others can
be seen and felt with honesty and compassion. This
is teaching on how to be there for others without
withdrawing.
I first encountered these teachings in The Great
Path of Awakening by the nineteenth-century Tibetan
teacher Jamgön Kongtrül the Great. Called the lo-
jong teachings, they include a very supportive medi-
tation practice called tonglen and the practice of
working with the seven points of mind training,
which comes from an old Tibetan text called The
Root Text of the Seven Points of Training the Mind, by
Chekawa Yeshe Dorje. (See appendix.)
Lojong means “mind training.” The lojong teach-
ings are organized around seven points that contain
fifty-nine pithy slogans that remind us how to awaken
our hearts.* Working with the slogans constitutes the
heart of this book. These teachings belong to the
mahayana school of Buddhism, which emphasizes
compassionate communication and compassionate
relationship with others. They also emphasize that
we are not as solid as we think. In truth, there is enor-
mous space in which to live our everyday lives. They
help us see that the sense of a separate, isolated self
and a separate, isolated other is a painful misunder-
standing that we could see through and let go.
Tonglen means “taking in and sending out.” This
meditation practice is designed to help ordinary peo-
ple like ourselves connect with the openness and
softness of our hearts. Instead of shielding and pro-
tecting our soft spot, with tonglen we could let our-
selves feel what it is to be human. By so doing, we
could widen our circle of compassion. Through this
book I hope others may find such encouragement.
When I first read the lojong teachings I was struck
by their unusual message that we can use our difficulties and problems to awaken our hearts.
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