Meditations on Transforming the Mind

Bodhisattva Peace Training
By Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche

Establishing Pure Motivation

At the beginning of each day, for each meditation session and ideally before everything you do, establish pure motivation. Begin by thinking of the person or people you would like to benefit, and consider their lives-the difficulties and suffering they face. Then imagine all those who find themselves in similar circumstances. Continue to expand your compassion until it embraces all beings, each of whom suffers at various times to a greater or lesser degree, and all of whom seek only to find stable happiness and fulfillment. Formulate the aspiration to bring all to a state of unceasing happiness, establish this as the purpose of whatever you are doing. Pray to the object of your faith-God, Buddha, Jesus,Tara,or whoever embodies your highest ideals of limitless wisdom, compassion, and ability to benefit-that by the blessings of that exalted being and through  your own efforts, temporary and ultimate benefit may be accomplished for all beings.

　

Mirror of the Mind

Begin by establishing pure motivation-the intention to practice this meditation in order to bring temporary and ultimate benefit to all beings. Then observe your mind while you imagine an emotionally charged interaction, either positive or negative. Notice the ways in which you judge the other person's words or conduct. Do your thoughts, feelings, words, and actions stem from self-centeredness? Do you place your own needs and desires first? If so, reestablish pure motivation. Continue to watch your mind as if looking into a mirror. Is desire, aversion, pride, jealousy, or ignorance present?

Now try this during actual conversations, beginning with situations that don't elicit strong emotions. As your skill increases, you will natuarally start applying this method in more and more interactions.

　

Just Like Me

Developing a view of the equalness of all beings requires repeated contemplation. It is not something that happens on the surface of the mind. We can have a nice theory of equalness, but that will not necessarily alter the way we actually relate to other people.

It may be helpful to start by visualizating one person you are biased against.  Say to yourself, "This person-just like me-wants to be happy, doesn't want to suffer, yet out of ignorance is working at cross-purposes to that very goal."  The actions you have judged so harshly  result from misguided efforts to find fulfillment or end suffering.  How many times have you done the same thing?

Now expand the visualization to incude everyone who behaves like this person.  Remember that, like you, they all want to find happiness and avoid suffering.  Unaware of what actually creates happiness and suffering,  they are sowing seeds of future misery.

Finally, expand the scope of your meitation until it includes all beings.

Taken from the book, Change of Heart: The Bodhisattva Peace Training of Chagdud Tulku
Compiled and edited by Lama Shenpen Drolma

Chagdud Khadro

Guru Rinpoche Day

March 14, 2011

 

Dear Sangha,

 

I am writing from California,  sitting in Chagdud Rinpoche’s outer room at the top of Tara House at Rigdzin Ling. It is a privilege to stay in this room, which holds a treasury of memories. But more than memories and old stories, the room reminds me of how Rinpoche could be fully present wherever he sat and simultaneously benefit persons in distant places. For him space and time were no barriers, and his compassion cut direct paths through the tangle of interdependent phenomena. 

 

The Chagdud Gonpa sanghas in North and South America, and in Australia, recently joined in the recitation of more than two million 100-Syllable Vajrasattva mantras. Most practitioners gathered in Chagdud Gonpa’s more than thirty centers and meditation groups, although others also practiced individually during the same time frame. We shared the profound joy of purification.

 

The Vajrasattva practice was followed by extensive Vajrakilaya (the wrathful aspect of Vajrasattva) practice performed at Chagdud and Nyoshul gonpas in Tibet;  at Padmasambhava Peace Institute, Rigdzin Ling, and Iron Knot Ranch in the United States; and at Khadro Ling in Brazil. Again and again—100,000 times—we prayed that all the forms of negativity be averted: JYHO! Turn back!

 

The synchronicity of a wisdom deity being invoked in many places by many practitioners has tremendous benefit. By simultaneously assembling in this way we multiply our prayers and aspirations through powerful, radiant interdependence.  Our pure intention merges with that of the great lineage masters.  The skillful means of any one sangha is enhanced by many others. The outflow of compassion cannot be measured.

 

In a time when the outer elements are terrifying and out-of-balance,  when the causes for fear and suffering surge forth with shocking suddenness, we must rely on authentic teachers, on the sacred lineage transmissions we have received from them, and on each other as a protective sangha. 

 

Chagdud Rinpoche used to say, “I went to [such-and-such place] and sat down for a while.” He could have “sat down” in one place only, but he chose to travel all over the world, creating a dynamic network of centers. Now we, as his sangha,  as the custodians of that network, must continue to find strength in practicing together. That synchronicity is like “one butter lamp lighting another,”  purely motivated by compassion, purely offered and sealed through dedication—a source of illumination for all beings. 

 

With appreciation and rejoicing in the sangha,

Chagdud Khadro

Happy Losar / Happy Tibetan New Year