Being Ordinary
- Introduction
- • ★ Lojong Slogans
- Begin with the beginning
- Treat experiences as dreams
- Examine the nature of awareness
- Don’t get trapped by emptiness
- Rest in the openness of mind
- In the intervals be a conjurer of illusion
- Practice giving and receiving on the breath
- 3 Objects, 3 Poisons, 3 Seeds of Virtue
- Always train with the slogans
- Begin Tonglen with yourself
- Use misfortune as practice
- Drive all blame into a single source
- Be grateful to everyone
- Let confusion awaken and practice emptiness
- Do good, avoid evil, appreciate your lunacy, pray for help
- Every encounter suddenly becomes the path
- Cultivate a serious attitude
- Practice for death as well as for life
- There is only one point of focus
- Be true to the principled one
- Cultivate an ever-present joyful mind
- Proficiency comes when practicing even when distracted
- Always train in the 3 basic elements
- Don’t make a public display of your efforts
- Don’t speak of the faults of others
- Don’t ponder the actions of others
- Don’t save your biggest problem
- Don’t expect results
- Don’t poison yourself
- Don’t be so predictable
- Don’t be mean
- Don’t wait in ambush
- Don’t make everything so painful
- Don’t unload on everyone
- Don’t rush things
- Don’t be devious
- Don’t make gods into demons
- Don’t be complacent of suffering
- Focus on a singe intention
- Remedy obstacles with one intention
- Two activities begin the day end the day
- Be patient either way
- Observe, no matter what
- Face the three challenges
- Adopt three key elements
- Keep tract of the three key elements
- Keep the three inseparable
- Train without bias
- Meditate on your dissatisfactions
- Embrace challenges presented by circumstances
- Right now exert yourself, get it right
- Remain committed and engaged
- Be consistent in your practice
- Be wholehearted
- Find freedom through investigation and close analysis
- Be modest and unassuming
- Practice sympathetic joy
- Be even tempered
Don’t save your biggest problem
(27)
Problems here refers to “patterns of thought, habits, and emotions that sap our energy and keep us from thriving.” [^@Leif:2010aa]
If you have to eat a frog, eat it first!
Identify your biggest problem and then get to work on it. Don’t procrastinate. Solving big problems will grease the way for you to handle all the little nuisance problems as they pop up. They cause the greatest imbalance and blind you to your more subtle problems. Someone is holding you back from a nurturing life, and that someone is you. Your greatest problems are caused by your poor habits, your pessimism, your emotional baggage, all your fears and doubts, and your failure to practice. These problems are active in you and their resolution can only take place in you. Problems never end. Everyone has problems. Don’t look away from your problems.
What are your greatest problems? Where are you deficient? What are your neurosis?
- materialism
- lack of consideration of others
- complacency
- procrastination
- certainty or uncertainty
- lack of commitment to a cause
- egotism and self-grasping
- fear
- pessimism
Trust that by paying attention to your greatest problems, slowly little by little you will see what you need to do and the little stuff will resolve on its own accord. Practice with your big problems and soon everything will seem like ‘little stuff’.
Trungpa Chögya puts it crudely, “Don’t just work with chicken shit, I want to work with the chicken itself.” [^@Trungpa:2005aa]
Begin Tonglen with yourself ………………………………[[201903090508]] Right now exert yourself, get it right …………………….[[201904190458]] Be true to the principled one …………………………….[[201903190550]] Meditate on your dissatisfactions …………………………[[201904170606]]
Alternate Titles
- Work with your biggest problems first
- Work with the greatest defilements first
- Work on the strongest of your defilements first
- Purify the strongest negative emotion first
03-26-2019 - 5:12 AM ›[[201903260512]] → #slogans, #quote