Introduction

The focus here is an old Tibetan text called Lojong or as translated and updated, Mind Training. Mind Training is made up of 59 easy to remember slogans. Each slogan looks at a different activity, node, or module of life. Many of the slogans provide encouragement or a perspective that is freeing from your usual thinking.

Atisha Dipamkara Shrijñana, in the 10th century, developed these slogans. Chekawa Yeshe Dorje wrote them down in the 12th century. They were called The Root Text of the Seven Points of Training the Mind. There has been a long tradition, since the 12 century, of study and commentary on this text. These slogans remain relevant to daily life from 12th century Tibet to 21st century America, indeed all spectrums of humanity.

The slogans are not supposed to be seen as a stick to beat yourself up with because you don’t meet some standard. But are meant to encourage and to point the way. You may notice that some slogans you already integrate and some slogans will lead you to work you need to do. Some slogans you may think you don’t need to work with but be careful that you are not fooling yourself and remember you are the easiest one to fool.

My background is as a student of Zen, and I have let this color the commentary as I feel it adds a helpful perspective. As the approaches are different between Tibetan and Zen, I sometimes lean towards Zen and occasionally lean towards the more traditional Tibetan approach to Mind Training.

Zen and Tibetan practice each put significance on training to live a life close to the experience and on training to live an ethical life. Zen’s focus is on breaking through your illusions, and it does this relentlessly. In Tibetan Mind Training, the focus is mostly on learning to operate in the world as an ethical being. Sure, both Zen and Tibetan practices have some of both attributes, but these are not usually well blended. You can think of them as Zen focusing on the underlying theory and Tibetan Practice as primarily being focused on practical applications. One is lost without the other.

Zen is sometimes seen as loosey-goosey, and Tibetan practices are recognized as authoritative. Zen, with its long silent meditations and often impenetrable koan stories and Tibetan Mind Training Slogans, are admonishing specific ethical behavior. But this view is wrong. Zen does have codes of conduct outlined in formal precept study. Tibetan practitioners often go on extended silent meditation retreats to free them selfs from their illusions.

You don’t have to be Buddhist or interested in Tibetan culture to find value here. You don’t have to be a meditator or even interested in these topics. All you need is a mind. You do have a mind, don’t you?

You may resist the idea of training the mind. It can sound like a lot of seriously dull work, but it can be anything but boring. You will come face to face with your ingrained habits. As you advance with practice, you will make surprising positive changes in your experience.

Mind Training is not about being perfect. Mind Training is about incremental advancement, about being better than yesterday, about being a better human, a better partner, parent, friend, neighbor, student, and worker. Mind Training is a path to mastery in life.

Feel free to explore what moves you, to meld the slogans for your purpose, be derivative, let the slogans influence you. What is important is what you do. Assimilate the slogans deeply, take then into yourself, compound them with your own experiences and thoughts and feelings, look at them from your perspective.

The main commentary on the slogans is made up of 7 points. I’ve given the headings my twist.

1. Groundwork  
2. The Practices  
3. Applying yourself  
4. Living and dying   
5. Measures of proficiency  
6. The 'Don't' Section  
7. The 'Do' Section  

“The originator of the 59 Lojong Mind Training Slogans was a Bengali meditation master Atisha Dipamkara Shrijñana (982-1054) Indian master, scholar, and author. He was the monk who spread Lojong teaching to Tibet. The story goes that in preparing for traveling to Tibet to teach, he “heard the people of Tibet were very good-natured, earthy, flexible, and open; he decided they wouldn’t be irritating enough to push his buttons. So, he brought along with him a mean-tempered, ornery Bengali tea boy. He felt that was the only way he could stay awake. The Tibetans like to tell the story that, when he got to Tibet, he realized that he need not have brought his tea boy: the people there were not as pleasant as he had been told.” [^@Chodron:1994a]

My motivations

I am reporting on my experiences. Reporting on what I’ve discovered it takes to be a better self. To be free from the vast number of egotistic behaviors that can be indulged in. These reports arise from sitting Zazen, on a cushion or in a chair, guided or not, structured or not, from feelings and thinking, from reading and studying, from conversations, from sauntering. Surprising how much long walks clarify the mindstream.

I’m not so different than you. I’m working to become ordinary. It is a process with ups and downs, successes and failures, and many lessons that point to work to be done. Perfection is not in the cards, but it is the stars which, when aimed at, maybe the Moon will be hit.

The goal is to recommit too caring for the world and as a reminder to encourage the future self. To help when working on mental fitness and ‘adulting.’ To be reminded to operate in the world with love and compassion. These are tips put together in moments of clarity to help when caught up in stuff that can’t be controlled.

Continue the conversation anytime: will@kestrelcreek.com.

Testing

*I dedicate this practice to the universe.**

1. Groundwork

1. Begin with the beginning [[201902280602]]

2. The Practices

Awakening to what is ultimately true

1. Treat experiences as dreams [[201903010555]]
2. Examine the nature of awareness [[201903020514]]
3. Don’t get trapped by emptiness [[201903030457]]
4. Rest in the openness of mind [[201903040448]]
5. In the intervals be a conjurer of illusions [[201903050446]]