Daily Lojong

[明安 Myoan]

I'm returning to practicing with the Lojong slogans. They are invaluable for bringing bodhicitta down to earth, seeing what it means for ordinary people.

I found this website which also has a handy daily Lojong slogan with brief commentary. That's the source I'm using for each day's slogan, hence starting in the middle.

My hope for this thread is to collectively grow our aspiration to care for others, helped along by these pithy sayings.

Please share your thoughts, observations, resources, or anything you feel might help.

Today's is #33 Don't bring things to a painful point. Another translation is Do not strike at the heart.

Some commentary I found:

We all have lots of faults, and it is easy to get caught up in dwelling on them. It is easy to see all the things that are wrong about everyone and everything else as well. We may feel that we are doing somebody a favor by pointing out to them where they fall short, convincing ourselves that we are only doing so for their own benefit. But focusing on people’s most vulnerable areas, their most painful points, can undermine their confidence and their ability to go forward. Likewise, focusing on our own faults can be equally discouraging.

What happens with this focus on the negative is that our critical attitude becomes so entrenched that we can only see what is wrong, and we become blind to what is right. By critiquing other people, we may feel good about ourselves in comparison. But in order to keep feeling good, we need to keep finding new targets for our faultfinding, in order to shore ourselves up. Deep down we do not trust ourselves, so we need to keep convincing ourselves in this way.

According to this slogan, instead of pouncing on people’s weaknesses and vulnerabilities, we should be providing encouragement and support for their strengths. That is what we should notice and point out, not just what is wrong. The idea is that it is more skillful to encourage positive qualities than to criticize what is negative. With this approach, we are not using others to heighten our own confidence nor are we undermining other people’s confidence by reminding them of their inadequacies.

This is incredibly hard for me. It's so common to idly chat about the faults of others, e.g. politicians, often with words I'd never use in their presence. The words serve no wholesome purpose. The result is only to whip up my anger and sense of separation and superiority over others. The same temptation exists on Dharma Wheel.

In real life, I sometimes am tempted to respond with a passive-aggressive comment when hurt rather than bringing that hurt to my practice.

Seeing others with the eyes a mother has for her only child, with Chenrezig's eyes, is incompatible with trying to "strike at the heart" of others to wound them. I'm finding mantra practice helps this quite directly. It replaces negative storytelling, like a carpenter who uses a good peg to replace a rotten one. Old habits die hard, but I'm trying

[Johnny Dangerous]

Didn't know about this site, thanks for sharing. It's a decent replacement for the old Lojong quick reference site that went belly up not too long ago.

[明安 Myoan]

Is that what happened to it? I remember a site with all the slogans and like six or seven teachers' translations and commentaries for each. I really miss that resource.

[Johnny Dangerous]

Is that what happened to it? I remember a site with all the slogans and like six or seven teachers' translations and commentaries for each. I really miss that resource.

Same here. If I remember, it got hacked.

[明安 Myoan]

Today's slogan is #34, Don't transfer the ox's load to the cow. Various translations are essentially the same.

This one concerns taking responsibility for our actions and situation, basically for our karma.

This slogan is about weaseling out of our own duties and responsibilities. It is about passing the buck. In the first place, we avoid committing ourselves, and when we do make a commitment, instead of following through, we prefer to hand it off. We are so concerned with our rights and what we feel we are owed, and we think very little about what we owe to others and to the society at large. When we are asked to do something we may feign modesty, but not because we are really modest. We just want a way out of taking on a load we know we could carry if we wanted to.

The imagery of this slogan has further implications in that an ox is stronger than a cow, so the idea is not to put the heaviest burden on the one who has the least strength to deal with it. It may feel unfair or that you are carrying more than your weight, but realistically, not everyone has the same capabilities.

The idea of commitment, aspiration, is the core of the issue for me. I aspire to awaken love for others. Yet, through my own lack of skill or their conditioning, they may respond unfavorably, even harshly. If I then respond in kind, who is to blame? Beings wrestle with their own conditioning as much as I do. My aspirations are ultimately in my hands, even as certain buddhas like Amitabha are there to lean on along the way.

I am not angry
About a sickness that makes me suffer.
Why therefore should I have anger for others?
They, too, are under the influence of conditions [that make them act in this manner].

Bokar Rinpoche compares what our attitude should be to a mother. When her child is sick and acts out in anger, she understands it is because of the suffering he feels. She does not decide, "Fine, ungrateful child! I will not help you now!" Quite the opposite, her concern is deepened even further. Similarly, when anger or unwholesome emotions flare up, that is our own conditioning, our own matter to deal with. We should not transfer this burden to another person, let alone someone who does not know the Dharma and thus does not have access to the same wisdom and practices that we benefit from.

Once, I offered a bag of oranges to a homeless woman in my neighborhood. She knew she had no use for something like four pounds of oranges and said, "no thank you." I was shocked and disappointed for a moment. In that instant, I had given the burden of my happiness to her, for her to accept the gift and make me feel like a good person. That, to me, is one way of transferring the ox's load to the cow.

[dzogchungpa]

Is that what happened to it? I remember a site with all the slogans and like six or seven teachers' translations and commentaries for each. I really miss that resource.

Same here. If I remember, it got hacked.

If you are referring to lojongmindtraining.com, it appears to be archived at archive.org, e.g. here.
Make sure to close the archive.org toolbar at the top, because it obscures the navigation bar of the original site.

[明安 Myoan]

I can't fit enough emojis into one post to express my gratitude.

I wonder if the host of the original site would be able to use this archive as well?

[dzogchungpa]

I can't fit enough emojis into one post to express my gratitude.

One is sufficient.

[明安 Myoan]

Today's slogan is #35, Don't try to be the fastest. Other translations are: Remember - This is Not a Competition. Don't aim to win.

Commentary:

When practitioners begin to develop their understanding of the teaching of the dharma and their appreciation of the dharma, they sometimes fall into a sort of racehorse approach. Such practitioners are concerned with who can do their prostrations faster, who can sit better, who can eat better, who can do this and that better.
But if our practice is regarded purely as a race, we have a problem. The whole thing has become a game rather than an actual practice, and there is no seed of benevolence and gentleness in the practitioner. So you should not use your practice as a way to get ahead of your fellow students.

When you are working with other people, sharing in any kind of project, don't stand up to claim credit for the work. In other words, don't seek out the limelight. This needs no further elaboration.

In a horse race, the aim is to be the fastest. Among dharma people there are often hopes of receiving more attention or being more highly regarded than others, and little schemes are made up to find ways to acquire possessions. Give these up. Have no concern about receiving or not receiving recognition or prestige.

Another way I might phrase this to myself is, "Stop making comparisons" or more directly "I am doing this to help others."

This includes comparisons with myself, how I should be better than I am, counting my failures and successes, seeing if I've come out on top. This is self-defeating in the long run because it forgets the fuel of Mahayana practice: bodhicitta. The antidote in my experience is to always begin practice sessions with clear verses that remind us of this, such as this simple recitation used in the Kagyu tradition:

Until the summit of enlightenment is reached I and all beings go for refuge to the sources of true refuge. I will now practice the absorption of calm abiding in order to release all beings from their particular suffering and establish them in lasting peace and happiness.

Or this one by Geshe Langri Thangpa:

With a wish to free all beings
I shall always go for refuge
to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha
until I reach full enlightenment.

Enthused by wisdom and compassion,
today in the Buddha’s presence
I generate the Mind for Full Awakening
for the benefit of all sentient beings.

As long as space endures,
as long as sentient being remain,
until then, may I too remain
and dispel the miseries of the world.

Commentary on this last quote by His Holiness the Dalai Lama can be found here: http://www.bodhicitta.org/study/eight-v ... odhicitta/

Remembering this in daily life is hard. But thinking, "darn, I failed, I'm this and that" is merely the inverse of pride. Repentance is not remorse but pragmatically seeing where our results didn't meet our aspirations and how we can do better next time

[muni]

Few inspirations as introductions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YCJBs3X4Hg 1-2-3-4.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFew-omoXCk 1-2-3-4.

Thank you for this topic.

[明安 Myoan]

Today's slogan is #36: Don't act with a twist. Other translations: Do not misuse the remedy. Don't revert to magic.

Commentary:

It means don't be devious, but it's similar to those slogans about not eating poisonous food or turning gods into demons. You're willing to drive all blames into yourself very publicly so everyone will notice, because you want people to think well of you. Your motivation is to get others to think that you're a great person, which is the "twist." Or there's a person who's doing you wrong, and you remember lojong, but there's a twist. You don't say, "Buzz off, Juanita," or anything harsh. You're this sweet person who wins everyone's admiration, but the other side of this is that they dislike Juanita more and more for mistreating you. It's as if you set Juanita up by acting like a saint. That's the idea of acting with a twist. There are all kinds of ways to get sweet revenge.

If you accept a setback for the time being out of a desire for future benefits for yourself or if you practice mind training expecting to cure illness and mental disturbances and ward off adverse situations, your practice is mistaken, like someone contriving magical rituals. Don't act this way. Whatever happiness or sorrow comes, meditate without arrogance, hesitation, fear, or hope. Gyal-se Tokme has said:
Mind training done with that kind of attitude should be considered a method for helping demons and disturbances. If you practice that way, it's no different from evil. Dharma work must counteract discursive thought and disturbing emotions.

We would be misusing the remedy if we were to take upon ourselves the misfortunes of others, but with a wish for personal happiness or that others might say of us that we are patient and loving Bodhisattvas, trying thus to build up for ourselves a good reputation. We should free ourselves of all such intentions and never assume the misfortunes of others for these reasons.
Another example of this kind of behavior would be wanting to practice Mind Training in order to be cured from a disease, or out of fear of ghosts and spirits.

We should not reduce the Mind Training to the level of mere sorcery by trying to use it as a means of repelling evil influences. Evil spirits and ghosts harm others because they are deluded. We should not practice the Mind Training against them, but to free them from their bad karma. When they create obstacles, we should practice chod with compassion; then they will not harm us. Our practice should be the antidote only for our own negative emotions.

This slogan has to do with being honest about our ulterior motives. It is based on an appreciation for how tricky our mind can be. We say one thing and mean another, or we act out of seeming benevolence, while in our heart we are only really care about ourselves.

Acting with a twist is a way of using others to advance our own interests. Everything revolves around me, myself, and I, and that attitude colors everything we do. It literally distorts everything we say and all our actions into servants of our ego and our self-important schemes.

With this tricky approach, when we hear about mind training and the need to develop bodhichitta or loving kindness, although we may work with that, we are only doing so as a tool for our own development. We keep track of our acts of kindness and our moments of awareness as demonstrations of how we ourselves are progressing. Instead of genuinely opening our heart, we go through the motions. Then we look around to make sure that our benevolence is properly noticed and admired. In reality, under the guise of helping, we are just using people. They are props for our self-development project.

When we do not act with a twist, our words and actions are not sticky. They are straightforward, with no hidden schemes attached. When we practice meditation or work with the slogans in daily life, we do not keep obsessing about what we are going to get out of it. Instead, moment by moment, as each new situation arises, we work with it as best we can and then we let it go.

Motivation, motivation, motivation... Why are we practicing? What is at the root of our interactions with others?

[明安 Myoan]

Few inspirations as introductions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YCJBs3X4Hg 1-2-3-4.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFew-omoXCk 1-2-3-4.

Thank you for this topic.

[明安 Myoan]

Today's slogan is #37: Don't make gods into demons. Other translations: Do Not Bring a God Down to the Level of a Demon.

Commentary:

Abandon poisonous food" and "Don't make gods into demons" are warnings that only you know whether what you are doing is good practice ("gods" or "good food"). Anything could be used to build yourself up and smooth things over and calm things down or to keep everything under control. Good food becomes poisonous food and gods become demons when you use them to keep yourself in that room with the doors and windows closed.

If, as you meditate on mind training, your personality becomes stiff with pride and arrogance, it's as though you have reduced a god to a demon; dharma has become nondharma. The more you meditate on mind training and dharma, the more supple your personality should become. Act as the lowest servant to everyone.

Why do we engage in any spiritual practice? The answer that Buddhism emphasizes is our own vulnerability to suffering, whether blatant or as an undercurrent of anxiety. If we are deeply aware that we need help and recognize that without dharma our minds are dysfunctionally creating misery, it becomes ridiculous to hold a supercilious attitude. It is hard to be pompous when the reason for practicing is a desire to be free of our own mental distortions. The Four Noble Truths - the existence of suffering, the source of suffering, freedom from suffering and its source, and the means of achieving such freedom - are very sobering in this regard.

If the medicine we take is unsuited to the illness we have, our condition will be all the worse. In the same way, we should apply the teachings so that they act as an antidote to our ego-clinging. Towards everyone we should consider ourselves as the humblest of servants, taking the lowest place. We should try really very hard to be modest and self-forgetting.

It's clear how these recent slogans all have the same aim: proper motivation for practice, which is bodhicitta, not in acquiring spiritual powers or to feel our practice has made us better than others. Pride is hard to spot and we are creative, so I find these slogans get at that subtle pride from different angles.

[明安 Myoan]

Today's slogan is #38: Don't Seek Others' Pain as the Limbs of Your Happiness. Other translations: Do Not Seek Another's Misery as a way to Your own Happiness. Do Not Inflict Misery for the Possession of Happiness.

Commentary:

which is to say, "Don't seek others' pain as a way to get happiness for yourself." We are glad when the troublemakers in our lives get hit by a truck or go bankrupt, or anything of that nature. I have a few people in my life who fall into this category, and I'm amazed at how happy I am when one of them writes me a letter and tells me that things are going badly. Conversely, I feel haunted by distaste when I hear that things are going well for them. There's still the memory of how they hurt me, and I wish they would just continue to go downhill and drop dead, painfully. That's how we seek others' pain as the limbs of our own happiness.

Whether an enemy meets with misfortune, sickness, or death, is a matter of his or her own karma. Our own history and past actions determine the fortune or misfortune presented to each of us. Wishing misfortune on someone does not cause that misfortune to happen. Instead, because the yearning for another person's suffering is itself an unwholesome mental action, it immediately places unwholesome imprints upon our own mind and guarantees our own future suffering if those imprints are not purified.

Inflicting misery on others for the sole purpose of satisfying our own desires for pleasure and happiness is obviously contradictory to our practice.
All these incorrect attitudes only help to reinforce our own self-cherishing and as such they are the very thoughts we are trying to eradicate. To encourage them is in complete opposition to our spiritual endeavors.

While this slogan seems obvious, how hoping for others' misery is directly contrary to cherishing them, its application is not very easy for me.

As B. Alan Wallace said, each being is blown about by his karma, acting out of ignorance, sometimes bringing happiness to themselves but more often than not reinforcing the causes of future misery. This is a truly sad state of affairs. Why on earth would we add to their misery? I find I have to be exceptionally careful about this in how I think and talk about others, especially where "right" and "wrong" are concerned. In speech especially, including on here, I see how easy it is to divide people into camps.

A loving husband practically glows while talking about his wife because he is always gazing upon her in his heart, even when she is far away. This is how Chenrezig always gazes upon beings. An aspiring bodhisattva does the same, speaking and acting for even the remotest chance that every little act will produce benefit for these dear ones. Even when a person is absent, the bodhisattva speaks warmly of them, because that person is present in the heart. Harsh words or scheming are out of the question.

On the contrary, a husband at odds with his wife first removes her from his heart. He no longer gazes lovingly on her in person, or in his thoughts. Thus he removes her from his presence. Now it's easy to insult her and grow more and more distant. This kind of cultivation of negativity is "inflicting misery for possession of happiness": if only such and such person were how we want them to be, then we would accept them. But as fellow beings along for the ride in this human condition, such self-aggrandizing just looks foolish.

The slogan points again to bodhicitta: where are we always gazing? On ourselves or on all beings? And what kind of look do we have when we do? Impatience and aloofness, or forbearance and warm concern?

[明安 Myoan]

Today's slogan is #39: All activities should be done with one intention. Other translations: All active meditation is done in one way. Practice all yogas by means of one.

Commentary:

Continue practice into everyday life with a single meditation, always keeping in mind the intention to help others in all activities, eating, dressing, sleeping, walking, or sitting.

Thousands upon thousands of practices are presented within the context of Buddhism. Aside from the practices intended while sitting cross-legged in meditation, there are specific practices for eating, sleeping, and manifold situations, each with individual actions. But Sechibuwa points out that those of us who have entered the door of this dharma can practice the essence of all those yogas, or spiritual practices, by means of the Mind Training. This training, which essentially is the cultivation of the two bodhicittas, can transform any other type of activity.

None of our daily actions, such as eating, speaking, sleeping, and walking should be wasted. All can be turned toward one action - the development of the awakening mind.
Generally, we waste time in pointless gossip that often becomes the cause for emotional afflictions to arise in both ourselves and others. When cultivating the awakening mind, our time would be put to better use discussing the means of benefiting others and leading them beyond sorrow.

Eating is usually an opportunity to satisfy mere craving for food. In this practice, however, we should keep in mind that we eat to maintain our body only so that we may achieve complete awakening and thus be in an effective position to benefit others.

Out of ignorance, attachment, and pride we often wear ostentatious clothing that serves merely to demonstrate to others our false concept of a self-sufficient ego-identity. Instead of such vain self-centeredness, we should be unpretentious and simple, remembering that clothing is only meant to protect us. Also, we are usually unaware of the process of breathing. However, when it is combined with the practice of giving and taking, our breathing becomes a further means of transforming our thoughts. In such a way, we can wisely utilize every moment for inner development.

Every little thought, act, and word can theoretically be for the benefit of others. What would this look like in your ordinary daily life?

[Terma]

HE Zurmang Gharwang Rinpoche has been teaching on the 7 points of mind training on his teaching tour this year. I am hoping to attend these very teachings next month.

This is a wonderful practice. I have been working with lonjong in my practice as well for the past while.

Thanks for posting this!

[明安 Myoan]

I forgot to mention another aspect of these slogans.

They are grouped into seven points, hence the "seven points of lojong" or "seven-pointed mind training". The various "don't" slogans, #23-38, belong to disciplines of mind training, like targeting weak muscles with specific exercises, such as #31 "don't malign others".

Beginning with yesterday's slogans through the remainder, we're in the seventh point, guidelines of mind training. These are broader statements that apply to many situations, hence "guidelines".

Today's slogan is #40, Correct all wrongs with one intention. Another translation: All Corrections are Made in One way.

Commentary:

If, when you are meditating on mind training, adverse conditions develop, people criticize and insult you, demons, devils, enemies, and disputes trouble you, your disturbing emotions become stronger, or you have no desire to meditate, think:

In the whole universe, there are many sentient beings who have problems like mine; my compassion goes out to all of them,

and:

In addition to this unwanted situation, may all the unwanted circumstances and suffering of all sentient beings be collected here,

and use the single corrective of exchanging yourself for others.

Often, we shall have to bear malicious attacks from other people, animals, and spirits. At such times, instead of retaliating, we should keep our higher motivation in mind. As they too are sentient beings with feelings like ours, we should respond with only loving-kindness. When the internal obstacles of intense afflictions arise, we should recall that previously we have always given them full freedom; it is this that has held us in the tedious cycle of existence. We should not continue to repeat these mistakes but should halt their flow by applying the appropriate opponent forces.

In the course of our Mind Training, when we fall sick or are a prey to negative forces; when we are unpopular and suffer from a bad reputation, when we have increasingly strong emotions and lose the desire for Mind Training: at such times we should reflect that in this world there are many who are afflicted in this same way and whose conduct is at variance with the teaching. Even if we were to explain the doctrine and the methods to develop good qualities, nobody would want to listen - our words would fall upon deaf ears. On the other hand, people take to lying and stealing naturally without having to be taught. Their actions conflict with their desires - where else could they be but in samsara and the lower realms. We should feel sorry for them and, taking all their defects upon ourselves, we should pray that their negative actions might cease and that they might start upon the path of freedom. We should pray that they might become weary of samsara and want to turn from it, that they might generate Bodhicitta and that all the effects of their laziness and indifference to the Dharma might fall upon us. In other words, we should practice the exchange of good for evil.

The "one intention" seems to be interpreted in two complementary ways: that, faced with adverse situations and aggressive beings, we should practice tonglen or we should reflect in such a way that bodhicitta comes to the forefront and guides our response, as DKR says. These two things are essentially the same point. Bodhicitta aims to accomplish all good for all beings. Tonglen takes this as a direct practice, imagining that we give all that is good away to others, with the additional practice of reducing self-cherishing by "taking on" others' suffering in order to expedite their liberation.

In this world, obstacles are inevitable. The teachers above remind us that even sickness, encountering hostility, our own endless parade of nonsense, can all propel us towards awakening... though it isn't easy!

Important for me to remember too is that the "wrongs" here are not others' shortcomings or the social injustices of the world. That would merely make this another kind of fundamentalism. The slogan is instead speaking to something at the root of all harms: our own ignorance, and all its hydra heads of self-cherishing, eight worldly concerns, the kleshas... These produce a lack of skill in interacting with the world, ultimately perpetuating suffering on a huge scale beyond a single person, cause, or lifetime.

[negspec13]

Hi all

I've been a Buddhist for about 6 weeks now and can't get enough. Lojong seems like something that will be of great benefit to me so reading this thread is wonderful. Thanks and sorry for hijacking.

[明安 Myoan]

Please hijack away! I was imagining this thread would have more of people's everyday experiences relating to the slogans but so far it's mostly a monologue.

And welcome Yes, the slogans are so practical and easy to remember. I keep returning to them over the years.

[Jeff H]

Joining the chorus of thanks, I really appreciate you starting this thread, MT. I used to recite "Training the Mind in Seven Points" and "Eight Verses for Training the Mind" during my morning commute, but since I retired they kind of lost their place in my daily practice. This seems like a great way to re-energize that practice but with more depth. I get that you want to see more interaction about it here on DW and I'll see if I can do that as I go along.