The Dalai Lama – Essential Writings
Session 5 – Chapter 3 - Meditation
1. General Introductions
2. Summary of Key Points in Dalai Lama’s words as
selected by editor Forsthoefel in the form of
paraphrase.
3. Buddha’s Garden - Peggy McDonagh
3. Break
4. Candled Meditation
5. Small Group Discussion
Paraphrased Selections - Forsthoefel Chapter 3 –
Meditation
The Vehicle of Change
Editor’s thoughts:
•
Meditation is the pinnacle of Buddhist Practice.
•
Meditation is where theory meets practice.
•
Meditation rewires the circuitry of our perceiving.
•
Meditation is to see things as they are.
•
Seeing rightly leads to compassion.
Paraphrased Selections – The Dalai Lama
From Chapter 3 – Meditation
The Vehicle of Change
•
The main cause of a happy life is within.
•
Meditation can be compatible with every type of
belief.
•
World peace begins in a peaceful heart.
•
You must cultivate a compassionate mind – that is
the source of happiness in your life.
•
The root of Buddhist practice is transformation of
the mind.
Paraphrased Selections – The Dalai Lama
From Chapter 3 – Meditation
The Vehicle of Change
•
Elimination of defective qualities and the
improvement of its positive qualities.
•
We must deliberately take a stand to reverse these
tendencies and replace them with new habits.
•
Meditation is the process whereby we gain control
over the mind and guide it in a more virtuous
direction.
Paraphrased Selections – The Dalai Lama
From Chapter 3 – Meditation
The Vehicle of Change
•
Afflictions – such as attachment, hatred, pride,
greed, and so forth – are mental states that cause
us to behave in ways that bring about all our
unhappiness and suffering.
•
The state beyond such negative emotions and
thoughts, beyond all sorrow, is called nirvana.
•
For the final stage of our journey we need to uproot
our afflictions altogether.
Paraphrased Selections – The Dalai Lama
From Chapter 3 – Meditation
The Vehicle of Change
•
The fundamental inborn mind of clear light …
makes enlightenment possible.
•
This is also called the Buddha nature. It exists at
the root of all conciousness.
•
This diamond mind is the basis of all spiritual
development.
•
Water may be extemely dirty, yet its nature remains
clear. Similarly … the basic mind … is good without
beginning or end.
Paraphrased Selections – The Dalai Lama
From Chapter 3 – Meditation
The Vehicle of Change
•
The Buddha nature is in each of us.
•
The Buddha nature is not itself the Buddha state,
which is the end of illusion.
•
Shantideva says this of awakening:
It is the sublime nectar
To destroy sovereign death,
The inexhaustible treasure
To eliminate the misery of the world.
Paraphrased Selections – The Dalai Lama
From Chapter 3 – Meditation
The Vehicle of Change
•
Death does not wait for us to tidy up our lives. It
strikes unannounced.
•
Meditation on death gives us a type of
restlessness. Our minds automatically take an
interest in spiritual matters.
•
Death is something very natural. Death is not an
ending. We do not need to fear it.
•
We Buddhists believe the deepest and most
healing experiences can occur when we are dying.
Paraphrased Selections – The Dalai Lama
From Chapter 3 – Meditation
The Vehicle of Change
•
We can bring about changes to our attitudes by
using different thought processes.
•
The mind is something that can definitely be
transformed, and meditation is means to transform
it.
•
There are 2 stages in meditation:
•
Analyzing – to consider an issue – like an
object, situation or attitude,
•
Stabilizing – to settle the mind on that issue.
Paraphrased Selections – The Dalai Lama
From Chapter 3 – Meditation
The Vehicle of Change
•
We can cultivate virtues such as patience and
tolerance by contemplating the qualities that
constitute patience, the peace of mind it generates
in us, the harmonious environment created as a
result of it, the respect it engenders in others.
•
The process of taming the mind is a lengthy one.
•
The final goal of practicing calm abiding meditation
is to actualize special insight.
Paraphrased Selections – The Dalai Lama
From Chapter 3 – Meditation
The Vehicle of Change
•
Compassion represents the emotion, the heart, and
the application of analytic meditation applies the
intellect.
•
The real test is if our disturbing emotions are
reduced.
•
The whole purpose of meditation is to lessen the
deluded afflictions of our mind and eventually
eradicate them from their very roots … eventually
gaining an understanding of reality.
Paraphrased Selections – The Dalai Lama
From Chapter 3 – Meditation
The Vehicle of Change
•
When dealing with illnesses, one may not alleviate
the real physical pain and suffering, but may be
able to help others who go through the same
experience.
•
Meditating on this “give and take” can definitely
protect from additional mental suffering and pain.
•
Suffering may be received not as a burden but as a
path to empathy with others.
Paraphrased Selections – The Dalai Lama
From Chapter 3 – Meditation
The Vehicle of Change
•
We often confuse the actions of a person with the
actual person. This habit leads us to conclude that
because of a particular action or statement, a
person is our enemy. Yet people are neutral.
•
Enemies are teachers of inner strength, courage
and determination.
•
Consider this “enemy”. Just as we cannot get
angry at fire because it burns … we should not get
angry at someone expressing their nature.
Paraphrased Selections – The Dalai Lama
From Chapter 3 – Meditation
The Vehicle of Change
•
We ourselves sometimes engage in bad behaviour,
do we not? Still, most of us do not think we are
completely bad. We should look on others the
same way.
•
In our meditation we must work at cultivating the
attitude that “just as I myself have the desire to be
happy and overcome suffering, so do all others”.
We should repeat this thought as we meditate and
as we go about our lives, until it sinks deep into our
awreness.
Paraphrased Selections – The Dalai Lama
From Chapter 3 – Meditation
The Vehicle of Change
•
Forgiveness is something like an end result, or
product of patience or tolerance.
•
We must start to consider how to keep our hearts
open towards those we would envy.
•
The seed of compassion will grow if you plant it in
fertile soil, a consciousness moistened with love.
When you have watered your mind in love, you can
begin to meditate upon compassion. Compassion,
here, is simply the wish that all sentient beings be
free of suffering.
Paraphrased Selections – The Dalai Lama
From Chapter 3 – Meditation
The Vehicle of Change
•
I think this mental practice is to look at things in a
holistic way, to see that there are many events
involved.
•
We should ensure that whatever we do, we
maintain some effect or influence from our
meditation so that it directs our actions as we live
our everyday lives.
•
In its developed form, mindfulness also brings
about a highly refined sensitivity to everything that
happens … in one’s immediate vicinity and in one’s
mind.
Paraphrased Selections – The Dalai Lama
From Chapter 3 – Meditation
The Vehicle of Change
•
True compassion has the intensity and spontaneity
of a loving mother caring for her suffering baby.
Throughout the day, such a mother’s concern for
her child affects all her thoughts and actions. This
is the attitude we are working to cultivate toward
each and every being. When we experience this,
we have generated “great compassion”.
Paraphrased Selections – The Dalai Lama
From Chapter 3 – Meditation
The Vehicle of Change
•
It would be impossible to count all the people
involved in providing us with a simple slice of
bread.
•
Through this train of thought we come to recognize
how dependent we are on others for all we enjoy in
life.
•
We must work at developing this recognition as we
go about our lives after our morning meditation
sessions.
Paraphrased Selections – The Dalai Lama
From Chapter 3 – Meditation
The Vehicle of Change
•
The observer needs a range of skills, carefully
honed through repetition and training, and applied
in a rigorous and disciplined manner.
•
Through constant habituation, the mind learns to
improve the quality of whatever faculty is being
applied, whether it is attention, reasoning, or
imagination. The understanding is that through
such prolonged and regular practice, the ability to
perform the exercise will become almost second
nature.
Paraphrased Selections – The Dalai Lama
From Chapter 3 – Meditation
The Vehicle of Change
•
For people who have the problem of self-hatred …
they should concentrate on the positive aspects of
existence.
•
By reflecting upon these opportunities and
potentials, one will be able to increase one’s sense
of worth and confidence.
•
The fundamental teaching of Buddha is that we
should view others as being more important than
we are.
Paraphrased Selections – The Dalai Lama
From Chapter 3 – Meditation
The Vehicle of Change
•
Mere understanding of selflessness is not sufficient
to defeat the disturbing emotions.
•
From the point of view of your personal well being,
you must cultivate a compassionate mind – that is
the source of happiness in your life.
•
In order to develop special insight you must first
develop a calmly abiding mind.
Paraphrased Selections – The Dalai Lama
From Chapter 3 – Meditation
The Vehicle of Change
•
When you have understood the wisdom realizing
emptiness, that alone will not become a powerful
antidote to ignorance if it is not supported by other
practices such as giving, ethics, patience, and so
forth.
•
It is the way of the wise to sacrifice one for the
benefit of the majority and it is the way of the
foolish to sacrifice the majority on behalf of just one
single individual.
Buddha’s Gardens
Places of Tranquility
Silence
Peace
Equanimity
Hope
Kindness
Meditation places
Buddha Art
Hope
Beauty
Tranquil
The
Journey
The silence continues
always teaching
Silently observing
Aware
Awake
Buddha dreams
Mystical…..serene….noble…..powerful
Buddha’s teachings
The Dalai Lama – Essential Writings
Meditation – The Vehicle of Change
Break
Candled Meditation
Small Group Discussion