Summary: Working with the slogans
Although the word slogan is often associated with advertising or with political campaigns, the origin of the word comes from the Scottish for “war cry.” If you imagine that you are in a battle with distraction, confusion, and self-absorption, then like a war cry, the appropriate slogan is designed to abruptly interrupt your discursiveness and call you to attention. [Read more…]

59. Don’t expect applause.
Now that you have studied all these slogans, don’t expect anyone to congratulate you! In fact it is a good idea to look at how much we keep looking for recognition altogether. It can be embarrassing, but often, as soon as we do anything of note, it is as if we were little children at a playground shouting. “Watch me, mama! Look at me! Look what I can do!” And when whatever we have done is not acknowledged or recognized, how quickly we get puffy and upset. [Read more…]

58. Don’t be frivolous.
To work with this slogan, it is necessary to look at how you spend your time, what you think about, and how your invest your energy. It is easy to fritter away your time in frivolous pursuits that do not lead anywhere. But living in this way is like eating junk food: it is ultimately unsatisfying. [Read more…]

57. Don’t be jealous.
This slogan is not only about jealousy, but also about overall irritability. If your meditation practice or mind training is making you even more irritable and touchy than before, something is off. You should be less susceptible to jealousy and irritability, not more so. [Read more…]

56. Don’t wallow in self-pity.
When your practice is not going well, or you feel it is too hard, you may begin to regret undertaking it in the first place. It is easy to start to feel sorry for yourself. The anti-lojong slogan, “Ignorance is bliss,” begins to sound pretty appealing. You think, why not just live a “normal life” and forget about all this? Why take on this extra burden of mind training and the cultivation of loving-kindness? [Read more…]

55. Liberate yourself by examining and analyzing.
This slogan focuses on two major obstacles to realization: ego-clinging and disturbing emotions. The idea is that it is important to really look into those two patterns. In fact, it is so important that you may need to actually conjure them up so that you can examine them in detail. [Read more…]

54. Train wholeheartedly.

Train…

It is probably clear by now that lojong is all about training. And since the nature of mind training goes directly against our entrenched and deep-rooted habit of self-fixation, it is easy to come up with all sorts of excuses for not keeping it up. [Read more…]