Judy Lief

Buddhism – Shambhala – Profound Treasury – Making Friends with Death

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Blog 42: Whichever of the two occurs, be patient.

January 6, 2015 By Judy Lief

42. Whichever of the two occurs, be patient.
What happens to your practice when you extremely happy, when things are going especially well? And what happens to your practice when things are going horribly, and you are not doing well at all? That is what this slogan is about, and the advice is to be patient in either case.

It is hard to practice mind training steadily. So we come up with all kinds of excuses to avoid facing our own state of mind and opening to others. Whether we are feeling pain or pleasure, are sad or happy, we get taken over by the intensity and drama of the situation and we lose our bearings.

When our situation is bright, we indulge in it, and milk it for all it is worth. Since things are going well for us, we don’t feel any need to practice. We are caught up in our own pleasure and our wish to maintain it, so we focus on ourselves and forget about others. Mind training and the cultivation of loving-kindness are thrown out the window.

When we are suffering and things are not going well, we also turn inward. We think, “Why me?” and get caught up in the mentality of whining and complaint. Although we might think about practice, we are too miserable to relate with it. Our excuse is that we just don’t have the right conditions to practice right now, so we need to wait for conditions to improve. So again mind training is ditched, in this case, due to our preoccupation with our own misery.

Instead of waiting for the “right conditions” to come about, the idea of this slogan is to apply mind training steadily and consistently. In fact every condition is a right condition for mind training.

Today’s practice

Notice the waxing and waning of your inspiration to practice mind training. What patterns do you see? What would be threatened if your practice were more steady and continuous?

 

Upcoming Events: Profound Treasury Retreat

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8th Annual PROFOUND TREASURY RETREAT at Saco, Maine 

June 12-24 at Ferry Beach Conference Center, Saco, Maine

 

Living Dharma: The Joy and Challenge of Joining Practice and Action

 

 

“Mindfulness practice is not just about what is happening to you individually and personally—it is about how much you are going to transmit your sanity and your insanity to the rest of the world.”—Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

 

“If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.”  Charlie Parker

 

Living Dharma

The Joy and Challenge of Joining Practice and Action

 

In these times of turmoil, it’s important to reflect on ways to bring our lifestyle and our actions into greater accord with the dharma.   If your life does not reflect your practice, what is the point of meditation and study?

 

The time spent in sitting meditation is much less than the time spent going about our everyday lives. Therefore, postmeditation practice is essential. The combination of meditation and postmeditation makes our practice complete—running through our entire life rather than something we turn on and off.

 

In this class, we will focus on the challenges of living a dharmic life, and how they are addressed in the three stages of the Tibetan Buddhist path.  We will work with the foundational or hinayana guidelines for living life with simplicity and contentment. We will study mahayana teachings on how to activate compassion and benefit others. Finally, we will explore vajrayana teachings on how to engage more freshly and spontaneously by cutting hesitation and fixed views.

 

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Topics include:

The three essentials: discipline, meditation, and wisdom

Refraining from harm: working with the five precepts

Being of benefit: practicing the paramitas

Overcoming hesitation: engaging with the four karmas

Obstacles, mistakes, and fresh starts

 

From Judy’s Blog

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Judy Lief • 802-598-5832 • judy@judylief.com