Page 32 - EH 71

30 EASTERN HORIZON | FACE TO FACE

– whether close because of love or teachings on impermanence, then dharma teachings (like mindfulness
hate, that’s a different question! It’s you won’t necessarily notice this meditation and lojong practices),
a call to show more patience and fundamental truth. you imagine being a buddha in
kindness to those around me. what’s called deity yoga or guru
So mind training broadly involves yoga: joining your mind-stream
And living well in this lifetime needs first developing the skills of with that of the guru in the form of
to include taking thought for future mindfulness, then applying them by a buddha, like Avalokiteśvara, Tarā
lifetimes. There’s a big difference bringing a topic to mind, reflecting or Amitābha. In this kind of practice,
between doing some mindfulness on it analytically, and when you you’re not reflecting on the qualities
meditation to lower my blood begin to feel the truth you’re of this buddha. You are this buddha,
pressure vs. to notice impermanence reflecting on, you then rest in that transforming your perception of the
and get ready to leave this lifetime state of realization. This would be world into their pure land and of all
well so I’m more likely to wake up in the approach in a formal meditation beings into your fellow buddhas.
the bardo states between lifetimes session, whether you’re training
or at least land in a future life with with a lojong slogan or any other Often people want to start with
practice opportunities. form of cultivating insight. these kinds of practices because
they’re described as the best and
Mindfulness meditation is popular It’s also vital to maintain some most effective – not just in modern
in the West and traces its roots to awareness of the topic you’re times but at least since tantra was
early Buddhism. How is Tibetan investigating as you go about popularized in Tibet beginning
mind training (lojong) compared your daily life, and that’s one as early as the sixth or seventh
to mindfulness meditation? way mindfulness meditation can century CE. But this isn’t where you
be helpful: you’ve cultivated the should start! Ideally you’d want a
Since mindfulness can mean so ability to come back to the present solid conceptual understanding of
many different things, I’ll define it moment and back to your object of the dharma and some meditative
here as the capacities to (a) focus meditation. experiences of emptiness and
the mind and (b) notice when bodhichitta so that you don’t just
your focus has slipped off your As Tantra is probably one of the become full of yourself, thinking
object and bring it back. And for most misunderstood teachings you’re special because you’re a
those who aren’t familiar with in Tibetan Buddhism, how buddha. This kind of practice only
lojong meditations, there are do you explain what Tantra works well when it’s powered by the
some pithy slogans you can use to is to someone new to Tibetan deep desire to become awakened
support these practices (you’ll find Buddhism? quickly in order to benefit all beings
lists, books, and other resources as soon as possible.
if you Google “lojong”), but for The way I’d distinguish Buddhist
simplicity’s sake let’s just talk tantra is, first of all, by calling it From a practice perspective, if
about the core practice of reflecting “Vajrayāna,” meaning the Vajra someone has just started practicing
on impermanence. (Diamond or Thunderbolt) Vehicle: Tibetan Buddhism, I’d suggest
a path characterized by intense developing a strong foundation
Mindfulness practice offers a practices that bring fast results, the through listening to and reading
lot of opportunities to notice most advanced practices of Tibetan teachings, reflecting on them,
impermanence: the rising and Buddhism. and cultivating their capacity for
falling of the breath, thoughts meditation. Once they felt ready,
developing and dissolving, In Vajrayāna practices, rather than they might look into doing the
sensations in the body, etc. But relying on the conceptual mind to Foundational Practices (Ngon-dro)
if you’re never introduced to focus on an object and reflect on under the guidance of a teacher since