Lojong: How to Awaken Your Heart

Sile

I first encountered the lojong "mind training" slogans in Pema Chödrön's wonderful book, Start Where You Are. I find them incredibly powerful and helpful--somehow the short slogans seem to stick even in my racing mind.

Here's one slogan, followed by an explanation from Pema:

Be grateful to everyone.

"Others will always show you exactly where you are stuck. They say or do something and you automatically get hooked into a familiar way of reacting—shutting down, speeding up or getting all worked up. When you react in the habitual way, with anger, greed and so forth, it gives you a chance to see your patterns and work with them honestly and compassionately. Without others provoking you, you remain ignorant of your painful habits and cannot train in transforming them into the path of awakening."

Excerpted from the following article in Shambala Sun:

Lojong: How to Awaken Your Heart

By Pema Chödrön

When I first read the lojong ("mind training") teachings in The Great Path of Awakening by the nineteenth-century Tibetan teacher Jamgön Kongtrül the Great, I was struck by their unusual message that we can use our difficulties and problems to awaken our hearts. Rather than seeing the unwanted aspects of life as obstacles, Jamgön Kongtrül presented them as the raw material necessary for awakening genuine uncontrived compassion. Whereas in Kongtrül's commentary the emphasis is primarily on taking on the suffering of others, it is apparent that in this present age it is necessary to also emphasize that the first step is to develop compassion for our own wounds. It is unconditional compassion for ourselves that leads naturally to unconditional compassion for others. If we are willing to stand fully in our own shoes and never give up on ourselves, then we will be able to put ourselves in the shoes of others and never give up on them. True compassion does not come from wanting to help out those less fortunate than ourselves but from realizing our kinship with all beings.

The lojong teachings are organized around seven points that contain fifty-nine pithy slogans that remind us how to awaken our hearts. Presented here are nineteen of those slogans.

Continued: http://www.shambhalasun.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=1562

DairyLama

I first encountered the lojong "mind training" slogans in Pema Chödrön's wonderful book, Start Where You Are. I find them incredibly powerful and helpful (somehow the short slogans seem to stick even in my racing mind).

I first came across this approach many years ago and adapted the technique for my own use, just a couple of very short slogans - very helpful IMO.

Tosh

I've read a little about Lojong and heard Pema teach it too; I've also got a book that's waiting to be read about it.

A lot of the stuff in there sounds very much like Alcoholics Anonymous's 12 Steps and ethos; the cultivation of gratitude, giving victory to our enemies; and of course transforming our alcoholism into compassion for others.

Thanks, you may have planted the seed for me to actually start reading my book!

Sile

I am strongly considering acquiring the "Compassion Box." I got the Buddha Box, by Lillian Too some years back, and found it extremely useful (it has, for example, mandalas, deities and so forth for a lot of the visualizations).

But the Compassion Box comes with a set of lojong cards - I find this kind of materialism very helpful, lol:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Compassion-Box-Book-Card/dp/1590300750

mugzy

@Sile, I have found the book on lojong Training the Mind and Cultivating Loving-Kindness by Chogyam Trungpa very beneficial to me in the way it presents the teachings. He was the teacher of Pema Chodron so I would highly recommend it if you enjoy her writings.

DairyLama

But the Compassion Box comes with a set of lojong cards - I find this kind of materialism very helpful, lol:

So have you learned the full set? And how regularly do you find yourself using them?

Sile

@Sile, I have found the book on lojong Training the Mind and Cultivating Loving-Kindness by Chogyam Trungpa very beneficial to me in the way it presents the teachings. He was the teacher of Pema Chodron so I would highly recommend it if you enjoy her writings.

Thank you, @mugzy, I don't have this one yet! Probably time to get it.

Sile

But the Compassion Box comes with a set of lojong cards - I find this kind of materialism very helpful, lol:

So have you learned the full set? And how regularly do you find yourself using them?

I have not learned the full set - certain ones from Pema's Start Where You Are have stuck with me ("Be grateful to everyone" is a biggie), and I confess to coveting the Compassion Box so I can get them all on neat little cards. I'm a sucker for--I don't know what you'd call it--dharma props? I've really used the Buddha Box a lot, for example; apparently dharma boxes really do it for me But seriously, I really find these things helpful; possibly because I find it easier at times to concentrate on smaller, more condensed ideas (i.e. a dharma card instead of a dharma book).

DairyLama

... possibly because I find it easier at times to concentrate on smaller, more condensed ideas (i.e. a dharma card instead of a dharma book).

I've found short phrases ( 2 or 3 words ) easier to remember and use..maybe it's my small porpoise brain.

Sile

... possibly because I find it easier at times to concentrate on smaller, more condensed ideas (i.e. a dharma card instead of a dharma book).

I've found short phrases ( 2 or 3 words ) easier to remember and use..maybe it's my small porpoise brain.

"Recent discoveries concerning bird intelligence have called into question the usefulness of brain size as an indicator." (McKie, Robin (2007-04-29). "Clever raven proves that it's no birdbrain". The Guardian).

Theswingisyellow

Sile,
I am bit of a fool for "boxed dharma" myself. I just bought the compassion box. Very useful and good teachings.
All the best,
Todd

DairyLama

I would like one called "Enlightenment for dummies"

Sile

Sile,
I am bit of a fool for "boxed dharma" myself. I just bought the compassion box. Very useful and good teachings.
All the best,
Todd

Lovely! I think it's high time I finally acquired one. I've found that when I leave the Buddha Box out the table, throughout the day various family members (including me!) will pause at it and read some of the cards.

Sile

"Lojong then is not just a genre of religious literature, but the defining ideology (lta ba) of the Kadampa school itself, just as the Great Perfection (rdzogs chen) is for the Nyingmapas, the Great Seal (mahamudra) for the Kagyupas, the Paths and Fruits (lam 'bras) for the Sakyapas, and the Stages of the Path (lam rim) for the Gelukpas."

(From Sweet and Zwilling's introduction to Geshe Lhundup Sopa's Peacock in the Poison Grove).