The Dalai Lama

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The Dalai Lama Essential Writings Session 5
Chapter 3 - Meditation
1. General Introductions 2. Summary of Key Points
in Dalai Lamas words as selected by editor
Forsthoefel in the form of paraphrase. 3.
Buddhas Garden - Peggy McDonagh 3. Break 4.
Candled Meditation 5. Small Group Discussion
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Paraphrased Selections - Forsthoefel Chapter 3
Meditation The Vehicle of Change

• Editors 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 ones immediate vicinity and in
  ones mind.

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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 mothers 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.

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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.

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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.

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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 ones
  sense of worth and confidence.
• The fundamental teaching of Buddha is that we
  should view others as being more important than
  we are.

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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.

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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.

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Buddhas Gardens

• Places of Tranquility
• Silence
• Peace
• Equanimity
• Hope
• Kindness

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Meditation places
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Buddha Art
Hope
Tranquil
The Journey
Beauty
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The silence continues
always teaching
Silently observing Aware Awake
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Buddha dreams
Mystical..serene.noble..powerful
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Buddhas teachings
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The Dalai Lama Essential Writings Meditation
The Vehicle of Change
Break Candled Meditation Small Group Discussion