Thought Training

Venerable Thubten Chonyi gives a short talk and leads a guided meditation on the thought training practice from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. This is a method for transforming the way we perceive difficult situations such that whatever we encounter becomes fuel for our spiritual practice, enabling us to transform adversity into joy and courage.

Transcript

Let's start with a little meditation right off the bat just to bring ourselves on a Monday evening to this place.

So you know take your posture feet flat on the floor if you're in a chair on your cushion make sure that you're seeing is comfortable and most importantly that your spine straight.

Hands either in your lap with thumbs touching which is how we practice here or if you have instruction for a different placement for the hands that's fine but be clear and intentional about where your hands are shoulders level head tucked just a little tongue behind your top front teeth eyes lowered.

Be aware of where you are in space what room you're in.

Be aware of your contact with your body with the chair or the floor the cushion.

Notice any sounds or scents or tastes anything coming into you through your senses but be aware of it simply as passing clouds coming through your mind.

And take your attention to your breathing.

You you you aware of your in-breath the out-breath and the spaces in between.

You you and think about your own intention why you've tuned in to daily Dharma gathering.

What's your motivation for being here?

And let's expand that motivation bringing to mind all that we've learned about the interdependence of all things.

Everything that is conditioned,

Impermanent arising doing due to causes and conditions and reflect for a moment that our every action our every mental action and then our speech and our physical actions all contribute to the conditions around us.

And so with that in mind let's expand our motivation to set a wish to cultivate our own sense of peace.

Cultivate our good intentions toward kindness compassion and do that not just for our own peace of mind but to be a tremendous benefit to everyone around us.

A conditioning factor that brings about the welfare of all beings.

And through that may we realize our own full potential.

To wake up fully to bring our wisdom and compassion to their finest fruition and extend that wish for every living being.

Okay so I wanted to bring our attention to thought training.

I know it comes up has come up over the various teachers of daily Dharma gathering and it's a practice that comes to us particularly developed in the Tibetan tradition.

It's a method for training the mind to see people and events from the perspective of from this broader perspective of Dharma.

And so to help us develop helpful mental attitudes towards anything that arises in the outer world and also in the inner world.

So thought training helps us to take whatever happens in our lives onto our spiritual path so that we learn to in a way write it and use it to develop our own our own good qualities to develop our own mind.

I was struck with a quote I'm gonna quote His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

He says everybody loved to talk about calm and peace whether in a family,

National or international context.

But without inner peace how can we make real peace?

World peace through hatred and force is impossible.

But when something comes up that startles us or evokes our fear or whatever then anger is very habitual response because we think it's gonna make us happy or protect us or something.

He continues if in a difficult the situation one becomes disturbed internally by mental discomfort then external things will not help at all.

On the other hand if despite external difficulties or problems if internally our attitude is of love,

Warmth and kindheartedness then problems can be faced and accepted.

So does that make sense to people?

Just checking.

As long as we're having this kind of internal balance if we have this internal sense of love,

Warmth and kindheartedness then whatever is happening in the outer world we can deal with and we can deal with well.

So first we have to agree that that premise holds for us before we take this next step.

Because I'm the great some of the great thought training masters of the Tibetan tradition one of them is Long Chenpa who is well known in the Nyingma tradition.

He lived in the 14th century and was one of the manifestations they say of the Buddha of wisdom Manjushri.

But he was a fearless and kind of ferocious teacher and he has a meditation that I thought I would lead us through tonight to reflect on reflect on the points that he brings up and then let's see what people's responses are.

It's based again on this idea that his Holiness just gave us that if we can keep our own sense of peace internally that everything in the outer world can be used for our spiritual practice.

So point one from Long Chenpa he says I also want to qualify this this is tough stuff.

It's not what we think.

The thing about thought training methods is that we are told to do in our minds exactly the opposite of what we want to do.

We do the opposite of what we want to do because what we want to do is our habit to withdraw,

Hide,

Escape or harm.

So to bring our minds to a different way of thinking to reflect on these points.

First one.

Assailed by afflictions we discover Dharma and find the way to liberation.

Thank you evil forces.

Thank you evil forces.

When sorrows invade the mind we discover Dharma and find lasting happiness.

Thank you sorrows.

Through harm caused by spirits we discover Dharma and find fearlessness.

Thank you ghosts and demons.

Through people's hate we discover Dharma and find benefits and happiness.

Thank you those who hate us.

Through cruel adversity we discover Dharma and find the unchanging way.

Thank you adversity.

Through being impelled by others we discover Dharma and find the essential meaning.

Thank you all who drive us on.

We dedicate our merit to you all to repay your kindness.

Thank you afflictions.

Thank you evil forces.

Thank you sorrows.

Thank you those who hate us.

Thank you adversity.

Thank you all who drive us on.

We dedicate our merit to you to repay your kindness to us.

Not easy stuff.

But if we think,

I don't know,

Think about your own life for a minute.

If you think about the qualities that you have,

Times that you've really struggled through difficulties and come out the other side with a more stable mind,

Stronger conviction in your values,

Deeper wisdom,

Greater compassion for seeing the suffering of others,

Just think for a minute.

And I'm going to be quiet for a minute.

Think about your own life and think about the challenges and difficulties.

Have we gained more from those than from the easy times?

Can we say that through the challenges and the difficulties of our lives they've shaped who we are?

They've led us to spiritual practice.

They've deepened our spiritual practice.

I can say for myself certainly that the most challenging,

Especially the losses in my life,

Are the ones that have made me practice Dharma.

Made me come to understand deeply what these Dharma teachings were about.

What is really compassion?

What is really wisdom?

I didn't like those times.

The easy times are way more fun.

But if I think about it actually when things are kind of easy I'm a little lax.

I'm a little lax in my ethics even.

I don't mean like gross things but just a little sloppy.

You know things are going fine.

I'm fine.

Okay things are easy.

Okay so I told off that person.

Oh well no big deal.

It was just you know something minor.

But when I'm going through difficulties then I'm much more aware of my behavior.

And when I'm going through difficulties then I really have to cultivate the meditations that make me see kindness.

For example that make me understand the nature of reality.

So in that way that's what Wang Tengpa is talking about here when he says,

Thank you evil forces.

Thank you sorrows.

They make us discover the Dharma.

Thank you those who hate us.

My teacher Venerable Tripton Chudron talks about her teacher Lama Tripton Yeshe and how when they were talking about,

I can't remember what the topic was,

Something about compassion,

Someone asked him,

Lama wasn't Mao Tse Tung a really evil man?

And Lama Yeshe's reply,

So Mao was the one who led the invasions of the Chinese that drove the Tibetans from their homeland where they still don't have a home right?

They're still in exile.

Lama Yeshe said,

He meant well dear.

That's his response to that difficulty.

And Lama Yeshe said repeatedly if Mao had not,

If the Chinese had not invaded,

The Chinese Communists had not invaded Tibet,

I would never have learned to practice the Dharma in the way that I do.

So Lama Yeshe as an example could say,

Thank you Mao.

Thank you for bringing me the Dharma.

So our topic this month is about transitions.

Well we're in a big transition in the world these days and it calls us to strengthen our own conviction about what our values are and as practitioners here,

You know Dharma daily gathering is a huge network for positive force and every one of us who is involved in this participates and brings to it the good heartedness that we have and also the strength of our practice so we're supporting one another.

This network is a big force in the world and the more we can rely on these kind of thought training tools,

The less we will be inclined to slide into despair or a sense of frustration or I don't know,

Dejection,

So many things or even I think even worse is a sense of apathy.

Oh what's the use?

Because that's a you know that sort of depression that slides in it's like oh I'm powerless I have nothing to do here but that's not true.

If we think about as I started with our motivation,

If we think about how everything,

Everything in the universe is changing moment by moment by moment by moment and that everything also is conditioned by everything else in relationship to everything else,

Then what we think,

How we think,

How we work with our sense of our own sense of dejection,

Our own sense of depression,

Our own sense of fear and work against that,

How we cultivate the antidotes in our own minds has an effect all around us and influences the causes and conditions that move things forward.

So that's really my call for the daily Dharma gathering network and for all of us,

For all practitioners everywhere who hold the values of loving-kindness and hold the values of wanting to cultivate love and compassion and wisdom.

Our wisdom is very important here to not for a moment give up or think that something is lost because we have this beautiful intense message from Langjimpa,

This great major teacher of the Nyingma school saying thank you,

Thank you to our difficulties,

Thank you evil forces,

Thank you because through these we discover Dharma more deeply in our own minds.

Well let me ask you know is it startling to hear this?

Sometimes the challenge might be oh you're just whitewashing things.

Let's just cover over what's really going on.

Things are really a mess and my life is really a mess and let's be realistic about that.

How can you just cover over and say thank you for things like this and then pretending that everything is fine.

So there's a disconnect.

We're denying but everything just looks okay.

There's an ally that kind of does that.

Oh everything is fine.

When it's not.

But that's not what we're being asked to do here.

When Langjimpa says assailed by afflictions we discovered Dharma.

That's the second part of this.

We discovered Dharma and find the way to liberation.

On that basis we can say thank you.

He doesn't say assailed by afflictions we pretend everything is fine.

Thank you.

Right?

He's saying assailed by afflictions we discover the Dharma.

When sorrows invade we discover the Dharma and find lasting happiness.

Why?

Because in looking at our sorrow and analyzing what the Dharma asks us to do,

To reflect on it,

To look at what is the real cause of this.

How have I contributed to this?

What is another way of interpreting this?

All these different ways of reflecting on our difficulties that help us find lasting happiness,

Help us move towards fearlessness,

Then we can say thank you.

Thank you for the challenges and the difficulties.

Maybe it makes sense to people.

It sure makes sense to me.

Yeah the don't like it part that's what we have to get over.

Or no I maybe maybe that's not even right.

Maybe it's not that we have to get over not liking it we just have to move through it.

It's like okay I don't like this but is it and in a way I have to ask myself too is it more comfortable to sit in my misery?

No.

It might be more habitual to sit in my misery.

And then you know take a long hot bath,

Do some sense pleasure,

Go eat popcorn,

Whatever whatever we do to try to make ourselves feel better.

But to really really go inside the experience,

Challenge ourselves to think what is beneficial here?

What have I learned in my practice that can help me re-translate what I'm interpreting here?

How much of the story am I making up and how much is really true?

That's a good one especially as we're looking at the news today.

How much of this story am I making up?

How much of this story are the reporters making up?

How much of the story do I need to believe?

And then you can ask yourself how much of the story do I need to read also also also.

Not good that we had to go through pain.

It's not it's not just even celebrate our very deep wounding but to acknowledge that we have it,

We experience it,

And we will use it to transform our lives.

That is a gift.

That is genuinely a gift.

Reviews

This reminds me of a session I sat in on that spoke of “the ultimate teacher.”

This concept that maybe, loud noises during a concentration meditation to having to pull out 10 rows of a crochet project to correct a mistake you made/missed earlier, to abusive personalities in your life, being useful tools is both true and challenging.

“She never thought a struggle was more than a bet. And you never learn nothing from the good times that you get,” is a lyric from a song that, despite the grammatical error, embraces this notion.

It’s not difficult to remember but, for me, the pain and noise in my head from a “strong trigger” can be so loud and impactful that it won’t “let the Dharma in” so to speak. I’m optimistic this will change in time as, habitually, I shut down after these events. After close to two years of practice my recovery time is shortening and I am rebounding easier.

Thank You hard times. Thank you school yard bully, thank you neglectful care-takers, and much gratitude for my “rock bottom” moment as I am here, taking refuge in the tripple gem, and, “… I’ve only just begun to see the man I’ve always meant to be…”

As always, insightfully discussed. Thank you

It is a gift, to have the awareness to use challenge as a seed of transformation. Thank you. You sharing this message is also a gift 🙏🏼

🙏🏻

Excellent 🌟 Thank you very much for sharing this 🙂

Great wisdom. Loved what you had to say. Thank you :-)

This is powerful, VERY POWERFUL 🙏🧘‍♂️ Thank you 🙏

I am grateful for this teaching that those who bring me closer to Dharma are instruments for my own healing and enlightening.

So intense! Thank you 🙏 😚

Great meditation, thank you ...

Thank you for this valuable perspective.