Essential Mind Training by Thupten Jinpa Ph.d

Author:Thupten Jinpa Ph.d.
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 0861712633
Publisher: Wisdom Publications
Published: 2011-11-14T00:00:00+00:00

This training is the great counterbalance to happiness,

and the great successor to misery;

it is a charm that attracts misfortune,

and a wish capping the useless ones.126

These are the four antidotes to misguided ways.

They are vital if you are to tame the barbarian borderlands,

and they are essential, too, in the age of degeneration,

to bear up amid the misguided ways of negative companions.

The meaning of these lines is as follows: Harbor modest desires and cultivate contentment to counteract the longing for pleasures such as food, drink, wealth, fame, and so on, for these obstruct the pursuit of virtuous activities. Similarly, follow up sufferings with additional pain: If your leg hurts, go for circumambulation; if your back hurts, do prostrations; if you suffer too much greed, give things away to others; if you suffer distractions, enter into retreat; and if you delight in gossip, cease speaking. When you suffer great unwanted omens—such as a bad reputation, disputes, magical spells, and malicious gossip—since these are means for subduing the malevolent demon of self-grasping, welcome them as auspicious. As you might use a charm to attract good fortune, cultivate courage by shouting, “Send me more!” With the thought, “All these events befalling me, events that are normally of no benefit, if I can use them to subdue this self, from here on I will not be reborn in cyclic existence.” In this manner, you cap your desires and ensure that you achieve the strength of the three aspects of forbearance.127

These are, then, the four antidotes to misguided ways, the objects of thorough application of the antidotes.

Again, the following was taught:

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