Practical Buddhist Practice...A few thoughts
In the Thursday group a few weeks ago, Lama Losang talked about how to practice our guru yoga. It became very clear to me that Buddhism is really a practical training on how to become a truly beneficial, loving, generous and kind person--willing to help wherever you can and eradicating the self-cherishing and self-deprecating attitudes that cause so many problems in our personal lives and in the world. Lama Losang talked about how we can bring these teachings to life in our day-to-day lives by doing very simple things: small acts of generosity, small acts of patience, small acts of morality, small acts of rejoicing in others which combat jealousy. It can be as simple as placing a small bowl of water on our shrine, remembering the kindness of our teachers and promising to follow them in our training to become better human beings. Our daily sadhana practice reminds us that we all have the potential to be superhuman beings. We are only limited by our restrictive self-concepts. Everything we need is being given to us by our greatest guides--our teachers--and they can be anyone, whoever really inspires us. We hold that person very dear in our hearts because they are the lifeblood of guiding us to be better, more well-rounded, compassionate and kind human beings. Lama Losang gave the example of circumambulating Washington Square in Philadelphia. When he walks around the park, he imagines walking around a holy stupa located in the middle of the Square. Since there were always other people around and he said it would seem crazy to drop down and start doing prostrations. So we have to keep our Dharma practice practical and this can be done very simply. It really comes down to the mind. Watching the states of our mind, adjusting negative states and increasing positive states, which brings benefits of happiness to ourselves and others. Lama Losang ended by saying the point is to generate great joy, great bliss through all of these teachings. They provide the spiritual framework and guidance to be truly compassionate like Avalokiteshvara, wise like Manjushri, and powerful in our activities and lives like Vajrapani. This practical approach to guru yoga and sadhana practice was very beneficial for me. Thank you Lama Losang!
Submission from Dave Wieder
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