A Joyful Practice

A Quick Note & Excerpts About Life and Cultivating a Good Heart July 6, 2024

Many blessings to everyone and especially to anyone cultivating a heart full of peace, freedom, and wisdom (inside and outside).

“The problems we face today, violent conflicts, destruction of nature, poverty, hunger, and so on, are human-created problems which can be resolved through human effort, understanding and the development of a sense of brotherhood and sisterhood. We need to cultivate a universal responsibility for one another and the planet we share. Although I have found my own Buddhist religion helpful in generating love and compassion, even for those we consider our enemies, I am convinced that everyone can develop a good heart and a sense of universal responsibility with or without religion.”

— quoted from the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech by Tenzin Gyatso, the 14^th Dalai Lama (December 10, 1989)

Today is the Dalai Lama’s 89^th birthday and, even as he recovers from knee surgery here in the United States, he is focused on suhrit-prapti (“the ability to cultivate a good heart; obtain friends”), which is one of the siddhis (“abilities”) described as “unique to being human” in Yoga and Sāmkhya. In the aforementioned philosophies, as well as in Buddhism, lessons of the heart are also lessons of the mind. In fact, the entirety of the Yoga Sūtras could be considered mind training techniques.

As I mentioned in 2020, the Dalai Lama celebrated his 85^th birthday by giving “A Short Teaching on Mind Training” to a group in Taiwan. (He was in India.) He focused his dharma talk on the end of Geshé Langri Tangpa’s Eight Verses for Training the Mind. In Tibetan Buddhism, lojong are “mind training” techniques to prepare a practitioner for a variety of loving-kindness and compassion practices. They are aphorisms designed to cultivate bodhicitta (the awakened of enlightened mind/intellect). The most common lojong practices in the West are approximately 59 statements found in a 12^th century text by Chekawa Yeshe Dorje. Geshé Chekawa based his instruction on the teachings of Geshé Langri Tangpa (which is whole story unto itself). While the Dalai Lama focused on the end of the text in 2020, he has previously taught and written about the entire text — and in particular, the eight verses.

CLICK ON THE EXCERPT TITLES BELOW FOR MORE!

Lessons of the Teachers

A Big G’s Gift On His Birthday (with video)

The Power and Responsibility of Cultivating a Good Heart (the Wednesday post)

“In all my deeds may I probe into my mind,
And as soon as mental and emotional afflictions arise-
As they endanger myself and others-
May I strongly confront them and avert them.”

— Verse 3 from Eight Verses for Training the Mind by Geshé Langri Tangpa

Please join me today (Saturday, July 6^th) at 12:00 PM for a yoga practice on Zoom. You can use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or (for a slightly faster reply) you can email myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

Saturday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “07062021 HHDL Big Day”]

NOTE: The YouTube playlist includes the Dalai Lama’s 2021 birthday message. Since it was not available on Spotify, I substituted a prayer.

“The whole world naturally seeks peace, and peace is rooted in having a good heart.”

“I believe we can combine our traditional [Tibetan] understanding of the mind and modern science to show how to cultivate love and compassion and achieve peace of mind. We all want to be happy and fundamental to that is having a good heart.”

— quoted from the speech to the 8^th World Parliamentarians Convention on Tibet (in Washington, D. C., June 22-23, 2022) by Tenzin Gyatso, the 14^th Dalai Lama

If you are thinking about suicide, worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, you can dial 988 (in the US) or call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also call this TALK line if you are struggling with addiction or involved in an abusive relationship. The Lifeline network is free, confidential, and available to all 24/7. YOU CAN TALK ABOUT ANYTHING.

White Flag is a new app, which I have not yet researched, but which may be helpful if you need peer-to-peer (non-professional) support.

If you are a young person in crisis, feeling suicidal, or in need of a safe and judgement-free place to talk, you can also click here to contact the TrevorLifeline (which is staffed 24/7 with trained counselors).

In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es).

Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.

Check out the “Class Schedules” calendar for upcoming classes.

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