Tricycle | Awake in the World

48. Train without bias in all areas. It is crucial always to do this pervasively and wholeheartedly. The previous slogan was about including all aspects of yourself in your lojong practice: your body, your speech, and your mind. This slogan expands upon that to include all aspects of your experience altogether. Lojong practice has two components:  meditation practice, which includes formless practice and tonglen, and postmeditation, which means working with the lojong slogans in everyday life. Meditation is done alone, and slogan practice takes place in our interactions with others.  More »

Case 38: Ajaan Lee Refuses to Bow     Phra Ajaan Lee once passed the rainy season among the remote hill tribes of central Thailand. One night when he was feeling ill, he dozed off for a moment. A woman dressed in white appeared, followed by two girls and carrying a white flag covered with Chinese characters.    “I am the queen of the deities,” she told Ajaan Lee. “If you live here, you have to bow down to me.”    “I wasn't willing to bow down, seeing as I was a monk,” Ajaan Lee wrote later. “Still, she insisted. We had a long argument, but I stood firm. Finally she left the hut, climbed the hill and disappeared. I meditated in comfort for the rest of the night.”BACKGROUND: More »