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Learn to Train Your Mind
The 59 Lojong Slogans with Acharya Judy Lief
The Mind-Training Slogans: Week 1
Each Friday, beginning April 9, Acharya Judy Lief, teacher in the Shambhala tradition of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, will comment on one of Atisha's 59 mind-training (Tib. lojong) slogans, which serve as the basis for a complete practice.
Atisha (980-1052 CE) was an Indian adept who brought to Tibet a systematized approach to bodhicitta (the desire to awaken for the sake of all sentient beings) and loving-kindness, through working with these slogans. Judy edited Chogyam Trungpa's Training the Mind (Shambhala, 1993), which contains Trungpa Rinpoche's commentaries on the lojong ("mind-training") teachings.
Each entry will include a practice.
Read all the lojong slogans here.
A Year of Atisha Slogans
I would like to invite you to join me in an ongoing reflection on the mind training slogans of Atisha.
There are a number of excellent translations of the Atisha slogans available. I have consulted primarily Training the Mind and Cultivating Loving-Kindness by Chögyam Trungpa with an excellent translation of the basic text by the Nālandā Translation Committee and The Great Path of Awakening by Jamgön Kongtrül, with an excellent translation by Ken McLeod. However, since the purpose of this article is to examine the slogans, to look at them this way and that, to chew on them and let them sink in, I have at times chosen to phrase the slogans in my own way. This is in no way meant to be a replacement for more traditional translations—it is simply a means of exploration. I hope you too will find ways of expressing these teachings in your own words.
A Little Historical Background
Atisha was a 10th century Indian Buddhist teacher, who embarked on a dangerous journey by sea in search of the teacher Serlingpa, who lived on the golden isle of Sumatra in present-day Indonesia. Serlingpa was known to be the holder of a body of profound mind training teachings, but to receive these teachings, it was necessary to find Serlingpa and request them. And that is exactly what Atisha did. Having done so, he brought the mind training teachings of Serlingpa back to India and subsequently to Tibet.
In Tibet, the 12th century Tibetan teacher Geshe Chekawa systematized Atsha’s mind training teachings into a series of slogans to produce The Root Text of the Seven Points of Training the Mind. And later the great 19th century master Jamgön Kongtrül the Great wrote a well-known commentary on this test, entitled The Basic Path toward Enlightenment.
Early on, the mind training (Tibetan: lojong) teachings were kept secret and were only practiced by a few. Later they became more widely available, and nowadays we are fortunate to have not only the core text and commentary available, but many contemporary commentaries, as well.
Why bring all this up, instead of launching right in? Because we forget where teachings come from—from real people, real dedication, and real hardship.
Today’s Practice
Reflect on the journey of Atisha and of so many others who were willing to risk their lives in search of teachings. When dharma comes easy, when it is available in the marketplace, is it true dharma?
Next Week: How to Work with the Slogans
Note: Translation of The Root Text of the Seven Points of Training the Mind by the Nalanda Translation Committee under the direction of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, revised translation © 1993 by Diana J. Mukpo and the Nālandā Translation Committee.
Used with special permission from the Nalanda Translation Committee, 1619 Edward Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 3H9.
A set of 63 4"x 6" cards containing all the slogans, printed in two colors, are available through Samadhi Store at (800) 331-7751. They can be ordered directly at: http://www.samadhicushions.com/Lojong_Slogan_Cards_p/s-1488.htm
I trust that, in a way, the dharma never comes "easy" - or it wouldn't be the dharma, in the first place. And this 'difficulty' is mostly independent of the availabilty (in the marketplace - or elsewhere) of dharma teaching.
I feel great respect for everyone who makes a step - no matter how short or how persistent - towards the dharma. I am sure that, in one's own measure, everyone found doing so far from 'easy'.
I am grateful to those who, in addition to reaching towards enlightenment, knowningly put themselves at the service of the spiritual benefit of others.
For, the dharma may not be the dharma, after all. But those steps are - beyond any doubt - at least as real as the dharma :)
Yes and no. If the teaching is available in the marketplace and easy to come by it is still "true" because it is still the teaching, plain and simple. However, since it was obtained easily, and without struggle it may be much more fleeting.
I've come to the dharma more than a few times in my life and yet I always get lazy and let my practice slip. And yet everytime I return I seem to return stronger, with more understanding right out of the gate. It seems as if I'm on an eliptical orbit that is slowly tightening. I do go way out from the sun, but each time I return I get closer. Of course, then it always seems eventually I am on a trajectory out.
Point being, perhaps if I did something more sacrificial, like Atisha, perhaps then I would live this orbit and stay at the sun.
Atisha was another guy, like Dogen, who lost his parents early in life. An orphan, he had deep longings for the dharma and was "adopted" by his uncle who exposed him to the fundamental teachings when he was very young. Later, he travelled to Indonesia where he learned about lojong practice. Finally he brought it to Tibet, which may be the only buddhist culture to preseve the lojong teachings after the muslim invasion and oppression of buddhism in india, across the malaysias and into indonesia. To be the instrument for preserving these teachings does indeed make Atisha an extremely significant teacher.
We have all come a long way to find the dharma - imagine a little girl from a small northern community in Ontario ending up, building a zen temple in my back yard. I've come through alcoholism, drug addiction, a personality disorder and through many zen, theravedan and tibetan communities to arrive here. What dangers have others endured?
dharma is in the marketplace; not always pure, but holding some instruction in loving kindness. this must be a good thing; surely lineage does no guarantee right teachings. the test is in how we can apply any teaching to daily life.