Lam Rim Class for last friday

The class have already reached the medium scope of the Lam Rim. Wow! Time sure flies huh? Here I am going to write about what I learned while referring to my notes and then I will elaborate a bit.

It is said that the Buddha gave his own flesh so that he can learn the Dharma. We are also reminded of the three pots which would either be leaky, contaminated, or upturned.

Now, i am going to write about a form of meditation.

Think about these few things. What is it that everyday we think of the most? What would be a bad day? What would you do on this bad day to make yourself feel better?

Think about it. Make a mental note about it. What? You want my answer?

The thing that I think about mostly would be food and school. A bad day to me is if things do not go along my way. My solution is not got and it is impermanent. What I do is that I go online or play some computer games. Usually, i do both.

If you did it right. You will only need 3 minutes. Yet, it felt so long. To me, it felt like as if I was already halfway through the class by the end of the meditation. This is quite noticeable. Try it! Come on!

When we are quiet, we will see our thoughts. There is one downside. You might get bored or tired because our mind is like a monkey mind. Our mind really does not like to stay in one place, it is like a monkey, hence the term "monkey mind".

Meditation is a key necessity to become Enlightened. If you want to become Enlightened, you have to meditate.

We all have the capability to meditate. In fact, we do it all day. We just meditate on the wrong things. We meditate on food, entertainment, a boy or a girl etc.

The Vajrayana Path, which is the path I follow, tells us to understand and acknowledge any feelings you have inside. That way, we can get to see our maras, our negative qualities , basically all the crap inside of us.

This meditation teaches you to recognize all those negative qualities. Also, you can also lean how to change your negative qualities and use them to benefit others and yourself. For example, if you are a very stubborn person, instead of being stubborn over detaching yourself from bad deeds, you can be stubborn in the sense that when you are doing the Dharma, you will be stubborn to stop.

We never get to know our own good or bad qualities if we do not do meditation.

We do not want to sit still as we have bad thoughts and we want to move about. Control it. Take note of it.

If you do the meditation in a group, you might be able to notice a pattern or certain similarities. If you all feel uncomfortable when you keep silent, then it is the silence that is bothersome. That is not entirely true, there most likely would be a slight difference in the thoughts so that there could be one person that likes the silence. So, it is not the silence.

That was just the opening to the lesson!

The day that the class was covering that day was Day 14. This day covers the sufferings of samsara.

Training your mind in the stages of the stages of the path if the path shared with the medium scope.

1)Developing thoughts of yearning for liberation.

a)Thinking about the general sufferings of samsara

i) The bane of uncertainty

We are unsure of things. We are never certain about anything. It can be like this one day and then it will be different another day. People do change nearly everyday and for some people, they can change in mere hours. There is no such thing as certainty. This causes a lot of pain for some people as they would not have things go a certain way.

ii) The bane of being dissatisfied.

Our enjoyments are like drinking salt water. Just try to be content, there is no need for more than needed.

iii) The bane of repeatedly leaving bodies

We do not stop changing. A car engine is easier to maintain than a human body.

iv) The bane of being conceived and born over and over again

The pain of being born over and over again is painful. It is like being crushed.

v)The bane of moving high to slow over and over again

It is going from heaven to hell. It is like going from ceo to slave then you go back to ceo.

vi) The bane of having no companion

Simple loneliness. As if no one gave a damn about you. We are born alone and we die alone.


b) The specific sufferings

i) The suffering of birth

Being born is painful. The small, fragile baby is being crushed by the birth canal. Then, the baby suddenly feels a different temperature. Then, the baby get slapped. I bet the baby would be thinking, "OMG, What the Firetruck are you doing to me." Even the softest fabric may feel like sandpaper to the baby's tender soft skin.

ii) Aging

'Nuff said.

iii) Illness

Some people have physical illness cannot move, but have a great mind. Vice versa.

iv)Death

Death is harder to relate to. We still cannot escape from death. The Dharma will help you prepare.

v) Separated from the beautiful

Being separated from things that are good

vi) Meeting with the ugly

Opposite of the above.

vii) Seeking things that you desire but you do not find them.

Such as if you plan what you are fdoiung next but you do not succeed.

c) Sufferings of the Demi-gods

They suffer a lot of mental suffering. They go to war because they do not have enough power. They go to war with the gods. They are very jealous.

d) Sufferings of the Gods

For those who believe in the one God thing, I am happy for you. In Buddhism, we still put God under samsara because we believe that Gods (there are more than one) can die. This is how (try to imagine):

After thousands to million years of enjoyments, you have never experienced suffering or pain. Your once golden color body turns dark like ashes. You find your throne disgusting. You once beautiful and colourful flower garlands rot and wither. Your robes catch stains.

There, not so nice isn't it?

There are three types of suffering:

1)The suffering of change

This would include feeling happy then sad. We will have contaminated happiness.

2) The suffering that pervades condition phenomena

3) The suffering of suffering

Saying out loud that you are suffering. That is the suffering of suffering.

So that is day 14.