Training the Mind: Giving up the Victory | Subhadramati

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Our Dharma Night class explores aspects of the Buddhist vision, drawing on two and a half thousand years of teachings to find practical application in the modern world. Broadcast live from an in-person class in the LBC shrine room, with a Dharma talk, opportunities to get your questions answered, led meditation and ritual.
In this eight-week series we'll be discovering radical ways of Training the Mind, based on eight pithy and challenging verses from the Tibetan tradition. These active reflections offer a number of attitudes you can take up in order to overcome self-clinging. Tonight Subhadramati takes the challenge a step further, by flipping our ideas of defeat and victory and suggesting that it often isn't in our interest to win our battles with others.

Eight Verses to Train the Mind
by Geshe Langri Thangpa

May I always cherish all beings
With the resolve to accomplish for them
The highest good that is more precious
Than any wish-fulfilling jewel.

Whenever I am in the company of others,
May I regard myself as inferior to all,
And from the depths of my heart
Cherish others as supreme.

In all my actions may I watch my mind,
And as soon as disturbing emotions arise,
May I forcefully stop them at once,
Since they hurt both me and others.

When I see ill-natured people,
Overwhelmed by wrong deeds and pain,
May I cherish them as something rare,
As though I had found a treasure-trove.

When someone out of envy does me wrong,
By insulting me and the like,
May I accept defeat,
And offer victory to them.

Even if someone whom I have helped
And in whom I have placed my hopes
Does great wrong by harming me,
May I see them as an excellent spiritual friend.

In brief, directly or indirectly,
May I give all help and joy to my mothers,
And may I take all their harm and pain
Secretly upon myself.

May none of this ever be sullied
By thoughts of the eight worldly concerns.
May I see all things as illusions
And, without attachment, gain freedom from bondage.
Category
Bondage Challenges
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