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Thursday, January 27, 2011

the second benefit

Remember, in order to pass on these precious teachings of liberation, realized beings manifest a type of body that is suitable to our level.  Our teacher is an emanation of a realized being.  They come to us in a form that we can relate to, make friends with, talk to openly and candidly.  So, take your time to find a teacher that you resonate with - they could be a famous teacher or they could be your next door neighbor or child or partner.   They can come in any form.  The perfect emanation is out there waiting for you to recognize him/her :)



The second benefit of serving our spiritual teacher well is that we please all the realized practitioners of the past.  We please them by fulfilling their aim to see us liberated.  They know that having a teacher, being close to them, serving them, learning from them...creates the foundation for our practice and our liberation.  So, they are pleased when we serve our teacher because they know we are on our way to liberation and their aim is being fulfilled.  

Also, when we serve our teacher well, all the realized beings of the past enter our teacher's body and receive our offerings.   When we make an offering to our teacher, we receive the benefit from making the offering and the benefit from it being accepted.  

The kindness of your teacher is not just in teaching you the open and secret teachings of yoga, but, also in giving you the opportunity to accumulate merit, cleanse the mind of obstacles, and plant seeds for living in a generous, kind, joyful, ethical, blissful, peaceful and aware world, all leading to the state of Zung jug, ultimate union.

Remember the form of all lamrim meditations:

  • Preliminaries
  • Review meditation (the information above - the second benefit of serving your teacher)
  • Analytical meditation (is their truth to the information above. do you believe in it. do you doubt it. why?  debate the reasons in your mind)
  • Placement meditation (what conclusion do you come up with after your analysis? Place your mind there one-pointedly.) After reviewing and analyzing the information above, place your mind one-pointedly on your determination to serve your teacher well. 
***

Get together with a group of 2 or 3 or 4 people and practice these daily meditations together.  It is much better to practice as a group than to do this alone. Create a group. Inspire each other.  After you debate in your meditation, carry the debate on with your sangha.  Share the journey. It is better this way than doing the meditations alone.  This is not my opinion!  The importance of having companions to meditate with who have similar aspirations is recommended in these very books.  It is much more powerful to meditate with a group of people. Especially as beginners, meditating alone can be problematic.  At least make a group of three.   You can make great progress alone, but, to have a group is better as a beginner. 

2 comments:

  1. Ayurveda
    Ayurvedic practitioners approach diagnosis by using all five senses.[16] Hearing is used to observe the condition of breathing and speech.[8] The study of the lethal points or marma is of special importance.[9] doctors regard physical and mental existence together with personality as a unit, each element having the capacity to influence the others. One of the fundamental aspects of ayurvedic medicine is to take this into account during diagnosis and therapy.

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  2. This is very interesting post. Thanks for explaining the topic in detail. You have done really good work. Keep posting
    Lumigan

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