Author: Gibran

Flicking candlelight, Windy moonless night, Terse as a firefly but not as bright.
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Numbers

Dhamma wheel

Five Perfections of Dharma: the perfect… place; teacher; assembly; teaching; time

Three Defects of The Pot: the pot… upside-down; cracked; tainted 

Six Stains: pride, lack of faith, lack of effort, outward distractions, inward tension, discouragement 

Five Wrong Ways of Remembering:

  • remembering the words, forgetting their meaning
  • remembering their meaning, forgetting the words
  • remembering both, without understanding
  • remembering out of order
  • remembering incorrectly

Four Metaphors:  Ill, the Dharma my remedy, the teacher a skillful doctor, and diligent practice the way to recovery

Six Transcendent Perfections: generosity, discipline, patience, diligence, concentration, wisdom

Eight States Without Freedom to Attain Liberation: born in hellish state, born in a ghoulish state, born as an animal,  a long-lived God, born as a barbarian, deaf and mute, born  when there has been no Buddha, having wrong views

Five Individual Advantages: born a human, in a central place, with one’s faculties, without conflicting lifestyle, with faith in Dharma 

Five Circumstantial Advantages: a Buddha has appeared, has preached the Dharma, his teachings still exist and can be followed, there are those who are kind-hearted

Eight  Incidental Circumstances (that leave no freedom to practice): misled by corrupting influences, possessed by five poisons (anger/hate, ignorance/delusion, desire/grasping, jealousy, pride/arrogance), overtaken by karmic forces, laziness, under the control of another, practicing out of insecurity or fear, pretending to practice, senseless stupidity

Eight  Incompatible Propensities (that leave no freedom to practice): not fully committed to renunciation, without faith in Dharma or teacher, too attached to wealth and/or family, engaged in degenerate behavior, not avoiding non-virtuous acts, not interested in the Dharma, breaking Sutrayana vows, breaking Tantrayana samaya commitments  

“If at this time I am unable to attain the essence, in the future it will be even more difficult to have the fortune to obtain a human life, so I must practice well in this life time.”

“Thus having found the freedoms of a human life, if now I fail to train myself in virtue, what greater folly could there ever be? How more could I betray myself?” -Bodhicharyavatara

From “Words Of My Perfect Teacher” Chapter 1, The Difficulty Of Finding The Freedoms and Advantages.

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Beyond the Shore…

“… suppose that this great earth were to be an ocean upon which a single yoke were being tossed about by the wind and thus being moved from here to there. And suppose if under that ocean there were a blind turtle, do you think it would be easy for it to insert its head into that yoke when it rises to the surface only once every hundred years? In a similar fashion it is extremely hard to obtain the human state.” -Bodhicharyavatara

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Cornerstone

In the house of my father…
I find,
Blessings of my mother,
A memory from eve
of Christ’s Mass antecedent,
And comfort in namesake,
Child from Lebanon’s waters,
“Words are too poor and too
Scant to express the innermost
Feeling in the heart of man.”

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Base of a Mediation Practice

ti-sarana saranagamana saranagamana saranagamana
om vajrasattva hum
ohm ah hum 
with full heart
empty hands
thus motivated I and I meditate on emptiness
and liberation of
all sentient beings
may all find refuge on the path of liberation
may all be without hate, greed, illusion
may I be of any means to such end
for as long as space remains
for as long as beings endure
so too may I abide to dispel suffering in samsara
om ah hum vajra guru padma siddhi hung

soham p-hat

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Bodhichitta Vows

Dhamma wheel

Taking the vow of Bodhicitta as explained in…

The Nectar of Manjushri’s Speech (A Detailed Commentary on Shantidevas’s “Way of The Bodhisattva”)

Part One: The Generation of Bodhichitta Where It Has Not Previously Existed

Chapter Three: Taking Hold of Bodhichitta

§ The actual vow of Bodhichitta

First, lay the foundations of taking the vow:

  • “Please think of me. Please think of me. Please think of me.“
  • Take refuge in the Three Jewels three times.

The Bodhisattva vow of…

… intention
[23.a] Just as the previous Sugatas (“thus gone to bliss”)
Gave birth to an Awakening Mind,

[24.a] Likewise for the sake of all that lives
Do I give birth to an awaking mind,

… action
[23.b] And just as they successfully dwelt
In the bodhisattva practice,

[24.b] Likewise shall I, too,
Successfully follow the practices.

… intention and action
[23] Just as the previous Sugatas
Gave birth to an Awakening Mind,
And just as they successfully dwelt
In the bodhisattva practices;

[24] Likewise for the sake of all that lives
Do I give birth to an Awakening Mind,
And likewise shall I, too,
Successfully follow the practices.