Mind Your Own Business | Atisha's 7 Point Mind Training

Namaste and a very warm welcome to all of you in this daily morning life meditation with me the answer.

The summer has begun,

It's beautiful weather outside and in these good vibes who cares about spirituality,

About meditation.

But please remember that now it's summer,

There will be winter.

In this journey towards spirituality and meditation,

What we are establishing for ourselves is a mind,

Is a consciousness,

Is an inner space independent of what's happening outside.

If it's summer,

Great,

Go out,

Enjoy the summer.

If it's winter,

Also great,

Go enjoy the winter.

That inner space which allows to enjoy every experience of life is a result of meditation,

Is a result of spiritual contemplation that sorts out things for us in our own life and puts our life slightly back in order.

What we are going through in this series currently is seven point mind training by Atisha,

Which is a part of a Tibetan Buddhist practice called Lojong.

The sutras that we are going through right now are all about discipline,

About establishing the discipline of meditation,

Of spirituality,

Of mind training.

This is what needs training.

It is something that is all over the place.

It is sometimes with you,

Sometimes against you.

So it needs some order.

It needs a set of trainings.

They don't have to be buddhistic.

So while we go through these sutras,

Learn from them,

See what you can take from them,

See what resonates,

See what applies to your life,

And move on with the ones which do not resonate.

Try to still take this opportunity to establish a discipline for yourself.

Things that may have not been covered by Atisha or these principles here,

These sutras here,

Uncover them for yourself,

Apply them in your own life,

Because you know yourself the best.

Let us go through these sutras,

What we have for today.

Atisha says,

Change your attitude but remain natural.

Don't talk about injured limbs.

Don't ponder others.

Work with the greatest defilements first.

Let us look through these four sutras for today.

Once again,

Change your attitude but remain natural.

Don't talk about injured limbs.

Don't ponder others.

Work with the greatest defilements first.

The first sutra,

Change your attitude but remain natural.

In this process of discipline,

In this process of mind training,

There is a lot of reconstruction going on in your inner space,

In your inner energies,

Where you are changing your attitudes,

And while this change is happening,

It may be that others get affected by that change.

So when Atisha mentions be natural,

What he means is,

Be natural to others.

Don't start peacocking about that change,

Don't start making that change becoming some issue for others.

So in all these points,

In all these disciplines,

Atisha is emphasizing a lot on your interaction with others.

While you go through this mind training,

While you go through this change,

This is for yourself.

This is not necessarily for others.

It may impact others.

Once you are transformed,

Others are inspired and they are transformed as well.

But he is still ensuring that when your mind is going through this change,

This transition,

You must follow certain guidelines so that it is not impacting the other.

So here he is just mentioning the obvious,

The very obvious that be natural.

Don't make it look too artificial,

Don't let it rub on others.

All this change,

Let it happen,

Let it settle in you naturally and also around you in your ecosystem,

In things around you,

In people around you,

Let it come naturally.

Then the second sutra Atisha says,

Don't talk about injured limbs.

What does Atisha mean by that?

Again he is referring to others,

Your interaction with others.

Injured limbs of others simply mean weaknesses of others.

This is a part of Tibetan Buddhism because where this sutra was given in Tibet,

There is a culture of making fun of people by their weaknesses.

For example,

If someone has a big face,

The children just out of play would start calling that person as potato face or something like that.

So what Atisha is ensuring is that while you are going through this change,

While you are going through this transformation,

Make sure that you don't even waste your energy in these silly things,

In calling other people's weaknesses.

That's for your good and for also others because people might be sensitive,

They might not be able to take your position on it,

They might not be able to take it lightly and most likely since it's their weakness,

Since it's their point where they are somewhat helpless,

Instead of making fun of them,

Instead of talking about it,

Try to help if you can,

Otherwise better you focus on yourself,

Better you focus on your transformation and be the inspiration for others to come out of their weakness.

Third sutra,

Don't ponder others.

Here again he is becoming very specific about this change,

About this phase of transformation where he says,

You do you,

You focus on yourself.

Don't get into other people's business,

Don't get into other people's lives,

It's too soon.

If you naturally feel like that you want to bring a change in other people's life,

You want to bring the teachings to others,

Let that be as an inspiration out of your change and not as you interfering in other people's lives.

Little Mooli,

He was sitting on a park bench enjoying his chocolate,

Eating chocolate.

A man came,

Sat down next to him,

He saw little Mooli eating chocolate,

Really enjoying finishing one chocolate and without stopping taking the next chocolate out of his pocket,

Eating that chocolate as well.

This man just kept on watching the child,

Little Mooli eating these chocolates one after the other and after fifth,

Sixth,

Seventh chocolate,

This man could not stop himself from interrupting.

So he said,

Hey what are you doing,

Why are you eating all these chocolates,

This may be harmful to you.

Little Mooli,

Unconcerned,

He said,

You know,

My grandfather lived 110 years.

This man was surprised,

Wow 110 years,

I would also like to live that.

Was he also eating chocolates,

Did he live that long by eating all these chocolates?

Little Mooli said,

No,

By minding his own freaking business.

Mind your own business,

Specially in this phase of transformation,

Focus on yourself,

Focus on your transformation.

Once the energies have reorganized,

Once the mind training has settled in your life,

Then there will be enough opportunities to bring that change,

To bring that transformation to others as well.

And the last sutra,

Work with the greatest defilements first.

Now Atisha is straight away pointing at what is the most important.

We try to postpone change by starting with things that are not so relevant,

Not so important and somehow protecting our weakest impairment.

And Atisha is taking the finger and pointing it at and saying work at your weakest point first.

Why?

Because that weakest point is what most likely your ego,

Your entire structure is standing on that weakest point or more than one of those weakest points that you carry throughout your life,

Throughout all this journey and postponing this for some other time.

So he is saying start with that weakest point first.

We all have one of our weakest points where we tend to lose ourselves.

We tend to postpone that aspect of our mind,

We tend to carry this all throughout our lives and not even want to look at it.

So take this chance,

Take this opportunity to identify if you don't know it already.

Although my feeling is that you know it.

Everyone knows what their weakest point is.

Some people are greedy,

Some people are obsessed with control,

Some people are obsessed with some sort of cleaning,

Some people are obsessed with sex,

Some people are obsessed with something else.

Everybody is obsessed with something and their entire life,

Their entire energies of the life are shaped according to this one obsession,

One weakness,

One impairment in their mind.

If you put that aside,

If you fix that impairment,

A lot already is transformed in your life.

Suddenly life takes a new shift,

A new chapter by working on that particular impairment.

So develop habits which are allowing you to work on this one single impairment or more than one but start with one which is the most critical for you.

Whatever it is,

Take this session,

First of all a few minutes to contemplate over what is your weakest impairment by looking at your last conflict in life,

Your last moment of weakness in life where you know that you acted out of that particular impairment,

That weakness and bring that in focus.

Set affirmations to allow yourself to work on that weakness and most importantly when you are more aware,

When you are more silent,

Not just in meditation but throughout your day being aware of that impairment,

In that awareness of that impairment,

That impairment slowly starts to lose energy,

Starts to lose control over you and sooner or later you are free of it.

With that let us close our eyes,

Put our hands in our lap or on our thighs,

Keeping our back straight maintaining a posture that is comfortable for you to let go in contemplation,

In silence,

In awareness for the next minutes.

Let's close our eyes,

Let's close our eyes,

Let's close our eyes.

Take these moments of contemplation to be truthful to your weaknesses and identify something that stands out.

It could be any mind impairment,

Any weakness in your behaviour,

In your attitude that needs attention.

Don't try to solve it,

To look for solutions.

Simply see your mind,

How it is,

Your weakness of the mind,

How it is.

Simply observe it.

Let it begin.

Let it begin.

And with every breath,

With every exhalation,

Dis-identify from this weakness.

With every exhalation,

Put it at a distance,

As if this is not you.

With every exhalation,

Put this weakness at a distance.

As an example,

If it's anger,

With every exhalation,

Let that anger be at a distance,

Dis-identifying,

I'm not that anger.

If you wish,

You can do affirmations by mentally repeating,

I'm not that anger,

Or I'm not that fear.

With every exhalation,

Let it move a step some distance further away from you.

With every exhalation,

Let it move a step some distance further away from you.

With every exhalation,

Let it move a step some distance further away from you.

With every exhalation,

Let it move a step some distance further away from you.

Notice a sense of silence arising in your inner space,

A sense of emptiness,

Allow that silent emptiness to grow in your inner space.

Notice a sense of silence arising in your inner space.

Notice a sense of silence arising in your inner space.

Notice a sense of silence arising in your inner space.

And let go of all effort.

Stay in this silence,

In this awareness.

Disidentified at a distance from everything,

And sitting in silent awareness.

And let go of all effort.

And let go of all effort.

And let go of all effort.

And let go of all effort.

And let go of all effort.

If you wish to stay in this silence and awareness,

Keep your eyes closed,

Let yourself go in it.

Or very gently and slowly,

You may open your eyes.

Maintaining this sense of inner silence,

Emptiness,

And awareness that you carry from these moments to your day,

And remaining aware of your weaknesses,

Your mental patterns.

And whenever a weakness arise in your day,

Simply remain aware of it.

In that awareness,

It will lose its energy and you will be free of it.

I'll see you tomorrow at 7 am Central European Time.

Namaste.