Four thoughts for turning the mind towards conscious living.
Find a comfortable posture and reflect on your spiritual aspiration.
The four thoughts for turning your mind towards conscious living include the preciousness of human life,
The certainty of death,
Causality,
And suffering.
Begin by contemplating the preciousness of your human life,
A life endowed with possibility and liberty.
How often do we take this life for granted?
Being born a human being rather than any of the other sentient living creatures?
Being born in a civilized country where our basic needs are met,
Where we are free from famine,
Diseases,
War,
And cultural and political oppression,
Where spiritual practice is tolerated.
We are born with amazing potential for reflection and learning insight,
Where you're born with well-functioning body free of illnesses and deformations,
And a well-functioning mind with faculties in order,
Able to study,
Reflect,
And practice meditation to apply your learning and to change your life.
And we are born in an incredibly fortunate time,
Surrounded by abundance of spiritual teachers,
Methods and practices,
And supportive communities.
Just take a moment to reflect that you have everything you need in this life right now to develop,
Grow,
And become incredibly happy.
The second contemplation is the certainty of death,
The uncertainty of the time of death,
And what you will take with you at the time of death.
Death is certain.
All of us will absolutely die.
We have avoided this truth our whole lives.
Now it is time to reflect deeply upon it.
The time and manner of our death is uncertain.
It could be in the next few moments,
It could be years.
Anything is possible at any moment.
We spend our lives thinking that death will come much much later,
Taking advantage of the precious time that's slipping out of our hands.
Now is the time to awaken.
Now is the time to practice.
Now is the time to generate great love and wisdom.
And what do we take with us at the time of our death?
This is certainly not our possessions,
Our accolades,
Achievements,
Nor our friends or family.
What we take with us at the time of death is our mind,
Our mental habits,
Our conditioning,
Our predispositions.
If we have tendency towards anxiety,
Regret,
Anger,
Jealousy,
And pride,
That is what we take with us.
A closed heart,
A turbulent mind.
But if we have cultivated great love,
Compassion,
Kindness,
Patience,
And generosity,
That is what we take with us.
An open heart and a calm mind.
And transition now into the reflection on cause and effect,
Also known as karma.
Every single thought,
Word,
And deed is a cause for a new result.
Karma is definite.
Negative habits,
Negative speech,
Negative mental tendencies produce suffering,
Most definitely.
Positive habits,
Positive speech,
Positive mental tendencies are the future causes of happiness,
Most definitely.
Everything in your mind and body counts.
Can you imagine your life being mindful of producing the future causes of your own happiness and avoiding the future causes of your own suffering?
Being a fully empowered agent in the creation of your own life.
The final reflection is on suffering.
There's absolutely no happiness to be found in compulsive living.
A life of obsession,
Repulsion,
Misperception can only lead to dissatisfaction,
Despair,
And alienation.
A compulsive life is driven by the eight worldly winds of seeking pleasure and avoiding pain,
Of seeking praise and avoiding blame,
Of seeking material gain and avoiding loss,
Of seeking fame and avoiding disgrace.
Reflect how much of our lives are dominated by these forces,
How we can get so caught up,
So out of control.
Imagine a life of conscious living where you're free to make choices rather than react to automatic habits.
There is no true happiness found in the tossing seas of the eight worldly winds.
The four thoughts for turning the mind,
The preciousness of human life,
The certainty of death,
Cause and effect,
And the suffering of compulsive living.
These reflections are designed to inspire you,
To motivate you,
And to move you into a conscious living.
