Don’t waste your life is about facing up to your mortality and remembering not to take your life for granted. Your time is limited and life is precious. The original lojong slogan is: The mahayana instruction for ejection of consciousness at death is the five strengths: how you conduct yourself is important. The five strengths… Continue reading Buddhist Writing Prompt: Don’t Waste Your Life
Practice the Five Strengths is about taking your mind training practice and writing seriously, and finding a way to keep motivated and focused on what matters to you. The five strengths empower you to remember who you really are and to put it into practice every day. The original lojong slogan is: Practice the five… Continue reading Buddhist Writing Prompt: Practice the Five Strengths
Whatever you meet is the Path is about remembering to be mindful no matter what’s happening. Whatever appears in front of you, that’s what you need to be dealing with because anything you experience can be used to wake you up. The original lojong slogan is: Whatever you meet unexpectedly, join with meditation. When things… Continue reading Buddhist Writing Prompt: Whatever You Meet is the Path
Practice the four methods gives you four practical ways of being in the world that encourage you to face difficult emotions and situations rather than avoid them. These methods should form the foundation of your mind training practice. The original lojong slogan is: Four practices are the best of methods, and these are: Do good… Continue reading Buddhist Writing Prompt: Practice the Four Methods
Your true Self has the answer is about seeing how everything is interconnected and interdependent, and using this to wake up to your Buddha mind. In fact, underneath all the confusion, your ordinary day-to-day mind is Buddha mind. The original lojong slogan is: Seeing confusion as the four kayas is unsurpassable shunyata protection, which needs… Continue reading Buddhist Writing Prompt: Your true Self has the answer
Be grateful to everyone is about recognising that you’re dependent on everybody else for your existence. That’s not easy to accept, especially in relation to someone or something you don’t like. But mind training is about befriending those parts of yourself and others that you reject. The original lojong slogan is the same as my… Continue reading Buddhist Writing Prompt: Be grateful to everyone
Take responsibility is about not blaming others when things don’t go the way you hoped. Instead of looking for somebody else to blame, you can turn it around and take responsibility for your part in the drama. The original lojong slogan is: Drive all blames into one. This doesn’t mean you blame yourself or make… Continue reading Buddhist Writing Prompt: Take responsibility
Sometimes I wonder why I continue to write, especially when it seems to take me away from other people. The more I dig into myself, the wider the chasm between us. Do words make any difference? Can they bridge the gap? Is that even possible? Here’s a reminder from Natalie Goldberg that loneliness isn’t necessarily… Continue reading Natalie Goldberg on the Loneliness of Writing
Turn obstacles into the path is about working with whatever happens, no matter how difficult, rather than waiting for your life to be perfect. If you only meditate or write when you feel good, you’ll get stuck when you have a bad day. The original lojong slogan is: When the world is filled with evil,… Continue reading Buddhist Writing Prompt: Turn obstacles into the Path
Practice self-acceptance continues the instructions for tonglen meditation found in slogan 7 and says you should begin the practice with yourself. It’s good to have compassion for others, but you can’t help others unless you can help yourself. Compassion really does begin at home. The original lojong slogan is: Begin the sequence of sending and… Continue reading Buddhist Writing Prompt: Practice Self-Acceptance
Always train with the slogans encourages you to apply the practice of mind training to everything in your life. The slogans can be used with almost anything, it’s not just about meditation. It was this slogan that gave me the idea for the book this series is based on. The original lojong slogan is: In… Continue reading Buddhist Writing Prompt: Always Train with the Slogans
Your problems are your gifts is about working with your problems rather than trying to get rid of them or avoid them. It builds on the previous slogan and the practice of tonglen in order to transform suffering into happiness. The original lojong slogan is: Three objects, three poisons, and three seeds of virtue, which… Continue reading Buddhist Writing Prompt: Your Problems Are Your Gifts
Jessica Davidson 