46 Tong Len practice and kindness of difficult people

Fall 2013 Shamatha and the Bodhisattva Way of Life

We begin the evening session with the practice of Tong Len, focusing on gratitude towards all those people in our lives who enabled our physical survival, then those who helped us on our spiritual path, and finally on all the difficult people we encountered in our lives who catalyzed our mental afflictions and, hence, provided us an opportunity to see the afflictions and realize their impact. The practice of seeing kindness in difficult people is not to become ignorant, but to see beyond their vices and appreciate the opportunity to observe your own afflictions manifesting and to practice applying antidotes. In fact, without adversities, there would be no motivation to pursue a spiritual path. Therefore, we need to be equally grateful for kindness coming from difficult people as we are for that coming from kind/pleasant people. After the meditation, Alan continues the topic started in the morning, explaining the four yogas of the Mahamudra path and how they correspond to the bodhisattva path, namely: the yoga of one-pointedness, yoga of simplicity, yoga of one-taste, and yoga of non-meditation.

Meditation starts at: 00:30