Lojong

Now, I think the way is to stop identifying with thoughts, and let them go. But if one must have thoughts, it is better to choose them, than to let them choose or control you. Maybe this list can inspire you to choose some good thoughts to be a part of who you are.
- Aasa

Lojong is mind training, a practice in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition based on a set of aphorisms formulated in Tibet in the 12th century by Geshe Chekhawa. The practice involves refining and purifying one's motivations and attitudes. The fifty-nine or so proverbs that form the root text of the mind training practice are designed as a set of antidotes to undesired mental habits that cause suffering. Prominent teachers who have popularized this practice in the West include Pthe 14th Dalai Lama and ema Chodron.

The aphorisms on mind training listed below are paraphrased from a translation of the Tibetan original.

• First, train in the preliminaries.
• Find the consciousness you had before you were born.
• Let even the remedy itself drop away naturally.
• Stay in the primeval consciousness, the basis of everything.
• As you breathe in, take in and accept all the sadness, pain, and negativity of the whole world, including yourself, and absorb it into your heart. As you breathe out, pour out all your joy and bliss; bless the whole of existence.
• Understand your attachments, your aversions, and your indifference, and love them all.
• Apply these proverbs in everything you do.
• When practicing unconditional acceptance, start with yourself.
• When everything goes wrong, treat disaster as a way to wake up.
• Take all the blame yourself.
• Be grateful to everyone.
• Don't worry – there's nothing real about your confusion.
• When something unexpected happens, in that very moment, treat it as a meditation.
• Work with the Five Forces. The Five Forces are:

1. Be intense, be committed.
2. Familiarization – get used to doing and being what you want to do and to be.
3. Cultivate the white seeds, not the black ones.
4. Turn totally away from all your ego trips.
5. Dedicate all the merits of what you do for the benefit of others.

• Practice these Five Forces and you are ready for death at any moment.
• All teachings have the same goal.
• Follow the inner witness rather than the outer ones.
• Always have the support of a joyful mind.
• Practicing even when distracted is good training.
• Always observe these three points:

1. Regularity of practice.
2. Not wasting time on the inessential.
3. Not rationalizing our mistakes.

• Change your attitude, but stay natural.
• Do not discuss defects.
• Don't worry about other people.
• Work on your greatest imperfection first.
• Abandon all hope of results.
• Give up poisonous food.
• Don't indulge in malicious gossip.
• Don't wait in ambush.
• Don't strike at the heart.
• Don't put the yak's load on the cow.
• Remember – this is not a competition.
• Don't be sneaky.
• Don't abuse your divine power for selfish reasons.
• Don't expect to profit from other people's misfortune.
• In all your activities, have a single purpose.
• Solve all problems by accepting the bad energy and sending out the good.
• Renew your commitment when you get up and before you go to sleep.
• Accept good and bad fortune with an equal mind.
• Keep your vows even at the risk of your life.
• Recognize your neurotic tendencies, overcome them, then transcend them.
• Find a teacher, tame the roving mind, choose a lifestyle that allows you to practice.
• Love your teacher, enjoy your practice, keep your vows.
• Focus your body, mind, and spirit on the path.
• Exclude nothing from your acceptance practice: train with a whole heart.
• Always meditate on whatever you resent.
• Don't depend on how the rest of the world is.
• In this life, concentrate on achieving what is most meaningful.
• Don't let your emotions distract you, but bring them to your practice.
• Don't let your practice become irregular.
• Train wholeheartedly.
• Free yourself by first watching, then analyzing.
• Don't feel sorry for yourself.
• Don't be jealous.
• Stay focused.
• Don't expect any applause.

* The Tonglen and Mind Training Site
* LOJONG: Eight Verses for Training the Mind.
Offered by His Holiness the Dalai Lama