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What is the purpose for cultivating the meditative stabilization observing exhalation and inhalation of the breath?
The reason is mainly to purify or dispel impure motivations. They are the three poisons-desire (greed), hatred (anger) and obscurations (ignorance).
What is pure motivation?
To take as one's aim the welfare of all sentient beings.
Meditation should imagine or manifest their own impure motivation in a form of smoke, and with the exhalation of breath should expel all bad motivation. When inhaling, they should imagine that all the belings and good qualities of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, in the form of bright light, are inhaled in them.
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Buddhism is not any special teaching. It's our human way.
Lord Buddha went to beg for food in the morning. When he came back home, he washed his feet before he walked into his room. After finishing eating his meal, he washed his bowl and wiped it clean. After that he would settled down and gave discourse to his disciples who had also cleaned up the compound area and sat there waiting for their ma
Lord Buddha went to beg for food in the morning. When he came back home, he washed his feet before he walked into his room. After finishing eating his meal, he washed his bowl and wiped it clean. After that he would settled down and gave discourse to his disciples who had also cleaned up the compound area and sat there waiting for their ma
ster to give a talk. Then they would into their meditative practice. They simply looked into their mind to look for the defilement and karmic negative behaviour and tried their best to transform all the negative motives into proper wisdom. Everyday they went through the routine to check on their motivations and by making full use of their six senses, they came to understand the impermanence and emptiness of this illusive world and learn not to dwell in their distorted mind and thinking. Soon the reality of existence will be realised by their wisdom in the daily cultivation with meditation.
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~ A Western Yogini
As a child, I believed that we are all innately perfect, that our original nature was perfection, and that we are here to discover who we really are. I believed that we have to keep coming back again and again until we recover our original perfect nature. The question for me was, " How do we become perfect?" I raised this question with many people who I thought might know, such
As a child, I believed that we are all innately perfect, that our original nature was perfection, and that we are here to discover who we really are. I believed that we have to keep coming back again and again until we recover our original perfect nature. The question for me was, " How do we become perfect?" I raised this question with many people who I thought might know, such
as teachers and priests. I even asked the spirit-guides during a seance. Every body seemed to reply along similiar lines,
saying, " Well, you have to be good," or " You have to be kind." But even though I was only a small child, I remember
thinking, " Yes, of course, but that's not all there is to it." Naturally people needed to be good and kind, but who were nonetheless not perfect. I knew that perfection lay beyond that. Being good and kind was the fountain, but there was something more we needed to do. I didn't know what. Throughout my adolescence, I search for the answer to " How do we become perfect? What does perfection means? What is it I'm looking for?"
saying, " Well, you have to be good," or " You have to be kind." But even though I was only a small child, I remember
thinking, " Yes, of course, but that's not all there is to it." Naturally people needed to be good and kind, but who were nonetheless not perfect. I knew that perfection lay beyond that. Being good and kind was the fountain, but there was something more we needed to do. I didn't know what. Throughout my adolescence, I search for the answer to " How do we become perfect? What does perfection means? What is it I'm looking for?"
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~ A Western Yogini
Q: You said that you had so much time to develop expansiveness of mind. I'm wondering what your insights were about the purpose of the mind.
TP: The purpose of the mind is to be aware. If we didn't have a mind, we wouldn't be aware, would we? What makes us who we are is that we know we are conscious. In meditation, we try to understand the mind and to become ever for conscious,
Q: You said that you had so much time to develop expansiveness of mind. I'm wondering what your insights were about the purpose of the mind.
TP: The purpose of the mind is to be aware. If we didn't have a mind, we wouldn't be aware, would we? What makes us who we are is that we know we are conscious. In meditation, we try to understand the mind and to become ever for conscious,
ever more aware, ever more awake. Our minds are usually half asleep, and even though it seems as though we're always thinking a lot and we're very vital and present, in fact we are almost somnolent and robotic in our reactions. The whole point of meditation is to learn how to wake up, to develop greater clarity, to ne more aware, and more absolutely in the moment. It is to be conscious in the moment without our usual projections, opinions, ideas and mental chatter going on. At a fundamental level, we are awareness. It's really all about learning to connect with that awareness and how to develop it and be with it.
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The first level of genuine Dharma motivation comes through appreciating that there is suffering in the world and that merely creating pleasant external circumstances won't alleviate our inner hunger. This is considered to be the narrowest level of motivation that we can bring to our Dharma practice. After a while, we reach a point where we realise that no matter how peaceful we may be or how happy
we may feel, our lives are very insecure. We never know what will happen. Today we are healthy, tomorrow we may be sick. Today the people we love and care about are with us, tomorrow they could be gone. Today we have nice secure jobs and nice houses. Tomorrow we might lose our jobs, then we can't pay the mortgage, and we're out on the streets. We came to realise that our situation is somewhat akin to living inside a large prison.
~ Ani Tenzin Palmo
~ Ani Tenzin Palmo
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The most important point is to accept yourself and stand on two feet. Learn to love yourself, only then can you share your love with others. When your friends see that you have confidence and happiness in life, they will follow and learn from you. Lord buddha started with five disciples, showing himself as an example walking on the right path and today, there are countless followers learning his way. So you can do the same and guide your friends to walk a spiritual path with the right motivations.
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