Live Strong: Practicing the 5 Strengths
Around about the year 900AD, an Indian teacher named Atisha came up with a very detailed outline of how we can all practice mindfulness. 300 years or so later, another teacher, this time in Tibet, condensed these same writings, editing them into 59 mind-training concepts, called Lojong in Tibetan.
This set of 59 slogans or concepts serves as the foundation for a complete Mindfulness practice, so that we can learn how to become 'awake' for the sake of ourselves as well as all others around us.
Today the focus is on slogan number 17:
"Practice the five strengths, the condensed heart instructions."
I like to use the word effort instead of strengths: Practicing the 5 Efforts. I know the word has negative connotations. Nobody really likes it, it sounds like hard work. But it requires a certain type of effort from us in order to practice mindfulness and thereby to live properly.
No matter how much we have studied or read, or how much we think we know about mindfulness or meditation, without some kind of exertion or effort, our understanding will be superficial and non-transformative.
A little while ago I read a commentary by Judy Lief on lojong practice, and particularly on number 17. This led me to include it in my practice. So I'm sharing my personal practice with you, perhaps your experience or interpretation will be slightly different. That's ok too.
Lojong 17 describes exertion or effort in terms of five components: determination, familiarisation, virtue, reproach, and aspiration.
Determination: I have approached determination from the angle of direction and intention. Instead of drifting aimlessly through each day, reacting to what each day throws at us, it is a really interesting practice to choose a direction consciously and try to stick with it, whether it is choosing mindfulness for just for an hour, or for the entire day, or even for a longer period of time. Or whether it's to set another intention for yourself.
Familiarization: By making an effort to be mindful or stick with our intention, over and over again, the practice of mindfulness and loving-kindness becomes familiar territory for us, and is will no longer be a 'big deal'. It becomes a part of us and not a project, but a way of life.
Virtue: In terms of loving-kindness, we should keep setting our sights higher, and not be content with a half-hearted or partial approach to practice.
Reproach: With reproach we are willing to call a spade a spade. We recognise that it is our fascination with ourself, our ego fixation, that causes us so to struggle, preventing us from engaging with and thereby developing loving-kindness and compassion. We also don’t try to pretend otherwise.
Aspiration: Every time we practice, we should aspire to become awake and cultivate mindfulness and loving-kindness - so that we are helping both ourself and others.
I wanted to add a short note about what I think is important to remember when setting intentions. You may be familliar with intentions as part of your yoga practice. Setting an intention is also part of hatha yoga, called 'sankalpa'. We set an intention, usually during the meditation or the yoga nidra, when we are quiet and can observe what arises when we consider the idea of setting an intention. Setting an intention is something positive, and whatever arises when we consider the idea of setting an intention is good.
It doesn't always have to be about changing something in ourselves for the better - and it especially is not about inferring that we are not already whole just as we are. I think that's really important to remember.
Krishnamurti said something during his long and wonderful lifetime: "If you observe yourselves you will see how little affection you have."
I thought about those words and found them to be very interesting. Krishnamurti spent a lot of time during his life searching for his own words to describe things, nuances. And words make a big difference to individual understanding.
You might have studied compassion. You might know exactly what loving-kindness is, but for now forget about those and close your eyes, consider affection.
Have a think about this word: AFFECTION. Not love, not kindness. Affection. Feel the texture this word brings. Maybe you can think of something that generates a feeling of affection. For me it can be a kitten. For you, maybe something else.
But whatever comes up as affection, take a moment to experience this feeling. When you think about it for a while, you might notice what I did: when we observe ourselves, quite often we do so with very little affection.
This also means that our setting of an intention can turn into a judgement, a critical exercise on some level. Which it isn't meant to be. So when we practice sankalpa, we should do so with great affection for ourselves. I think this is very important to remember.
There are many teachers who write about lojong practice: if you read here you will find a beautiful commentary by Pema Chodron on lojong in general, and if you read here, you will find the whole and complete list of slogans.
Judy Lief writes about our practice around lojong number 17:
"Pay attention to how you decide to spend your time. How much of your activity each day is intentional? Choose a day and try deliberately setting an intention to place whatever you are doing that day within the context of mindfulness and loving-kindness practice."
I would go on to say that the practice of 'sankalpa' needs to be done in a contemplative environment, otherwise it's tempting to come up with something superficial and just work with that. Sitting for a few minutes, relaxing the body, the mind, enables you to go a little deeper.
So in a way practicing sankalpa is a kind of mindfulness meditation exercise. We're meditating already :)
Enjoy it!
M
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