Excerpt
From the IntroductionWhat to Do Between Meditation Sessions
Our last general point is what to do between meditation sessions. This is a very important topic because between meditation sessions” includes most of your life. This includes your time spent eating, sleeping, walking, driving, working and so forth. Of course, usually we dont meditate much and so most of our time is spent between sessions. Therefore, post meditation time is more important for your spiritual practice than the actual meditation sessions are! Also, how you handle your life between sessions determines your success in meditation itself. So, I want to explain in some detail how to keep your mind positive between sessions, to illustrate how to make your meditation support your daily life and how to make your daily life support your meditation.
In one sense, meditation is like studying in a class and mindfulness between sessions is like doing your homework. You must work at both to succeed. Of course, if youre with your guru, then you can offer service to him or her between sessions. And, its also very good to engage in extensive preliminary practices such as making offerings between sessions. When youre focusing in your meditation practice on a particular topic from the stages of the path, its good between sessions to read books related to that topic.
But, many people are quite busy and so dont usually spend most of their time meditating or reading. Therefore, Id like to share some very profound advice for busy people! During the Buddhas time, King Prasenajit was extremely busy working for his kingdom, so he went to the Buddha to ask for advice regarding how to practice Dharma in that context. The Buddha gave him three instructions: generate bodhichitta, rejoice, and dedicate. This instruction from the Buddha is also very excellent for your practice during daily life!
Its a mistake to think that generating bodhichitta is only for formal meditation sessions. While its difficult to gain the uncontrived realization of bodhichitta, its quite easy to generate bodhichitta motivation any place and any time. Doing so doesnt require entering a retreat or gaining single-pointed concentration. All you have to do is develop a clear intention to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. Practitioners of the past would set this sort of motivation when they went out from home in the morning, thinking that all their activities outside that day were motivated toward attaining enlightenment for all sentient beings. Then when they came home theyd generate that same intention. And, when walking or eating again you can think that youre doing that for the benefit of all sentient beings. Even in the restroom you can generate that kind of intention! Generating bodhichitta is very powerful; it makes whatever youre doing into a Dharma practice and a cause of your enlightenment. So, this is an excellent and easy practice that you can totally integrate into your daily life. Particularly when were interacting with others, its easy to make mistakes, harming others or engaging in negative actions. So, again at those times generating bodhichitta is an excellent protection.
The second practice advised by the Buddha for busy people is rejoicing. Rejoicing is also a very important practice that you can do any time, anywhere. Gungtang Rinpoche said that rejoicing is a method for accumulating great merits even while youre lying down to rest. Ordinarily when lying around, you may find yourself worrying about work or craving for objects of your attachment. This is of no spiritual benefit and even on a worldly level, not getting what you want causes you suffering and even getting what you want may not bring happiness to your life! So, its much more beneficial to stop thinking such thoughts and to turn your mind to rejoicing. Rejoicing makes you happy while youre practicing it and also generates a great deal of good karma which will follow you into your future lives. Also, rejoicing in others good actions and their results is a powerful antidote to jealousy, which otherwise can cause much suffering. And, theres so much that you can rejoice in! You can think joyfully about the marvelous deeds of the buddhas that led them to enlightenment and also their constantly helping other beings as buddhas. Then you can joyfully think of bodhisattvas who are practicing the six perfections. And you can similarly think of the actions of hearers and solitary realizers. Sometimes, Mahayana practitioners think of them as lower beings, but actually their activities are similar to those of the buddhas. Their equanimity is so profound that if someone applied scented water to one part of their body and someone else chopped off another part of their body they wouldnt discriminate preferring the one being over the other. Their qualities are inconceivable like a golden mountain. And then you can think of your own good actions and of those of other ordinary persons. You can think joyfully of everything from great deeds of compassion down to giving a bit of food to others. Really, theres no end to things worthy of rejoicing. So, having thought extensively of how amazing and wonderful others good actions are, you can then pray: may I be able to do as they have done! Finally, having generated bodhichitta and having rejoiced, youll have created lots of good karma. So, then you must engage in the third practice advised by the Buddha, dedicating that merit for great purposes. Well look at some other advice on how to train between meditation sessions when we come to the instructions on this subject in Easy Path.