LInda: Lecture: Monday, 11:00-12:00, April 27

Lecture: Monday, 11:00-12:00
Library of Tibetan Work and Archives (LTWA)
Ven Geshe Sonam Rinchen – Teacher/Lama

Monday Lectures focus on Meditation.

** Special note by the lama. The following is not specific to Buddhism, but is taught by all spiritual teachers in all traditions.

Meditation is defined as the process of thinking about positive things in order to gain an impetus for transforming ourselves. One hopes to gain a state of mind that will arouse and then sustain positive feelings and actions, become familiar with these ideas in order to take them on board. ** One wants to control the mind so that one can decrease disturbing emotions and feelings, emotions and feelings that, if left uncontrolled, will lead to unskillful actions. One accomplishes this through mindfulness, mental alertness, being conscious of what is around and within us, and correcting error. The ideal is to be able to place one’s attention where it needs to be and when it needs to be, to sustain that attention, and to shift that attention when required. This is the purpose of study and the practice of meditation. It is not enough to think, but one must create positive merit and purify negativity.

There are Seven Practices that are fundamental in increasing merit and decreasing negativity. These are also known as the Seven Preparations for meditation (creating the correct intention).

1. Pay Homage. Think of those with whom you have positive relations and who perform merit. Think of them before you. Think of your spiritual teacher with great effect, and think of them seated on a lotus (free from the cycle of birth and death) and the sun (having attained enlightenment) and the moon (with the capacity to understand the fundamental nature of reality and phenomena). Surround yourself by everything in which you take refuge, which supports you (people, things, nature, everything). When you feel this vision embodies the qualities we want to develop with faith and conviction, then performing positive actions will arise naturally. Now, imagine you manifest yourself an infinite number of times and surround yourself with an infinite number of human beings whom you are leading to pay homage to all those who have given refuge – the more you imagine, the greater the positive energy created. One pays homage with the body (physical, such as bowing, prostrating, attitude of supplication – a gesture of homage and respect), with speech (describing the wonderful qualities of these objects of refuge), and the mind (by remembering these positive qualities with appreciation and as inspiration).

2. Make Offerings. There are four kinds of offerings:
External Offerings: such as bowls of oil/water, flowers, light, incense, food,
music, perfume, sensory objects, the 7 royal insignia, imagined offerings.
Internal Offerings: Imagine the senses of the enlightened ones who receive extra
bliss from such offerings.
Secret Offerings: The mental bliss one receives oneself through such offerings
Offerings of Suchness: By such offerings and imaginings, one can understand the
Fundamental Nature of things.

(Side note by the lama: This is similar to yoga tantra – arousing bliss within the self through sensory perception. One, however, cannot do this without high realization (morality + wisdom)).

3. Admit, Recognize and Acknowledge Wrongdoing. (Confession) One should want to be free from the influence of negative emotions. These negative emotions should feel toxic and should instill in you a fear of the consequences (to self and others) of these negative emotions (clinging attachment, jealousy, anger, hatred, etc.). First, one should not hide one’s wrongdoing. One should desire to cleanse oneself and correct the imprint on one’s self/soul and the effect it had on others. There are four counteractions to wrongdoing.

a. Take refuge in positive things and in the spirit of enlightenment = Reliance.
We rely on others and we also want to help others.
b. Power of regret. To truly regret what one has done.
c. Power of Promise – a strong resolve t o not do the action again
d. Counteract our negative conduct. Do something positive to counterbalance the negative action with the intention to purify ourselves and so others who are hurt will be pleased, and so that pleasure will be like nectar sent out in the world – to us and to others. Counteractive measures include deeds, prayers, mantras, etc. There are many possibilities.
The most powerful counteractive conduct is to arouse boddhicitta (the spirit of enlightenment) through recitations (advised recitation of the Prayer of Confession), prostrations, retreats, etc. He told the story of people in the wilderness making a mark on a piece of wood for every 5 positive actions (recitations…) in order to rejoice in the virtue.

4. Rejoice! Rejoice in the good we have done and in the good others have done. (Buddhism is not a purely penitential path.) An advised prayer was the King of Prayers. One confesses, but one also rejoices! First one rejoices in the good done by the bodhisattvas, then in the heroes who are foe destroyers, then in the good done by ordinary human beings who have not yet entered the path of insight. One rejoices without envy and without competitiveness!! Just take joy!. Rejoicing accrues great merit. If you rejoice in the merit of the Buddha, you receive half that merit. If you rejoice in your equal, you receive the same merit. If you rejoice in the good of a humble person, you receive double merit. To do this, you have to recognize the wish to help and to therefore take delight in it - to see others helping others and helping yourself. It is like a parent who rejoices when their child does something really good – when they manage to look after themselves, etc. This intense joyfulness, without wanting anything for ourselves, is how the bodhisattvas feel about us. One rejoices in the merit of others without envy or competitiveness. One rejoices in the merit one has done oneself without arrogance or pride!

5. Ask your teacher to turn the wheel of dharma – to teach and guide you. (First, one asks for a teacher that can teach and guide you.) We are drowning in this cyclic condition and feel suffering. We pray for and request teaching so that we can be guided, helped, and protected in order to do what is right and good. Show us what to cultivate and what to avoid.

6. Ask the teacher to stay in this world a long time. In Buddhist terms, they are offered, symbolically, a Dharma wheel with 1000 spokes or a white conch shell which will echo the sounds of teaching (there were other symbols mentioned, such as a ? for stability and a vase) in the hopes that they will accept these offerings and stay/teach a long time.

7. Dedicate any merit created by others and one’s self, past, present, and future, for the good of all living beings.


Practicing these Seven Perfections creates enormous positive energy in the world. It creates something truly wonderful and is, therefore, excellent to adopt as a daily practice. All teachers of all religions teach this:
To purify one’s self (morality/moral conformity/positive character)
To create positive energy through constructive thinking
(wisdom/doctrine/discernment/Sat)
To do accomplish this through the particular practices of that teacher and way of
life/religion/spiritual community.
(method/concentration/prayer/invocation/Chit)
And thus participate in Bliss/Joyful Radiance/Beauty/Ananda/Nirvana/Realization