Geshe Chekawa
Mind Training Proverbs
1. First, train in the preliminaries.
There are two preliminaries: a daily calm-abiding meditation practice, and repeated reflection on the Four Thoughts that turn the mind to Dharma. These are the preciousness of human life, death and impermanence, cause and effect, and the faults of existence (the three sufferings: the suffering of suffering, the suffering of change, and the suffering of conditioned existence).
2. Look at all experience as a dream.
Regard all that you see, hear, taste, touch, smell, think, feel, value, or believe, as if you were dreaming it. After all, it is a perspective generated by the predispositions of your mind.
3. Examine the nature of awareness.
Look at what it is that experiences the dream. Do not analyze or speculate about it. Just look and rest in the looking.
4. Even the remedy releases naturally.
When thoughts about emptiness or lack of self arise, look at the thought itself. It releases spontaneously and you return to your original nature.
5. Rest in the basis of all experience.
You are clear wisdom that is beyond intellect, empty clarity in which experience arises unceasingly. This is Buddha Nature. When you recognize it, rest right there and do nothing.
6. In daily life, be a child of illusion.
Carry the sense of all experience as a magical illusion into daily life.
7. Train taking and sending alternately. Ride them on the breath.
As you breathe in, directly perceive in the mind’s eye all the suffering and negativity of others as thick black smoke coming in through the right nostril and into your heart. As you breathe out, directly perceive in the mind’s eye all your happiness and wellbeing as silvery light coming from the heart and going out through the left nostril to all beings everywhere.
8. Three objects, three poisons, three seeds of virtue.
Whenever attachment, aversion, or indifference arises in you, do taking and sending to transform the three poisons into seeds of virtue.
9. Train the mind in all forms of activity.
Gain is illusion; loss is enlightenment. Take all loss and defeat from others; give all victory and gain to them.
10. Begin the sequence of taking with yourself.
Note how you react to the suffering of others or your own happiness and wellbeing. Do taking and sending with your own reactions first. When they release into awareness, then do taking and sending with others.
11. When misfortune fills your world and its inhabitants, make adversity the path of awakening.
Whatever adversity comes your way, use it as a basis for taking and sending. Take in all the similar misfortunes of others and send out your own sense of peace and equanimity.
12. Drive all blame into one.
Everything that goes wrong in your life is the consequence of a reactive pattern operating in you.
13. Be grateful to everyone.
Every encounter with another person gives you an opportunity to practice mind training and peace, whether the encounter is pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral.
14. The ultimate protection is Natural Perfection. What arises as confusion are the three qualities of True Self.
True Self is Pure, Blissful, and Permanent. These qualities are inseparable. Know these three and you are protected from confusion.
15. Whatever you encounter, work with it immediately.
All experience is in the present. You either accept it right now, or it reinforces habitual patterns.
16. Train in the five forces.
The five forces are: developing momentum through consistent practice, training in all areas of life, sowing virtuous seeds through acts of compassion and kindness, feeling regret about reactive states of mind or destructive actions, and dedication of personal merit to the welfare of all beings.
17. All instructions have one aim.
Peace is the one aim of all practice instructions. Forget about measuring achievement and rely on the single question: Can I experience what is arising right now?
18. Rely on the important witness.
Feedback from others is unreliable. You know when you are calm and clear. Rely on the witness of mind itself.
19. A joyous state of mind is a constant support.
A deep and quiet joy is always present when your internal peace is such that you are not disturbed or thrown into confusion by events in the world or by your own thoughts and feelings.
20. Proficiency means you do it even when distracted.
Your training arises naturally to correct imbalances when you encounter unexpected events, just as an expert driver adjusts a vehicle’s direction without thinking about doing so.
21. Always train in three basic principles.
The three principles are: intention, action, and balance.
22. Change your attitude and stay natural.
Don’t make a public display of your efforts in mind training. Behave naturally with others.
23. Don’t talk about other’s shortcomings.
Such talk doesn’t help them and it doesn’t help you.
24. Don’t dwell on other’s problems.
Don’t pick up what isn’t yours.
25. Work on the strongest reactions first.
The strongest reactions generate the biggest imbalances in your being. You cannot even see the subtle ones until the strong ones have been dismantled.
26. Give up any hope for results.
Hope for results takes you out of the present. Do what needs to be done now because it needs to be done now, and not for the result it might bring.
27. Give up poisoned food.
The poison is the tendency to form an identity around any activity or training. Let go of any sense of being special because you practice mind training.
28. Don’t rely on a sense of duty.
A sense of duty leads you to overlook nuances in situations, so you react instead of responding to what is needed.
29. Don’t make cutting remarks.
The mind behind a cutting remark is filled with anger. Do taking and sending with the anger.
30. Don’t lie in ambush.
You wait in ambush because you seek revenge. Do taking and sending with the anger that drives the revenge.
31. Don’t go for the throat.
Anger takes expression as explosive actions. Know the anger completely before you act.
32. Don’t put an ox’s load on a cow.
Life is what you experience. What you experience is your life. Don’t try to shift the unpleasantness of your reactive patterns onto another person.
33. Don’t try to be the fastest.
Identify and abandon the sense of deficiency, of not being enough, that pushes you to be needlessly competitive.
34. Don’t believe in magic.
You believe in magic when you expect to obtain some quality, ability, status, or benefit through your practice. Practice is about being present; it is not about obtaining something for your efforts.
35. Don’t turn a god into a demon.
Mind training becomes a source of reactive emotions when you take pride in what you accomplish with the practice.
36. Don’t look for pain to be happy.
All Dharma practice, and mind training in particular, is meant to end suffering. Hoping to gain from anothers’ suffering contradicts the fundamental intention of this practice.
37. Use one practice to do everything.
Bring taking and sending to bear on everything you experience, in formal meditation and in daily life.
38. Use one remedy for everything.
Use taking and sending to counteract any reactive tendency that arises.
39. Two things to do: one at the beginning, one at the end.
Start the day by setting the intention to be present and to use taking and sending. End the day with a review of your states of mind during the day.
40. Whatever happens, good or bad, be patient.
If things go well in your life, send that wellbeing to others. If things go badly, take on the misfortunes of others. In either case, don’t get carried away by what arises.
41. Keep these two, even if our life is at risk.
Internal transformation is the organizing principle of your life. If you let go of your commitment to it, you lose your life. Mind training is the method you use to transform your life. Let it go, and you fall back into reactivity.
42. Learn to meet the three challenges.
The three challenges are: to recognize a reactive pattern, to develop a way to work on it, and to work on it until it releases.
43. Take on the three key elements.
The three key elements for practice are: a teacher, an effective practice, and conducive conditions for practice.
44. Don’t allow the three to weaken.
The three are: appreciation for your teachers, enthusiasm for practice, and mindfulness of behavior.
45. Keep the three engaged.
The three are: engaging the body in attention, engaging the speech in attention, and engaging the mind in attention.
46. Train in everything without preference. Training must be broad and deep.
Mind training must embrace every aspect of your life. Whatever you ignore or overlook will consume you.
47. Always work on what makes you boil.
You lose mindfulness most quickly with those persons and in those situations to which you are most sensitive. Pay attention to important relationships and things that especially irritate you.
48. Don’t react to conditions.
Conditions don’t affect taking and sending practice. If things are good, do taking and sending with the good. If things are bad, do taking and sending with the difficulties.
49. Practice what’s important now.
What’s important right now is the level of attention you can bring to what you are experiencing. Nothing else really counts.
50. Don’t get things wrong.
When an attitude, behavior, or relationship pulls you out of balance, you are not bringing attention to what is arising. Use taking and sending to experience the imbalance itself.
51. Don’t go back and forth.
Consistency is the key to effective practice. On again, off again practice never develops any momentum.
52. Train wholeheartedly.
Going through the motions isn’t enough. If you choose to practice, you should pour your heart into it.
53. Find freedom by probing and testing.
If you don’t push the limits, you will remain as you are now. Identify patterns, question assumptions, and don’t take anything for granted.
54. Don’t boast.
Boasting about mind training contradicts the intention of the practice.
55. Don’t be irritable.
Anger is the opposite of compassion. Like heat and cold, anger and compassion cannot be present at the same time.
56. Don’t be impulsive.
Acting on whatever appears to the mind prevents you from developing stability and consistency.
57. Don’t expect thanks.
You practice mind training to be free from your own conditioning. Why should anyone thank you? You are the one who benefits.
