Seven Points of Mind Training

Point 5 : Evaluation of Mind Training

22: If you can practice even when distracted you are well trained.

Point Five : If you can practice even when distracted you are well trained.

Commentary :

We have all kinds of situations that we have to handle in ordinary life, even states that we are not aware of, but we are not particularly concerned about our existence; we are more concerned with our neurosis and our games. If we are in a very high level of uptightness, as soon as that happens there is no awareness. But we can also immediately experience a sense of awareness. Traditionally any chaos that came up was regarded as a shout for some kind of holiness or help, blessing or prayer. In our ordinary, everyday life, in theistic traditions also, each time something comes up, we say, "Goodness, look at that," or we utter sacred names. Traditionally that was supposed to be a reminder for awareness. But we never use it that way these days, we just use swear words in the most degrading way.

The idea of this slogan is the realization that whenever situations of an ordinary nature or extraordinary nature come up - our pot boils over, or our steak is turned into charcoal, or suddenly we slip and lose our grasp - a sudden memory of awareness should take place. Jamgon Kongtrul's commentary talks about a well-trained, powerful horse who loses his balance and suddenly regains it again through losing it. And the sutras talk about the bodhisattva's actions being like those of well-trained athlete who slips on a slippery surface and in the process of slipping regains his or her balance by using the force of the slipping process. It is similar, I suppose, to skiing, where you use the force that goes down and let yourself slide down through the snow - suddenly you gain attention and develop balance out of that.

So whenever there is the sudden glimpse or sudden surprise of losing one's grip - that seeming fear of losing grip of one's reality can be included properly. To do so there is a need for renunciation. It is not your chauvinistic trip, that you are fantastically powerful and strong person and also have a sense of mindfulness taking place all the time. But when something hits you which is a result of unmindfulness, then suddenly that unmindfulness creates a reminder automatically. So you actually get back on track, so to speak, able to handle your life.

We begin to realize that we can actually practice in spite of our wandering thoughts. I'm sorry to be such a chauvinist, but let me give an example of that. What used to happen was that I would be terribly hurt, psychologically depressed and pushed into dark corners by my good tutor and by my administration in Surmang monastery. When I was more remorseful, more sad, and more helpless - but carefully helpless, deliberately helpless - I used to think of my root teacher Jamgon Kongtrul and weep. After he departed from Surmang monastery, I kept thinking of him, and he actually did something to me, cheered me up. I used to try the vajrayana approach to devotion: I would say to all my attendants, "Go out! I don't need to observe tea time at this point; I'm going to read." Then I would lie back and cry for thirty minutes, or sometimes forty-five minutes. Then somebody would jump up. My attendants became very worried, thinking that I was sick or something. And I would say : "Send them back. Go away. I don't need any more tea."

But sometimes I found that was not very effective, that it was too early to introduce vajrayana devotion, because we didn't have enough basic training. So I developed a new tactic, which was purely in accordance with this slogan. Whenever there was any problem or chaos, I would tell Jamgon Kongtrul about it when I visited him, and when I came back, I began to use a new method. Whenever there was any chaos or problem, or even when there was goodness or a celebration - whenever anything happened - I would just come back to my existence and my memory of him, as well as my memory of the path and the practice. I began to be able to feel a sense of awareness, quick awareness, very direct awareness. This awareness was not necessarily related with the memory of Jamgon Kongtrul; it was the awareness that comes when you are just drifting off and the process of drifting off brings you back. That is what is meant here. For instance, if you are a good rider, your mind might be wandering, but you will not fall off your horse. In other words, even if you are drifting off, if that process of drifting, if that process of drifting off can bring you back, that is the mark of perfect practice.

The idea is that you have been trained already, so you will not have any problem in continuing. When pleasurable or painful circumstances hit, you do not become their slave. You have learned how to reflect suddenly on tonglen and on bodhichitta mind, so you are not subject to extreme pleasure and extreme pain or depression at all. When you meet with a situation, that situation affects your emotions and your state of mind. But whenever your state of mind and your emotions are affected, because of that jolt, suddenly the situation itself becomes your awareness and your mindfulness. It comes to you, so there is less need for you to put effort into it from your end. You do not have to try to protect, to understand, or to be watchful. That does not mean that you should just give up and things will come to you all the time. There is obviously a need for you to develop basic awareness and mindfulness and to be alert altogether. But that alertness could be a fundamental frame of mind, which is connected with the paramita of meditation.

What we have been discussing in point five is quite straightforward. The main point is not to let yourself be wounded by the fangs of neurosis, the fangs of the kleshas. The way to do that is to realize that "all dharma agrees at one point," which is the taming of one's ego. That is the scale on which practitioners can be weighed. "Of the two witnesses, hold the principal one" means to start with your own judgment of how you are doing. "Always maintain only a joyful mind" means having a sense of cheerfulness. Because you are not trapped in heavy-handed discipline, you can experience a sense of joy, particularly when extremely evil or extremely joyful situations occur to you and the mark of being well trained is that you can practice even when distracted.

If you practice some of this, I am sure we will not have any problem in producing thousands of buddhas and bodhisattvas in this century!