Seven Points of Mind Training

Point 7 : Guidelines of Mind Training

41: Two activities: one at the beginning one at the end.

Point Seven : Two activities: one at the beginning one at the end.

Commentary :

The point of this slogan is to begin and end each day with twofold bodhichitta. In the morning you should remember bodhichitta and take the attitude of not separating yourself from it, and at the end of the day, you should examine what you have done. If you have not separated yourself from twofold bodhichitta, you should be delighted and vow to take the same attitude again the next day. And if you were separated from bodhichitta, you should vow to reconnect with it the next day.

This slogan is a very simple one. It means that your life is sandwiched by your vow to put others before yourself and by a sense of commitment to twofold bodhichitta. When you get up in the morning, as soon as you wake up, to start off your day you promise yourself that you will work on twofold bodhichitta and develop a sense of gentleness toward yourself and others. You promise not to blame the world and other sentient beings and to take their pain on yourself. When you go to bed, you do the same thing. In that way both your sleep and the day that follows are influenced by that commitment. It is quite straightforward.