The Mirror of Dharma. Geshe Kelsang Gyatso
Чтение книги онлайн.
Читать онлайн книгу The Mirror of Dharma - Geshe Kelsang Gyatso страница 13
Название: The Mirror of Dharma
Автор: Geshe Kelsang Gyatso
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Эзотерика
isbn: 9781910368817
isbn:
THE ACTUAL MEDITATION
We contemplate and think:
I will definitely die. There is no way to prevent my body from finally decaying. Day by day, moment by moment, my life is slipping away. I have no idea when I will die; the time of death is completely uncertain. Many young people die before their parents, some die the moment they are born – there is no certainty in this world. Furthermore, there are so many causes of untimely death. The lives of many strong and healthy people are destroyed by accidents. There is no guarantee that I will not die today.
Having repeatedly contemplated these points, we mentally repeat over and over again, ‘I may die today, I may die today’, and concentrate on this belief. We transform our mind into this belief ‘I may die today’ and remain on it single-pointedly for as long as possible. Through continually training in this meditation we will develop each and every day the spontaneous belief ‘I may die today’. This belief is the realization of this meditation.
During the meditation break we think, ‘Since I will soon have to depart from this world, there is no sense in my becoming attached to the things of this life. Instead, from now on I will devote my whole life to practising Dharma purely and sincerely.’ We then maintain this determination day and night, without laziness.
We need to apply effort in our Dharma practice. Realizing that worldly pleasures are deceptive, and that they distract us from using our life in a meaningful way, we should abandon attachment to them. In this way, we can eliminate laziness, the main obstacle to pure Dharma practice.
MEDITATION ON THE DANGER OF LOWER REBIRTH
THE PURPOSE OF THIS MEDITATION
The purpose of this meditation is to encourage us to prepare protection from the dangers of lower rebirth. If we do not do this now, while we have a human life with its freedoms and endowments and we have the opportunity to do so, it will be too late once we have taken any of the three lower rebirths; and it will be extremely difficult to obtain such a precious human life again. A precious human life means a human rebirth in which we have the opportunity to attain permanent liberation from all suffering, known as ‘nirvana’. It is said to be easier for human beings to attain enlightenment than it is for beings such as animals to attain a precious human rebirth. Understanding this will encourage us to abandon non-virtue, or negative actions, to practise virtue, or positive actions, and to seek refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha (the supreme and pure spiritual practitioners); this is our actual protection.
Performing non-virtuous actions is the main cause of taking lower rebirth, whereas practising virtue and seeking refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha are the main causes of taking a precious human rebirth. Heavy non-virtuous actions are the main cause of rebirth as a hell being, middling non-virtuous actions are the main cause of rebirth as a hungry ghost, and lesser non-virtuous actions are the main cause of rebirth as an animal. There are many examples given in Buddhist scriptures of how non-virtuous actions lead to rebirth in the three lower realms.
There was once a hunter whose wife came from a family of animal farmers. After he died he took rebirth as a cow belonging to his wife’s family. A butcher then bought this cow, slaughtered it and sold the meat. The hunter was reborn seven times as a cow belonging to the same family, and in this way became food for other people.
In Tibet there is a lake called Yamdroktso, where many people from the nearby town used to spend their whole lives fishing. At one time a great Yogi with clairvoyance visited the town and said, ‘I see the people of this town and the fish in this lake are continually switching their positions.’ What he meant was that the people of the town who enjoyed fishing were reborn as the fish, the food of other people, and the fish in the lake were reborn as the people who enjoyed fishing. In this way, changing their physical aspect, they were continually killing and eating each other. This cycle of misery continued from generation to generation.
THE OBJECT OF THIS MEDITATION
The object of this meditation is our feeling of fear of taking rebirth in the lower realms as an animal, a hungry ghost or a hell being. We should learn to develop this feeling of fear through contemplating the above explanation of the purpose of this meditation. When, through this contemplation, a feeling of fear of taking such a rebirth develops in our heart, we have found the object of this meditation.
In general fear is meaningless, but the fear generated here has great meaning. It arises from our wisdom and directly leads us to prepare the actual protection from taking lower rebirth, which is sincerely seeking refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, or in Guru Sumati Buddha Heruka. As the result of this, our next rebirth will be a precious human rebirth, which will give us the opportunity to continually make progress in our practice of Dharma, both Sutra and Tantra. Or our next rebirth will be in Keajra Pure Land through being led by Guru Sumati Buddha Heruka. If we do not generate this fear now we will never prepare these protections.
THE ACTUAL MEDITATION
We contemplate as follows:
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.