Lojong teachings

For the past few months a friend and I have been going through the Tibetan Lojong Teachings one by one. There are 59 of them and, since we are doing one a week, this is a long term project. But I feel called to share this practice with you now, unable to wait until I’ve gone through all 59, because it’s just too good not to share. Needless to say, if you keep getting this newsletter you’ll be hearing more about these brilliant little nougats. So let me introduce you to their origin.

The Lojong teachings made their way to Tibet in the 11th century by way of India. Tibetan Buddhism was in a sorry state at that time so they beseeched a Bengali Buddhist master, Atisha, to come and straiten them out. Atisha was a master in the Kadampa tradition that took on the task of condensing great wisdom tomes into pith sayings so that anyone, Buddhist or non-Buddhist, intellectual or intuitive, could share their wisdom and apply them to their lives.  After some cajoling the Tibetans convinced Atisha to travel to Tibet from India and share the Lojong teachings with them.

The Lojong teachings are traditionally passed from teacher to student. There’s a good reason for this. It’s easy to go off course with these sayings, as is the case with any other spiritual practice. Advice like, Drive all blames into one, can be misinterpreted as a call to engage in self-flagellation when it is really about taking full responsibility for our life. So it is with some trepidation that I share these sayings. But, I am trusting that by staying true to the bedrock Buddhist wisdom that is at the core of these teachings I will be able to stay on course by referring to basic Buddhist tenets, staying humble and calling in help.

To help steer our course true North I have by my side The Practice of Lojong-Cultivating Compassion through Training the Mind by the Tibetan scholar and teacher Traleg Kyabgon, Chogyam Trungpa’s Training the Mind-and Cultivating Loving Kindness, and a fresh Zen take on the Lojong teachings by Roshi Norman Fischer in, Training in Compassion-Zen teachings on the Practice of Lojong. And, of course, I am forever grateful for dear lovely Pima Chodrom’s talks and many books on the subject. She presents Lojong clearly with common sense and good humor, providing a great entryway into this practice for Buddhists and non- Buddhists alike. These are the Lojong masters I return to. If I don’t get the lesson in one voice there’s a chance I might understand it in another.

These books are essential to understanding the theory and setting a course, but the crux of the practice involves self-inquiry and applying the sayings to everyday challenges. It requires honesty and vulnerability to experience the transformations possible with this practice. You would think taking full responsibility for one’s life, not blaming your circumstances or unhappiness on any one else past or present, would be a depressing burden. But taking responsibility for our own happiness turns out to be a key to freedom and delight. Responsibility is power, in this case taking full responsibility for how life shows up moment by moment opens up the power to steer life in any direction I choose. The Lojong teachings are the rudders guiding the ship towards happier shores.

Lojong teachings are, at their core, designed to develop compassion. When we stop projecting our unhappiness onto others we are free to see them as they are. Then we can love them with all their mishigosha. Then we can love ourselves with all our mishigosha.