Mind Training: Cultivating Compassion & Insight. Lojong Slogans: Tonglen for self
Channel: SF Dharma Collective
Date: 14/09/2020

Eve begins and ends our evening with guided practice, and in between we discuss two Lojong slogans:

In all activities, train with slogans
Begin the Sequence of Sending and Taking With Yourself

(and spend quite a bit of time processing the Sept 9th 2020 orange sky in CA, tbh). 

Mind Training, or Lojong, is a practical and inspiring teaching that transforms the mind which is afflicted by our tendency towards enacting destructive emotions. At the heart of all practices of Tibetan Buddhism, Mind Training puts special emphasis on transforming adversity and joy into the path of our awakening. In contemporary psychological terms, we investigate our so-called ‘negative’ emotional experiences to identify the stories and patterns that occlude our innate compassionate, pro-social nature. 

There are 59 ‘slogans’ of Lojong which are designed to provoke and engage our mind to move away from self-centeredness and towards developing Bodhicitta, the wish that all beings may be happy and free of suffering. At the core is the invitation for us to commit to full, unconditional compassion for ourselves through recognizing the innate goodness and suffering we share with all beings. 

Each class will include teachings, practice, and discussion relating to one of the 59 slogans. Core Mind Training meditations such as Shamatha (Calm Abiding) and Tonglen (Sending & Receiving) will be taught.

Eve Ekman, MSW, PhD, is the director of training at the Greater Good Science Center. She is also a UC Berkeley- and UCSF-trained social scientist and teacher in the field of emotional awareness and burnout prevention. Eve is a second-generation emotion researcher and has had meaningful collaborations with her father, renowned emotion researcher Dr. Paul Ekman. Their most recent project, The Atlas of Emotions, is an online visual tool to teach a language for improving our emotional awareness that was commissioned and supported by the Dalai Lama. Eve is the co-lead instructor for Cultivating Emotional Balance, an evidence-based meditation and emotion regulation training developed by Dr. Paul Ekman and Buddhist scholar Alan Wallace.

You can donate to the dharma collective here (leave us a note to tell us that it's for Eve!):

https://sfdharmacollective.org/donate

☀️