Mind Training: Cultivating Compassion and Insight. Lojong Slogans: Abandon Poisonous Food
Channel: SF Dharma Collective
Date: 05/02/2021

Tonight we started with Shamatha meditation guided by Lopon Chandra. Then, Eve and Chandra unpacked Lojong Slogan #29, “Abandon Poisonous Food”, pointing out that ego clinging can harm our practice, and ultimately the  Bhodisattva vow. We closed the evening with a brief Tonglen meditation. 

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.

Lopön Chandra Easton is a teacher and translator of Tibetan Buddhism. She is the Assistant Spiritual Director and Lead Authorized Teacher for Tara Mandala Retreat Center, founded by Lama Tsultrim Allione. She has taught Buddhism and Yoga since 2001 and co-translated Sublime Dharma: A Compilation of Two Texts on the Great Perfection, published in 2012. She is currently writing a book on the 21 Taras in Buddhism. Visit www.shunyatayoga.com and www.taramandala.org.

You can donate to the dharma collective here (leave us a note to tell us that it's for Eve & Chandra!):  https://sfdharmacollective.org/donate

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