Question asked by Sandra
Hello pastors, I find I enjoy doing my sadhana but post sadhana the mind is not concentrated on virtue or meritorious deeds like during the prayer. It can definitely slip and have a spark of anger/laziness/disrespect/rudeness and recollections of poor behaviour towards others. How do you recommend being in virtuous mind that is creating merit after sadhana while in normal jobs for lay people. Thank you 🙏
Dear Sandra,
You’ve asked a wonderful question, showing you are very serious about your practice.
This is not something that is going to be easy. Because it’s all about developing mindfulness of our emotions during daily life. It’s easier to be in a virtuous state when engaged in sadhana, but as Rinpoche used to say, Dharma practice is not about the 1 hour spent on your meditation cushion, but the 23 hours when you are not on your meditation cushion. What Rinpoche meant by this is that the measure of your practice is how much you can control your mind in daily life, to make sure you don’t have negative emotions which will lead to created negative actions and instead to have positive or virtuous emotions, which will lead to create positive karma and merit.
So, it’s about mindfulness. You can develop this many ways. One way is to constantly learn the Dharma again and again, so you contemplate the effects of these emotions, and basically drill it in to your mind. Then when you have those emotions, you will automatically stop yourself from continuing with those types of thoughts because you know so deeply that it will cause you to have negative actions. Another way, is to practice mindfulness, which is formal meditation, this will help you in that you are able to see your mind more clearly. Here is a series of 100 mindful meditations, that you can use and follow along: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/inspiration-worthy-words/live-your-best-life-100-days-of-mindful-meditation.html
The best method would be to do these two things together, formal meditation sessions and more study of the Dharma. I hope this helps.