CrankyBuddhist   the learning never ends …

On Friday night I went to a dharma talk given by Sakyong Mipham in Berkeley. In my coming old age, I haven’t been going out at night as much as I used to, so it was interesting to do something other than walk the dog after dark. That was good in and of itself. I had never been to a Shambhala teaching, although I’ve read a lot of writings from that line, and I read the magazine when I can get a copy. I had never been to a teaching given by, or met Sakyong other than through his writings and the photos of him that I had seen in print.

Friday night’s talk was one of those dharma talks that seemed introductory, but as always, if I am listening, there are new-to-me tidbits and reminders to pick up. It doesn’t hurt to be reminded of things. (And of course I didn’t take notes.)

One of the things he said that I appreciated was that it doesn’t matter what we choose to practice on any given day, whether it is compassion, generosity, whatever, these all hold The Six Perfections of generosity, virtue, patience, effort, contemplation and wisdom. So no matter what we choose to practice, we will in effect be practicing everything.

The other thing he talked about, that I definitely needed to be reminded of, was basically the subject of we are what we think, or what we think makes our mind. Does that make sense? It does to me. My brain tends to magnify whatever I am thinking or feeling. I know that when I get into a negative way of thinking, like I was last week, that I tend to amplify that path and the only way to change it, is to contemplate it, then consciously change my thought processes. Find something good in the negative to focus on. And when I’m thinking in a positive mode, it’s good to recognize the negative, but not dwell on it.

And of course, I was reminded to continue the daily practice.

I’m glad I went. It’s always good to be reminded of things. And I got a red string for my effort. ;)