Beyond just the religious aspects, there is an awfully lot to learn from other cultures ... all have attachment to symbolism and beliefs that more trouble than those symbols and beliefs are worth -- it's nice to know that Christians aren't the only knuckleheads who are so stuck in their backward ways, that they'd rather die than think about changing. What I find useful is investigating how other cultures approach problem solving and thinking. In particular, I am absolutely certain that the Buddhists and Daoists have some very important things that we could learn about discipline, meditation, patience, situational awareness, self-defense ...our western heritage is relatively violent and confrontational -- our history is all about heroic crusades, dying in glorious battles, military strategy, weapons and systems for winning wars ... "Onward Christian Soldiers!" captures how we think ... by contrast, for thousands of years, the energy of brightest minds in these cultures has been focused upon debating, thinking about, meditating on and writing about the best techniques for training one's mind and purifying one's motivations and attitudes for greater focus on spiritual cultivation. Lojong is the mind training practice of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition; it is based on a set of fifty-nine aphorisms originally formulated in Tibet in the 12th century by Geshe Chekhawa. These proverbs that form the root text of the mind training practice are designed as a set of antidotes to undesired mental habits that cause suffering; these proverbs should not exactly be regard as we Christians regard commandments [especially the 1st and 2nd commandments] but they are helpful guidelines that will make our search for happiness in this life a lot easier. The aphorisms on lojong mind training listed below are paraphrased from web-based directory of translations of the Tibetan original.
First, train in the preliminaries.
Treat everything you perceive as a dream.
Find the consciousness you had before you were born ... respect the miracle of your birth and everything that miracle represents about the best intentions and essential hopes of your parents, the accumulated values and traditions of your elders.
Let even the remedy itself drop away naturally.
Stay in the primeval consciousness, the basis of everything.
Between meditations, treat everything as an illusion.
As you breathe in, take in and accept all the sadness, pain, and negativity of the whole world, including yourself, and absorb it into your heart. As you breathe out, pour out all your joy and bliss; bless the whole of existence.
Understand your attachments, your aversions, and your indifference, and love them all.
Apply these proverbs in everything you do.
When practicing unconditional acceptance, start with yourself.
When everything goes wrong, treat disaster as a way to wake up.
Take all the blame yourself.
Be grateful to everyone.
Don't worry – there's nothing real about your confusion.
When something unexpected happens, in that very moment, treat it as a meditation.
Work with the Five Forces. Practice these Five Forces and you are ready for death at any moment. The Five Forces are:
Be intense, be committed.
Familiarization – get used to doing and being what you want to do and to be.
Cultivate the white seeds, not the black ones.
Turn totally away from all your ego trips.
Dedicate all the merits of what you do for the benefit of others.
All teachings have the same goal.
Follow the inner witness rather than the outer ones.
Always have the support of a joyful mind.
Practicing even when distracted is good training.
Always observe these three points:
Regularity of practice.
Not wasting time on the inessential.
Not rationalizing our mistakes.
Change your attitude, but stay natural.
Do not discuss defects.
Don't worry about other people.
Work on your greatest imperfection first.
Abandon all hope of results.
Give up poisonous food.
Don't be consistent.
Don't indulge in malicious gossip.
Don't wait in ambush.
Don't strike at the heart.
Don't put the yak's load on the cow.
Remember – this is not a competition.
Don't be sneaky.
Don't abuse your divine power for selfish reasons.
Don't expect to profit from other people's misfortune.
In all your activities, have a single purpose.
Solve all problems by accepting the bad energy and sending out the good.
Renew your commitment when you get up and before you go to sleep.
Accept good and bad fortune with an equal mind.
Keep your vows even at the risk of your life.
Recognize your neurotic tendencies, overcome them, then transcend them.
Find a teacher, tame the roving mind, choose a lifestyle that allows you to practice.
Love your teacher, enjoy your practice, keep your vows.
Focus your body, mind, and spirit on the path.
Exclude nothing from your acceptance practice: train with a whole heart.
Always meditate on whatever you resent.
Don't depend on how the rest of the world is.
In this life, concentrate on achieving what is most meaningful.
Don't let your emotions distract you, but bring them to your practice.
Don't let your practice become irregular.
Train wholeheartedly.
Free yourself by first watching, then analyzing.
Don't feel sorry for yourself.
Don't be jealous.
Stay focused.
Don't expect any applause.
