Gomchen Lamrim review: Karma in daily life

• Finding space between an emotion and acting on it
• Reflecting on habits and patterns to see there is a choice of how to act
• Working with how we react to the ups and downs we experience
• Examining the process of how negative mental states arise
• Karma and the three scopes of the Lamrim
• Meditation: looking at habitual negative reactions and responding constructively

Gomchen Lamrim 40 review: Karma in daily life (download)

Contemplation points

1. Identify some habits or patterns of behavior that result in difficulties for yourself, patterns that destroy your peace of mind. Without judgement, identify those patterns that are problematic.
2. Now take one of those habits or patterns that you thought about and maybe one of them that brought you a problem very recently, so it’s fresh in the mind… Trace your mind back a little bit. Think about the incident. Think about what your mind was doing before that. Where was your attention? What were you involved in? Try to get a sense of some of the moments before this pattern arose.
3. Now go back and imagine the situation again, and as it plays itself out and you are imagining it, imagine yourself responding to this example with “No big deal. Nothing special here. It’s not affecting my peace of mind. I can open my view. Nothing to hold tight to. Just let it go…” Play that out.
4. Seeing how we can transform our experience of a situation by being mindful of our habits, make a determination to watch for patterns of behavior that cause suffering for yourself and others, and apply the antidotes as early as you can.