Making requests, receiving blessings, and gaining realizations

• Meditation on six faults of cyclic existence and combining bodhicitta
• Contemplating lamrim topics in daily activities
• Using mindfulness and introspective awareness to see if we are living in accord with the ethical precepts
• How what we do in the break time affect the meditation session?
• Creating the causes to hear, reflect, and meditate on the teachings
• Internal and external cooperative conditions for us to gain the realizations
• Combination of our prior knowledge and current interest as well as a teacher who is wise and compassionate influence our learning

The Foundation of Buddhist Practice 33: Making Requests, Receiving Blessings and Gaining Realizations (download)

Contemplation points

1. Why is it important to continue to contemplate your meditation topic throughout the day? How does this help the subsequent meditation session?
2. Observe your own experience. What is the state of your mind during meditation when you spend the break times gossiping, singing, reading magazines, or watching violent films vs. when you keep your mind in the Dharma?
3. What are the principal and cooperative causes for gaining realizations on the path? Explain in your own words how these come together to help us learn and grow. Which of these do you engage in? Are there any you’d like to put more energy into cultivating? What steps can you take to do that?
4. Cultivating refuge helps us to transform our mind and make us more receptive to the Buddha’s influence on our lives. Why do you think this is? What is happening in our own mind?