I've found the following procedure to be useful in making the most of spiritual teachings: (1) establish a good motivation; (2) stabilize your mind through meditation; (3) get the information; (4) establish an appropriate practice through analysis, synthesis, resolution and dedication(1).
You can establish a proper motivation through a simple recitation of the Four Immeasurables: "I would like to learn these precepts so that I and all beings may have happiness and its causes; may be free of suffering and its causes; may never be separated from rejoicing in skillful actions; may dwell in equanimity, free of attachment and aversion."
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In Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand (#20-23), Pabongka Rinpoche advises students to consider themselves "vessels for the Dharma." Students are advised: (1) Don't be an upside-down cup, which the Dharma just bounces off without retaining any of it; (2) Don't be a dirty cup, where the Dharma is polluted by worldly concerns such as gain and loss, praise and blame, success and failure, pleasure and pain; (3) Don't be a leaky cup, which is unable to retain and practice the Dharma(2). Our minds and hearts can be as chalices to receive and dispense the Dharma, just as in the Eucharist the chalice receives the sacramental wine. We want that chalice to be upright, clean and whole. that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? 1 Corinthians 3:16 |
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"Listen! A sower went out to sow.
And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up.
Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil,
and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away.
"Other seeds fell among thorns,
and the thorns grew up and choked them.
"Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain,
some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen!"
"Hear then the parable of the sower.
When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path.
"As for what was sown on rocky ground,
this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away.
"As for what was sown among thorns,
this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing.
"But as for what was sown on good soil,
1 Matthew 13:3b-9, 18-23
this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty." |
(1) This procedure parallels the Christian practice of Lectio Divina.
(2) The first appearance of this metaphor appears to be in a passage titled "Abandoning the three faults of a vessel" in Volume 2 of Tsongkhapa's Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment.