Learning how to listen to teachings and having respect for the teacher create the right conditions for your mind to change. In this episode, we explore Je Tsongkhapa's instructions on "How to listen to the teachings by relying on the Six Ideas. Your mind opens when you feel the teaching is medicine that can cure your specific suffering or difficulty. Buddhist Teacher JoAnn Fox explains how to put these instructions into practice with some struggle you're currently experiencing.
When you receive Buddhist teachings in a formal setting and see the teacher being prostrated before or given gifts, it may seem strange in our modern world. Respect for the teacher, however, is a cause. The effect is that your mind opens to the meaning behind the words and their value to your life. Therefore, respect for the teacher and teachings is a condition for transformation to happen. When you pay homage or make offerings, it shows that you believe it's precious.
How to listen to the Teachings by relying on the Six Ideas
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Think of yourself as a sick person.
"Stricken with the virulent and chronic disease of the three mental poisons [attachment, hostility, and ignorance], we are extremely sick, but we are completely unaware that we are ill."
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Think of the instructor as a doctor.
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Think of the teachings as medicine.
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Think of sincere practice as the way to cure your disease.
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Think of the Buddhas as excellent beings.
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Wish that the teaching will endure for a long time (Je Tsongkhapa, 2014).
If from somebody one should learn the Teaching of the Buddha, he should respectfully pay homage to that teacher, as a brahmin worships the sacrificial fire. (Verse 392)
—Buddha, The Dhammapada
References with Links
Buddha (1986).The Dhammapada: Verses and Stories. Translated by Daw Mya Tin, M.A. (Website). Edited by Editorial Committee, Burma Tipitaka Association Rangoon. Courtesy .of Nibbana.com. For free distribution only, as a gift of dhamma. Retrieved from https://www.tipitaka.net/tipitaka/dhp/verseload.php?verse=392
Je Tsongkhapa (2014). Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, by Je Tsongkhapa, Volume 1 (Kindle). Translated by the Lamrim Chenmo Translation Committee. Joshua Cutler, Editor-in-Chief, and Guy Newlan, Editor, pg 58-63.
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