Joyful Effort Practice Group
led by lama yeshe
First meeting: October 27th
All practices are on Sundays from noon - 2:00 pm
In-person and via Zoom
Tuition: $160
Reduced fee available
Upcoming Dates: Dec. 22, Jan. 26
Joyful Effort Practice Group focuses on the Ngöndro or Preliminaries meditations. This series of Vajrayana (visualization*) practices prepares the mind to receive and integrate Mahamudra teachings, by deepening our connection to the resources of the path, clearing our mind of negativity, strengthening our natural generosity, and creating a strong bond with our teachers.
During this eight-month group, we will focus on each of the four practices, for two months at a time.
Joyful Effort meets monthly, with the first meeting on Sunday, October 27th (noon – 2:30 pm). At that meeting, the instructions for the first chapter, Refuge and Bodhicitta, will be given.
Preregistration is recommended, and it is necessary to secure a text before the first meeting. This can be done at KSC during weekly office hours, Wednesdays, from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm., and at the KSC Bookstore on Lama Sundays (after Lama teachings) and Thursdays (after Calm Abiding practice).
*For further information about the Tibetan Buddhist style of meditation called “visualization,” please contact the KSC office for a written teaching to be emailed to you: office@kscashland.org
Registration is required, and the text will be needed for the first meeting.
More information:
The Joyful Effort Practice Group utilizes the Ngöndro or Preliminaries meditation text as the basis for its study and practice. There are four different meditations included in the text, and members of the group focus on each one of these meditations for a few months at a time.
The meditations rely upon Vajrayana techniques such as visualization and mantra recitation, to deepen the effects of the meditation upon our mind. These meditations are preliminaries to Mahamudra practice, the highest meditation taught in the Kagyu lineages.
Purposes of these practices are to help us to remove obscuration, to clarify our orientation and intention, to free us to act in beneficial ways, to be increasingly able to keep our commitments, and to continue deepening our knowledge and wisdom.
The Preliminaries were created by the Ninth Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje, in 14th century Tibet. He felt that the truly heroic practitioners of old were few and far between in his day, so he created this series of meditations, to provide access for interested practitioners at every level, that they might experience deep inner change, and become truly heroic practitioners on behalf of all beings!
MEDITATION ONE: REFUGE AND BODHICITTA
This meditation strengthens our bonds with the riches of our lineages, and with the principle of our own future enlightenment (Buddha Nature). The meditation deepens our trust in the resources available to us on the path, and strengthens our aspiration to utilize them fully for the awakening of ourselves and others.
Using our mind, we will utilize the tool of visualization, or energization, to remind ourselves of the many resources of refuge. These include Buddhas, Bodhisattvas (Great Awakening Beings), meditational deities, the sangha of the teachers (lamas), the dharma protectors, and of course, the dharma itself.
It should be said that the process of visualization is not limited to the ability to imagine in a visual way. One may evoke the energy or resonance of each of these resources. One may also evoke the feeling or emotion associated with each. These methods can be used in any combination to express the vitality of each of the refuge resources. [Note: An introduction to visualization principles and purposes has been given as a teaching in the past. I recommend that you read this teaching if you are interested in the method, and especially if you are interested in joining the Joyful Effort group. You can request that teaching by contacting the KSC office. You can also request a copy of this talk.)
Once the supports of refuge are present in our mind, then we utilize our body to bow to their presence, as a mark of our respect. At the same time, with our voice, we will recite the prayer of refuge again and again. Throughout our practice, we will be contemplating the meaning of the resources, as well as our relationship with them.
MEDITATION TWO: VAJRASATTVA
In the Joyful Effort group, we will have been doing the refuge practice for a few months when we learn the second Ngöndro meditation. By now, we are better-grounded in the resources that support our awakening journey.
From that foundation, we proceed to take a responsible look at the actions of our life. During this lifetime, we have taken numberless actions and spoken numberless words. We know with certainty that some of those words and actions have purposely caused harm, and some have done so unintentionally.
In the Vajrasattva meditation, we acknowledge and take responsibility for our negative words and actions. We engage the energy of our own Buddha Nature, as symbolized and embodied by the Buddha called Vajrasattva, to purify or transform those negativities.
When the mind is freed from some of its negative contents, it is increasingly free to witness its own nature, which is spacious, aware and unlimited in its capacity.
Beyond the visualization and mantra recitation utilized to transform past negativity, we also engage in the very practical and daily commitment to notice our negativity day-by-day, and deal with it in the present tense. For this, we learn the tools are the Four Powers of Antidote, in which we recognize our negativity with regret; renew our reliance on the resources of refuge; engage in courageous remedies for the harm we have caused; and resolve not to act that way in the future.
By dealing with our negativity on a daily basis, we are diminishing the negativity we will have to purify in the future….
MEDITATION THREE: OFFERING THE MANDALA
Having cleared some of the field of negativity, we now cultivate positive factors. In the third practice, we make offerings to all the resources of our refuge. These are the representatives of full realization, our guides and inspirations. They embody the future we are working toward.
Normally, we hold all good for ourselves and our loved ones. Instead, now we offer all there is, through our imagination only, with no clinging to any of it, in a joyful release of control and preference. We offer all that is, again and again, for the benefit of every being’s awakening journey. This is a joyous use of the limitlessly creative imagination that we each have, and it slowly but definitely expands our generosity, while diminishing our stinginess and fearful clinging.
MEDITATION FOUR: GURU YOGA
Firm in the awakening journey’s resources, cleared of some of our negativity, and joyful in unselfish offering, we now approach the lineage of human teachers with respect and interest. The final practice of Ngöndro is uniting our mind with that of our teachers. We ask that they see us precisely as we are, to know us for better or for worse, and to guide us toward our better selves.
We ask for aid in transforming the small and fearful view that we often have of ourselves and our world, into the largest, most generous, most fearless view. We ask that our capability expand to meet the needs of ourselves and others, through the guidance of our most skilled teachers….
For home practice, each meditation takes about 45 minutes to one hour to complete. We ask that you try to do the meditation at least a few times each week, and ideally several times each week. It is felt that frequent practice deepens the impact…
During these eight months, we will take two months with each chapter of the Ngöndro meditations. Detailed instructions will be given at the first meeting for each chapter, and at the second meeting, each member checks in about how their meditation is going. There is time for questions and discussion, as well as maturing advice and ongoing teachings to enrich your practice.
Optional supports include a weekly group meditation practice on Friday mornings, as well as readings on the Ngöndro practices.
To aid in deciding if this meditation practice group is suitable for you, I am happy to confer with you. Please contact me through the KSC office. You may also attend the first meeting of Joyful Effort, receiving the instructions in the first practice, and take the first month of practice to determine if you will actually commit to the group.
In any case, be sure to register on our website for Joyful Effort if you wish to attend the first meeting. This will guarantee that you receive supportive materials to print before the meeting, as well as the Zoom link if needed.