This introductory talk by Dhammadinna is an ideal entry point to the world of the mind-turnings. Seen as foundations for the building of practice, the reflections encourage us to make life meaningful in the face of a relentlessly ungovernable reality. A strong look in the mirror of the heart. Excerpted from the talk The Four Mind-Turning Reflections, part of the series of the same title, given at Tiratanaloka Retreat Centre, 2005. ***
Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts
Bite-sized inspiration three times every week.
Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts
A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!
Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favourite podcast service!
Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now!
Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud
[music] Dharma Bites is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio, the Dharma for your life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate. Thank you, and happy listening. [music] And I think it's a good place for us to start because we so often don't value what we have and the context in which we find ourselves in. We don't often want deeply in touch with our own very positive potential. This kind of highlights all that. And on the basis of that, we can begin to reflect our impermanence and death. So Sankarva's poem, of course, really kind of highlights these first two line turnings, isn't it? Yeah, he says cherish your body. She always is one time only, it's one with difficulty and it's easy to lose. So cherish your body, so cherish your precious human life. So very much the reflection brings out the cherishing of our life and opportunities. But then within that context, you reflect that it's one with difficulty and easy to lose and then all worldly things are brief, like lightning in the sky. And this life you must know is a tiny splash of a raindrop, et cetera. So on the basis of that very, very positive first reflection, you can then start to reflect. Well, yes, it's a very, very positive opportunity that we have. But our human life is really like a tiny splash of a range of a beautiful image. All the images of impermanence are really beautiful out there. I think maybe focusing on the images, you know, engages with the positive aspects of reflecting on impermanence. So our life is like a bubble, it's like a de-drop, it's like a flash of lightning, like a raindrop. So we reflect that, yes, it's very, very positive, our human life, but it's fragile and impermanent. And so we reflect in the second one on the impermanence of all worldly things, but perhaps particularly on the fragility and impermanence of our own life. The knowledge that we must die, that we will die, there's no escaping it. And we do have a tendency, very strong tendency, that we do disregard our own laptops. It's very, very hard for us to really think that we're going to die. We have moments when that's very real for us, either because we're very ill or we have some kind of accident. We realise how close we've been. Sometimes, if I think I'm not a mother but I sometimes, people giving birth say that, you know, if you were at that moment very close to death as well as life. And also when close friends, relatives of ours, die, you know, when we see somebody die, we feel that possibility much more tenderly, but it's so easily fades, so easily fades. Some of it remains with us, but it's very hard to keep it as a reflection, it's a positive reflection. So this whole set of reflections is enabling us and helps us to do that. And I think these first two minding, they're kind of in a very sort of creative attention, as it were. So, you don't want to go into reflection on a permanent death and fall into nihilism and despair. You want to maintain the basis of reflection on the precious human birth and all the opportunities that you have, but you don't want to get complacent about that and think you're going to live forever. So this reflection gives us a sense of urgency. Often the messages don't waste time, so again, "Sonkapar," that's what he's saying, isn't it? He's saying, "Set your goal and make use of every day and night to achieve it." So we need with this reflection, and this is the reflection that Vajradashti will be talking about to sort of keep alive in our hearts that sense of death and impermanence in a creative way, in a positive way. And the effects of that, and I suppose we'll see the effects of this as we reflect on it more deeply throughout the retreat, is that we can be more fully alive in the present moment and perhaps overcome our fear of death. These first-gen reflections, very important, we build our faith and competence in the opportunities that we have in our own potential, and that gives us a positive basis for reflecting on impermanence and death. And we're going to see through the illusions of sanctions without falling into nihilism or despair, and we realize we can make something of our lives in a dharmic sense, but not in the sense of finding perfection in Sanxal. We hope you enjoyed today's Dharma Bite. Please help us keep this free. Make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate, and thank you. - Thank you. (upbeat music)
