ACI Course 14 — Lojong, Developing the Good Heart · Class 4 · 培养善心的七步练习

Readings Four and Five

Herein Lies the Root Text of "The Seven-Step Practice for Developing a Good Heart," Advices for Training Oneself in the Greater Way

The following version of the Seven-Step Practice for Developing a Good Heart was excerpted from a "short woodblock" ( dpe-thung ) format edition, including the text of Lord Atisha's Lamp for the Path, in the possession of Sermey Khen Rinpoche Geshe Lobsang Tharchin. The text is quite old and had a number of apparent problems; the following version has been compiled using several other editions for comparison.

Om svasti! Om! May there be goodness!

Now there are a great many ways of teaching those advices for training oneself in the greater way—the lojong, or instructions for developing the good heart. In the tradition of the spiritual friend, the geshe, Chekawa, these instructions are organized into a seven-part practice. These seven are: 1) Instructions on the foundation Dharma, the preliminary practices; 2) The actual practice for developing the Wish for Enlightenment [bodhichitta]; 3) Learning to use problems as a path to Enlightenment; 4) A summary of an entire lifetime's practice; 5) The point at which one can say that he or she has successfully developed the good heart; 6) Pledges to keep for developing the good heart; and 7) Certain advices on developing the good heart.

The first of these is expressed in the following line of the root text:

These preliminaries come in three parts: meditating on your spiritual opportunities and fortunes, and considering how difficult it is to obtain them; meditating upon your own death, the fact that you are impermanent; and meditating upon the problems of this vicious circle of suffering.

The second part, on the actual practice for developing the Wish for Enlightenment, has two steps of its own: developing the ultimate Wish, and developing the apparent Wish. There are three sections within the first of these steps: the preparation, the actual practice, and the conclusion. For the preparation, you should do the following: bring to mind thoughts of taking refuge; make supplications; offer the various steps of the seven-part practice; take your meditation position with your body carefully straightened up; and then count your breaths up to 21, without losing track at all.

The second step, the actual practice, is found in the following lines of the root text:

The third step, the conclusion, is expressed in the next line of the root text:

The second more general step, meditating on the apparent Wish for Enlightenment, has two sections: deep meditation, and the period after this. Here is the first:

And here is the second:

The third main part, learning to use problems as a path to Enlightenment, is found in the following lines of the root text:

Here there are two different steps: how to think, and how to act. The first has two sections of its own: the apparent and the ultimate. Here is the first:

Here is the second:

Next is the step on how to practice in your actions:

Note by the Tibetan commentator: These four are accumulating masses of good karma; cleaning oneself of bad karma; making offerings to harmful spirits; and making offerings to protectors of the Dharma.