Fifth Precept Sangha

“How many obscurations and how many afflictions have been subdued or cleared away?
This is the true test of meditation, not what wonderful or special experiences we might have.”

~ 17th Karmapa from the book “Traveling the Path of Compassion:
A Commentary on The Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva”

This is this week’s topic for contemplation, reflection and sharing at the online virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ meditation meeting via Skype from 7:45 pm ready for a prompt start at 8 pm (UK time).

All welcome.

This week’s ‘Sit-and-Share’ host is Vella.

Please read ‘How to attend a Virtual Sit-and-Share meeting’ –

Closing dedication of Merit:

We dedicate the merits of this practice to all suffering beings.
May everyone be free of suffering, and the causes of suffering.
May everyone enjoy happiness, and the causes of happiness.
Keep sitting; and keep smiling.

The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to recognize delusion
Whenever one is confronted by adversity or misfortune.
For these sufferings are just like the death of a child in a dream,
And it’s so exhausting to cling to delusory perceptions as real.

~ by Gyalse Tokme Zangpo [The Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas]

All suffering is like the death of your child in a dream.
To take such delusive appearances as true, how exhausting!
Therefore, whenever you encounter unpleasant circumstances,
To see them as deceptions is the practice of the Bodhisattva.

~ Alternative translation (Gyalse Tokme Zangpo – The Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas)

This is this week’s topic for contemplation, reflection and sharing at the online virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ meditation meeting via Skype from 7:45 pm ready for a prompt start at 8 pm (UK time).

All welcome.

This week’s ‘Sit-and-Share’ host is Vince.

Please read ‘How to attend a Virtual Sit-and-Share meeting’ –

Closing dedication of Merit:

We dedicate the merits of this practice to all suffering beings.
May everyone be free of suffering, and the causes of suffering.
May everyone enjoy happiness, and the causes of happiness.
Keep sitting; and keep smiling.

“If you don’t know your own psychology, you might ignore what’s going on in your mind until it breaks down and you go completely crazy. People go mad through lack of inner wisdom, through their inability to examine their own minds. They are ignorant of their internal world, and their minds are totally unified with ignorance instead of being awake and engaged in self-analysis. Examine your own mental attitudes. Become your own therapist.”

~ Lama Yeshe

This is this week’s topic for contemplation, reflection and sharing at the online virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ meditation meeting via Skype from 7:45 pm ready for a prompt start at 8 pm (UK time).

All welcome.

This week’s ‘Sit-and-Share’ host is Jessica.

Please read ‘How to attend a Virtual Sit-and-Share meeting’ –

Closing dedication of Merit:

We dedicate the merits of this practice to all suffering beings.
May everyone be free of suffering, and the causes of suffering.
May everyone enjoy happiness, and the causes of happiness.
Keep sitting; and keep smiling.

“Friends and relatives acquired for long will separate.
Possessions gained with exertion will be left behind.
Consciousness, the guest, will leave the guesthouse of the body.
To let go of this life is the practice of a Bodhisattva.”

~ by Gyalse Tokme Zangpo [The Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas]

“The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to renounce this life’s concerns,
For friends and relatives, long acquainted, must all go their separate ways;
Wealth and prized possessions, painstakingly acquired, must all be left behind;
And consciousness, the guest who lodges in the body, must in time depart. “

~ Alternative translation

This is this week’s topic for contemplation, reflection and sharing at the online virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ meditation meeting via Skype from 7:45 pm ready for a prompt start at 8 pm (UK time).

All welcome.

This week’s ‘Sit-and-Share’ host is Vince.

Please read ‘How to attend a Virtual Sit-and-Share meeting’ –

Closing dedication of Merit:

We dedicate the merits of this practice to all suffering beings.
May everyone be free of suffering, and the causes of suffering.
May everyone enjoy happiness, and the causes of happiness.
Keep sitting; and keep smiling.

Remember: “That which we frequently dwell upon, to this does our mind incline.”
Mindfulness reveals to us where our minds most frequently dwell and the ways our attention inclines.
Discernment reveals whether our habits of dwelling lead to distress or toward greater freedom and capacity.
When we understand this, we cultivate the qualities of befriending, compassion, joy, and equanimity that are the foundations of easeful relationship, both inwardly and outwardly.

~ Christina Feldman and Willem Kuyken [MINDFULNESS- Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Psychology]

This is this week’s topic for contemplation, reflection and sharing at the online virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ meditation meeting via Skype from 7:45 pm ready for a prompt start at 8 pm (UK time).

All welcome.

This week’s ‘Sit-and-Share’ host is Vince.

Please read ‘How to attend a Virtual Sit-and-Share meeting’ –

Closing dedication of Merit:

We dedicate the merits of this practice to all suffering beings.
May everyone be free of suffering, and the causes of suffering.
May everyone enjoy happiness, and the causes of happiness.
Keep sitting; and keep smiling.

“Unfavourable circumstances are the best opportunity you will have to put the teachings into practice.”

~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

This is this week’s topic for contemplation, reflection and sharing at the online virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ meditation meeting via Skype from 7:45 pm ready for a prompt start at 8 pm (UK time).

All welcome.

This week’s ‘Sit-and-Share’ host is Eileen.

Please read ‘How to attend a Virtual Sit-and-Share meeting’ –

Closing dedication of Merit:

We dedicate the merits of this practice to all suffering beings.
May everyone be free of suffering, and the causes of suffering.
May everyone enjoy happiness, and the causes of happiness.
Keep sitting; and keep smiling.

“Just as a bird cannot fly in the sky until it’s wings are fully developed, you also cannot serve the interests of sentient beings as long as you lack the power of higher knowledge.
Without the attainment of calm abiding, higher knowledge is not going to arise. Therefore keep striving , over and over again for the accomplishment of calm abiding.”

~ ‘Lamp for the path to Awakening’ (Bodha patha pradipa) by 10th C teacher Atisa [from Common Buddhist Text]

This is this week’s topic for contemplation, reflection and sharing at the online virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ meditation meeting via Skype from 7:45 pm ready for a prompt start at 8 pm (UK time).

All welcome.

This week’s ‘Sit-and-Share’ host is Paul.

Please read ‘How to attend a Virtual Sit-and-Share meeting’ –

Closing dedication of Merit:

We dedicate the merits of this practice to all suffering beings.
May everyone be free of suffering, and the causes of suffering.
May everyone enjoy happiness, and the causes of happiness.
Keep sitting; and keep smiling.

“Empty things, such as reflections, depend on a collection of causes.
It is not as though this were not well known.
From those empty reflections and so forth
Arise consciousnesses that bear their image.
Similarly, even though all things are empty,
From those empty things effects are definitely produced.”

~ Tsongkhapa cites Chandrakirti [from Introduction To Emptiness by Guy Newland]

This is this week’s topic for contemplation, reflection and sharing at the online virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ meditation meeting via Skype from 7:45 pm ready for a prompt start at 8 pm (UK time).

All welcome.

This week’s ‘Sit-and-Share’ host is Eileen.

Please read ‘How to attend a Virtual Sit-and-Share meeting’ –

Closing dedication of Merit:

We dedicate the merits of this practice to all suffering beings.
May everyone be free of suffering, and the causes of suffering.
May everyone enjoy happiness, and the causes of happiness.
Keep sitting; and keep smiling.

Don’t recall ~ Let go of what has passed.
Don’t imagine ~ Let go of what may come.
Don’t think ~ Let go of what is happening now.
Don’t examine ~ Don’t try to figure anything out.
Don’t control ~ Don’t try to make anything happen.
Rest ~ Relax, right now, and rest.

~ Tilopa (988–1069) [translated by Ken McLeod]

This is this week’s topic for contemplation, reflection and sharing at the online virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ meditation meeting via Skype from 7:45 pm ready for a prompt start at 8 pm (UK time).

All welcome.

This week’s ‘Sit-and-Share’ host is Vella.

Please read ‘How to attend a Virtual Sit-and-Share meeting’ –

Closing dedication of Merit:

We dedicate the merits of this practice to all suffering beings.
May everyone be free of suffering, and the causes of suffering.
May everyone enjoy happiness, and the causes of happiness.
Keep sitting; and keep smiling.

“By renouncing unworthy ways and by not living carelessly; by not holding false views, we no longer perpetuate delusion”

~ Dhammapada for Contemplation: Chapter XIII, verse 167

This is this week’s topic for contemplation, reflection and sharing at the online virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ meditation meeting via Skype from 7:45 pm ready for a prompt start at 8 pm (UK time).

All welcome.

This week’s ‘Sit-and-Share’ host is Eileen.

Please read ‘How to attend a Virtual Sit-and-Share meeting’ –

Closing dedication of Merit:

We dedicate the merits of this practice to all suffering beings.
May everyone be free of suffering, and the causes of suffering.
May everyone enjoy happiness, and the causes of happiness.
Keep sitting; and keep smiling.