Osho: Always Rely on Just a Happy Frame of Mind Chogyam Trungpa: Always Maintain Only a Joyful Mind Pema Chodron: Always Maintain Only a Joyful Mind Jamgon Kongtrul: Always Have the Support of a Joyful Mind Alan Wallace: Rely Continually on Mental Happiness Alone Rabten & Dhargyey: One is Always Accompanied by Only Joyful Thoughts. Dilgo Khyentse: Always Be Sustained by Cheerfulness OF THE TWO WITNESSES, HOLD THE PRINCIPAL ONE IF YOU CAN PRACTICE EVEN WHEN DISTRACTED, YOU ARE WELL TRAINED  Yardsticks   Pema Chodron

Always Maintain Only a Joyful Mind
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You hear a slogan like 'Always maintain only a joyful mind' and for the whole next two weeks you're just hitting yourself over the head for never being joyful. That kind of witness is a bit heavy. So lighten up. Don't make such a big deal. The key to feeling at home with your body, mind and emotions, to feeling worthy to live on this planet, comes from being able to lighten up.

When your aspiration is to lighten up, you begin to have a sense of humor. Things just keep popping your serious state of mind. In addition to a sense of humor, a basic support for a joyful mind is curiosity, paying attention, taking an interest in the world around you. You don't actually have to be happy But being curious without a heavy judgmental attitude helps. If you ARE judgmental, you can even be curious about that.

Notice everything. Appreciate everything, including the ordinary. That's how to click in with joyfulness or cheerfulness. Curiosity encourages cheering up. So does simply remembering to do something different. We are so locked into this sense of burden - Big Deal Joy and Big Deal Unhappiness - that it's sometimes helpful just to change the pattern. Anything out of the ordinary will help, and tonglen is definitely something different. This practice is about repatterning ourselves, changing the basic pattern and unpatterning ourselves altogether. You can also just go to the window and look out at the sky. You can splash cold water on your face, you can sing in the shower, you can go jogging - anything that's against your usual pattern. That's how things start to lighten up.

Sooner or later you will find yourself in a situation where you can't change the outer circumstances at all, and you realize it all comes down to how you relate to things - whether you continue to struggle against everything that's coming at you or you begin to work with things.

You hear a slogan like "Always maintain only a joyful mind" and for the next two weeks you're just hitting yourself over the head for never being joyful. That kind of witness is a bit heavy. So lighten up... in contrast, a joyful mind is very ordinary and relaxed.

From Start Where You Are : A Guide to Compassionate Living by Pema Chodron, Copyright 1994, Shambhala Publications.
Published by arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Inc., Boston.

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Probably the most accessible introduction to the Mind Training practice. Pema combines a deep understanding of the Western Mind, deep immersion in the Tibetan tradition, and a wonderful sense of humor about human nature. This book is unique in that Pema shares with us her own struggles and failures, and shows, using examples that we Westerners can relate to, how the proverbs can gently bring us back to the path. Her humor, understanding, and love shine through this book
A wonderful set of tapes, every one of which I have played many times. 'Pema shows you how to use your own painful emotions as stepping stones to wisdom, compassion and fearlessness. You will learn how to make friends with the most painful parts of your life experience, and how to use your natural courage and honesty to transform even the most painful situations.'
This commentary on "Using adverse conditions as the path to awakening" is the ideal book for someone in crisis. Its aim is not to survive the crisis, but to use it as a unique opportunity to let go and open up. I'm sure you know someone in crisis right now, and this is the perfect gift for them (or for yourself).
Set of 6 audiocassettes on Mind Training, the Four Immeasurables, and other subjects.
This is an abridged pocket edition of Pema's first book, "The Wisdom of No Escape". Carry it everywhere you go, open it at random to any piece of her humorous and compassionate wisdom. Or just look into her eyes on the cover photo! A bargain.
Instruction on Shamatha-Vipashyana (calm abiding and insight) meditation with all of Pema's characteristic touch and humanity.