Hold with Love Watch Our Minds

The Buddha’s Four Applications of Mindfulness

Our teacher HE Garchen Rinpoche has been sick, evoking an outpouring of prayers and love in response. He’s asked us to practice Dharma in the classic form of the Buddha’s Four Applications of Mindfulness to benefit everyone. Rinpoche gave a short teaching on this in 2020, which leads into the practice of Mahamudra and Dzogchen toward the end of this Tibetan recording with subtitles. You can see him here.

What I’m hearing as a student is, Hold with Love Watch Our Minds. We’re responsible for our own minds and hearts; don’t let them go wild with sorrow or fear. Drupon Kunsang Rinpoche gave a clear teaching about this in relationship to the 4 Applications of Mindfulness in English August 1^st from Thailand, at Garchen Rinpoche’s request. You can access this here. He links these practices of mindfulness with the Four Noble Truths in succinct ways.

About the same time, Khenpo Tenzin taught on the same topic at Rinpoche’s request at GBI, the center in Arizona. While more informally presented, I appreciated how he led us in this down to earth explore. Basically, one is applying mindfulness, to four common areas of experience: our bodies, feelings-sensations, mind, and phenomena.

So for example, applying mindfulness to our bodies. As Khenpo Tenzin spoke, I reached out with kindness to a part of my body that was feeling pain. 1. Impermanence – will this pain be here forever? No. Or, rather yes, it is impermanent. 2. Selflessness – has this area got a self? Well, no. So, yes, here’s selflessness. 3. Suffering – is there suffering here? Yes, especially if I fixate on the sensations. 4. Emptiness – emptiness in a part of the body, what an idea. Yes. The whole thing expands. How surprising.

Hear Khenpo Tenzin’s teaching here.

The mind’s only friends are love and compassion

Rinpoche says this in the 2020 recording. The Four Applications of Mindfulness are the Buddha’s ways to become free of suffering.

The Amitabha visualization and mantra

The picture accompanying this Substack is from Garchen Rinpoche. It is what he sees when he meditates on Amitabha, the Red Buddha of compassion. As he explains it, Amitabha is with every single one of us, directly above our heads. As we die, releasing our consciousness through our crowns, it is possible for the consciousness to go straight upward into the heart of Amitabha in the Pure Land.

There are billions of us here on this planet, dying and being born in every second. Saying Amitabha’s mantra OM AMI DEWA HRI evokes this energy and possibility for anyone dying in that moment. It’s support for everyone, especially anyone dying.

Here’s a teaching with OM AMI DEWA HRI from Rinpoche last year in Tibetan and Spanish.

Buddha Amitabha is a practice of loving kindness, compassion, equanimity, and empathetic joy. How far can we extend our love? Can it reach every single one of us?

Image: Amitabha, from HE Garchen Rinpoche, thanks to GBI. Find more Resources here.

Bio: A student of His Eminence Garchen Rinpoche, I also write and practice in Santa Fe, NM. Easy Healing Drinks from the Wisdom of Ayurveda is on special here.