THE FOUNDATION of BUDDHIST THOUGHT

Loving Kindness and Dedication

After that spend however many minutes left meditating on loving kindness, developing a strong feeling of closeness towards all sentient beings. Although it is very difficult to develop a close feeling to people who have caused you great suffering, if your heart is truly searching for a spiritual path then it is good to spend time and energy doing this. At the end of the day even if you do not get a dramatic result you will not feel any regret. If your heart is really in Buddhism then it is good to spend time and energy trying to make sense of the teachings and see how they can really practically help with your difficulties.

In our morning meditation it is good to spend the last few minutes meditating on loving kindness and from that developing a strong feeling of wanting to help others with their short-term and long-term needs. Their short-term needs are whatever difficulties they are facing now whereas their long-term need, naturally, is to realise enlightenment.

Dedication
Then just before the end I would recommend you do a short dedication such His Holiness the Dalai Lama' favourite one from the Bodhisattvacharyavatara:

      As long as space endures
      As long as sentient beings remain,
      So may I too remain
      And dispel the miseries of the world.

Say that and dedicate all that you have done to that. "Whatever I have done so far in the meditation I will dedicate in that way". That is very good way to end the practice. On the day that we do that there will mentally be a greater sense of peace - we ourselves will have a sense of relaxation and people around us will sense that. This is so important.

I hope that this all makes sense! It is a very basic daily practice for beginners and as such I have not included many recitations. Perhaps in a past life I have committed very negative karma towards recitations because I am not good at encouraging people to recite mantras! Of course it is good to recite Shakyamuni Buddha's mantra or Tara's mantra but in the early stages I think it is important to do a simple practice which makes sense for you. If you add in more the practice can become messy. Do a practice which immediately gives you and others benefit, then people living with you will notice a positive difference. That is really what following a spiritual path is about. As I said at the beginning, our real daily practice is engaging in activities such as helping other people and having a good heart in the community. What we've talked about here is just the tools.

That concludes Developing a Daily Practice