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Guided meditation on Verse 7

Guided meditation on Verse 7

A series of teachings given during the Chenrezig retreat at Cloud Mountain Retreat Center in 2007. Teachings on 108 Verses Praising Great Compassion were also given during this retreat.

Generate compassion by seeing that sentient beings are like “a bucket in a well”

  • Bucket controlled by rope, we are under the control of afflictions and negative karma
  • Pulley is the agent that propels the bucket, our unsubdued mind propels us in samsara without respite
  • Like bucket goes up and down, sentient beings wander from highest realm of bliss to lowest realm of intense suffering and realms in between

108 Verses 04 (download)

Last three of the six analogies of our situation being similar to bucket in a well

  • Easy to go down, hard to come up (easy to fall down, hard to get up due to negative or positive karma)
  • Goes up ceaselessly (revolving in cyclic existence without rest)
  • Gets battered around constantly (sentient beings get battered by three kinds of dukkha
  • Developing the broader view of our situation

108 Verses 05 (download)

Venerable Thubten Chodron

Venerable Chodron emphasizes the practical application of Buddha’s teachings in our daily lives and is especially skilled at explaining them in ways easily understood and practiced by Westerners. She is well known for her warm, humorous, and lucid teachings. She was ordained as a Buddhist nun in 1977 by Kyabje Ling Rinpoche in Dharamsala, India, and in 1986 she received bhikshuni (full) ordination in Taiwan. Read her full bio.