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Extraordinary aspiration: The seven-limb practice

Extraordinary aspiration: The seven-limb practice

This practice is a method to purify and accumulate merit from The King of Prayers: The Extraordinary Aspiration of the Practice of Samantabhadra, which contains all aspects of the bodhisattva practice. These talks were given at the Mid-America Buddhist Association (MABA) in Augusta, Missouri, USA on May 5 and May 12, 2002.

Confession

  • Practical ways to purify the mind and create positive potential (merit)
  • Revealing and letting go of all mistakes

Seven-limb practice 06: Confession (download)

Rejoicing

  • Rejoicing in the good fortune of others
  • Cultivating happiness
  • Enriching the mind

Seven-limb practice 07: Rejoicing (download)

Requesting teachings

  • Cultivating interest and appreciation for the Buddha’s teachings
  • Benefits for requesting the teachings
  • The guide of the Buddha

Seven-limb practice 08: Requesting teachings (download)

Requesting long lives for the Buddhas and spiritual mentors

  • Requesting enlightened beings to remain in the world and teach
  • Creating karma to be able to meet teachers and to be able to meet enlightened beings in the future

Seven-limb practice 09: Requesting long lives (download)

Dedication, questions and answers

  • Dedicating towards full awakening and full enlightenment
  • Protecting positive potential
  • Differences between the hearer, solitary realizer and bodhisattva vehicles
  • Purifying negative actions that cannot be remembered

Seven-limb practice 10: Dedication and Q&A (download)

Day 1 of this series of talks can be found here.

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.