Finding meaning in the dark days after Christmas with wonderful Lojong resources

The next slogan is number 40: counter all adversity with a single remedy. Whenever when life sucks, which may happen to many of us during this pandemic, we routinely blame others. However, this usually does not help very much, and in fact renders us quite powerless, because we cannot do much about what others do. If instead we ourselves take responsibility, we can at least do something about our role in the adverse situation. For example, when there is another lockdown, we can spend all our energy complaining, but that does not really help very much. We could also use that energy to think about who is suffering, and what we can do about it. Something like the famous prayer that says: give me the strength to change the things I can change, the patience to accept the things I cannot change, and the courage to know the difference between them.

For cultivating this wisdom, I came across two excellent resources recently: 

• a set of teachings on Lojong by John Dunne and Roshi Joan Halifax. https://www.upaya.org/resources/exploring-the-power-of-lojong-2021-resource-page/ This includes a nuanced discussion of how we can work with our own role in adverse situations, how we can stay with a kind heart and self-compassion, but also take action to remedy damaging circumstances and avoid moral harm. 
• One particularly powerful example in these teachings is the story of a sailor who gets hit by another boat. He starts yelling at the other boat, but no-one responds. When he finally gets closer, he sees it's just an empty boat. How often are we not yelling at an empty boat? I find it very helpful to think of the empty boat when I am in challenging (or simply annoying) circumstances. That takes so much of the edge off...
• the Everybodhi podcast by Dungse Jampal Norbu, which goes through the Lojong slogans from a modern perspective. https://everybodhipodcast.libsyn.com

Enjoy!