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like Bodhidharma, the treatise would have finished at the fifth sutra, or even at the fourth:
LET EVEN THE REMEDY ITSELF GO FREE ON ITS OWN.
Then the settling happens on its own. Bodhidharma was very miserly, he would not have used the fifth, but Atisha is very considerate to the disciple. He had been a disciple, so he knew the difficulties of a disciple. And he had been a disciple of three great masters, so he knew all the difficulties that a disciple has to face. He had been a pilgrim; he knew all the problems. And he had been a pilgrim on three paths, all the three possible paths, so he knew all the problems and all the difficulties and all the pitfalls and all the obstacles that are bound to arise on the path of a disciple. Hence his considerateness. He says: Between sessions....
Between these moments of meditativeness, between these moments of utter joy, emptiness and purity, between these moments of being, remember that all are dreams, that every phenomenon is a phantom. Go on using this method till the settling has happened forever.
TRAIN IN JOINING, SENDING AND TAKING TOGETHER.DO THIS BY RIDING THE BREATH.
Now emptiness has been experienced -- this is what he had learned. Up to this sutra he had been with the first master, Dharmakirti. With this sutra, the second master, Dharmarakshita.
TRAIN IN JOINING, SENDING AND TAKING TOGETHER.DO THIS BY RIDING THE BREATH.
Now he says: Start being compassionate. And the method is, when you breathe in -- listen carefully, it is one of the greatest methods -- when you breathe in, think that you are breathing in all the miseries of all the people in the world. All the darkness, all the negativity, all the hell that exists anywhere, you are breathing it in. And let it be absorbed in your heart.
You may have read or heard about the so-called positive thinkers of the West. They say just the opposite -- they don't know what they are saying. They say, "When you breathe out, throw out all your misery and negativity; and when you breathe in, breathe in joy, positivity, happiness, cheerfulness."
Atisha's method is just the opposite: when you breathe in, breathe in
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