How is training in the preliminaries going for you? Have you been mindful of how precious life is, how certain death is, how important your actions are, and how suffering happens to everyone?

Before we move on to the next slogan, Zen teacher Norman Fischer offers two more ways we can train in the preliminaries. First, he writes in his book Training in Compassion, “The preliminaries includes everything difficult that has happened in your life up until the moment you begin the training… Regardless of what has happened or why, this is your life and you are the only one equipped to deal with it… Training in the preliminaries involves reflecting on your life so that you can develop the resolve and courage to begin a new life path.”

So, you can consider the preliminaries as your personal history. And this moment of lojong training is your wake up call to make that personal history meaningful, healing, and intentional. You can see it as a new start.

Second, he suggests that training in the preliminaries can also simply mean practicing meditation. I know: we all feel overwhelmed right now, even though we likely still have a bit more time on our hands than “normal” (other than those working parents juggling distance-learning young children at home, which, we send you love and strength!). But now is as good a time as any to remind you that a daily meditation practice can be such a game-changer. Even if it’s just five minutes a day. Sitting in silence, focusing on the breath, letting thoughts go as they come…this meditation training is truly foundational for everything else.

Meditation is how we do the groundwork. It’s the ground.

Take what you need from these other ways of practicing this slogan. Leave what doesn’t serve you. And see you next week for the second slogan!