Five Powers During One's Life

What to do during one’s life

First Power: Fundamental Aspiration

What is the impetus, energy, intention, aspiration, drive, that is informing my whole life? In my life, where am I going?

1. To liberate myself from my own suffering. To actualize all the positive qualities of my mind and express them.

2. Use that in the benefit of other beings.

“In this encounter may I be free of my own egoism, my own self centeredness, and may I bring benefit and value to others.”

Second Power: Familiarization

Cultivate discipline and make a commitment to our aspiration. Be willing to practice over and over and over again on a continuous basis when it is going well and when it is hard. I have to see when I do it right. I have to correct it when I do things wrong.

Third Power: Virtuous Seeds

If we want to be an altruistic person, then we have to be attentive to our thoughts and actions. We have to nurture our wholesome seeds. We have to lessen our unwholesome seeds. We do this by the way we think about things, by the way we speak, and the actions of our body. In the garden of my mind, speech, and actions I am only going to be cultivating healthy flowers. I am not going to cultivate weeds and poisonous plants even in the privacy of my own garden.

Fourth Power: Repudiation & Revulsion

That egocentric side of me that permeates my life and manipulates myself and others to preserve itself shall be ended. No more shall my ego drag me around in this life. I am willing to see that it is not about me. I don’t want to be that kind of person. I renounce my egocentric nature. Take on defeat and give victory to others.

Fifth Power: Sharing the Merit

If good results come, may the merit be shared with everyone. Whenever goodness comes along, offer it to all beings. When I am happy, I wish to share this happiness with all beings.

“I see the goodness in this moment, and I offer this goodness to all beings.”