The Transformation of Adverse Conditions into the  Path of Awakening

Carrying practice into everyday life

To make the transformation by relying on special practices of bodhichitta:

The four practices are 

1. accumulating merit, 

2. confessing evil actions, 

3. giving torma to gods and demons, 

4. and offering torma to dakinis and protectors. 

These are the best of all methods for using adverse conditions as a path.

Accumulating Merit

Reflect:

I wish to be happy, but suffering and frustration are all that come. This fact reminds me to cease evil actions, which are the seeds of suffering, and to accumulate merit, the seed of comfort and happiness. I shall do so.

Then, gather merit to the best of your ability through physical, verbal, and mental activities such as: 

• Offerings to your guru and the Three Jewels 

• Service to the sangha 

• Torma offerings to local spirits

• Offering candles

• Making clay reliquaries

• Prostrating yourself

• Circumambulating

• Taking refuge

• Arousing bo­dhicitta

• Reciting the seven-branch prayer 

• Offering mandalas.

Pray to put an end to hope and fear:

If it's better for me to be ill.

I pray for the blessing of illness. 

If it's better for me to recover,

I pray for the blessing of recovery.

If it's better for me to die,

I pray for the blessing of death.

Confessing Evil Actions

Practice the Four Forces properly. 

1. The Force of Repudiation is to regret evil actions that you have done. 

2. The Force of Turning Away from Faults is the resolve not to repeat such actions, even at the risk of life. 

3. The Force of Reliance is taking refuge in the Three Jewels and arousing bodhicitta. 

4. The Force of Full Engagement with remedies is the use of prayers that put an end to hope and fear, and the practice of the Six Kinds of Remedies: 

   1. Meditation on emptiness

   2. Repetition of mantras and dharanis

   3. Making of images

   4. Performing the seven-branch prayer and offering mandalas

   5. Recitation of sutras

   6. Repetition of special purification mantras.

Giving Torma to Gods and Demons

Third, give torma to troublemakers and direct them to en­lightening activity:

It's very kind of you to chase after me in response to what I've done to you in the past and to bring this debt to my attention. I ask you to destroy me now. I ask you to make all the sufferings, unpleasantness, poverty, ruin, misery, and disease that sentient beings experience ripen in me. Make all sentient beings free from suffering.

If you are unable to do that, give the torma and command them:

When I meditate on love, compassion, and taking and sending, I am doing as much as I can to help you both now and in the future. Don't obstruct me in the practice of dharma.

Offering Torma to Dakinis and Protectors

Fourth, offer torma to the protectors and direct them to be active in calming disruptive conditions and establishing conditions conducive to the practice of dharma. In particular, use the prayers given above to put an end to hope and fear. To turn un­expected situations into the path:

Work with whatever you encounter, immediately.

When illness, demons, interruptions, or disturbing emotions come unexpectedly, or if you see someone else troubled by some unpleasant situation, think, "I shall just practice taking and sending." 

In all your virtuous thoughts and actions think:

May all sentient beings come to engage naturally in much greater dharma activity than this.

Do the same when you are happy and comfortable. If you have some evil thought or are forced to engage in some form of evil activity, think:

May every evil thought and action of every sentient being be gathered in this one.

Summary: Maintain the motivation to help others whatever you are doing: eating, sleeping, walking, or sitting. As soon as you encounter a situation, good or bad, work at this practice of mind training