The five forces – Part two
by Martin Horan
The five forces are five simple practices that contain the essence of the bodhisattva’s path to enlightenment. By remaining mindful of them, we can bring Dharma practice into every aspect of our daily life. They are explained in Part one of this blog.
In short, the five forces are: 1) the force of beneficial intention 2) the force of familiarity 3) the force of the white seed 4) the force of destruction and 5) the force of dedication. If we use them as a focus for our practice day by day, we can also adapt them at the end of our life.
To recap, the precious teaching by Geshe Chekawa is contained within the verse*:
The brief essential instruction is:
Blend the practice of one life with the five forces.
Of the instructions on mahayana transference
the five forces are the most important practice.
In this verse, the term “mahayana transference” refers to methods we can use at the end of our life, to transfer our consciousness to a favourable rebirth state. The verse indicates that of these many methods, the five forces are especially important and effective.
The teachings on leisure and fortune remind us that our current opportunity to practise Dharma is valuable, rare and impermanent. We should never take it for granted. And in order to continue our progress on the path to enlightenment without interruption, we need to do what we can in this life to ensure that we also have this opportunity in our next life.
So, if we incorporate the five forces into our daily life they will reshape our way of thinking and acting. They will create new habits and if our life has been shaped by the effort to become kinder, more compassionate, more purposeful day by day, that will definitely affect how we approach the end of our life.
How the five forces can help at the time of death
As we begin to approach death, the force of beneficial intention is our friend. With the determination to continue the path to perfect our great love and great compassion wherever we go, and wherever we find ourselves, we can look forward to our next life with joy and without fear.
Through the force of familiarity, everything we experience in our final months, weeks or days reinforces our practice of Dharma. Our understanding of impermanence becomes authentic. We can easily cultivate compassion for all our fellow living beings. While our breath remains, we can continue to use every moment to train in love and compassion using the methods of taking and giving.
We use the force of the white seed by continuing to reflect on kindness, love and compassion and to practise it until we can no longer. We can continue to subdue any negativity within our mind, using the force of destruction, through methods such as the four opponent powers.
And continuously we look forward to our goal of enlightenment. Using the force of dedication we confirm our positive direction, offering the merit of all our positive actions of body speech and mind throughout our life to the benefit of all our fellow living beings.
If the story of our life has been one of continuously trying to cultivate our positive minds, reflect on bodhichitta, and as much as possible bring it into our activities, we will feel that our time on this earth has been meaningful and useful both to ourselves and others.
This will bring us peace and a sense of purpose as we go through the death process. It creates the perfect basis for continuing our path to enlightenment in our next life.
*This verse from Geshe Chekawa’s Mind Training in Seven points, is translated by Geshe Acharya Thubten Loden, and is found in Path to Enlightenment in Tibetan Buddhism p 585.
