From a beautiful teaching by Miles Neale at Tibet House, 6.8.10
The Four Thoughts for Turning the Mind
1. Contemplation on the preciousness of human life: how fortunate are we to have been born with the ability to practice, to live freely, without war, famine, extreme need; we have leisure time and opportunities to train our minds; so many others, probably 95% of the world, does not; this is precious! How can we take full advantage of this precious human life??
2. Contemplation on the inevitability of death: there is no question of our eventual demise and death; yet, how often do we contemplate this basic human fact? instead, we choose to live in the delusion that this will occur to all others, yet not us. how does this lend itself to us truly valuing our lives and relationships, in relation to our eventual demise? this also ties into the contemplation on what we take with us when we die-our accomplishments, achievements, accolades, cars, houses, stocks, bonds, and clothes will be worthless when we approach death; what we can take with us is our good heart and the knowledge that we have brought joy and happiness to others; to know that we have lived a life of morality and virtue-this is what truly matters at the end
3. Contemplation on Causality: (the law of Karma): there is no randomness in this world; everything we do, all of our actions, count; every action has a reaction-how we speak, act, think, counts; How have we been living? Have we been living passively? Have we been brave? Have we created the conditions for our own happiness?
4. Contemplation on Suffering and the Nature of Samsara: most of our society, most of our culture, live like mindless rats running in circles in a giant rat wheel; the constant ups and downs of our emotions and feelings; compulsive living-the unstable mind constantly chasing, running, avoiding pleasure and pain; how much time do we spend chasing pleasure and avoiding pain? How much time do we dedicate to getting and keeping? How much time do we spend avoiding losing? How much of our lives is dedicated to this??
