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30 March 2026
 

Where we are in the book

Day 17 at last — page 522. Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand begins the sevenfold cause-and-effect method proper, starting with the first cause: recognising all sentient beings as having been our mother. After months on equanimity, the actual machinery of bodhicitta-generation begins.

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The opening meditation

Jampa led the equanimity practice we've been doing for months — three people brought to mind: a loved one, someone you don't get along with, and someone you only just met (Lisa got a name-check, as the new arrival). Watch how the mind reacts to each. Notice attraction with the loved one, discomfort or anger with the difficult one, blank indifference with the stranger.

Then the move: these three are the same. All wanting happiness. All in the same boat. The friend could become an enemy. The enemy could become a friend. The stranger has been both, in lifetimes we can't see. The reactions feel solid but the categories aren't.

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Why equanimity matters — the supermarket test

Jampa offered a useful image: walking through a supermarket, going past people without registering any connection. That's the I doing its job — holding so tight to itself that the rest of the world greys out. Self-cherishing isn't just selfishness; it's the constant low-grade insecurity that filters everyone we meet through what do they mean to me?

The point of equanimity isn't to like everyone equally. It's to loosen the grip of the I enough that everyone else becomes visible at all.

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The first cause — recognising all beings as our mother

The actual teaching for the night. Why a mother, specifically? Because it's the closest relationship there is. Without her, you literally wouldn't be here. She carried you, fed you, kept you alive through the months you couldn't keep yourself alive. So the practice begins with her — your present mother — and extends from there.

Jampa quoted Dharmakirti (the passage at the bottom of p. 522): consciousness has to come from a prior moment of consciousness, not from the body alone. The mental continuum stretches back through countless births. In each one, you had a mother. So everyone — every sentient being — has at some point been your mother. The work is to feel that, not just think it.

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The watermelon

Jampa offered an extended, vivid reflection on the kindness a mother actually performs. The body changing. The hormones. The cravings and the vomiting. Not being able to breathe properly. Not being able to walk properly. Carrying — her image — a watermelon around for months. Six, seven, more kilos some days. Then labour pain. Then the screaming and swearing and huffing. Then, often, the suffering disappears the moment the baby is out — the loving eyes find the face.

For mothers who struggled to bond, who didn't want the pregnancy, who carried it anyway — the same point holds, slightly differently. At least you're here. The kindness was in not getting rid of you. That's a stark framing, and Jampa offered it carefully, but she didn't soften it.

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The PlayStation and the I

The night's best illustration. As small children we cling to mum — kinder-age toddlers crying when separated. Then 13 to 18 hits and the same child won't look at her. Why? Because the I has arrived. "It's not fair, you're taking my PlayStation away from me." The child's I and the mother's I clashing.

That's samsara in miniature. Two minds, both gripping, both convinced their view is the important one. The closeness doesn't disappear — it gets buried under the friction the I creates. Jampa's point: when we reflect on tension with our mothers, we tend to assign blame outward. The practice is to notice where the I was doing the gripping.

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Difficult mothers, the real enemy

Jampa was clear-eyed about this. Not everyone has a close relationship with their mother. The practice isn't to pretend otherwise. It's to put the blame on the afflictions rather than on the person.

The deluded emotions — anger, attachment, ignorance — are the real enemy. Holding a grudge against the person only eats us, only distances us. "I'm here to learn bodhicitta. She doesn't know about bodhicitta. I need to spread that out and give her that love." The closeness we lost to friction can be rebuilt by recognising the friction's source — not in mum, not in us, but in the afflictions running through both of us.

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The sevenfold method, briefly

For the record, the seven causes Jampa recapped (with a moment of stumbling on the numbering — the official order is):

1. Recognising all beings as having been our mother

2. Remembering their kindness

3. Wishing to repay their kindness

4. Loving-kindness (heart-warming love)

5. Great compassion

6. Extraordinary intention (taking responsibility for their liberation)

7. Bodhicitta

This week we're on step one.

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Practice for the week

Briefly: equanimity to settle the mind (shorter now — Jampa said it should be getting faster as the habit forms), then the first cause. Reflect on the kindness of your own mother. Feel her qualities. Feel the closeness. If friction comes up, name it as the affliction it is, and keep going.

Don't extend to all sentient beings yet. Just your mum. Build the felt sense of kindness there first.

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One last note

Jampa closed with the world-peace pitch, slightly wistful: if one person does this practice, it spreads to their family, to their friends. If everyone in the room does it, "oh wow." Then to whoever they touch. "Peace can come. It's possible." The mind is uncontrollable, so be patient. With yourself, with your kids, with your mum.