This is an excerpt from the Essence of Ambrosia by Taranatha:
Dispelling Hindrances
When practicing the main meditation that integrates emptiness and compassion [on page 100], there is a risk of encountering the hindrance of attachment to the happiness of this life.
Life is full of enjoyments, pleasant exchanges and interesting conversations. Some religious practitioners think they are superior to ordinary people, but, meanwhile, cling to the hope of success. Failing to develop sincere renunciation, they blame others and protect themselves. They engage in ostensibly positive actions such as restoring temples, enduring austerities and begging for alms. They act virtuous out of a desire for food. They complete deity practices for fame. They are conceited and hypocritical. They secretly want people to have faith in them. Because they hope to win out over others, they slander and deceive them. In the name of religion, they engage in activities that strengthen worldly aims. This is the opposite of emptiness and compassion, like mixing food with poison.
Attitudes and actions that are worldly from the start are always negative, and, therefore, blameworthy. However, it is even worse to mix these concerns with religion and present them under the false pretense of being positive. As a remedy for those tendencies, recollect the contemplations for the person of lesser capacity again and again. [such as the four thoughts that turn the mind to Dharma]
There is also the hindrance of being attached to the future happiness of gods and humans. If you do not reverse the craving for wordly happiness, you might seem to be generous, seem to guard moral discipline and may scrupulously and neatly engage in virtuous actions. But if you aspire for the joys of amassing food, clothing, possessions, a nice house, women, friends, servants and power, then emptiness and compassion have become an interference. As a remedy, meditate repeatedly on the contemplations for the individual of average capacity. [such as the suffering of the higher realms and cyclic existence in general, the origin of suffering and karma, and the causes of liberation]
Even though your mind turns toward religion, you think only of your own benefit. This is the opposite of emptiness and compassion. As a remedy for that, meditate on the equality of yourself and others and exchange self for others. It is very important not to leave meditation as a mere intellectual exercise, but to attain certainty by applying the focus directly to your own body and mind.
These instructions are elucidated in the mind-training texts [by Atisha] and are elaborated on in [Shantideva’s] Bodhisattva’s Way of Life and Compendium of Trainings. The Bodhisattva Maitreya says
The quintessential mind is the same for you and others.
When you discover that others are more dear and beloved than yourself,
you will know that the aims of others are more important than your own. Whatever your own aims are — these are also the aims of others.
It is important to attain resolute certainty in this way and sustain it.
Integrating the Practices
Next, spend one day each on each of the following:
the difficulty of attaining a human life;
death and impermanence;
the sufferings of cyclic existence;
action, cause and result;
faith in religion;
the awakening mind of love and compassion;
and the two selflessnesses.
Inside each session, sometimes meditate on the entire sequence.
Sometimes meditate on them in reverse.
Sometimes meditate mixing them up.
Sometimes, meditate on your strongest faults, the ones that are harming your mind the most.
Sometimes, meditate upon [the one] you feel most inclined to focus on.
What to Do at All Times
As your main, continual practice of meditation, focus on four topics:
(1) intense recollection of impermanence,
(2) carefulness and avoidance born of contemplating the meaning of action and result,
(3) compassion for all beings in the three realms of cyclic existence and
(4) resting evenly in the true nature, free from elaborations.
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This is an excerpt from the Essence of Ambrosia by Taranatha (Kunga Nyingpo)(1575-1634).
Translated into English by Willa Baker and published by the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in 2005. These excerpts appear on pages 103-105.
Here is a 124-page PDF file of Essence of Ambrosia by Taranatha (English only, without the Tibetan script).
