What kind of pot are you mostly?

[dorjedakini]

A leaking pot for me.

Many teaching were being taught and read. After a while will forget the teaching unless re read the note I made during the teaching.

I noticed that those teaching that we put into practice we can remember better as we are reminding ourselves daily, every moment. One of the reasons to be the leaking pot is being selective on what to practice. We choose what is convenient for us and not so painful (protecting the ego). I agree with Positive Change that having a Guru is very important. A Guru who is non stop pressing our weak points, until we change or let go.

Besides, daily do a lot of Shugden Kawang and Mantra helps to improve my memory and stamina during Dharma teaching.

[Jessie Fong]

I would say No 4 as all of them are inter related but the strongest is leaky pot.

Having the fortune to meet with a Guru that patiently guides me in my spiritual journey, I am putting more effort to remember what is taught (cos i am the leaky pot) and not be selective on what is taught (like the up side down pot) . So even though I have the fortune to receive the dharma, my mind  still needs to be free of bias intentions (dirty pot).  Got to work harder to mend  the leaky pot and clean up the dirty pot before its too late and turned into upside down pot.

I saw the poll results and so far the highest is the Leaky Pot -- all of us are guilty of either any of the pots and maybe no. 4.  I am guilty of being pot no. 4 --- leaky.  I too must get my leaks patched so that the dharma that has been lovingly parted to me by my guru is not wasted.

[Gypsy]

I'm no.4, all of the 3 pots. I feel ashamed that I was not fully open for Dharma, therefore I was being selective, choose to listen to the good one and ignore the bad one. My forgetfulness and and stubbornness had made the dharma teachings that i've received gone in the wind. My motivation and intention in dharma was vague, i have to admit it honestly.

Dharma can never be wrong. Only our impure mind and delusions make us have wrong views on dharma, that's why we kinda reject it in a way to cover our mistakes, bad habituations and refuse to change.

[Aurore]

Me - Leaky pot
All the teachings that I listen or learn, I don't take the time to contemplate deeply to truly understand it and then apply it. Because of that it's easy to forget. Same as in school. When I truly listen to the teacher and understand what the teacher is teaching, I will remember it always and not even need a text book or notebook to refer too. I should apply the same with dharma. Instead of trying to memorize, try to understand instead so that it goes in deeply to my heart and to have dharma teachings constantly in my mind always 24/7.

Sigh. Looks like the leaky pot is the winner. Pretty bad seeing that it means we have the fortune and perhaps (some) merits to receive dharma but use it to the full advantage. With effort, this can change.

[DS Star]

Though I would like to think of me as ONLY the leaky pot, I have to be honest that actually I am all 3 pots at one time or another 

I can blame it on degenerate ages, modern day distraction etc., but I can"t deceive myself 

Most of the time we try to convince ourself that oh actually I come to dharma because I want to help people or I want to benefit others, bla bla bla but the truth is... well... perhaps we just want to be accepted or find friends, to take advantage of other people etc...  bad me... or rather smelly me hehe... yep the smelly pot...

Then we start to receive teachings, unfortunately we never really pay attention or bother about improving ourselves. We will say oh this or that teaching is so wonderful, it touched my heart, oh I shed tears hearing it... but then we never chnage our old habits... still the same anger me, the same lazy me... everything I learnt goes out immediately within days... leaky pot is like my 2nd name...

When our teacher started to intensified his teaching for us... he pushes our 'buttons' but we refuse to listen... we stubornly hold on to our ideas, our opinions, our attachments... no one knows better than me! So what is that my friend? Yep the over-turn pot... that's me too...

I'm not proud to admit this but I know at one time or another I am guilty of all the 3 pots...

Now after realising my own short-comings, then what? There is only one choice - CHANGE!

[Dekyi]

Oopss... i would say 3 of them  .

Learn dharma but no apply. Give excuse to myself and hide. Is time to face all this weakness and transform myself immediately through read more dharma and gain more knowledge from there.

Manjushri mantra is work!  I get the Manjushri prayer from my Guru, is work! It really help to improve my memory. 

[Tenzin K]

I think I'm more to the leaky pot.
Forgetting things that being taught quickly.

We will not get any benefits by forgetting, especially a big loose in Dharma.
I have heard this from my Lama that he push him self to stay focus every time his Guru gives teaching and never ever fall asleep. This is how he shows his appreciation to his Lama who has been so compassionate to teach in long hour.

Actually being in any of the 3 ports is a big no no in studying dharma because nothing goes in to our mind that able to benefit others.

Thinking it deeper they could be al sort of excuses but mainly is focus!
There are retreat or puja we can do to help our memory but if we can't stay focus we are unable to do the puja/retreat too.

There are still effort and determination needed for us to push ourself in order to prepare ourself.

[ratanasutra]

i would say no.4 all 3 types of pot..
but mostly will be leaky pot as lot of teaching i understand well during the teaching but after i woke up in the next day i could not remember about it already.. very scary.  because of our selective mind that why what we like we remember and then forget about the rest of things.
i think to take a note for read later and always contemplate about it, will help to refresh our mind.. Otherwise it back to square one and just wasting time as will be no progress.

[KhedrubGyatso]

Actually, in the Lamrim, the order in which the pots are presented has a reason .
1. upside down 2. smelly  3. leaky
(1) mental block = cannot learn = no results
(2) ineffective learning = no results
(3) forgetting all = wasted learning = no results

All the above really means the same thing from point of view of getting results. The order of it is to teach us that unless we study  correctly and diligently, even if we had put successively more and more  effort from (1)-(3) , results will not come. The last example of leaky pot means we might as well not study in the first place !

Generally, we are all three.
Pot 1: Can anyone follow all the instructions of our Guru or the Lamrim?
Pot 2: Only enlightened beings hv pure mind.
Pot 3 :  Our mindfulness have to be highly developed through meditation and /or we have gained realizations whereby the object of study had mixed with our mind and no longer as an external one.

 As to the question of whether we are all 3 in equal proportion, that would be subjective experience.

[DS Star]

Actually, in the Lamrim, the order in which the pots are presented has a reason .
1. upside down 2. smelly  3. leaky
(1) mental block = cannot learn = no results
(2) ineffective learning = no results
(3) forgetting all = wasted learning = no results

All the above really means the same thing from point of view of getting results. The order of it is to teach us that unless we study  correctly and diligently, even if we had put successively more and more  effort from (1)-(3) , results will not come. The last example of leaky pot means we might as well not study in the first place !

Generally, we are all three.
Pot 1: Can anyone follow all the instructions of our Guru or the Lamrim?
Pot 2: Only enlightened beings hv pure mind.
Pot 3 :  Our mindfulness have to be highly developed through meditation and /or we have gained realizations whereby the object of study had mixed with our mind and no longer as an external one.

 As to the question of whether we are all 3 in equal proportion, that would be subjective experience.

Thank you KhedrubGyatso for a very precise explanation based on Lamrim.

I wonder if I got the meaning right... so can I say that we will still be all the 3 pots until we achieved enlightenment? As long as I am not enlightened yet, I am ALL the 3 pots?

I used to think that we got better chance with the smelly pot - thinking that we can change our motivation when we learn more dharma... seems there is no change at all until we became "enlightened being"... so very long way to go worr..

Anyway, we should not use this as excuse not to change from the 3 pots. One way we can try to change is by contemplating the benefits of listening to Dharma. We should think of all the benefits as motivation so that we continue to try to change.

“We have to learn the teachings on order to know how to meditate and how to discriminate between constructive and destructive thoughts and emotions. We have to hear teachings so that we know how to counteract our disturbing attitudes and how to increase our good qualities.” - Venerable Thubten Chodron

[vajrastorm]

I am mostly the leaky pot. i do not focus all the way when listening to Dharma and I forget easily what I have been taught unless I take down notes.For a long while, I have been taking down notes studiously and copiously. I now find a mountain of notes and don't know how to sort them out. I believe, one needs to contemplate and reflect daily on the Dharma teachings one has received. Otherwise they're easily forgotten and lost.

At times, i'm also the dirty pot as my strong negative habituations have caused my mind to close up and to 'resist' some of the teachings.

At other times, I have also been the upside down pot. This is when the eight worldly concerns get the better of me.

[sonamdhargey]

I think I'm more of a leaky pot. I have to keep on reminding myself and always forgetting and have to go back and learn and read up again and again. Something stays put in my mind some just need constant reminder and checking. I guess this is due to countless bad habituations. But overall i think I'm all of the pots, which it think it is all co related. I have to stay focus more and more determined to be better.

[vajratruth]

I see from the survey results that the most common pot is the "leaky" pot and on reflection, I am also a leaky pot. We become a leaky pot when we listen, understand , agree but very quickly forget the dharma we heard. There is only one reason for that, i.e. we take the information in and hold it merely as head knowledge and we fail to APPLY the dharma we hear.

The surest way not to forget is to apply the teachings and incorporate it into our lives and daily routine. Our heads are so full of mundane knowledge that are actually useless to our spiritual well-being. And we give so much attention and application to things that are actually harmful to us.

Dharma knowledge has the most benefit when it is immediately applied and when applied properly it causes our understanding of dharma to increase even more. The best evidence that we are learning dharma properly is this...we see results.

[thor]

To all you leaky pots out there, and myself as well, I suppose the best thing to do would be to organize ourselves and our dharma knowledge much more. Having the fortune to actually understand the dharma when taught, we should be writing notes during teachings, contemplating on them before bed or perhaps when we are doing our sadhana for the day, and revisiting our notes in some organized fashion. Then to apply it of course.

A difficult step is to even understand the dharma and knowing how we can apply it. So what's next? To actually do something about it and force ourselves to repair our leaks...

[brian]

From the classes, I foundout that I have all the three pots (!) But which is normal for samsara. We have the fortune to meet Dharma this life and should hold it seriously to us and should not give it up as it is precious! It was another case when I first started to learn about Dharma many years back where my ego mind only tells me I have one of those pots but upon reflections after reflections I found myself to be having all the pots!