Homework

Homework Assignment: Cultivating the Five Strengths in Daily Practice

Objective:

This week, we continue to train in the Five Strengths—not as abstract concepts, but as the very heart of how we meet each moment. This is about learning to stay, to open, and to see clearly. It’s about noticing where we habitually turn away and practicing the courage to turn toward life instead.

1. Daily Reflection: The Five Strengths in Action

At the end of each day, take a few quiet moments to reflect. No judgment, no fixing—just gentle curiosity.

• Strong Determination: Today, where did I stay with discomfort rather than running away? Where did I shut down?

• Familiarization: What patterns of mind am I reinforcing? Am I practicing staying open, or am I deepening my habits of avoidance?

• Seed of Virtue: What did I water today? Was it patience, kindness, curiosity? Or was it fear, resentment, and reactivity?

  • Did I cultivate bodhichitta—the wish to awaken not just for myself, but for the benefit of all beings?

  • Was my heart open to the suffering of others, or was I caught up in my own storyline?

• Reproach: What is one place where I am still deceiving myself? Where am I still holding on when I could let go?

• Aspiration: If today were my last, did I live in a way that reflects what matters most? If not, what would I shift tomorrow?

No need to write anything down unless that feels helpful. The point is just to notice.

2. Contemplative Practice: Sitting with Impermanence

Once this week, take 20-30 minutes to simply sit and contemplate impermanence. Not as an idea, but as a direct experience.

1. Sit comfortably, feel your breath, and relax into presence.

2. Bring to mind the truth that everything is constantly changing. The breath comes and goes. Thoughts arise and pass. Relationships shift. The body ages.

3. Imagine yourself at the end of life. What is left? What really mattered? What are you still holding onto that you don’t need anymore?

4. Return to the present moment. Knowing all of this, what does that change about how you meet this day, this hour, this breath?

This isn’t about making yourself sad or frightened. It’s about seeing clearly, softening, and letting go of what no longer serves.

3. Applied Practice: Letting Go in Daily Life

Find one small thing this week that you habitually cling to, and experiment with letting it go.

• Maybe it’s the need to be right in a conversation.

• Maybe it’s an old resentment you keep feeding.

• Maybe it’s the endless mental reruns of something you wish had gone differently.

Instead of tightening around it, see if you can soften. Not forcefully, not with a sense of pushing anything away, but with a kind of spaciousness. Just notice what happens.

4. Self-Reflection: Preparing for the Next Module

Before the next session, take a few moments to reflect:

• What did I learn about myself in relationship to the Five Strengths?

• Where did I meet impermanence with softness? Where did I resist?

• What is one thing I could release that would bring more ease into my life?

• How am I working with my mind in terms of reproach? Is my practice becoming more alive, more real?

• How did I nurture bodhichitta this week? Did I move through the world with a sense of connection, or was I caught in self-focus?

No right answers. Just honesty, kindness, and curiosity.

This is what training the mind really is—moment by moment, we learn to stay. To be with what is, exactly as it is. To open, rather than close. This is the work of a lifetime, and it starts right here.