[Teaching translated by Joseph Faria] This is the continuation of my notes on the teachings of the Tergar retreat.
Today we will discuss how we relate with
thoughts and emotions. When we talk
about what exists out there, what we experience in mind, and how we like or
dislike, the fundamental root of all of it is our mind. Because the fundamental root of all joy and
suffering is mind, we must tame, pacify, relax our mind, and then our
experience will become also relaxed. Instead, if we have an untamed mind, all
the emotions: anger, jealousy, will disturb us, and then nothing can satisfy
us.
How many minds do you have: one, two…? [people answer] Only one, OK. And is your mind clever or stupid? Is your mind peaceful or disturbed? When we wake up our mind starts telling things: “What I should eat for breakfast?”, “What should I wear today?”, “Should I have a shower?” Then, is the mind sharp or peaceful? Maybe we have two minds? One mind inside that is clear, and one mind outside that is muddy.
We will talk today about training, taming, the
mind. Which one we will train? The inner mind, that is clear like crystal and we
call also Buddha nature, is peaceful, or the muddy mind that is shows anger,
jealousy, depression, anxiety. It the muddy mind also
peaceful? Can we transform the muddy mind
into the crystal mind? [discussing with the public] Is the muddy mind also crystal
mind? Does it come from the crystal
mind?
There is a Gampopa’s quota “The essence of
thought is dharmakaya.” It says that
klesha is also wisdom, because it is empty, clear, and knowingness.
The first method to deal with emotions is
abandoning or relinquish them, we don’t say that kleshas are wisdom, but in the
Mahamudra teachings we refer to emotions as being also wisdom. In the sutrayana approach we relinquish the
kleshas and the wisdom manifests by itself.
Things are empty in their essence. But in
this context, we don’t recognize or realize the emptiness of things. In our distorted perspective, afflictions are afflictions. So, we try to abandon or relinquish them.
For example, if we have attachment, we want different things. And we want more, again and again. That becomes a problem.
Although the essence of our mind is Buddha
nature, it manifests as the muddy mind. Can we control our muddy mind? Do you
follow your muddy mind or is the other way around? We only follow our muddy
mind, we don’t listen our crystal mind. So, we train to not follow the muddy
mind. This is the method of relinquish.
When you experience something, you question
your mind, you ask, “Why? Why do you want this? Why don’t you like this person?” This
is the training: questioning, criticizing your muddy mind. We question all our emotions: “Why are you sad?
You should love and accept them.” That may have a certain power to change the
muddy mind.
Although there are a great number of
afflictions, all can be summarized into three: attachment, aversion and
ignorance.
The training is questioning. For example, with attachment “Why I need to follow? Where this attachment comes from? Why I want this?” “Because it is so beautiful.” “Really?” It can be anything: money, fame,... And when you debate, you don’t impose, don’t force. You don’t give answer, you just keep asking “Why?”
We do the same with anger, “Why you are
angry at him?” “Is they stupid, ugly?” “Really, how is it?” You debate, and
also you give love and compassion: “This person also wants to be happy, the
same as you. Why are you angry at them?”
Then your angry mind becomes softer.
- Antidote to attachment is
meditation on revulsion
- Antidote to aversion is
meditation on love and compassion
- Antidote to ignorance is meditation
on interdependence
What is ignorance? Not understanding truth. It’s a state of dullness, doubtful, or blank,
where we cannot understand. You keep
debating until your muddy mind finally replies, “I don’t know”, and then you
can give an answer from wisdom.
Where this ignorance come from? From not
recognizing the true nature of mind, the true nature of things. When we look at this ground, the nature of
mind, there are two qualities: emptiness and the radiance/experience, called
luminosity. These two qualities are not
something different, are inseparable, they are empty luminosity. Though we don’t realize this inseparability,
and we consider emptiness and luminosity as distinct. This is the basis for the ignorance. That leads to experience the duality: perceiving
luminosity as the object being out there and emptiness as the subject being inside.
Therefore, some things appear as
attractive, other unattractive, and other as neutral, that makes us generate the
afflictions of attachment, aversion and ignorance. And lead by these afflictions we act, say and
think which generates karma.
The karma then, create mental habitual
imprints that, when they awaken, makes us experience (bad karma) pain and suffering,
but also (good karma) happiness and joy.
This is interdependence: the three kinds of accumulated karma lead us to
experience suffering, happiness or neutral.
Not realizing the inseparability of
emptiness and luminosity is the root cause of accumulating karma. Therefore, realizing the inseparability leads
to the cessation of accumulating karma.
The antidote of ignorance is training in the understanding of
interdependence.
- In the Theravada we meditate on interdependence thru impermanence, suffering, and lack of self
- In the Mahayana we meditate on emptiness, seeing all phenomena as an illusion
To practice abandoning we cultivate a counter idea. For example, “Is this flower real or not? It’s true or not? It’s permanent or impermanent? It’s independent or interdependent?” We do that because we cannot hold both perceptions at the same time. Your mind thinks it is permanent, but when you see its impermanence, you cannot hold the perception of permanence. To counteract our attachment to solidity of things, we must cultivate the view of non-solidity. As the Indian scholar Dharmakirti said, mind cannot hold opposite views on an object, like self and selfless, good and bad, permanent and impermanent. Therefore, making one view stronger in our mind immediately reduces the other one.
Meditation on antidote of ignorance.
- Sit with the body upright and at easy
- Start seeing all the things as unreal, or illusion.
- Although things appear as there, outside, and mind appear here or inside, start to look at them as there is no separation between the appearances and the subjective mind, and rest on it.
- Rest your mind with no particular object
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