This post will be a somewhat long one, but it is necessary to put it in one so as to comprehend the remedies as a whole.
Introduction:
1. The goal is not rid oneself or transcend an emotion, not even hatred, but to regulate experience and action once an emotion itself is felt.
2. Being able to repeatedly free oneself of such afflictive thoughts as they occur gradually erodes their very tendency to form again, until they stop appearing altogether. "Take care of the minutes, the hours will take care of themselves."
3. The best means of analysis is introspection and self-observation.
4. This requires the cultivation of watchful attention to the unfolding of our mental activity, along with mindfulness of the distinction between destructive emotions and those that nourish happiness.
5. Like an infection that goes untreated, the disturbing emotions gain in strength when allowed to take their course.
6. Remember, thoughts, emotions, desires come and go, they pass through your consciousness, but they are not a part of it, much like a mirror , for example, it will reflect both angry and smiling faces. The very quality of the mirror allows countless images to arise, yet none of them belongs to the mirror. The experience of introspection shows that the negative emotions are transitory mental events that can be obliterated by their opposites, the positive emotions, acting as antidotes.
7. The procedure involves recognizing that the afflictive emotions are harmful to our well-being. This assessment is based on observation of the short and long-term repercussions of certain emotions on oneself and on others. Having come to this awareness, you still have gradually to familiarize yourself with each antidote- loving-kindness as antidote to hatred for instance-until the absence of hatred becomes second nature.
8. This familiarization consists of three principal ways: antidotes, liberation, and utilization.
9. Antidotes: consists of applying a specific antidote for each specific emotion.
10. Liberation: allows us to unravel, or "liberate" the emotion by looking straight at it and letting it dissolve as it rises.
11. Utilization: uses the power of emotion as a catalyst for inner change.
12. The choice of one method over the other will depend on the moment, the circumstances, and the capacities of the person using them.
13. All share a common goal: to help us stop being victims of conflicting emotions.
The use of Antidotes
1. Consists of neutralizing afflictive emotions with a specific antidote, just as we neutralize the destructive effects of poison with antivenom, or of acid with alkali.
2. In the same way, by habituating your mind to altruistic (selfless) love, you gradually eliminate hatred, because the two states can alternate, but cannot co-exist. So the more we cultivate loving-kindness, the less space there will be for hatred in our mental landscape. It is not a question of suppressing hatred but of turning the mind to something diametrically opposed to it; love and compassion.
3. It is equally impossible for greed or desire to coexist with inner freedom. Desire can fully develop only when it is allowed to run fully rampant to the point where it monopolizes the mind. The trap here is the fact that desire, and its ally pleasure, are not ugly like hatred. They are even extremely seductive. But the silken threads of desire, which seem so light at first, soon tighten, and the soft garment they had woven becomes a straight jacket. The more you struggle the tighter it becomes! Desire can drive us continuously to seek satisfaction at any cost. On the other hand, when we contemplate its disturbing aspects and turn our minds toward developing inner calm, the obsession of desire can begin to melt like snow in the sun. Make no mistake- there's no mention here of ceasing to love those whose lives we share, or of becoming indifferent to them. When we stop projecting the insatiable demands of our attachments onto people, we are able to love them more, and feel genuine concern for their true well-being.
4. Anger can be neutralized by cultivating the nature of patience repeatedly. This does not require us to remain passive, but to steer clear of being overwhelmed by destructive emotions.
Freeing the Emotions. - Liberation
1. Here, instead of counteracting a disturbing emotion with its opposite- anger with patience, for instance- we simply contemplate the emotion itself. It is neither possible nor desirable to suppress the mind's natural activities, and it would be futile and unhealthy to try to block its thoughts. You are overwhelmed by a tide of anger. You feel as if there's no choice but to let it sweep you away. But look closely. It is nothing more than a thought. When you see a black cloud in a stormy sky, it seems so solid that you could sit on it. But when you approach it, there's nothing to grab on to; it is only vapour and wind. It is a temporary condition and you don't need to identify with it.
2. The more you look at anger in this manner, the more it evaporates under your gaze, like white frost under the sun's rays.
3. All we can say about anger, for example, is that it is born in the mind, lingers there a moment or two, and then dissolves there, like waves that arise from the ocean and dissolve back into it.
4. Unless we pursue this investigation, we end up being fixated on the object of anger, and overtaken by destructive emotions. If, on the other hand, we come to see that anger has no substance of its own, it rapidly loses all power.
5. When a thought arises, recognize its empty nature. It will immediately lose its power to elicit the next thought, and the chain of delusion will be broken.
6. It is at the very moment of anger's emergence that we must recognize its empty nature. That understanding will strip thoughts of their power to build into a stream of obsession and oppression.
7. Once we get used to looking at thoughts the moment they appear, and then allowing them to dissipate before they overwhelm the mind, it is much easier to to maintain control over the mind and to manage the conflictive emotions in our active lives.
8. To encourage or vigilance and hard work on this issue, we should try to recall the bitter suffering that destructive emotions have caused us.
Using the emotions as Catalysts - Utilization
1. This technique is the trickiest and most subtle.
2. When we look closely at emotions, we find that they contain in themselves positive aspects that can be used as building blocks into a positive nature or even catalysts to eliminate their negative aspects.
3. When we fall into the sea, for example, it is the water itself that buoys us and allows us to swim to shore. But we still need to know how to swim in it, how to use that same drowning water in our advantage to save us! In the same way, we need to have enough skill to exploit the emotions to good effect without drowning in their negative aspects.
4. Anger can be used to rouse us to acting and overcome obstacles. Desire has an element of bliss that is distinct from attachment; pride, an element of self-confidence that can be firm without lapsing into arrogance; envy, a drive to act that cannot be confused with the unhealthy dissatisfaction that it entails.
5. What gives an emotion its harmful quality is the way we identify with and cling to it, when we attach ourselves to the object of the emotion and to the self that is feeling it.
6. This kind of practice requires great command of the language of the emotions. Allowing powerful emotions to express themselves without falling prey to them is playing with fire, or rather trying to snatch a jewel from a snake's head. If we succeed, our understanding of the nature of the mind will grow accordingly; if we fail, we will find ourselves overwhelmed by the negative qualities of anger and its hold on us will be strengthened.
Three techniques, One goal.
These techniques are simply different ways of tackling the same problem, and achieving the same result. Just like avoiding being poisoned by a toxic plant. We can use antidotes developed to neutralize the effects of specific poisons. We can strengthen our immune system, or we can analyze the poison, isolate its component elements, and discover their medicinal qualities.
Each of these techniques is like a key; it makes little difference whether it be made of iron, silver or gold, so long as it opens the door to freedom.
We must never forget, however, that the source of disturbing emotions is attachment to the self! If we want to be free of inner suffering once and for all, it is not enough to rid ourselves of the emotions themselves; we must eliminate our attachment to the ego.
Introduction:
1. The goal is not rid oneself or transcend an emotion, not even hatred, but to regulate experience and action once an emotion itself is felt.
2. Being able to repeatedly free oneself of such afflictive thoughts as they occur gradually erodes their very tendency to form again, until they stop appearing altogether. "Take care of the minutes, the hours will take care of themselves."
3. The best means of analysis is introspection and self-observation.
4. This requires the cultivation of watchful attention to the unfolding of our mental activity, along with mindfulness of the distinction between destructive emotions and those that nourish happiness.
5. Like an infection that goes untreated, the disturbing emotions gain in strength when allowed to take their course.
6. Remember, thoughts, emotions, desires come and go, they pass through your consciousness, but they are not a part of it, much like a mirror , for example, it will reflect both angry and smiling faces. The very quality of the mirror allows countless images to arise, yet none of them belongs to the mirror. The experience of introspection shows that the negative emotions are transitory mental events that can be obliterated by their opposites, the positive emotions, acting as antidotes.
7. The procedure involves recognizing that the afflictive emotions are harmful to our well-being. This assessment is based on observation of the short and long-term repercussions of certain emotions on oneself and on others. Having come to this awareness, you still have gradually to familiarize yourself with each antidote- loving-kindness as antidote to hatred for instance-until the absence of hatred becomes second nature.
8. This familiarization consists of three principal ways: antidotes, liberation, and utilization.
9. Antidotes: consists of applying a specific antidote for each specific emotion.
10. Liberation: allows us to unravel, or "liberate" the emotion by looking straight at it and letting it dissolve as it rises.
11. Utilization: uses the power of emotion as a catalyst for inner change.
12. The choice of one method over the other will depend on the moment, the circumstances, and the capacities of the person using them.
13. All share a common goal: to help us stop being victims of conflicting emotions.
The use of Antidotes
1. Consists of neutralizing afflictive emotions with a specific antidote, just as we neutralize the destructive effects of poison with antivenom, or of acid with alkali.
2. In the same way, by habituating your mind to altruistic (selfless) love, you gradually eliminate hatred, because the two states can alternate, but cannot co-exist. So the more we cultivate loving-kindness, the less space there will be for hatred in our mental landscape. It is not a question of suppressing hatred but of turning the mind to something diametrically opposed to it; love and compassion.
3. It is equally impossible for greed or desire to coexist with inner freedom. Desire can fully develop only when it is allowed to run fully rampant to the point where it monopolizes the mind. The trap here is the fact that desire, and its ally pleasure, are not ugly like hatred. They are even extremely seductive. But the silken threads of desire, which seem so light at first, soon tighten, and the soft garment they had woven becomes a straight jacket. The more you struggle the tighter it becomes! Desire can drive us continuously to seek satisfaction at any cost. On the other hand, when we contemplate its disturbing aspects and turn our minds toward developing inner calm, the obsession of desire can begin to melt like snow in the sun. Make no mistake- there's no mention here of ceasing to love those whose lives we share, or of becoming indifferent to them. When we stop projecting the insatiable demands of our attachments onto people, we are able to love them more, and feel genuine concern for their true well-being.
4. Anger can be neutralized by cultivating the nature of patience repeatedly. This does not require us to remain passive, but to steer clear of being overwhelmed by destructive emotions.
Freeing the Emotions. - Liberation
1. Here, instead of counteracting a disturbing emotion with its opposite- anger with patience, for instance- we simply contemplate the emotion itself. It is neither possible nor desirable to suppress the mind's natural activities, and it would be futile and unhealthy to try to block its thoughts. You are overwhelmed by a tide of anger. You feel as if there's no choice but to let it sweep you away. But look closely. It is nothing more than a thought. When you see a black cloud in a stormy sky, it seems so solid that you could sit on it. But when you approach it, there's nothing to grab on to; it is only vapour and wind. It is a temporary condition and you don't need to identify with it.
2. The more you look at anger in this manner, the more it evaporates under your gaze, like white frost under the sun's rays.
3. All we can say about anger, for example, is that it is born in the mind, lingers there a moment or two, and then dissolves there, like waves that arise from the ocean and dissolve back into it.
4. Unless we pursue this investigation, we end up being fixated on the object of anger, and overtaken by destructive emotions. If, on the other hand, we come to see that anger has no substance of its own, it rapidly loses all power.
5. When a thought arises, recognize its empty nature. It will immediately lose its power to elicit the next thought, and the chain of delusion will be broken.
6. It is at the very moment of anger's emergence that we must recognize its empty nature. That understanding will strip thoughts of their power to build into a stream of obsession and oppression.
7. Once we get used to looking at thoughts the moment they appear, and then allowing them to dissipate before they overwhelm the mind, it is much easier to to maintain control over the mind and to manage the conflictive emotions in our active lives.
8. To encourage or vigilance and hard work on this issue, we should try to recall the bitter suffering that destructive emotions have caused us.
Using the emotions as Catalysts - Utilization
1. This technique is the trickiest and most subtle.
2. When we look closely at emotions, we find that they contain in themselves positive aspects that can be used as building blocks into a positive nature or even catalysts to eliminate their negative aspects.
3. When we fall into the sea, for example, it is the water itself that buoys us and allows us to swim to shore. But we still need to know how to swim in it, how to use that same drowning water in our advantage to save us! In the same way, we need to have enough skill to exploit the emotions to good effect without drowning in their negative aspects.
4. Anger can be used to rouse us to acting and overcome obstacles. Desire has an element of bliss that is distinct from attachment; pride, an element of self-confidence that can be firm without lapsing into arrogance; envy, a drive to act that cannot be confused with the unhealthy dissatisfaction that it entails.
5. What gives an emotion its harmful quality is the way we identify with and cling to it, when we attach ourselves to the object of the emotion and to the self that is feeling it.
6. This kind of practice requires great command of the language of the emotions. Allowing powerful emotions to express themselves without falling prey to them is playing with fire, or rather trying to snatch a jewel from a snake's head. If we succeed, our understanding of the nature of the mind will grow accordingly; if we fail, we will find ourselves overwhelmed by the negative qualities of anger and its hold on us will be strengthened.
Three techniques, One goal.
These techniques are simply different ways of tackling the same problem, and achieving the same result. Just like avoiding being poisoned by a toxic plant. We can use antidotes developed to neutralize the effects of specific poisons. We can strengthen our immune system, or we can analyze the poison, isolate its component elements, and discover their medicinal qualities.
Each of these techniques is like a key; it makes little difference whether it be made of iron, silver or gold, so long as it opens the door to freedom.
We must never forget, however, that the source of disturbing emotions is attachment to the self! If we want to be free of inner suffering once and for all, it is not enough to rid ourselves of the emotions themselves; we must eliminate our attachment to the ego.
No comments:
Post a Comment