{"collection":"Buddhism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bud/tib/ctrad.htm","path":"bud/tib/ctrad.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bud/tib/ctrad.htm","text":"The following excerpt is from Chagdud Rinpoche's \"Gates to Buddhist\nPractice,\" the first book of \"The Living Dharma Series: The Oral\nTeachings of Chagdud Tulku,\" to be published by Padma Publishing.\nTo understand how delusion arises, practice watching your mind. Begin\nby simply letting it relax. Without thinking of the past or the future,\nwithout feeling hope or fear about this thing or that, let it rest\ncomfortably, open and natural. In this space of the mind, there is no\nproblem, no suffering. Then something catches your attention--an image, a\nsound, a smell. Your mind splits into inner and outer, self and other,\nsubject and object. In simply perceiving the object, there is still no\nproblem. But when you zero in on it, you notice that it's big or small,\nwhite or black, square or circular; and then you make a judgment--\nfor example, whether it's pretty or ugly. Having made that judgment, you\nreact to it: you decide you like it or don't like it. That's when the\nproblem starts, because \"I like it\" leads to \"I want it.\" We want to\npossess what we perceive to be desirable. Similarly, \"I don't like it\"\nleads to \"I don't want it.\" If we like something, want it, and can't have\nit, we suffer. If we don't want it, but can't keep it away, again we\nsuffer. Our suffering seems to occur because of the object of our desire\nor aversion, but that's not really so--it happens because the mind splits\ninto object-subject duality and becomes involved in wanting or not\nwanting something.\nWe often think the only way to create happiness is to try to control\nthe outer circumstances of our lives, to try to fix what seems wrong or\nto get rid of everything that bothers us. But the real problem lies in\nour reaction to those circumstances. What we have to change is the mind\nand the way it experiences reality.\nFor it is our emotions that propel us through extremes, from elation\nto depression, from good experiences to bad, from happiness to sadness--a\nconstant swinging back and forth. Emotionality is the by-product of hope\nand fear, attachment and aversion. We have hope because we are\nattached to something we want. We have fear because we are averse to\nsomething we don't want. As we follow our emotions, reacting to our\nexperiences, we create karma - perpetual motion that inevitably\ndetermines our future. We need to stop the extreme swings of the\nemotional pendulum so that we can find a place of centeredness.\nWhen we first begin to transform the emotions, we apply the principle\nof iron cutting iron or diamond cutting diamond. We use thought to\nchange thought. A negative thought such as anger is antidoted by a\nvirtuous thought such as compassion, while desire can be antidoted by the\ncontemplation of impermanence.\nIn the case of attachment, begin by determining what it is you're\nattached to. For example, you might, after much effort, succeed in\nbecoming famous, thinking this will make you happy. Then your fame\ntriggers jealousy in someone, who tries to shoot you. What you worked so\nhard to create is the cause of your own suffering. Or you might work\nvery hard to become wealthy, thinking this will bring happiness, only to\nlose all your money. The loss of wealth in itself is not the source of\nsuffering, only attachment to having it.\nWe can lessen attachment by contemplating impermanence. It is certain\nthat whatever we're attached to will either change or be lost. A person\nmay die or go away, a friend may become an enemy, a thief may steal our\nmoney. Even our body, to which we're most attached, will be gone one day.\nKnowing this not only helps to reduce our attachment, but gives us a\ngreater appreciation of what we have while we have it. For example, there\nis nothing wrong with money, but if we're attached to it, we'll\nsuffer when we lose it. Instead, we can appreciate it while it lasts,\nenjoy it and enjoy sharing it with others, and at the same time know it's\nimpermanent. Then when we lose it, the emotional pendulum won't make as\nwide a swing toward sadness.\nImagine two people buy the same kind of watch on the same day at the\nsame shop. The first person thinks, \"This is a very nice watch. It will\nbe helpful to me, but it may not last long.\" The second person thinks,\n\"This is the best watch I've ever had. No matter what happens, I can't\nlose it or let it break.\" If both people lose their watch, the one who is\nattached will be much more upset than the other.\nIf we are fooled by life and invest great value in one thing or\nanother, we may find ourselves fighting for what we want and against any\nopposition. We may think that what we're fighting for is lasting, true,\nand real, but it's not. It's impermanent, it's not true, it's not\nlasting, and ultimately, it's not even real.\nOur life can be compared to an afternoon at a shopping center. We walk\nthrough the shops, led by our desires, taking things off the shelves and\ntossing them in our baskets. We wander around, looking at everything,\nwanting and longing. We see a person or two, maybe smile and continue on,\nnever to see them again.\nThat's what life is like. Driven by desire, we don't appreciate the\npreciousness of what we have. We need to realize that the time we have to\nbe with our loved ones, our friends, our family, our co-workers is very\nbrief. Even if we lived to a hundred and fifty, that would be very little\ntime to enjoy and utilize our human opportunity.\nYoung people think their lives will last a long time; old people think\nlife will end soon. But we can't assume these things. Our life comes\nwith a built-in expiration date. There are many strong and healthy people\nwho die young, while many of the old and sick and feeble live on and on.\nNot knowing when we'll die, we need to develop an appreciation for and\nacceptance of what we have, while we have it, rather than continuing to\nfind fault with our experience and seeking, incessantly, to fulfill our\ndesires.\nIf we find ourselves worrying whether our nose is too big or too\nsmall, we should think, \"What if I had no head--now that would be a\nproblem!\" As long as we have life, we should rejoice. If everything\ndoesn't go exactly as we'd like, we can accept it. If we contemplate\nimpermanence deeply, patience and compassion will arise. We will hold\nless to the apparent truth of our experience, and the mind will become\nmore flexible. Realizing that one day this body will be buried or\nburned, we will rejoice in every moment we have rather than make\nourselves or others unhappy.\nNow we are afflicted by \"me-my-mine-itis,\" a condition caused by\nignorance. Our self-centeredness and self-important thinking have become\nvery strong habits. In order to change them, we need to refocus. Instead\nof concerning ourselves with \"I\" all the time, we must redirect our\nattention to \"you\" or \"them\" or \"others.\" Reducing self-importance\nlessens the attachment that stems from it. When we focus outside\nourselves, ultimately we realize the equality of ourselves and all other\nbeings. Everybody wants happiness; nobody wants to suffer. Our attachment\nto our own happiness expands to an attachment to the happiness of all.\nUntil now our desires have tended to be very short term and\nsuperficial. If we are going to wish for something, let it be nothing\nless than complete enlightenment for all sentient beings. That's\nsomething worthy of desire. Continually reminding ourselves of what is\ntruly worth wanting is an important element in developing pure practice.\nDesire and attachment won't change overnight, but desire becomes less\nordinary as we redirect our worldly yearning toward the aspiration to\nbecome enlightened for the benefit of others. At the same time, we don't\nabandon the ordinary objects of our desires--relationships, wealth,\nfame--but our attachment to them lessens as we contemplate their\nimpermanence. Not rejecting them, rejoicing in our fortune when they\narise, yet recognizing that they won't last, we begin to build qualities\nof spiritual maturity. As our attachment slowly decreases, harmful\nactions that would normally result from attachment are reduced. We create\nless negative karma, more fortunate karma, and the mind's positive\nqualities gradually increase.\nLater, after we've done more meditation practice, we can try an\napproach that's different from contemplation, different from using\nthought to change thought: revealing the deeper nature, or wisdom\nprinciple, of the emotions as they arise.\nIf you are in the midst of a desire attack--something has captured\nyour mind and you must have it--you won't get rid of the desire by trying\nto suppress it. Instead, you can begin to see through desire by examining\nwhat it is. When it arises in the mind, ask yourself, \"Where does it come\nfrom? Where does it dwell? Can it be described? Does it have any color,\nshape, or form? When it disappears, where does it go?\"\nThis is an interesting situation. You can say that desire exists, but\nif you search for the experience, you can't quite grasp it. On the other\nhand, if you say it doesn't exist, you're denying the obvious fact that\nyou are feeling desire. You can't say that it exists, nor can you say\nthat it does not exist. You can't say that it's \"both\" or \"neither,\" that\nit both does exist and does not exist, or that it neither exists nor does\nnot not exist. This is the meaning of the true nature of desire beyond\nextremes.\nIt's our failure to understand the simplicity of the natural state\nthat gets us into trouble. No conceptual structure will describe the true\nnature of an emotion. We experience it the way we do because we don't\nunderstand its essential nature. Once we do, the emotion tends to\ndissolve.\nThen we're not repressing the emotion, but neither are we encouraging\nit. We are simply looking clearly at what is taking place. If we set a\ncloudy glass of water aside for a while, it will settle by itself and\nbecome clear. Instead of judging the experience of desire, we look\ndirectly at its nature, what is known as \"liberating it in its own\nground.\" Then it simply dissolves.\nEach negative emotion, or mental poison, has an inherent perfection\nthat we don't recognize because we are so accustomed to its appearance as\nemotion. Just as poison can be taken medicinally to effect a cure, each\npoison of the mind, worked with properly, can be transformed to its\nwisdom nature and thus enhance our spiritual practice.\nIf while in the throes of desire, you simply relax, without moving\nyour attention, that space of the mind is called discriminating wisdom\nYou don't abandon desire--instead you reveal its wisdom nature.","title":"Gates to Buddhist Practice (excerpt)","type":"page"}