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Overcoming urges and desires of the flesh
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06-02-2010, 05:23 PM
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Take refuge in the Dharma ...
"Attracted by light and heat, a moth flies into a flame
Stunned by the sounds of a guitar,
a deer stands unaware of a hunter.
Drawn by the scent of a flower, a bug is trapped inside.
Attached to taste, a fish rushes to a hook.
Pulled to mud, an elephant cannot escape."
Paltrul Rinpoche's
Sacred Word
In the Dalai Lama's book - How to see yourself as you really are - he writes:
"Our senses contribute to our ignorance ... when you see that all troublesome emotions - and indeed all problems - arise from a basic misunderstanding, you will want to get rid of such ignorance." He quotes Chandrakirti:
"Seeing with their minds that all afflictive emotions and defects arise from viewing oneself as inherently existent and knowing that the self is the object of this, Yogi's refute their own inherent existence."
And Aryadeva
"When selflessness is seen in objects, the seed of cyclic existence is destroyed."
He says "when the roots of the tree are all cut, all the branches, twigs, and leaves dry up" and speaks of how "we superimpose on people and things a status of solidarity and permanence that actually is not there"
He says there are 3 ways of seeing:
1) As if the thing was inherently existing as you see it and relate to it (ignorance).
2) As not inherently existing (i.e. a result of dependent arising) - which insight does.
3) Conceiving it without qualifying it with either inherent existence or an absence of inherent existence, as when just ordinarily seeing something, such as a house. (Mindfulness)
How you are perceiving will result in the karma of that perception - as felt in your body.
Dalai Lama writes on an excited state of mind:
Excitement is an agitated state of mind, most often due to an attraction to an external object of lust. It can also be any scattering of the mind, whether the new object is virtuous, such as charity, nonvirtuous, such as lust, or neutral, such as sewing. There are coarse and subtle forms of excitement. In coarse excitement, you forget the object of your meditation and stray off into your other thoughts. Although in subtle excitement the object is not lost, a corner of your mind is involved in fast-moving thought, like water flowing under the frozen surface of a river.
In between sessions of meditation, it is important to restrain your senses, to eat a moderate amount of food, and to maintain conscientious introspection of body and mind. Otherwise, these can serve as causes of laxity, whereas having unrealistic expectations about the pleasures of life tend to lead to excitement."
and he offers remedies for excitement as:
In times when your mind is excited and you have tried to loosen the tighteness of the mind, but this has not worked, you need a further technique to withdraw the mind. At this point, it can help to lower the object and imagine it as heavier. If this does not work, then while continuing to meditate, leave the object temporarily and think about a topic that makes you more sober, such as how ignorance induces sufferings of cyclic existence by putting us under the influence of destructive emotions. Or you could reflect on the imminence of death. It also helps to think of the disadvantages of the object to which you have strayed, and the disadvantages of distraction itself. Such reflections will cause the mind's excessive tightness to loosen a little, making you better able to keep your mind on the object of observation. When that happens, immediately return to the original object. Sometimes, I find that if my time for meditation is limited, because of work I have to do, this sense of urgency will promote greater exertion in a way that strengthens mindfulness."
And lastly from the Buddha himself:
"Here even the various mind-pleasuring blossoming flowers and attractive shining supreme golden houses have no inherent existence maker at all. They are set up through the powers of thought. Through the power of conceptuality the world is established."
In a nutshell - we create the reality we are experiencing, by the way we are choosing to perceive something, that is disturbing us, in our mind.
Choose differently.
Then apply disciplined practice, following the advice of the teachers with pure intention, to learn how to achieve inner peace, for the benefit of all beings.
We are all in Samsara together, and as you do, take refuge in the Buddha, Sangha, and Dharma to find our way through.
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