The body and the world we cling to is like a poison. The more we cling to it the worse the poison becomes. The poison I have in mind are the three poisons of moha (delusion, confusion), raga/lobha (greed, sensual attachment), and dosa (hostility). These are three broad categories connected with our psychophysical body which afflict us and by us can be made much worse. Zen master Torei put it this way.
Although in their fundamental nature buddhas and sentient beings are the same substance, no different, the directions of their minds are different. Buddha shine insward to illumine the basic mind, whereas sentient beings turn outward and get involved with myriad things. That is why sentient beings create greed and lust for things they desire, anger and rage towards people they dislike, and become fools by becoming congealed in their thoughts; confused and stupefied by these three poisons, they have lost their very fundamental mind.
It seems to me that many of the people I meet these days are poisoned or if you like, they’ve been blue-pilled. It doesn’t take much for them to become hostile, because they are clinging to some deluded thought or emotion, or can’t seem to give up some kind of deep-seated attachment.
In this election year I see more of it. I have never seen anything like it before, I have to admit. In fact, my neighbor of ten years called me a racist! He seemed furious. During our conversation, I told him that the industry of race-baiting, which is profitable for some, has been going on since the 1890s. It was noted by Booker T. Washington who said, “Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.”
I saw from my neighbor that a delusion tenaciously clung to is hard to let go of. Moreover, it leads to hostilities, eventually. Perhaps it is even worse with greed and sensual attachment which also leads to hostility if one has to part with their desired object. In any event, I can see how the Civil War had its beginning. I can only assume that nobody sat at the table and wanted to discuss how slavery might end peaceably. But as history tends to show us those who were most invested in slavery; who made the most money from it; who had a lot to lose, didn’t want to give it up and were willing to get others to die to preserve it. Even today, we don’t want to sit at the table and discuss the matters that divide us in an honest way. So what goes on is a low-level cold war between individuals and groups who are poisoned.
Perhaps the poison of delusion is most present in us when we enter the temple of Buddhism. Having been on Buddhist chat rooms since Netscape I learned very quickly that people have somewhat unconsciously decided in advance what Buddhism is so that it meets their particular needs. This is delusion because the self or atman has associated with a construct/concept of what Buddhism is believed to be. But the true teaching only permits us to yoke with what is unconditioned which requires as a means, meditation. Meditation can be thought of as the penetration into the field of conditioned reality, to pierce through it so as to return-to-self/atman—a self-awakening, in other words.
Ego is most possibly the reason why it's difficult to discuss issues of race, religion, language, gender, politics without people getting angry. It's a problem of identity (or more accurately, a problem of ignorance).
And yet we can't ignore these issues, because most of the unrests and conflicts in the world are caused by this false identification.
Not sure if the spread of meditation fad would help in awakening more people.
Posted by: chintokkong | July 20, 2016 at 05:07 AM