My Bed of Nails - Page 4
© Yeshe Chodon
Methods for clearing the mind vary.The different traditions will have different emphases. In Vipassana, the meditator tunes in to the very roots of each defilement. Does a change in breath pattern precede an angry thought? Does a pain somewhere in the body signal depression? By recognizing these roots, one heads the full-blown episode off at the pass. This is closer to the Western concept of therapy.
In the Dzogchen tradition of Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism, the emphasis is on visualizing oneself as the non-dualistic enlightened Buddha-mind already manifest. The essential element in this practice is selflessness. So the depressive goes from self-absorption to absorption in compassion. The goal of practice is that all beings might ultimately benefit and awaken. There is no room in this practice for preoccupation with the finite mind and its endless sufferings and delusions; in fact this is the primary obstacle to realization.
Here I quote Chagdud Khadro from Red Tara Commentary:
The dualistic mind, the mind that grasps at self and gives self-interest priority over the interests of others, arises as the five poisons.
To summarize, those five poisons are: ignorance; greed; anger; jealousy; pride.
Once we know that such poisons are the inevitable cause of pain...we feel deep compassion and a heartfelt commitment to find a way out for all who "are lost in the ocean of samsaric suffering."
Remember the First Noble Truth:
that suffering is universal and inevitable.
In the old days, this would have just depressed me further. But that was ignorance; limited view. What a relief it is to a more settled mind to drop all of it...the struggling, the yearning, the agonizing and to lump it all as ignorance and self-absorption. We stop comparing ourselves to others. We stop endlessly looping and replaying our little dramas. We are all suffering. Look at your dog. No mother, no father, no money, no job, not much social life and few prospects. What keeps him going?
Once you make this leap, with the help of a qualified teacher and a sangha of like-minded people, your closet is swept out and the shelves neatly stacked. You have new categories for everything.
During a brief remission which did not last, Levant said:
What I'm trying to do now is think of the other person. The trouble is...the other person thinks only of himself.
Like children in pre-school, depressives have to be taken by the hand and have it pointed out to them that there are others in the world. Countless others, in fact, all yearning for happiness, all sharing Buddha-nature, just needing to awaken to that nature. Anyone can realize such an innate reality, which is your own true nature. To awaken fully and irrevocably to that is awakened enlightenment, Buddhahood. That is why Buddha said: "I only point out the Way; it is up to you to walk it."
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