| |
transformed into gold.
What are these three objects? The first is aversion, the second is attachment, and the third is indifference. This is how the mind functions. You feel aversion to whatsoever you dislike, you feel attachment to whatsoever you like, and you feel indifferent to things which you neither dislike nor like. These are the three objects. Between these three, the mind exists. These are the three legs of the tripod called the mind: aversion, attachment and indifference. And if you live in these three as they are, you are living in poison.
This is how we have created a hell out of life. Aversion, dislike, hatred, repulsion -- that creates one-third of your hell. Attachment, liking, clinging, possessiveness -- that creates the second one-third of your hell. And indifference to all that you are neither attracted to nor repulsed by -- that creates the third part, the third one-third of your hell.
Just watch your mind, this is how your mind functions. It is always saying, "I like this, I don't like that, and I am indifferent to the third." These are the three ways the mind goes on moving. This is the rut, the routine.
Atisha says: These are the three poisons, but they can become the three bases of virtue. How can they become three bases of great virtue? If you bring in the quality of compassion, if you learn the art of absorbing suffering, as if all the suffering of the world is coming riding on the breath, then how can you be repulsed? How can you dislike anything and how can you be indifferent to anything? And how can you be attached to anything? If you are unconditionally taking in all the suffering in the world, drinking it, absorbing it in your heart, and then instead of it pouring blessings onto the whole of existence unconditionally -- not to somebody in particular, remember; not only to man but to all: to all beings, trees and rocks and birds and animals, to the whole existence, material, immaterial -- when you are pouring out blessings unconditionally, how can you be attached?
Attachment, aversion, indifference: all disappear with this small technique. And with their disappearance the poison is transformed into
|
|
|