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|quote-text="Why do these disturbing emotions cause so much damage and harm, yet I am so patient with them? Why be patient with something so harmful? If I can't develop patience for a worldly human enemy, how would I have the capability of handling just a small fault? A human being provoking you can't cause your rebirth in hell. But your emotions can have the power to carry you to the extreme suffering of hell. So, don't be patient and forebear these neurotic emotions - fight them."<ref>Thrangu Rinpoche, ''A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life of Shantideva: A Commentary by the Venerable Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche'', trans. Ken and Katia Holmes and Thomas Doctor (Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 2016), 59.</ref> | |quote-text="Why do these disturbing emotions cause so much damage and harm, yet I am so patient with them? Why be patient with something so harmful? If I can't develop patience for a worldly human enemy, how would I have the capability of handling just a small fault? A human being provoking you can't cause your rebirth in hell. But your emotions can have the power to carry you to the extreme suffering of hell. So, don't be patient and forebear these neurotic emotions - fight them."<ref>Thrangu Rinpoche, ''A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life of Shantideva: A Commentary by the Venerable Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche'', trans. Ken and Katia Holmes and Thomas Doctor (Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 2016), 59.</ref> | ||
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Even if all the kings of the gods or the ''asuras'' [LINK to glossary] rose up against us, they would not have the power to cast us down into the depths of the hells. They can do no more than harm our body and our belongings. The afflictions in our own minds are very different. In an instant they can lead us straight to the worst states in samsara. | |||
Other external enemies do not endure. They may cause harm for a period of time, but inevitably at some point that negative influence must cease. However, the afflictions, Śāntideva asserts, have been with us since beginningless time, present in our mindstreams throughout all of our lives. Their disturbing influence will be with us until we reach enlightenment. | |||
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We cannot rest easy whilst these afflictions hold sway over us. Meditation on the antidote to the afflictions is very useful, but it must be sustained. Just doing a single session will not have much effect. We should strive to create an uninterrupted stream of effort which focuses on destroying the afflictions. | |||
And Śāntideva mentions another crucial difference between the ordinary external enemies and the internal enemy of our afflictions. | |||
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With an ordinary enemy it may be possible to appease them by offering them tribute or making gestures of peace toward them. They could eventually even become allies and offer us assistance. But, according to Śāntideva, this is completely impossible with the afflictive emotions. The more we befriend the afflictions the worst our situation will get. If we yield even an inch to their demands, they will drag us down into grief, in this life and the next. As long as we live with them we will never be truly happy. We must therefore be constantly conscious of them and turn them back at every moment. | |||
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Just as fire is naturally hot, the afflictions are naturally destructive to our lives. From them alone spring all the sorrows of this life and all future lives in samsara. And yet the basic reason for all these ills is the fact that we do not fear samsara. | |||
Elaborating on samsara and bodhisattvas' relationship to samsara, Khenpo Kunpal [LINK to text p.198] states the following: | |||
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|quote-text=. . . it is like a ditch of fire or a den of venomous snakes and is suffering by its very nature. On the contrary, we take pleasure in it. There lies the blame. How can we enjoy and be attached to samsaric things? It is completely senseless. | |||
Although they have no desire for the sufferings of samsara, Bodhisattvas take birth there and strive for the welfare of beings. This is because they are moved by compassion. It is not that they take pleasure in samsara, for if they did, they would want beings to stay there and not be liberated. But this is not the case. It is said that the Bodhisattvas themselves cannot stand the unbearable sorrows of beings in samsara. They therefore make little of their own suffering and remain in samsara for the sake of others.<ref>Fletcher and Blankleder, ''Nectar of Manjushri's Speech'', 157.</ref> | |||
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Although the afflictions have a very seductive side to them, Śāntideva points out that they are in fact the jailers who keep us bound in samsara. | |||
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The afflictions do not lead us to joy and happiness but are the very guardians of this self-made prison. We are like a fish all tangled up in their net. When we are born in the lower realms, these afflictions become the executioners and the denizens of hell. These are the real enemies that we must strive with all our effort to destroy. We will never find physical or mental peace until we have done away with them. | |||
Gyaltsab Je [LINK to text pdf. p. 134] concludes this section in his commentary on the ''Bodhicaryāvatāra'' by asking how one can enjoy samsaric existence given the harm caused by the afflictictive emotions: | |||
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|quote-text=Therefore, if this continual long time enemy, who is the singular unrivalled cause for the strong increase of the accumulation of all harm, takes up permanent residence in my heart, then how can cyclic existence be free and joyful?<ref>Stracke, ''Entrance for the Children'', 21, https://happymonkspublication.org/product/bodhisattvacharyavatara-chapter-1-10-commentary/.</ref> | |||
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<h4>Putting Up with the Hardships Involved in Abandoning the Afflictions</h4> | |||
Of course, in the process of destroying the afflictions there will be many hardships. We are so accustomed to them and so addicted to their influence in our lives that to challenge them will not be easy. But Śāntideva reminds us that in many people's lives they will have to endure much suffering just to find enough food to feed them and their families. | |||
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If they can put up with so much hardship for a much more personal goal of smaller scope, for the greater purpose of attaining the fully enlightened state we should be able to withstand so much more. | |||
A tone of regret enters Śāntideva's voice at this point in the last verses of this section. | |||
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Here, Śāntideva says that when previously generating bodhicitta, he made a promise to the beings in the ten directions to help them be liberated from all their karma and the afflictions. He specifically promised not to destroy his own afflictions alone, as that would lead him merely to the solitary peace of nirvana. | |||
But when this pledge was made, Śāntideva himself was not free from the negative emotions. Looking back now, he feels that this was indeed an ill-considered promise. Not taking realistic stock of his qualities and abilities, he feels it is almost the act of a madman. "How," he asks, "could I have the ability to release others from afflictions if I had not already destroyed my own?" It is akin to promising to save someone from a swiftly flowing river whilst we ourselves are bound and drowning. But that promise has been made and now that pledge must be honored. | |||
Unless we are able to destroy the afflictions, this vow of ours to guide all sentient beings to the highest state of buddhahood will never be fulfilled. Therefore, we must strive with utmost diligence in the antidotes. | |||
<h4>How to Abandon the Afflictions</h4> | |||
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