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<h4>The Ultimate Nature of the Afflictions</h4> | <h4>The Ultimate Nature of the Afflictions</h4> | ||
Connected with the eye of wisdom mentioned above, Śāntideva briefly mentions another crucial point that comes up throughout the text but is dealt with in greatest detail in the ninth chapter on wisdom. One very important aspect of learning how to deal with the afflictions is to understand their nature, not just from a relative perspective but also from an ultimate perspective. | Connected with the eye of wisdom mentioned above, Śāntideva briefly mentions another crucial point that comes up throughout the text but is dealt with in greatest detail in the ninth chapter on wisdom. One very important aspect of learning how to deal with the afflictions is to understand their nature, not just from a relative perspective but also from an ultimate perspective. | ||
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The afflictive defilements appear on a relative level to have a disruptive quality, disturbing our minds and wreaking havoc in the world in general. But with a much more careful and detailed investigation of their real nature we cannot find them anywhere. We can come to see that they are mere mirages or illusions, and with this wisdom we start to release ourselves from their grasp. | |||
Ultimately, we must not focus on more superficial aspects of the sense objects and our daily experience but instead understand the ultimate nature of our minds and phenomena–that they do not truly exist in the way that they appear. Bringing this understanding to the afflictions allows us to see through them and cut them down right from their root. | |||
Śāntideva points out that the afflictions reside neither in objects of these afflictions external to us, nor in the sense powers [LINK to glossary], nor somewhere in-between. | |||
The afflictions are not to be found inherently in the external objects of form, such as our friends and enemies, because if this were the case the arhats would generate afflictions when they see forms. If they were actually based in such objects, it would also have to follow that when other people encountered the external objects they would experience exactly the same negative emotions of aversion and attraction in exactly the same way that we do. We know that this is not the case, so the afflictions cannot be inherently present in outer objects. Illustrating this, Khenpo Kunpal [LINK to text pdf p. 202] explains further why the afflictions cannot inherently reside in the sense organs, such as the eye sense power. | |||
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|quote-text=But neither do they subsist within the conjunction of the sense organs and consciousness. For even when sense power and consciousness meet, defilements do not automatically arise. If the defilements were intrinsic to such conjunctions, it would mean that whenever we see or hear anything, attachment or aversion would be felt, whereas this does not happen.<ref>Fletcher and Blankleder, ''Nectar of Manjushri's Speech'', 161.</ref> | |||
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Neither can these afflictions exist in some kind of way in the intervening space between object and consciousness because that intervening space is empty. | |||
Under this kind of ultimate analysis, we find that the afflictions have no dwelling place. And if they cannot abide in beings, nor anywhere in the outer universe, we may start to wonder where on earth they could be. These very same afflictions are the ones that have tormented us since time without beginning, and yet when we look more closely they have no true nature of their own. | |||
Khenpo Kunpal [LINK to text pdf P.203] also offers us a slightly different but equally profound technique with which to look into the afflictions. | |||
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|quote-text=Whatever defiled thoughts of craving or aversion arise in the mind, we should recognize them for what they are, in their nakedness. First we should search for where they have come from, then we should search for where they dwell in the present moment, and finally we should search for where they go. If we do this, if we strive to see, by means of this technique, that the defilements are without inherent existence, it will be easy to discard them, for they are without intrinsic being.<ref>Fletcher and Blankleder, ''Nectar of Manjushri's Speech'', 161.</ref> | |||
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Finally, we are able to see clearly with the eye of wisdom. We realize that the afflictions, and indeed all phenomena, cannot withstand this kind of detailed analysis into their true nature. Things appear to exist inherently, and yet they cannot be found in any of these spheres. They are like illusions or mirages that have deceived us, appearing in one way but actually existing in a completely different manner. | |||
This exalted understanding of ''prajñā'', the wisdom which sees through to the lack of an inherent nature in all phenomena, can help us to tackle the afflictions and aid us in destroying them forever. | |||
To illustrate how we are often so confused as to where the real problem lies and how correct wisdom is so important in orienting ourselves on the Buddhist path, Khenpo Kunpal cites ''The Heap of Jewels Sūtra'' (Skt. ''Ratnakūṭasūtra'') [LINK to text] as follows: | |||
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|quote-text=In future times, O Kashyapa, there will be conceited monks who will be like dogs running after stones. Excited by [the throwing of] a stone, a dog will chase after it; it will not chase the person who threw it. In the same way, O Kashyapa, certain monks and practitioners will persistently discriminate between forms, sounds, smells, taste, and textures. They will understand that these are impermanent, deceptive, and liable to destruction, yet they will not know whence they arise…. | |||
…In times to come, however, O Kashyapa, there will be other monk-yogis who will not be like dogs chasing after stones. If you throw a stone at a lion, it will know where the stone has come from. It will chase not the stone but the one who threw it, with the result that no more stones will be thrown! In the same way, when monks who practice yoga behold the outer objects of the senses, they know that the latter take their origin in the mind. And having examined the mind, they know that it is not truly existent, and thus they are free.<ref>Fletcher and Blankleder, ''Nectar of Manjushri's Speech'', 162. As the ''Ratnakūṭa'' is a collection of forty-nine sūtras, the actual sūtra cited here is the ''Kāśyapaparivartasūtra'', Toh 87. According to 84000, this work, in its own right, was known as the ''Ratnakūṭasūtra'' in several Indian treatises.</ref> | |||
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