Refining Gold by The Dalai Lama

Author:The Dalai Lama
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shambhala
Published: 2019-08-19T16:00:00+00:00

THE THIRD DALAI LAMA

A samsaric form is merely a vessel holding the suffering of pain, the suffering of transient pleasure, and the all-pervading suffering. And, in that cyclic existence is by very nature all-pervasive suffering, one never knows any joy or happiness not wrapped in and embraced by misery and frustration. In the realm of the asuras, or anti-gods, the beings suffer from constantly fighting with and killing and wounding one another. Above that, in the realm of the desire gods, when the five signs of oncoming death manifest, the beings suffer more than do the hell denizens. As their splendor fades and they are shunned by the other gods, they know boundless mental anguish. Still higher in samsara are the gods of the realms of form and formlessness, and although they do not experience the suffering of immediate pain, those of the first three levels have the suffering of transient pleasure, and those of the fourth level and of the formless levels must endure the all-pervasive suffering, which is likened to an unruptured boil.

Since beginningless time we have been born again and again in the various realms of the universe. If you choose to believe that only humans and animals exist, then when you meditate on the lower realms, do so only on the sufferings of animals, insects, and so forth, and when you meditate on the upper realms, do so only on the types of imperfections with which human beings are afflicted. The aim in the former meditation is to generate the aspiration to transcend imperfection: to avoid negative behavior, the cause of future suffering, and to dwell in goodness, the cause of higher evolution.

In the latter meditation [upon the unsatisfactory nature of the higher realms of samsara], the aim is to transcend ordinary goodness, which is tinged with grasping at an implied true existence of things and thus is still within the limits of samsara. By replacing this mundane level of goodness with the goodness born from transcendental wisdom, one is able to cut the roots of all compulsive samsaric conduct and enter into the blissful serenity of nirvana. This is liberation from samsara, the third of the Four Noble Truths.

If cyclic existence and the distorted states of mind that give rise to it are elements that cannot be overcome, then there is no need to bother with spiritual practice. But on the other hand, if there is a way to exchange suffering for eternal happiness, one would be very foolish to ignore it. To do so would be a case of the samsaric mind deceiving and cheating us once again.

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