Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso Rinpoche
   

Quote of the Week
November 5, 2010



 

Fresh, Not Frozen

We should examine how our discriminations have changed progressively
since we were children. The things we enjoyed as a child are probably not
the same things we appreciate as an adult. If we contemplate this based on
our own experience, then we can clearly see how our discriminating thoughts
are continually shifting. When we stop fixating on our discriminations as
being the self, we can relax.

Understanding this can help us in our relationships with other people.
When someone does something we dislike, we attribute certain characteristics
to them,such as "greedy" or "selfish." That event and those labels become
fused with the person in our mind. The next time we see them we remember
those characteristics rather than seeing them as they are in this new moment.
The person recalled by our mind seems more real than the person standing in
front of us. We do not even notice what this person is doing in this present
moment because we are recalling the last time we saw them, and all those
strong feelings come back to us, including even anger. In this way we keep
our relationship frozen in our limiting labels rather than being open to
changing circumstances.

  --From "Heart of the Definitive Meaning" in Stars of Wisdom: Analytical
Meditation, Songs of Yogic Joy, and Prayers of Aspiration, page 27,translated
by Rose Taylor