The Practice of Overcoming Afflictions

The Practice of Overcoming Afflictions

Practices provided by HH Dalai Lama

Teacher: Scott Walter, Sensei

In 2007, we hosted a trip by Sensei and some of his Great River Institute (GRI) students from Virginia to California. The trip coincided with a series of lectures given by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Long Beach. The GRI group attended.

I attended three comprehensive lectures and several initiations given by HH Dalai Lama this past weekend and I was attentive to each of his messages, his reasoning, his concerns and warnings and what he said was mandatory to understanding and effective practice. I took his suggestions to heart and practiced what he suggested while listening to him, after the lectures were over, during our group discussions, in between the discussions, in my meditation time, when I was driving, when we were eating and even when I was feeling tired and ill. I tested his teachings in every application I could find and they held up well for me. They did not hold as well when they were not practiced and when they were not understood it was hard to practice them. I find that if you are willing to understand and practice consistently, you can test the values for yourself.

He spoke very clearly about the Four Noble Truths and said that there were two levels of practice and understanding. The first two truths make up Level One practices and the third and fourth truths make up Level Two.

Basically, if you are on Level One you are forever dealing with your afflictions, your reasons for suffering, your complaints, your many negatives, discovering that there must be a reason, wondering about the reason and being upset about the reason. You are stuck in separateness and you view the problems in your life with a narrow perspective that can always find more reasons to suffer. Fear, anger, hate, jealousy, and envy are what you reason around and you can always find a reason to support these negative feelings inside.

If you are on Level Two, you are seeing a better way to be, you are focusing on looking past the short sightedness, you are realizing the more inclusive perspective, you are wanting to know the whole, and the positive reasons, being willing and motivated to live more in a clearer state of understanding where you are motivated by wisdom, compassion, understanding and capability. These traits become your friends and you prefer them even when you sleep and pass through death’s door.

The Dalai Lama spoke very clearly about Buddhism being about the third and fourth truths, or Level Two, but that almost everyone, including Buddhists, are on Level One. People hear about the Level Two stuff, the cessation, and go right back into their versions of Level One, the suffering. He also stated that to move into Level Two you must love that way more than you love level one. And you must come to see your afflictions for what they are: your afflictions.

Another important point he made was that this is true in every religion and way of being. He went on to explain emptiness, self and no self, afflictions, clear mind, nirvana, practice methods and so much more and everything he explained seemed very practical if practiced.

The clear mind state is not unattainable, but it does require us to find our way through our afflictions and the things that cloud our understandings of what is more deeply going on. He spoke about using happiness as a gauge, but that there are also many forms of negativity that people are happy to suffer. Some people find joy when they can justify negatives. We need to practice letting go of those unproductive practices and manners and we need to replace them with an open mind.

He also spoke about how we need a clearer picture of what we are wanting to become so when we practice letting go, we will remain empty and open to allow the more true and positive values and reasons to enter in.

He spoke about matter and source, about balancing between the two and about going through many levels to realize the original clear mind state within. He talked about how the matters preoccupying us and also about how we define source can limit or advance us. He talked about Beings within and without, he talked about living with certain states of being as a way and about aligning yourself to the beings that are able and away from the ones that are not.

So, what it is it that makes this so hard?

It has to do with what we love spending our lives, feeling and thoughts on. He was not condemning feelings, thoughts, loves, or even self. He was condemning the feelings, thoughts, loves and sense of self that consumes the clear light state of mind within us.

We listened to hours of explanation and I found it to be very practical advice. But it all starts with where we are going to dwell in the 4 Noble Truths. If we want to dwell in the clearer state, we have to practice being in that state of Level Two in everything we do and say.

What good does it do us to talk about our afflictions when we are wanting to be free from them? Let’s look for the pathway through and be on it. Let’s look through what would bother us and focus instead on what we want to be living for. Let someone else care for the reasons not to. Let someone else worry about everything that is bad. Let’s focus on a clearer way of being in the moment that can see right and wrong without becoming lost in it.

So what can we do in this way that is more than talk and thought? Practice it!

I practiced continuously on my trip to California, while I was there, on my way home and now. We don’t have to be perfect in our practice to make improvements happen. Just practice as often as you possibly can remember. Step away from the negative habits and mindsets and claim yourself in the clearer state of mind. Empty the mind of its trappings and negatives. Be content with an empty mind if you have no positives to relate to. The positives will enter into any empty mind. Just keep emptying the mind of the negatives and the positives will begin to shine with a clearer truth that is free from fear, anger, hate, jealousy and envy. And if you feel these negative traits entering in, realize they only represent separate, incomplete truths and understandings. Be angry at actions not people. When you feel angry, know you are seeing less and open to the more. The reason for your confusion will clear up if you give it space by emptying your mind.

When I practice this, it works as well as my practice. I can certainly understand how it would be hard to realize anything in Level Two if I only dwell in Level One.

One of the most important things I made note of during the lectures was that to be successful, you must stick with it until you are.

Scott Walter, Sensei 
October 1, 2009

The Practice of Overcoming Afflictions
© 2009 by Great River Institute