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The Net of Love 4
When the mind is directed toward sensual desire, sensual desire grows like a monkey swinging from branch to branch, binding us to suffering and worldly entanglements. Only when we are determined to abandon sensual desire, uprooting it completely—not just cutting the reeds but pulling out the roots—can we escape the prison of attachment, cease our worries and sorrows, and attain true happiness. The current of craving permeates our thinking and perception, embellishing delusive thoughts, causing aging and death to increase rapidly; only the insight into impermanence, non-self, suffering, and impurity can discern the true nature and eradicate the root cause.
Practicing mindfulness, applying the gatha (each gatha has twenty words, repeating helps memorize the original Chinese), and contemplating the following four practices will help uproot sensual desire:
- impermanence
- non-self
- suffering
-
impurity
Comparing the Chinese–Pali texts, engaging in both individual and collective Dharma discussions within the monastic and lay communities, helps remind each other, replacing the need for sensual desire with genuine brotherhood. Up to now, we have studied 19 out of 32 teachings, and it is clear that when we deeply uproot sensual desire, no longer entangled, brothers and sisters live happily and make steady progress.