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True Happiness 4
“Knowing the true nature of desire, the mind of desire will not arise… Neti neti, not this, not that” – contemplating name and form (form, feeling, perception, mental formations, consciousness) is to see “not this, not that,” thereby transcending wrong perceptions. Each time a perception arises, asking yourself “Are you sure?” helps you let go of “the three complexes: superiority, inferiority, and equality,” because “when the three complexes are ended, the mind is no longer agitated.” Firm in this insight, “desire ceases, the imagination of desire ceases, and no one can contain you,” dwelling peacefully beyond all disturbances.
- Seeing clearly the nature of impermanence, “forever leaving behind all lower realms,” departing from the four dark destinies: asura, hell, hungry ghost, animal.
- Liberation comes thanks to the “mirror” of Mindfulness that always reflects, never forgetting to wipe it clean; if you abandon the mirror, you become a “demon.”
- Love also needs “Are you sure?”: the story of Truong – “three nights” illustrates suffering caused by wrong perception; the folk verse “The hair on the temples, some strands short, some long, unable to be together, love endures a thousand years” shows that we love an image, not reality.
Practice: listen deeply to your friend’s suffering, gently remind, “Are you sure it’s like that?”, don’t “add oil to the fire”; let go of reactive rejection as when you see a mosquito, learn compassion even for a small stink bug; open your heart to embrace “the worm, the butterfly, the little child, the lonely elder, your brother and sister in the Dharma.” When “one horse is sick, the whole stable stops eating grass,” understand non-self: the happiness and suffering of the other is truly your own.