Joy Of Living 3 (JOL3) is about what we called the wisdom. In this course of JOL3, it’s really important to discover and explore yourself. In our meditation tradition, when we really know our true nature, it is the beginning of liberation and freedom. Therefore, we will start to explore “who am I?”.
In this level, we are mainly talking about Vipassana meditation. Vipassana meditation has many levels, like foundation (Hinayana) vipassana meditation, Mahayana vipassana meditation, Vajrayana vipassana meditation. Here, it is the combination of the foundation and the Mahayana vipassana meditation.
So first, we need to look at the sense of me. We all have, the sense of “me, me, me”,
no matter what we do, where we go, there is the sense of me, the sense of self. Normally, the sense of me, is the cause of suffering.
5 klesas come from the “sense of me”.
There are 5 different kinds of klesas. The first is “Desire”: I have to be No.1, I have to be the first. Or, my idea is correct, the best. My group is better…, all these “I want this and that” are what we called “Desire”.
The second is “Hatred”. As long as my need is not satisfied, can’t get what I want, I will experience anger or disappointment. Therefore, you find nothing is good. In the end, you even consider yourself as not good. This is the hatred.
The third one is “Ignorance”. Don’t know what is right and what is wrong. Always feel dull or full of confusion. Or, the mind becomes very restless.
The fourth is “Jealousy”. Make comparison with other people: me and my friend. At the beginning, we are the same, but now my friend becomes better. My friend has a nicer car, or my friend’s education grade is better than mine now. Or, my friend is more popular than me, what should I do? This is jealousy.
The last one is Pride: I am the best, I know everything, and the others know nothing.
All these 5 Klesas come from the sense of self. “I have to get, I don’t want that, I don’t know, can’t accept the others being better than me, I am the best”, all these are based on “me, me, me”.
Not following, Not resisting, Just Be With
All these come from “sense of me”, causing lots of problems among people, causing even fights among countries. How to liberate from these problems and find the right solutions for these issues? Maybe you think I will not think of “me” from today on, then problem is solved. But actually, it is not so beneficial: it’s the same as when you say “don’t think about the pizza”, then you will think more about the pizza; another choice is to believe the “me”, and to follow completely the “me”. If you do so, normally, the problem will become bigger. In the end, you will lose, others will also lose.
We fight with “me”, it doesn’t work. We follow completely the “me”, it doesn’t work neither. What can we do now? So now the main important thing is, you don’t have to do much. We just look at “me”, as it is. We don’t need to control “me”, we don’t need to get rid of “me”, we don’t need to create a new “me”, we don’t need to do anything. What we have to do is just look, just be with “who am I”.
There are other traditional methods, they try to get rid of or to suppress “me”. But for our lineage, what we called self-liberation, self-antidote is so easy, profound, and effective.
How to practice “look at self”, look at “me”? When we practice, just be aware of that sense of self, “me, me, me”, just be with that. No need to stop the feeling of “me”. Don’t stop that. And don’t try to create that feeling neither. What you have to do, is just to observe the “me, me” feeling. Here, we do not need to ask questions, just look at the feeling, be with this feeling. For the sense of self, some people are having feelings, some are having ideas, some are having images, all these are ok. The key is to be with this “sense of self”.
Two ways of liberation --- you can feel “me” or can’t feel “me”, both are good.
In our practice, whether you can feel “me” or can’t feel “me”, both are good. Why both are good? Because we have two ways of liberation: horizontal liberation and vertical liberation.
Horizontal Liberation is: in JOL 1, when you look at the thoughts, thoughts disappear, you cannot find thoughts, you experienced a gap. There is a space between past and future. When you experience this, it is the Horizontal Liberation.
Another situation is, when you look at the thoughts or emotions, they did not disappear. They are like the examples I gave, like watching inner television, or the example of when you see the river, you are out of the river. This becomes the Vertical Liberation. Why? Because thoughts and emotions are there, they did not disappear, but when you can see them, you are already out of your inner television and the river. There is some distance between you and the object. When you observe the object, this object becomes your meditation support and friend.
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