Protection.

Just to clarify, I am not a teacher, but a student who has spent over 40 years studying the subject of spirituality. Of course, it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea.

Meditation is a practice in stillness. Protecting is a practice of compassionate activity. We have to know what it is we are protecting, and what we are protecting it from.

Buddhism is a logical, reasonable approach to understanding our light side and our dark side – the devil and god, if you like. Selfishness and selflessness. Misperception and pure perception. This is the difference between the clarity of mind essence and the prison of disturbing, emotional thoughts. We are protecting our mind from infiltration by negative neuroses, as these cloud the mind with self-cherishing emotions. All this is seen clearly in the process of meditation.

Negativity infiltrates all our lives, and it is from this negativity that we are attempting to protect the mind. This negativity has no absolute reality as it is based on a misperception of an imagined I which feels it must protect itself.

When I asked my teacher what to do about demons, my teacher said, “If you practise, they will come. Rest in pure awareness.” Pure awareness is disengagement with all mental activity: once we are free of emotional disturbances – which is knowing how to protect our mind – then we can work for the benefit and protection of others with compassionate clarity.

Buddhism provides a firm foundation to know what is real and what is not real. All truth comes down to this understanding of the nature of absolute reality.

Ego, which is a set of beliefs to which our consciousness clings, hates clarity because clarity shows completeness and is impartial.

Saying this, we all have much to learn 😉

This is from a text entitled ‘Naturally Liberating Whatever you Meet’ by Khenpo Gangshar.

“It is an unfailing fact that happiness results in virtuous actions, and that suffering results from committing unvirtuous karmic deeds. Therefore, you must first recognise what is virtuous and what is evil…

“…It is the mind that is the most important. The reason for this is that, unless your mind intends to do so, your body cannot do good or evil actions, and nor can your voice express anything good or evil. Your mind is therefore the primary factor. In that way, your mind is like a king, and both your body and speech are its servants.

For instance, when you get angry at your enemy, you must examine whether the primary factor is your mind, or the enemy. When you feel attached to a friend, examine whether your mind or the friend in the primary factor. Examining in this way, you must acknowledge that although the friend and enemy are the circumstances in which your attachment and anger arise, the primary cause is in your own mind. Thus, your mind is most important.

“Once you master your own mind, neither friend nor enemy will be able to benefit you or cause you harm. If you don’t gain control over your mind, attachment and anger will automatically well up, wherever you go, and wherever you stay. You must understand that your mind is the root of all joy and sorrow, good and evil, attachment and anger.”