How to See Yourself As You Really Are

by Dalai Lama XIV

We must remember that these different religions, ideologies, and political systems of the world arose to help human beings achieve happiness. We must not lose sight of this fundamental goal. At no time should we place means above ends: we must always maintain the supremacy of compassion over ideology.

Happiness is a combination of inner peace, economic viability, and above all, world peace.

Once we recognize that all beings cherish happiness and do not want suffering, it becomes both morally wrong and pragmatically unwise to pursue our own happiness oblivious to the feelings and aspirations of all other members of our own human family.

According to Buddhist psychology, most of our troubles stem from attachment to things that we mistakenly see as permanent.

Complete love is based not on attachment but on altruism, which is the most effective response to suffering.

Violence does not accord with our basic human nature, which may lead you to wonder why all sorts of violence become news but compassionate acts seldom do. The reason is that violence is shocking and not in conformity with our basic human nature, whereas we take compassionate acts for granted because they are closer to our nature.

Happiness that is a by-product of loving and serving others is far superior to what we gain from serving only ourselves.

When our minds are clouded by hatred, selfishness, jealousy, and anger, we lose not only control but also our judgment.

The principles I have mentioned are in accordance with the ethical teachings of all world religions. I maintain that Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Sikhism, Taoism, and Zoroastrianism all hold up love as an ideal, seek to benefit humanity through spiritual practice, and strive to make their followers better people.

Ignorance in this context is not just a lack of knowledge—it is an active misapprehension of the nature of things. It mistakenly assumes that people and things exist in and of themselves, by way of their own nature.

You have to recognize, at least in a rough way, what you are falsely superimposing on phenomena before you can understand the emptiness that exists in its stead.

Ignorance, by relying on appearances, superimposes onto persons and things a sense of concreteness that, in fact, is not there. Ignorance would have us believe that these phenomena exist in some fundamental way. Through ignorance what we see around us seems to exist independently, without depending on other factors for its existence, but this is not the case. By giving people and things around us this exaggerated status, we are drawn into all sorts of overblown and ultimately hurtful emotions.

The ignorant mind does not question appearances to determine if they are correct; it merely accepts that things are as they appear.

But when circumstances cause us to pay more attention to the object, it appears to be attractive in a way that is integral to the object. When the mind adheres to the object this way—thinking that it exists as it appears—lust for the object and hatred for what interferes with getting it can set in.

Seeing with their minds that all afflictive emotions and defects Arise from viewing oneself as inherently existent And knowing that the self is the object of this, Yogis refute their own inherent existence.

A six-inch line is short relative to an eight-inch line. An eight-inch line is short relative to a ten-inch line. —TIBETAN SAYING

If the mistaken view that people and things exist independently is the cause of all other counterproductive views and emotions, then one of the principal means of overcoming this mistaken outlook is to reflect on the fact that all phenomena arise dependently. As Nagarjuna’s Precious Garland of Advice says: When there is long, there has to be short. They do not exist through their own nature.

Similarly, in economics, if you just go after profit, you end up with corruption. Look at the increasing corruption in many countries.

Failure to look at the whole picture means realism is lost. The attitude that money alone is sufficient leads to unforeseen consequences.

If not finding objects when they are analyzed meant that they did not exist, there would be no sentient beings, no Bodhisattvas, no Buddhas, nothing pure, and nothing impure. There would be no need for liberation; there would be no reason to meditate on emptiness.

Buddhism offers many techniques for developing a form of concentration called “calm abiding.” This powerful state of concentration earns its name because in it all distractions have been calmed and your mind is—of its own accord—abiding continuously, joyously, and flexibly on its chosen internal object with intense clarity and firm stability. At this level of mental development, concentration does not require any exertion at all.

For beginners, external factors can have considerable impact on meditation because your internal mental capacity is not particularly strong. This is why limiting busy activities and having a quiet place to meditate are helpful. When your internal experience has advanced, external conditions will not affect you much.

If your predominant afflictive emotion is generation of too many thoughts, so that you are fluttering around thinking about this and that, you can meditate on the exhalation and inhalation of the breath as described in the previous section. When you tie your mind to the breath, the seemingly ceaseless stream of thoughts roaming here and there will immediately diminish.

Sleeping too much generally leads to laxity, whereas having unrealistic expectations about the pleasures of life tends to lead to excitement.