Padmasambhava

The section that moved me from this passage was from The Book of the Great Liberation. I often find myself trying to wrap my brain around the words of these scared texts, and it either makes me dizzy or it strikes a cord and brings me beautiful clarity.

“When you realize that all phenomena are as unstable as the air, they lose their power to fascinate and bind you. To know whether or not this is true, look inside your own mind.” I thought of phenomena such as wealth, poverty, success and failure when I read this passage. These things do fascinate and bind me. In fact, much of my life revolves around these phenomena even though they aren’t things I can hold in my hand or even concepts can fully grasp with my mind.

“All phenomena are your own ideas, self-conceived in the mind, like reflections in a mirror. To know whether or not this is true, look inside your own mind.” This makes perfect sense to me. I have measured wealth, poverty, success and failure in different ways depending on my stage in life. When I was younger, I measured wealth and poverty in dollars. Now, I measure them in a less tangible way. I think a wealthy person is full of love, patience and compassion. And I believe a person living in poverty is full of fear and consumed by hate and intolerance. I used to measure success and failure with external cues, like if others perceived me as a winner or a quitter. Now, I know not to look to others for validation because these things are too complex and personal for anyone to judge.

This reading helped me look into my own life and recognize phenomena that are based on my perceptions alone. Perceptions that have changed over my lifetime. I know that wealth, poverty, success and failure, are very real for some and a state of mind for others. Now it’s time to ask myself, how can I consciously move forward and continue be fascinated and bound by something so unstable and counterproductive to my growth and well being?