Todayand#8217;s Dharmabyte continues on the theme of Karma and#8211; the third of the Mind Turning Reflections. Here, the inspiring Vajratara likens Karma to a swift river and iron chains exploring imagery in the verses from Tsongkhapaand#8217;s text and#8220;The Three Principle Aspects of the Pathand#8221;. and#8220;Self-Grasping and the Strong Bonds of Karmaand#8221;, is selected from the talk and#8220;Generating Bodhi Mind.and#8221;
Dharmabytes from free buddhist audio
Self-Grasping and the Strong Bonds of Karma
[Music] Dharma Vites is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio, the Dharma for real life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, come and join us at freebuddhistaudio.com/community. Thank you, and happy listening. And it's not a pretty picture. Sankapar goes even further. He goes even further than just being swept away by a mighty river. We're also trapped by strong bonds of karma and the iron neck of self-grasping. So I was thinking about karma in these terms and thinking about our habits. The strong bonds of karma are when we get into a particular habit. And the more we act out that habit, the more we're likely we are to do that in the future. So we just go round and round the same old habits. And the more we do them, the more they bind us. The more likely we are to do them in the future. We kind of carve out a groove in our being. And we just go deeper and deeper until it becomes a rut. And we just go through that same rut every time. And we get trapped by that. Actually, there's one commentary on the Sankapar when it says, not only you in this kind of powerful mighty river, all beings in this powerful mighty river, they're all so tied up and thrown in the river. So it's not even two separate images. You're all trapped in your karma and floating down this river swept away by this river. And he also uses the image of an iron net, iron chains. And I don't know if anyone's ever actually picked up iron chains, but I just made a shrine on Tuesday out of iron chains, which I got out of the workshop in the Sheffield Blue Center. For some reason, we have an enormous abundance of iron chains in our workshop. I don't know why, but I was picking on these chains. And they're quite, you know, I was thinking about this imagery of Sankapar. So I was thinking, God, you know, imagine being all wrapped up in these iron chains. You can't pull them apart. You can't break them. And I've got to tell you, they're slightly dirty as well. You know, they really would ruin your t-shirt if you got, you know, tied up in them. So it's not a pretty picture. So yes, we've got the iron net of self-grasping. We're trapped in this net of self-grasping. In another translation, it says, we're stuffed in a steel cage of grasping self. And I was thinking about that. And I was thinking, well, all of us have this opinion of who we are and our identity and what our kind of sphere of experience is going to be, what the condition of our consciousness is going to be. So we've got this really fixed idea about who we are and what we're going to experience. And then we trap ourselves by that opinion. So, you know, sometimes you can see it with a friend. They might get really upset about something and maybe they have quite a lot of self-doubt. Maybe they don't think that they're worth very much, or maybe they think they're not able to practice the Dharma. So from their point of view, they're coming and they say, well, you know, I can't really meditate. I can't really ask for ordination. I can't get it. I can't get it. No one will ever ordain me. And they have this, you know, they have all this self-doubt. They have this opinion of themselves, which is quite limited. And then from my perspective, what goes on is that I can just see that that's utter nonsense. And in a way, it's that view itself that's trapping them. It's not anything external. It's their own self-view. And I tell you, from my point of view, it's just tragic. You know, because what I want to do is I want to pick them up by their ankles and just shake it up. It's not true, you know. That is the only thing that's holding you back, is your own kind of belief in your own limitations, your own self-grasping. Because what we do is we invent a self for ourselves and then we grasp after it. No matter how unpleasant it is, no matter how limited it is, because it's us, because it's our view, we cling onto it. And what that means is that it's very hard to move beyond. We're always setting up a limitation. We're always confining ourselves in a steel cage of grasping self, from which it's very hard to move on. Because we don't believe we can. So one of the things maybe you could explore in your groups is just thinking, well, what is your steel cage that you're setting up for yourself? You know, is it I can't meditate, I can't get ordained, I can't study the Dharma, I'll never understand the Dharma. I'll never be able to read the survey, whatever it is. I'll never be able to enjoy a meditation retreat or a solitary retreat or something. Because all those are just views, they're just views and they can find us. Because we start living a bit like having that image of the donkey, actually. You know, so the donkey is tethered and it goes round and round this well. And then if you take away the rope, if you take away the tether, well, the donkey probably would just carry on going round and round and round, because that's all it believes it can do. And we're all in this position where we can, where we've defined our parameters and we're just going to stick within them, no matter how painful or limited they are. So you watch people, you watch people trapped by the strong bonds of karma, going round and round the same old tendencies again and again and again, with the same old view of themselves, which is very trapping themselves in their own view, in their own self that they've created. And it's very painful to watch. I remember having a friend who was an abusive relationship and I spent a long time helping her to get out of that relationship. And, you know, endless conversations, endless talking to the man involves trying to get him away and finally we'd managed it and he'd moved out the house and they were separated. And, you know, she was feeling a bit more encouragement about who she could be and we'd gone into the reasons about why she got into the relationship in the first place and all this sort of stuff. And it was also, I thought, oh, finally she's free of it. And then she just kept on sleeping with him and I'd kind of see her then she'd be away from home for a night and I think, oh, no, where is she? And then she'd come back and then she'd say, oh, no, I just couldn't help myself. And it was really painful because I could see what was good for her, but she couldn't see it for herself. And in a way, because she was swept along by these rivers and caught in this net. And in a way, that's a bit of an extreme example, but that's what we're doing all the time. We're just going round and round the wheel of samsara, swept along by these mighty rivers and trapped in these steel chains. And Sankbar goes further than this. He says, we're also trapped. Not only we swept along in a river bound up by our own chains, we're also in the dark. So we can't see the truth. We can't see the way out. We can't even see what's real. We can't even really see what's a benefit. And this is suffering. This is a very, very strong evocation of suffering that we keep going back to samsara. We keep going round and round the wheel of samsara again and again. He says, we're born and reborn in boundless samsara carelessly tormented by the three miseries. So the three miseries are the three forms of dukkha, which you might be familiar with, and which are actual physical dukkha, the suffering of suffering. You know, so actual physical pain, loss, grief, hurt, all those things. The suffering of impermanence, which means that we have the suffering that even if we enjoy something, it doesn't last forever. And we're always anticipating that change on some subtle level. We hope you enjoyed the talk. 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