Don’t get trapped by emptiness

(4)

Initially, this slogan is titled “Self-liberate even the antidote.” The antidote being all the slogans. It is telling us not to be attached to experiences, dreams, reality, or anything else in the Mind Training slogans.

After the prior two slogans, examine experiences and treat them as dreams, you now are told that these slogans are just thoughts and warned not to hold on to either view.

This slogan is saying that even emptiness can not exist alone by itself, and therefore even it too is empty of inherent existence. As Pema Chodron explains, “Don’t hold on to anything – even the realization that there’s nothing solid to hold on to.”

It may take a lot of practice to get to an ‘emptiness being empty’ experience. Don’t worry. For now, relax and don’t become fixated on emptiness.

Getting stuck in the view that experiences are something to be examined or treating them as dreams lead to either affirmation or negation. Pitting the real against the temporary, emptiness against solidness.

There are lots of ways to become trapped by emptiness. Slipping into thinking, ‘all in one’ or acting blissed out is not to examine experiences and treat them as dreams to forget what you are trying to do. Being sucked into the trap of ‘because everything is empty, nothing matters,’ is to wrongly understand these teachings. It’s a trap, watch out.

Watch for the self-grasping ego and comparing – ‘because I practice and you don’t, I’m better.’ Feeling like you are doing important work and forgetting to be present in the moment. The ego will want to find excuses for going to sleep, including the tricky one of becoming too peaceful. Don’t use a superficial understanding of emptiness as an excuse for laziness, aloofness, egotism, preventing achievement. Don’t hide behind bliss, emptiness, or peacefulness.

Stay connected with the world. Be free from stuck views of reality. Rest your mind, be expansive. Don’t hold to this or that. Be obsessively curious. As soon as you have a belief in something, thinking becomes inflexible. Look at the immediacy of your present experience. Liberate all conclusions about the practice and any idea or notion you cling. There is no ground under your feet to stand on.

Being on the path to being awake is not inherently pleasant. It can have happy side effects but don’t count on it. Being awake is not a path of finding something but a way of getting rid of things and being rid of confusion mostly.

Treat experiences as dreams ……………………………..[[201903010555]] Examine the nature of awareness …………………………..[[201903020514]] Let confusion awaken and practice emptiness ………………..[[201903130526]] º Use Time Spent In Transition For Training ………………..[[202011180523]]

Alternate Titles

• Don’t get stuck on peace
• The remedy, too, is freed in its own place
• Self-liberate even the antidote
• Even the remedy is freed to subside naturally
• Even the antidote itself is liberated in its own place
• The remedy itself is released in its own place
• The antidote will vanish of itself
• Even the remedy naturally liberates itself
• Do not misuse the remedy
• Don’t hold on to your stories

03-03-2019 - 4:57 AM ›[[201903030457]] → #slogans, #uji