The Practice of the Six Paramitas – The Paramita of Wisdom

Author: Vladimir Pyatsky

Translation: Roni Sherman and Marina Sherman

Translation Editor: Natasha Tsimbler

Chapters

Table of Contents The Practice of the Six Paramitas – Table of Contents

Introduction The Practice of the Six Paramitas – Introduction

1. The Practice of the Six Paramitas – The Paramita of Wisdom

2. The Practice of the Six Paramitas – The Paramita of Meditation

3. The Practice of the Six Paramitas – The Paramita of Diligence

4. The Practice of the Six Paramitas – The Paramita of Patience

5. The Practice of the Six Paramitas – The Paramita of Self-Restraint

6. The Practice of the Six Paramitas – The Paramita of Giving

The Six Paramitas 

1. The Paramita of Wisdom — The Rejection of Hostility

Rejection of hostility is achieved by developing the six PILLARS OF WHOLESOME FAITH. 

The Six Pillars of Wholesome Faith 

The First Pillar of Wholesome Faith 

Wholesome deeds carry wholesome fruit. 

Wholesome deeds such as giving and concern about the welfare of other beings produce wholesome fruit — the mind of the generous and caring turns to seeking wisdom that leads to liberation from suffering.

The Second Pillar of Wholesome Faith

Unwholesome deeds carry unwholesome fruit. 

Unwholesome deeds — are harming others and oneself, envy, seeking sensual pleasures that intoxicate the mind, dishonesty, hatred, rudeness and complacent light-mindedness. They all carry bitter, rotten fruit.

The Third Pillar of Wholesome Faith 

Wholesome teachers who managed to purify their consciousness deserve veneration and support. 

Wholesome teachers — are those who perfect wholesome actions, discard unwholesome actions and purify the mind from complacency. Such beings deserve praise, support of their livelihoods and recollection of their teachings. 

The Fourth Pillar of Wholesome Faith

The assembly of beings following wholesome teachers and seeking to purify their consciousness deserves veneration and support. 

The assembly of beings who follow wholesome teachers and seek to purify their consciousness — is a noble assembly. Beings in it dispose of greed, doubts about the absolute value of virtue, are healed from the disease of ill-will, soften the stagnancy of the sense of self-righteousness and attain peace. Veneration and support of the affairs of such an assembly — is wholesome. 

The Fifth Pillar of Wholesome Faith 

The wholesome Teaching leading to the purification of consciousness deserves study and application. 

The wholesome teaching leading to the purification of consciousness from the stains of anger, passion and delusion leads beings to develop high morality, allows them to develop a powerful, concentrated mind and supermundane wisdom. Study and application of the wholesome Teaching — is a rare and precious opportunity that should not be missed. 

The Sixth Pillar of Wholesome Faith

There are self-born beings, gods born in higher realms as a result of accumulating wholesome deeds. 

As a result of accumulating wholesome deeds, the consciousness of beings becomes well-balanced and steadfast. It ceases to depend on a gross body and exists in pure form consisting of light. Such existence is pleasant and devoid of physical pain. As a result of accumulating wholesome deeds, beings of the human realm are reborn in the realm of gods following the dissolution of the body. Those born in the realm of gods can go further to complete liberation from defilements, and then the light of their mind becomes completely purified and stable. If they do not go to the highest state of the extinction of ignorance, then having spent the accumulation of wholesome deeds on receiving heavenly pleasure, are reborn once again in the gross world. 

Correct Grasp of the Six Pillars of Wholesome Faith

To faithfully abide by the six pillars of wholesome faith, we must correctly grasp their meaning. 

Correct Grasp of the First Pillar of Wholesome Faith

Wholesome deeds carry wholesome fruit.

What is the perfect wholesome deed? It is the calming of the mind. 

The calming of the mind — is the abandonment of the eight worldly dharmas: the desire for gain and fear of loss; desire for fame and fear of our own insignificance; desire for praise and fear of admitting mistakes; desire for temporary sensual happiness and fear of temporary sensual unhappiness. 

The calming of the mind can also be defined as the cessation of anger, passion and delusion.

The cessation of anger — is the abandonment of pride, resentment and hostility. The abandonment of pride is like the thawing of ice. The abandonment of resentment is like the confluence of a river with the sea. The abandonment of hostility is like the disappearance of a thundercloud turned into grace-filled rain. 

Crossing the stream of passion — is the cessation of craving for what is pleasant and disgust for what is unpleasant. The wise crossing the stream of passion make wholesome deeds, words and thoughts pleasant for themselves. The wise make unwholesome deeds, words and thoughts unpleasant for themselves.

The exhaustion of delusion — is the overcoming of complacency. Complacency is based on the thoughts: “I'm — a body, feeling, view, volition, consciousness that experiences happiness and unhappiness. The body, feeling, view, volition, consciousness — are mine.” Therefore those thoughts must be recognized as inadequate, causing suffering, ill-considered, quickly taken on faith. On the other hand, worthwhile, leading to long-term good are the thoughts: “I'm — not a body, not a feeling, not a view, not volition, not consciousness that experiences happiness and unhappiness. Those five revolve within themselves, are subject to suffering, extinction, defacement. I'll use them when they are engaged in good activities and will see them as danger and dust thrown against the wind in those cases when they are engaged in bad activities. 

Correct Grasp of the Second Pillar of Wholesome Faith

Unwholesome deeds carry unwholesome fruit. 

What is the unwholesome fruit? It is despondency, despair, grief and dullness. We must know that those types of suffering are the consequences of the impassioned and wrong acts of the body, mind and speech. Blaming the world and other beings for our own frustration thus ends and a wholesome aspiration to liberate the mind and behaviour from defilements is conceived. We should argue about the suffering as follows: 

What is despondency? It is the lack of aspiration for wholesome action. It arises as a result of seeking temporary happiness. When there is satiety with temporary happiness or it disappears, despondency sets in. 

What is despair? It is the lack of success on the unwholesome path of gaining temporary achievements. When they are not gained for one reason or another, despair sets in. 

What is grief? It is the loss of pleasant ideas about ourselves or the loss of faith in the attainability of our own happiness. Both ideas about ourselves and ideas about our own happiness are unwholesome, they are stained by obsession and rivalry with other beings. 

What is dullness? It is the inability for deep thought. Such inability arises from the trivial quest for sensual pleasure, from petty arguments, from bustling worldly activity. 

Correct Grasp of the Third Pillar of Wholesome Faith 

Wholesome teachers who managed to purify their consciousness deserve veneration and support. 

What are the signs of a pure consciousness? Those are the immeasurable feelings: goodwill, compassion, detachment and their combined joy. 

What is proper veneration of teachers?

With the appearance of resentment in the mind, we must make the decision: “I won't obey resentment. I've got teachers endowed with patience. I'll follow the example set by my teachers, I won't take anger and resentment as my teachers.” 

With the appearance of desire in the mind, a decision is made: “I won't follow impassioned desires. I've got teachers, imperturbable, endowed with love for wisdom. I'll follow the example set by my teachers, I won't take passion and desire as my teachers”. 

With the appearance of cruelty in the mind, a decision is made: “I won't promote cruelty. I've got teachers endowed with compassion. I'll follow the example set by my teachers, I won't take cruelty and heartlessness as my teachers.”

With the appearance of light-mindedness in the mind, a decision is made: “I won't dwell in light-mindedness. I've got diligent teachers, relentlessly working for the good of beings, I won't take light-mindedness and carelessness as my teachers.”

What does it mean to properly support wholesome teachers? It means to take care to ensure their livelihoods and to celebrate them through wholesome behavior of the body, speech and mind. Nobody celebrates teachers so well as shamefaced and conscientious pupils. Because shamefaced pupils repent the wrong deeds perpetrated by them and do whatever it takes to correct the vices of the mind, thereby celebrating the teaching and their teachers.

Correct Grasp of the Fourth Pillar of Wholesome Faith

The assembly of beings following wholesome teachers and seeking to purify their consciousness deserves veneration and support. 

What is proper veneration of a wholesome assembly of beings? It is recognition of the one consciousness residing in the heart of every being. Those who know this oneness transcending the diversity of bodies and forms see others and themselves as a manifestation of a single whole. In such wise beings, hostility, envy, greed and other vices disappear. In freedom from vices lies proper veneration of the noble assembly. 

What is proper support of the noble assembly? It is the development of the immeasurable feelings: goodwill, compassion, detachment and their combined joy. 

Correct Grasp of the Fifth Pillar of Wholesome Faith

The wholesome Teaching leading to the purification of consciousness deserves study and application. 

What is proper study and application of the Teaching? It is mastering three defenses against suffering: supreme morality, skillful concentration and supermundane wisdom.

What is supreme morality? 

Supreme morality consists in 1) disposing of greed and developing generosity; 2) overcoming doubts about the absolute value of virtue and developing diligence; 3) healing from the disease of ill-will and developing goodwill; 4) softening the stagnant sense of self-righteousness and developing wisdom; 5) cessation of the unwholesome quest for sensual pleasure and abiding in peace. 

What is skillful concentration?

Skillful concentration is the ability to draw the activity of the senses into the mind like a turtle draws its limbs into its shell. So that the sense-limbs become obedient to the commands of the mind, we must end their bondage to the desires keeping the senses outside. 

What is supermundane wisdom?

Supermundane wisdom is of three kinds.

1. The first kind of supermundane wisdom — is correct knowledge of our past births in the higher realms as well as in the realms of gods of pleasure, in the human realm and in the lower realms. What is correct knowledge of our past births in the higher realms? It is the knowledge that meeting with teachers, the teaching and an assembly of noble beings following the path of the teaching — is a manifestation of traces of past births in the higher realms that are beyond the six realms of Kamaloka. What is correct knowledge of our past births in the realm of gods of pleasure? It is the knowledge that the luck, health, success and prosperity which occur in earthly life — is a manifestation of traces of past births in the realms of gods of pleasure. What is correct knowledge of past births in the human realm? It is the knowledge that the recollection, “I was called so-and-so, I remember such-and-such a place of a past life, I remember those people, such-and-such acts, such-and-such suffering and pleasure, such-and-such death.” are like bubbles that float to the surface of thought-flow — they seem real only against the background of hazy consciousness seized by desires. What is correct knowledge of past births in the lower realms? It is the knowledge that the disease, bad luck, and suffering of the mind and body are a manifestation of traces of memories of birth in the lower realms. 

2. The second kind of supermundane wisdom consists in correct vision of the law of cause and effect: “performed actions give shape to consciousness”. This vision allows us to directly know the hearts of beings and the paths of their rebirths after the dissolution of the gross body. Also, this wisdom endows with direct vision of how the fruit of past actions matures: initially forming the view of beings, then causing the rise of various states of the senses, which encourage new action. Those who see this value the wholesome view, wholesome states of mind and wholesome intentions, seeing them as a lifesaving bridge across the ocean of suffering. 

3. The third kind of supermundane wisdom consists in direct knowledge of a state of consciousness that is liberated from suffering, purified from the stains of anger, passion and delusion. Complete with direct knowledge of this state, there is the knowledge of its finality.

Correct Grasp of the Sixth Pillar of Wholesome Faith

There are self-born beings, gods born in the higher realms as a result of accumulating wholesome deeds.

What is the correct grasp?

Accumulations of wholesome deeds cause purification of the mind. Knowing this, we can understand that a purified consciousness and a self-born God — are the same thing. By seeing their pure mind as a self-born god, practitioners of the path easily comprehend likewise that the earthly realm is small, sad and plain by comparison with the divine realms. Moreover, it becomes clear that in relationships with deities, beings of the earthly realm must seek wisdom and immeasurable feelings, as deities possess them and can share them with others. It must be borne in mind that transmission of the teaching is continuously maintained in the divine realms, whereas in the earthly realm it sometimes appears, sometimes disappears. 

Other Strategies for Rejecting Hostility

Apart from developing the six pillars of wholesome faith, rejection of hostility can be carried out with the help of the strategy of disenchantment with the eight mind-troubling worldly dharmas.

Disenchantment with the Eight Worldly Dharmas 

In order to become disenchanted with the eight worldly dharmas, we must carefully examine them. After all, oftentimes things seem appealing only because we have not studied them impartially. Thus, the eight worldly dharmas — are four pairs of desires and the fears that those desires will not come true: 

1. The desire for gain and fear of loss

2. The desire for fame and fear of being insignificant. 

3. The desire for praise and fear of recognizing our own flaws. The essence of seeking praise consists in seeking to gain the attention of the opposite sex, as we can observe in the courtship of animals and human beings. Couple-seeking individuals seek to impress (in other words gain praise from) potential partners with their coloration, strength, wealth. 

4. The desire for temporary sensual happiness and fear of sensual unhappiness. The essence of sensual happiness and unhappiness consists in the presence or absence of pleasure from food, which is clearly seen in the expressions “to feel the taste of life” or “to lose the taste of life”. 

We must ask ourselves: “Has following the worldly dharmas ever brought me contentment? Or have they, like thieves, always taken peace and joy away from me?” When it becomes clear that following the worldly dharmas is unprofitable, joyless, plunges into a sense of hopelessness, merits reproach, disenchantment with them sets in. However, at this stage, the worldly dharmas only subside, but are not yet overcome. To free ourselves from them to the extent that is sufficient to overcome hostility, vigorous measures are necessary. An example of such measures is the acceptance of blessings of four kinds: 1) the blessing of poverty, 2) the blessing of accepting our own insignificance, 3) the blessing of accepting dispraise, 4) the blessing of loneliness. 

1. The blessing of poverty frees the mind from the influence of the first pair of worldly dharmas (the desire for gain and fear of loss). By accepting this blessing, practitioners of the path understand:

There is nothing I have ever possessed. 

There is nothing I am in possession of now

There is nothing I will come to possess. 

The Past 

In the past, distant or near, 

I possessed various possessions, 

Houses, wealth, herds of animals. 

Not even a handful of dust remains of them today. 

The present

What I possess now

Was obtained thanks to efforts

Made by me or my benefactors. 

One must keep in mind that obtaining these temporary goods is like a burning candle 

Which will be extinguished once the wax runs out. 

Precious are peace and plenty 

When they are used 

To accumulate virtue and wisdom

That lead to liberation from births. 

However both peace and plenty are like caustic smoke when the eye is caught by them. 

The Future 

Whenever I think of possessing wealth, luxury and power in the future, 

I'm like someone who is building a house without windows or doors. 

If I end up inside this house, 

The shelter becomes a trap. 

If I end up outside,

What use do I have in a house 

Which cannot be entered? 

The door — is the present and the windows — the past. 

Those who desire to possess in the future

Do not escape from the suffering 

Of which the present warns

And of which tells the past. 

The essence of the blessing of poverty

Everything which arose — will disappear. 

Here there is nothing other than here. 

Separation from insatiability is pleasant 

And leads to peace. 

2. The blessing of accepting our own insignificance frees the mind from the influence of the second pair of worldly dharmas (the desire for fame and fear of insignificance in the eyes of others)

The blessing of insignificance 

Ends the growth of thoughts, feelings and efforts.

What is reduced to a state of indistinguishability cannot 

Grow and concern.

Phenomena 

The myriad of objects held in the mind

Paint it with concern. 

Since all phenomena constantly

Arise, change and disappear,

Like bubbles on the surface of a river. 

When the mind holds its attention to numerous objects, 

A myriad of thoughts are born in it, 

And the myriad of thoughts interfere with the discernment of emptiness. 

Reduce the number of phenomena

You are considering. 

Consider only what you see as useful.

When you consider one or another phenomena

Out of boredom or resentment,

how are you different from a person 

Picking a wound in his own body?

Reduce what you have a habit to consider to the six precious foundations: 

Teachers, The Teaching, Sangha, Wholesome deeds, Elimination of the vices of the mind, Meditation on deities — such are the phenomena worthy of remembrance. 

Is there any room in even one of them for self-significance? 

Thoughts

Think without strain,

Discard useless thoughts,

Realizing their worthlessness.

You are willing to discard a fraction of the thoughts, 

They have long been considered a burden. 

There might, however, be thoughts 

You find it hard to let go. 

Since they reinforce your idea of your own significance. 

To weaken those thoughts,

Think of the body as a grain of sand,

In which no storm may storm,

Since a grain of sand is too small. 

Think of the mind as an echo in a cave

Which carries every sound 

Without understanding its meaning.

When you see the body and mind this way,

You will not find in either the first or second a significant “I” 

Worthy of support.

Efforts

How great is the exhaustion

From the effort to maintain your significance!

Those efforts destroy both tranquility and rest, 

And peace in relationships with loved ones and friends, 

Let alone the opportunity

Of attaining liberation from ignorance.

Reduce those efforts, do not rely on them, you will soon be disillusioned with them completely. 

Belief requires effort, 

But belief in your significance requires more effort than any other belief, 

While its fruit rots before it ripens. 

The essence of accepting the blessing of our own insignificance 

Freed from the effort to maintain your significance, you will gain the ability to do what you can. 

Among those things you can do, 

Purifying the mind and serving worthy beings — are the greatest. 

3. The blessing of accepting dispraise, which frees from the third pair of worldly dharmas (Desire for praise and fear of admitting our own mistakes) 

The blessing of accepting dispraise 

Is comprehended with earthly reason and supermundane knowledge. 

Earthly reason accepts dispraise expressed by those who we find pleasant, since we wish to stay close to them. 

Supermundane knowledge allows us to accept dispraise even from those who we find disgusting. 

A trap

To see the flaws of this world and other beings seems so tempting!

After all, that topic is inexhaustible!

The looser the thought,

The more successfully it exposes the flaws of others.

Even a drunkard charms people with eloquence 

When he starts to expose the world and morals. 

Therefore, knowing that dispraise is more eloquent than wisdom, 

Do not find support in eloquence. 

Be sure that the tendency to dispraise — is a tendency to ingratiate praise for yourself, and recognize a trap in this tendency. 

Dispraise of the flaws of our behaviour

When I experience anger, 

I'll drop any habit to justify it. 

When profanity pours from my mouth and my fists clench, 

I'll firmly know that I'm intoxicated with desire. 

When my lips are pursed and my shoulders rise, 

That is me sipping an intoxicating thought about my righteousness and am foolish like a mouse who sees in a mousetrap only the piece of cheese. 

Do not justify anger 

And you'll be indifferent to it: 

Even if, seated on your shoulders, it'll be ripping your head off, 

you'll manage to endure it, 

And the anger will get off your shoulders — since they’ll stop supporting 

The senily-shaking body of conviction of “I'm right!”

When, angered by your disobedience, 

The anger starts to whip you with a whip of sorrow and grief, 

Think of those whip blows as the habit to dispraise others. 

Because, having disobeyed an angry thought, 

You became a stranger to it. 

Know that with those blows, the anger 

Dissociates from you

And leaves you. 

Dispraise of the flaws of our own speech

By decrying dishonesty within yourself, 

You can't go wrong. 

If you’re lying to others, give up that habit. 

Lying is uttered for gain and praise,

But the world's gain and its praise are like the stinging stings of bees.

Therefore a lying man is like somebody 

Who wishes to lick honey 

Straight from a buzzing beehive. 

When you lie, desiring to achieve success,

You are like somebody who,

Sitting on an island in a poisonous lake, 

decided to get to the other shore by drinking the lake whole. 

When you lie to yourself to please complacency, 

Consider how would have somebody who was 

Behaving in a similar manner looked like in your eyes? 

Wouldn't have the foolishness of this person sparked repulsion in yourself? 

The essence of the blessing of accepting dispraise

Once anger and dishonesty, desires and delusion fall silent, 

Great Silence comes.

Do not add anything to it, 

Do not try to improve, decorate or enhance it. 

Accept it as liberation from pride. 

4. The blessing of loneliness, which relieves of the fourth pair of worldly dharmas (attachment to temporary happiness and fear of temporary unhappiness) 

The blessing of loneliness

Fear of temporary worldly unhappiness —

Is a spirit-torturer who drinks the blood of beings 

While giving them the intoxicating potion of hope

So that they continue to be obedient food. 

Hope and fear — are the abodes of passion, 

But once passion is exhausted, its abodes empty too. 

Therefore accept the blessing of loneliness, 

Which relieves you of the bad company

Of thoughts about happiness and unhappiness. 

Do not be friends with those bandits 

Who steal your peace, 

Abide in a lone state, 

Like the tip of a needle 

To which no oil drop may hold on.

May likewise no desire for temporary happiness 

Or fear of temporary unhappiness 

Hold on to the tip of your vigilance. 

Cutting off sensual thirst

The conception of temporary happiness

Is incredibly primitive.

It entirely depends on obtaining tasty food.

But once tasty food is obtained, 

A swarm of desire hanger-ons appears.

Whatever sensual thirst arises in you, 

Concerning food or an urge to copulate, or a desire to own a pleasant, convenient object,

Remember: “my mind is more pleasant and more desired than what evokes desire in it”.

After all, were I now a dying king or queen, I would not be able to, at that moment, enjoy food or copulation, or pleasant desired things. 

I wouldn't care about anything.

And past desire — would have become disgust. 

Therefore the ability to enjoy anything, even a ray of sunshine in the window, 

Depends only on the power of the mind, 

On its wholeness and peace. 

Knowing this, I'll worship my mind as what is desired, blissful, above all sensual goods!

The desire to grow nests in thirst for what is pleasant. 

What is pleasant evokes a desire to repeat it again and again. 

That's how the mind becomes like a ruminant 

Whose life's purpose — is to eat succulent grass and multiply. 

That state of mind is so restless 

That to preserve integrity,

It has to be dumb and sluggish. 

Remember that the pleasure of the senses is insignificant 

By comparison with the suffering experienced by the senses.

What is pleasant to the senses — is always fleeting,

While what is unpleasant — may drag on. 

The ability to experience pleasure

Depends on numerous conditions,

While suffering exists

In any state of affairs. 

The essence of the blessing of loneliness

A lone mind is steadfast,

Is not in a friendship with the pursuit of happiness. 

This mind does not add to loneliness 

Either a sense of “I” or complacency. 

Without leaving our home,

We can comprehend the entire world:

For that, we must only stop overshadowing

the world with ourselves.

True knowledge is inconceivable to a mind 

Overcome with passion and pride,

But a mind which ceased growth

Finds everything it needs for liberation 

Within arm’s length.

Such is the blessing of relinquishing the quest for temporary happiness. 

May the blessings be interpreted and digested!

Let us look at another method of rejecting hostility. This method consists in overcoming darkened states of mind which encourage beings to be hostile towards each other. It is important to keep in mind that all methods provided by me agree well with each other, and consideration of each of them enriches practice as a whole. 

A Way of Overcoming Darkened States of Mind. “A Rope Thrown Down a Pit” 

Disregard for peace gives rise to clinging to joy. Clinging to joy gives rise to desire. Desire gives rise to sadness. Sadness gives rise to fear. Fear gives rise to anger. Anger gives rise to pride of sin. 

In more detail, it looks like this: attachment to pleasant, joyful experiences gives rise to a desire for them to be present permanently. Sadness arises from this desire, because what is pleasant is impermanent. Because of sadness, beings begin to only see the bad and danger in everything, and fear arises. Fear fetters and frightens. Because of confrontation with fetterment and threat, anger seethes in the beings. Anger — is a sin. Because of vented anger, beings feel flawed, and to restore a sense of their own integrity, they cultivate pride. Therefore pride — is the justification of our own vices. Pride offers a false ground for self-admiration and brings back euphoria. So this vicious cycle closes. 

Now — on intuition which allows us to get out of the vicious cycle of the darkened states of the mind. Vexations arise because of ignorance, forgetting our nature and falling down the pit of identification with a body and name. 

In this pit, beings experience, primarily, frustration. Know that this frustration is nothing other than the fiber of a life-saving rope lowered down to you into the pit. You can get out on this rope. 

Grasp the understanding that frustration — is hurt pride. Sober up.

Know that the knot of pride is hard and stubborn, since it is born of sin. It is hard to correct the result of sinful acts, that is why instead of following the faithful path of addressing the causes for the sin, foolishness offers the mind to be proud of its own vices. Following this foolishness is like if the person to whom a rope was thrown down the pit, instead of starting to get out of the pit on the rope, would have decided to hang himself with it. 

Grasp the understanding that prideful sin — is the consequence of vented anger. Repent. 

Know that anger is tied in a knot of self-righteousness. Beings believe that they are better than others or did not get the opportunity to be better because of the fault of others. Instead of coming to terms with themselves, they blame circumstances and other people for the lack of their own success, which gives rise to bile and anger. Continuation of blaming with respect to others and the world is like if the person to whom a rope was thrown down the pit would have started to fling abuse at those who threw it and bothered him.

Grasp that the sense of self-righteousness is just the robe of fear of punishment. Recognize salvation in the rope, take your own mind as the path. 

Know that fear of punishment — is fear of death. All fears come down to it. Fear makes beings either frozen or excited. Vitality either stops its flow in the vessels of the body like frozen water or evaporates like water in a drought. These fluctuations, seemingly contradictory, are intrinsically manifestations of the same state of fear. Ignorant beings, instead of addressing the source of the fear, the belief “I'm — a body”, are torn between the extremes of freezing and excitation. They are like a person who, seeing the rope lowered down the pit, would have taken it for a snake and started to hide from it or rush from side to side trying to avoid a bite.   

Grasp that fear arises from sadness. Show diligence in purifying the mind. 

Know that sad beings think only about the bad. Strength and life leave them, and weakness and helplessness come to them. Sadness and disappointment are overcome with the power of patience and diligence. Nevertheless slothful and weak willed beings, in lieu of diligence and patience, indulge in daydreaming and longing. They are like a person who, although a rope was lowered down to him into the pit, does not get out on it, but asks the rope, “Hey, rope, tie yourself around my waist and lift me up! Why aren't you doing that?”

Grasp that sadness arises from desire.

Know that desires, whether they come true or not, always deepen dissatisfaction. The pursuit of fulfillment of desires is like drinking salt water; thirst only grows, turning into insanity. Sensible beings curb their desires, whereas fools are curbed by their desires. They are like a person who, seeing the rope lowered down to him into the pit, cuts it to gird himself or for some other trifling need. 

Grasp that desire arises from clinging to joy. 

Know that desire arises from seeking to prolong a pleasant feeling or resume an interrupted pleasant feeling. Therefore it is nothing more than the result of clinging to a joyful and pleasant state. Intelligent beings know that a pleasant feeling born of contact with impermanent phenomena is misleading and unreliable. Thus they do not cling to the pleasant feeling, seeing it as a mirage, a dew drop on a blade of grass, a thawing dream. Nonetheless people who are drunk, not seeing the risk of clinging, behave like a person who, instead of getting out of the pit on the rope lowered there, would have started to swing on it like on a swing. 

Grasp that clinging to joy arises from disregard for peace. 

Know that disregard for the peace that is inherently present in the heart of every being results in clinging to joy. Disregard for the permanently present self-awareness of the mind results in clinging to the activity of the senses. The wise value plain peace more than any other feeling and draw higher knowledge from it like from a well. However, those who are obsessed with the activity of the senses are like a person who, instead of getting out of the pit on the rope lowered there, would have meticulously inspected its external appearance — how pretty and expensive it is, and whether he who is sitting in the pit would regret by getting out of it on that rope.  

These instructions help maintain the good direction of the mind. Engaging in everyday activity, ask yourself, “Do I experience, being engaged in this activity of the senses, feelings like of the person who is getting out of the pit on the rope? Do I recognize right activity and right relaxation as a life-saving rope on which I rise from the earthly pit-like world to the heavens? Once you sense the presence of the good direction of the mind, do not tense up, simply observe whether this good direction grows weaker or recedes. When it grows weaker or recedes, investigate: which of the six darkened emotions disrupts the good direction of the mind? Having discovered the emotion, keep in mind: all six kinds of darkened emotions arise from delusion and a wrong attitude towards one's activities. Here there needs to be diligence in addressing delusions and establishing the good direction of the mind.