The third poison we are looking at today is ignorance. Many people believe that ignorance leads to the other two poisons of attachment and anger that we previously looked at. We get attached to things or become angry over things because we simply do not understand what life really is. We are ignorant of the truth and therefore continue to behave in ways that cause us more and more suffering in the future. As long as we remain ignorant, we will be trapped here in this cycle of uncontrolled rebirth.
Every time we are reborn, we are born into ignorance. We do not know about the lives we have already lived. We do not know what we are supposed to be doing in this life. We are pretty much a blank slate, and due to this ignorance we continuously repeat all the same mistakes over and over again, life after life. This is why we all endure so much suffering.
Many people live backwards lives because they are ignorant of the truth, of what life really is. They continue to behave in negative ways mistakenly thinking this will give them freedom, happiness and peace. They lack the understanding that behaving in positive ways will bring those things. Ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance causes all of us a lot of pain and suffering. We simply do not know any better, because we have not learned what we really need to know in life. It is not taught in schools or in the workplace or in most homes, and not even taught in some religions. So, it is no wonder most people remain locked in ignorance.
Due to the fact that we simply do not know what the true nature of reality is, we get caught up in the false appearance of our lives. We believe everything at face value. We think life is what we experience every day and most of us don't even try to see what lies beyond the surface. We believe all we are is a physical body and that our brain is our mind. We think that everything around us is solid and exists from it's own side. That is we think everything we encounter in life is it's own thing, separate from us. For example the chair I am sitting in currently seems to be an object that I have in my home and I can use it. It is not part of my body, so it seems to exist from it's own side or that it is a real object that exists outside of me.
We think this is true for everything in life. The people we meet are separate from us. The animals are not part of us. Buildings, roads, trees, rocks, every single thing we ever see, hear, touch, taste or feel, exists from it's own side. Since we think this is how life is we behave as though that is true. We treat things as though they have nothing to do with us. We may mistreat someone because we wrongly believe they are their own person completely separate from us. We may develop attachment for something because again we mistakenly believe it exists separate from us, that it exists outside of us, so we want to possess it or never lose it. However nothing exists from it own side. It can't or we would never know of it's existence, but because almost all of us are ignorant of this truth we continue to harm others and most of all ourselves.
If we become angry we may lash out at whomever or whatever we think is causing our anger. In those cases, we are ignorant of our own karma and how karma works, so blame something outside of us for causing us to feel this way, not knowing it is our own karma the entire time that is the cause. This time it is our ignorance of karma and how it works that brings us so much suffering in our lives.
There are people that have bought into this deceitful appearance of reality 100% and then try to show off how brilliant they are at understanding how life works. Scientists spend most of their time trying to prove their theories of how everything works, having been completely deceived. Mathematicians again, try to prove everything in life through math. They spend all their lives trying to find the ultimate explanation for life, the universe and everything. The answer may as well be 42, because they are trying to prove existence of this physical manifestation, when it doesn't really exist the way they think it does.
Physics seems to be getting closer to the answers with their quantum studies. They seem to be getting at emptiness with their findings, that there is more space, than matter. They were surprised to find that one particle could be in two places at the same time. They continue to look outside themselves at the physical appearance around them, when the whole time the answers they seek are within their own mind. They just need to take the time to discover it. They need to learn to meditate the right way and to focus their mind on emptiness to find the truth. Emptiness is the true nature of all existence. Many of them are trying to find these answers, they are just going about it the wrong way.
Once you understand what emptiness is, you then need to meditate on it correctly to gain realizations of it. Having just an intellectual understanding of it helps us in life, but it does not help us to attain emptiness to benefit us the most or in other words it does not help us to make spiritual progress. It would be similar to a scientists gaining intellectual understanding of a topic and coming up with a theory of it, but not doing any actual experiments to prove their theory. If for example a young child is told that 2 + 2 = 4, but does not grasp that concept, we can hand them two oranges and then give them another two oranges so that they can count to see that there are now 4 oranges. We need to experience things in order to gain full understanding of them. You have to experience emptiness to fully accept it.
I have only had glimpses of emptiness or what may be termed small realizations. I need to do more work, more meditation to gain the full realization, to make my mind one with emptiness. When I accomplish this, I will be able to move beyond ignorance, anger and attachment. I will then have to keep working towards full enlightenment, so that I do not lose that attainment. Sadly, when some people gain the full realization of emptiness, they mistakenly believe they have reached the upmost state of being and they can fall prey to their egos and create horrendous harm to others and themselves. This happens if they remain ignorant about the importance of compassion. Compassion must be combined with emptiness to make the best spiritual progress we can. Having compassion is wonderful, but we stymie our spiritual attainments if we ignore emptiness. The two go hand in hand towards becoming the highest spiritual being we can become.
Any spiritual attainment we gain can be lost through our ignorance. This is why it is dangerous to follow spiritual teachers who are ignorant of the truth or who brag about being an enlightened being. Anyone that has gained real spiritual progress would never brag about it, for they would be beyond feeding their own egos. If anyone is bragging about the spiritual progress they have made, then you can rest assured that they haven't made enough, so be sure not to follow them or take their advice on anything.
This is why it is so important for you do the work for yourself because that is the only way you will truly make spiritual progress. No one else can do it for you. At best they can teach you all they have learned. Once you have learned all you can about it, you then need to meditate on it to gain realizations. If you choose to not do anything spiritual, then you will remain in ignorance, and in the suffering of uncontrolled rebirth. This is why I say you are your own saviour. You are the one with the power to choose what you want in your life. You are the one that holds the key within yourself to become a higher spiritual being. No one can do it for you or give it to you because it is your own mind that you need to work on. Others can show you the way and teach you what they have done or what they have experienced, but they cannot give that to you. You have to want it and you have to work for it. You have the ability to remove your own ignorance, to give yourself peace and happiness in the future.
Hear the full podcast here: https://youtu.be/0z-QREp6Lx4
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