..續本文上一頁y be, nobody truly wants to be stuck with their negativity because it is painful.

　　There is an automatic sense of renouncing suffering that exists within all sentient beings” minds right at the point of seeing that we suffer. When we compare physical pain to emotional pain, we see that emotional pain is much stronger, so it follows that beings also wish to avoid emotional pain as well as physical pain. But in the very next moment, the mind becomes confused. The mind gets confused due to all the concepts, ideas, and tendencies that flood in and overwhelm it. We do not know what to do, so we do not renounce anything.

　　Instead we continue to indulge in our habitual tendencies, which just leads to more suffering. Why do our concepts, ideas, and tendencies occur and cause us to react in all these different ways, overwhelming us with more and more pain

　　 This occurs due to a fundamental lack of wisdom.

　　Let”s look closely at why this happens. The first cause is our automatic emotional reactions. Where do these automatic emotional reactions come from

　　 Did we have the same automatic emotional reactions to everything when we were children

　　 No. They come from influences—the influences of conventional views, ideas, and even religion. We have accepted these influences to be ultimate truths without ever having determined whether they are actually true in our own experience. Without having completely understood everything through our own mind, we have adopted all of the concepts and views from the outer world and from the people who have preceded us.

　　This is how we have developed our reactive minds and emotions. From this point of view, what is “good” may not even remain good, and what is “bad” may not remain bad. If something is good, there have to be reasons why it is good, and the reasons have to be understood. If it is bad, there have to be reasons why it is bad, and the reasons have to be understood. When the reasons are not understood through experience, when we are just reacting because somebody told us to, then we are more or less following blindly like animals.

　　In nomad territory, when hunters want to kill wild pigs or rams, they herd all the animals to the edge of a cliff, and then the hunters start to push. Once one animal jumps, then the rest of the animals will also jump without hesitation. The hunters can easily kill many animals using this method. It indicates the animals” lack of wisdom. If we haven”t fully understood something with our own innate wisdom, then according to the extent of our lack of wisdom, we will be inclined to just go along with other peoples” views.

　　So what do we have to do

　　 We need to realize that in each of us there is renunciation toward suffering. Samsara does not need to be abandoned for there to be no suffering.

　　Without suffering, samsara in itself is not so bad. It is due to suffering that we feel renunciation as sentient beings. Human beings have greater intelligence than other sentient beings, so we have a greater sense of renunciation toward suffering. No one in the whole world would say that they like to suffer. If there were a choice, we would always choose not to suffer. So renunciation is right there. It”s important to understand this.

　　We have to have confidence in this understanding because often people get confused, thinking mistakenly that they must actually like suffering, or that suffering is somehow favorable or necessary. Sometimes people feel that they will never actually be rid of their suffering. That”s not true. Renunciation is present in all beings when it comes to suffering. Whether one is able to realistically and practically develop this renunciation is an entirely different story, however. It depends on how open, wise, and clear we are, and how much wisdom we can apply to tru…

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