Wisdom Of The Sages Pt 1: Being Free From Strong Preferences

Welcome to this series on learning from sages and meditation masters.

In these talks I'll go over various attributes of wise sages described by well-cultivated spiritual masters.

And this can be very helpful for us because in any field,

Whether it be golf or basketball or chess,

There can be an immense value in studying those that are further advanced on the journey compared to us.

So beginners and advanced practitioners of a particular sport or skill will study those that are really advanced on their path to understand their mindsets,

How they cultivate their techniques,

And also habits to see how they can themselves can improve on their journey.

And meditation is no different.

So one thing that is very interesting is that there are many commonalities of those who have taken this journey of meditation to a high degree.

And we can notably observe their ability to get into deep states of meditation,

But we can also see how they conduct themselves ethically and are well trained in various facets,

Such as renunciation,

Compassion,

And wisdom,

Far more than someone who has no spiritual practice at all.

And we can see a lot of the same sentiments expressed from masters of different traditions,

Such as Buddhism or yoga or Daoism.

And what is very interesting is that many of these masters lived thousands of years ago and never had any contact with each other and certainly did not have the internet,

Yet came up with a lot of the same conclusions.

So this is certainly worth looking at.

And one common theme which I'll describe in this talk is that sages agree that the wise have no strong likes or dislikes.

You can also say that they don't have any strong worldly preferences.

So I'll be reading from a few quotes from different masters.

The first is by Zhuangzi,

Who lived in the 4th century BC.

A sage doesn't allow likes or dislikes to get in and do him harm.

He just lets things be the way they are.

The next passage is from the third patriarch of Zen,

Songtsen.

And this was found in the text Shenqin Ming.

And this translation is by Richard B.

Clark.

And here I'll be just reading excerpts from this whole passage,

Which is a lot longer.

The great way is not difficult for those who have no preferences.

When love and hate are both absent,

Everything becomes clear and undisguised.

Make the smallest distinction,

However,

And heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.

If you wish to see the truth,

Then hold no opinions for or against anything.

To set up what you like against what you dislike is a disease on the mind.

When the deep meaning of things is not understood,

The mind's essential peace is disturbed to no avail.

And going ahead further in the text,

To return to the root is to find the meaning,

But to pursue appearances is to miss the source.

At the moment of inner enlightenment,

There is going beyond appearance and emptiness.

The changes that appear to occur in the empty world we call real only because of our ignorance.

Do not search for the truth.

Only cease to cherish opinions.

And going ahead,

Do not remain in the dualistic state.

Avoid such pursuits carefully.

If there is even a trace of this and that,

Of right and wrong,

The mind essence will be lost in confusion.

Although dualities come from the One,

Do not be attached even to this One.

When the mind exists undisturbed in the way,

Nothing in the world can offend.

And when a thing can no longer offend,

It ceases to exist in the old way.

And lastly,

If you wish to move in the one way,

Do not dislike even the world of senses and ideas.

Indeed,

To accept them fully is identical with true enlightenment.

The wise man strives to no goals,

But the foolish man betters himself.

There is one Dharma,

Not many.

Distinctions arise from the clinging needs of the ignorant.

To seek mind with the discriminating mind is the greatest of all mistakes.

Rest and unrest derive from illusion.

With enlightenment,

There is no liking and disliking.

All dualities come from ignorant inference.

They are like dreams or flowers in the air.

Foolish to try and grasp them.

Gain and loss,

Right and wrong,

Such thoughts must be finally abolished at once.

So from what Sang San is talking about,

You can see that the mind that tries to grasp at things,

That has preferences or pushes things away,

Is actually quite detrimental for us.

And it often manifests as trying to pursue appearances,

As he says,

In the world.

And it can even be found in our meditation practice,

Where we're trying to grasp at enlightenment.

And here Sang San says that we shouldn't outright push it away,

So to do not dislike even in the world of senses and ideas,

But rather just be okay with it.

So offering non-resistance and simply letting it go.

And in this state of liking and disliking,

Our mind is at unrest.

It's not very peaceful.

And we can learn to let go of these things.

And in enlightenment,

He says that there is no liking and disliking.

So all of our dualities come from this ignorant inference.

So we want to work practically on abolishing these things and returning back to the root to find the meaning.

So again,

Just turning our attention back inwards and seeing our true nature.

Now,

If you look into another text,

We can look into the Sage Leadership Book,

Which has a collection from the extracts from the Huinanzi,

Which was advice from given by different Tao sages who occupied a court in the second century BC.

So these are just a various quotes from them of this time.

Sages examine the changes of movement and rest,

Make the measures of receiving and giving appropriate,

Make feelings of like and dislike reasonable,

And harmonize the degrees of joy and anger.

When movement and rest are right,

No trouble is encountered.

When receiving and giving are appropriate,

No blame is incurred.

When likes and dislikes are reasonable,

No anxiety comes near.

When joy and anger are in measure,

No enmity invades.

And another quote,

When likes and dislikes are formalized,

And cognition is based outside,

Unable to return to itself,

The celestial pattern is obliterated.

Therefore,

Those who arrive at the Tao do not replace the celestial with the human.

Externally,

They change along with things,

But internally,

They do not lose their true state.

And the last quote,

Habitual desires deplete people's energies.

Likes and dislikes strain people's mind.

If you do not get rid of them quickly,

Your will and energy will diminish day by day.

So these quotes,

Taken from the Huinanzi,

Talk more about the practical aspects of having a lot of likes and dislikes.

So we can see here that it robs a person of their energy and keeps their attention fixated on the outside,

Rather than having a center from within.

So a sage in this case,

Where it's described as the one that has arrived at the Tao,

Does not replace the celestial with the human,

Which is to look on the outside.

And they would change along with circumstances,

But internally,

They're unshaken and aren't moved by likes and dislikes.

So from all that was talked about so far,

We can understand that having a lot of likes and dislikes can drain our energy,

Keep us in this duality of the world,

And thus hinder you from abiding in our true state,

Or the way,

Or an unconditioned state,

And so on.

And our goal is to remove these preferences when we see them,

And also spend time abiding in a place that is beyond likes and dislikes,

Or various conditions.

And this is the practice of the sages,

Is to work on reducing these habitual desires of the mind,

And finding calm,

And a place of calm that goes beyond these preferences.

So practical advice that we can take on is,

Number one,

We can follow the advice from Buddhism.

And the Buddha had once said,

Is that attachments and aversions,

Which are basically likes and dislikes,

Are hindrances of the mind.

And on this path followed by the Buddha,

We work on removing these things on a journey.

And one advice he gives is that when we notice attachment,

And a clinging,

Or aversion of pushing away,

Coming up,

We simply just notice,

Oh,

Attachment has arisen in me,

Or,

Oh,

Aversion has arisen in me.

And also notice when these states are not present,

And observe how peaceful your mind is.

So this is actually quite peaceful,

When you observe when your mind is not caught up in likes and dislikes,

And notice the peace involved.

And the hope is,

Is that you'd be less inclined to continue the behavior that riles up more of these likes and dislikes,

The more you experience this kind of freedom from non-attachment.

The next advice that's quite helpful is to cultivate a feeling of gratitude.

And contentment is talked about a lot in Taoism,

And also in Western schools of thought as well,

Such as positive psychology.

And the idea is that if you feel content with what you have,

And you feel grateful for whatever that you do have,

Then the forces of attachment and aversion won't sway you off-center,

And it has a great dampening effect,

Because you would not chase after things that you don't have,

Because you're grateful for what you have already,

So you feel full inside.

And things that don't go well,

And create a resistance in your mind,

Don't also pull you off-center,

Because you can quickly focus on what you do have,

Rather than focusing on what you don't have.

And this keeps your mind more even-keeled.

And gratitude also uplifts the mind as well,

Which is a very positive quality to have,

And also develop as you practice.

The next advice is to relax into various urges that you have.

So these are the forces of desire and aversion.

And you can practically notice this in your meditation.

You might be sitting through your meditation,

And then all of a sudden,

A very pleasant thought comes,

Or you have this urge to do something else,

And your mind will create this certain urge.

And on the other hand,

You may have a lot of aversion.

So you could be sitting there,

And your knee might hurt,

Or you are fighting with your mind,

And there's a lot of tension and resistance built up.

Well,

This is a great way to practice relaxing and letting go these forces of attachment and aversion.

So what you'll do is simply relax into these tensions found in the mind and body,

And you've actually trained yourself to let go of these forces.

And if you keep practicing this,

Your capacity to let go of very strong preferences and likes and dislikes will gradually be let go of over time.

So I hope you found this helpful.

Thank you.