Thu, 20 Jul 2006
Interview with Khenchen
The interview with Khenchen Konchog Gyaltsen, which was available in print, is now available online at the Snow Lion site.
The three poisons are interconnected; without one, the others cannot exist. There is not so much discussion of desire because this topic is a little sensitive. However, if there is no desire, there is no arising of anger. When there is no ignorance, there is no reason that desire and anger would arise. They are inter-related. The main problem is ignorance--it obscures the pureness of the mind. Because of this, we misperceive the way that phenomena exist. For example, all phenomena are impermanent, yet we perceive phenomena as permanent. Everything is changing every moment, every second, but in our mind we hold phenomena as something substantial and real. If that is present in our mental state, then when we see things we like we will have desire, whether for a person or material things. That desire brings up greed and possessiveness. When we encounter obstacles to our desire, anger will pop up. Anger in this situation is very destructive. Desire is to possess, to want, to have. Anger is to destroy obstacles to this desire. Because they are based in ignorance, we need to understand the interdependent nature of phenomena. All types of causes and conditions come together--no entity is independent. This is what we mean by emptiness--there is no independent entity.
Lama Gursam is returning to Baltimore the second weekend in August. It will be good to see him again.
