Spacious Passion

Chapter 9 – Irrational Reason

transformation

Q: Sometimes I experience a kind of depression about my powerlessness to help others even though I am a practitioner.

NN: When feeling intense sorrow at images of people suffering, know that your practice will help. Dharma has the intelligence of knowing that sorrow alone will not help such people, but our daily practice and commitment to work towards realisation will ultimately be of benefit to all sentient beings. As warriors, we do not flinch from the horrors of life circumstances. We face them, experience the horror and transform the feeling of being overwhelmed into ubiquitous intelligence. The warrior does not retract into indifference, or kid themselves that putting 50p in a charity box has fulfilled their responsibility. The warrior practices wholeheartedly and energetically to be of benefit to others.

Q: When you talk of vajra pride, vajra aggression, vajra obsession, vajra paranoia and vajra depression, these emotional states are no longer reference points?

NN: That’s right. The energy that we call emotion—as it filters through dualistic distortion—is simply non-dual energy. This is the energy of the emotions in their natural condition – free of dualistic distortion.