This website is the home of The Four Noble Truths on the web.

Ignorance / ‘Self’ / ‘I’ / Grasping / Ego

• There is no pen that is a pen from its own side. To a human, it is a pen. To a puppy, it is something to chew. The quality of music is not coming from its own side. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Emptiness is potential. It is like a blank piece of paper. Karma makes us see things in a particular way, with attachment and aversion. What seems like inherent existence, that is the illusion. That is ignorance.
• We all have this feeling that we are an “I”. This “I” is fiction.
• Anything that makes you less selfish, more focused on the benefit of others, develop concern for others, that is a teaching. That is what a teaching is.
• We are deluded by layer upon layer of karma imprinted on nature of mind. We have this notion of ‘I’ being separate. Our mind has become conditioned in this way. This is ignorance.
• The gross self can be analyzed into body and mind. This can further be analyzed into five aggregates. The purpose of analysis is to try to find the ‘self’. The intended outcom is to discover the unfindability of self. This is the insight that liberates us.
• What do yogi’s do? Uproot the illusion of “I”.
• The source of grasping is believing in a ‘self’ – seeing it as real.
• Sign of ego – we feel pain when humiliated.
• If you look at ‘I’, there is no ‘self’. I is selfless.
• Rinpoche will not praise you. He will not do anything to make your ego stronger.
• Two brothers are fighting for a box which is their inheritance. But they don’t know box is empty. ‘I’ is like that. We are servants of ‘I’, but ‘I’ is empty.
• ‘I’ is the target. Hit it with anything that works.
• Who wants to do? That is ego.
• In Chod, we ask ghosts, demons and enemies to come and feast on us. Why? To reduce ego.
• Ignorance means seeing a ‘self-nature’ where there isn’t.
• Ignorance means non-recognition of the nature of mind.
• Purify ignorance, the result is wisdom of dharmadhatu.
• Conceptual thoughts originate from ‘I’.
• “I” obscures the true nature of mind.
• When you have this wisdom when you don’t have any kind of ego clinging, the flip side is wanting to do everything for the benefit of others.
• Simply avoiding negative deeds and doing positive deeds cannot make us buddha. We have to uproot belief in a ‘self’ where there is none.
• If there is no self-grasping, there is no fear that one will be harmed. When you are afraid, ask ‘Who is afraid?’ Recognize that there is no ‘self’.
• Sentient being arises from self-clinging. Deity arises from Bodhicitta.
• If you think you are a ‘self’ – you will be reborn in samsara.
• Self-grasping is what makes us sentient [non-enlightened] beings.
• ‘Self’ is like a curtain that prevents us from seeing true nature.
• Self-clinging and dualistic grasping are the same thing.
• We grasp to ‘self’ even after we die. That is why we come back.
• The opposite of ‘I’ is bodhicitta.
• Even animals have a sense that they are a ‘I’.
• When we let go of grasping, buddha nature reveals itself. Buddha is Sang Gye. Sang means to clear away grasping, Gye means to expand.
• We have got used to ‘I’ for a very long time. Now create the mind to benefit others. This is building the foundation.
• Our merit declines due to self-clinging and negative emotions. Bodhicitta restores it.
• Close the door to negative action. Do something for others.
• We have clinging to self because we cannot recognize clear light [nature of mind].
• When mind is not grasping, it pervades out. It becomes like space.
• Why we have grasping is because we think of it as real. Why we meditate illusion-like is to reduce grasping.
• Let ‘I’ go to vacation. Never coming back.
• When you have this wish to accomplish other’s welfare, in that moment, there is no self-clinging.
• Ego is the root of suffering.