Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
Kleshas
ThailandTom
Veteran
How do you personally deal with a klesha when it arises. I know that is a very vaugue statement, so if you could maybe give an example of a mild klesha and then one which is pretty extreme and how you would or have gone through the process of dealing with it.
0
Comments
Start with the most severe kleshas.. so craving is probably the one to work on. You imagine this great feeling and you say i shouldn't.. but you really want to... so again you just take this time and observe it and take a deep breath. This is a very course klesha but you can have victories even if they are small.
Anger turned outward or inward is another big one. A sense of failure perhaps.
I just in these cases with anger I bear it and get away from the situation. But as that happens I allow myself to feel it. With the sense of failure thats a less course klesha than craving or anger. In a sense of failure, maybe thats not it I guess a sense of wrongness, like it whatever it is isn't right. That icky sense you catch the thinking that goes along with it by settling into it and feeling it. If you can catch a bit of the thinking the process of seeing it as thinking disempowers it.
Many of these by seeing them clearly they become disempowered. So you don't have to control the klesha once you disempower it you've pretty much won. Craving is of course one of the poisons and we only get partial victory so often it sets in and is rather unpleasant. But with craving just watch what the craving promises. How good its gonna be and then watch how the situation pans out how it actually causes suffering. Also just watch how this voice inside you says that you 'have to' do it. Both the promise and the 'have to' are just lies the mind is saying, not really lies but just chatter that you don't have to obey.
Thats all I can think of but I think as buddhism gets into your dreams it is pretty deep and you have some powerful connections to the dharma! Don't underestimate the power of yourself when you come into contact with the dharma! You never know what kinda klesha you can transform.
But one example of failure for me happened a couple of days ago. It was that I had designed some Tshirts for someone over the internet, one of my 'clients' if you will. After presenting some designs they have replied once and I have not heard since, so I guess that is a dead-end job with that guy. The thing is, I accept it, but it still hurts and is for some reason a bigger klesha to me than anger. All kleshas occur I assume as we still have an ego of some sort.
But if you really think about the teaching you kind of get a sense that as long as you keep going in the right direction that over time things will get better. Sometimes I even have a sense of just letting go and letting myself lose.. From my recollection you had some nice things stolen and you were able to just let go. Now didn't that feel kind of good to let go of all that? So those little moments show us how resilient we are and how free we can be.
Ha ha this is a lot of talk. Do you know what Trungpa Rinpoche said when asked how to deal with klesha. He said you just do it.
Here's his real deal teaching more elaborated on The Lion's Roar
yes I lost my apple macbook along with around 900 pounds. I was angry at first, but also still very drugged from where I got spiked. But after 2 days the drug had subsided and I simply thought, well I have done what I can, I have gone to the police and it is all gone. Why worry or stress about it, it has happened now so the wise thing to do would be to let it go mentally. I also had a lot of time to contemplate it as I was so drugged I did not move from my room for two days. That seemed to work pretty well.
The same applied with my hand. That was easier to accept actually, slightly because I had or have little respect for my body, but also because of the same train of thought. It has happened, not much I can do so let it go.
With this specific job, it is slightly different. As you quite rightly pointed out, I have put a lot of energy into it and should have quoted some payed time unpfront if he uses them or not. in the design industry, it is commonly known that you will sometimes have clients who turn every design down, but seeing as it is a skill of mine, it hurts that much more. Also, he could still reply, which makes it harder to let go.