Reply To: habitual behaviour and suffering

#20953
sybe07
Spectator

One is not really oneself when one thinks, speaks and acts under influence of greed, hate, delusion, anusaya, asava, tanha, avijja. Why is this so hard to accept while it is, for me, so obvious? This is even accepted in strong cases in criminal law. But even when those defilements are not so powerful, they have the power to start a proces of alienation.

Such behaviour arising from (strong or mild) habitual forces like anusaya is never free, not pure, not really unburdened. It is burdened by the past, by past experiences. So it is not authentic.

For example, once one had a bad experience with the car, and after that one cannot drive that car anymore freely, unburdened. Noises of the car one immediately interprets as possible mechanical failure. Or, once one had a very painful experience in love and then one becomes very protective etc. There are so many examples which show we are becoming less and less ourselves and become more and more fettered.

A lot of situations and people we do not meet openly, unburdened, fresh (or empty), anymore. This is even true for a new born infant, let alone for an adult!

The Buddha talks about these fetters. He knows the unburdened mind. One of the biggest burdens is the conceit ‘I am’. Acting under influence of this conceit we are, ofcourse, also not ourselves, but just conceited.

Being oneself is the only task we have. Being oneself we are wise, compassionate. Being oneself means we must free ourselves from the fetters because those make us stupid, not compassionate.

There is nothing wrong with ourselves. We have to much baggage and this accessory stuff controlls our life to much. That we must end and that is all to do. We cannot change ourselves but we can change habits, fetters, anusaya etc. The Buddha never ever taught we are the fetters, gati, anusaya etc.

Siebe