The light of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas is radiant and boundless. It shines across the heavens and the earth, piercing through the deepest darkness. It illuminates the entire Realm and the vastness of empty space. For those lost in the shadows, this light is a singular ray of light; it is the promise of salvation in the midst of despair, and the profound gratitude one feels when finding a way out of a hopeless situation.
The Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, the ancestral masters, and those who have realised their true nature clearly perceive the suffering of all beings. Driven by their great compassion and their Ultimate Vow, they wish to save every suffering being. They possess the immense power and courage to rescue us, helping us leave suffering behind and find true happiness. They are the ultimate hope for all beings who are currently trapped in the darkness of pain and confusion.
The Perilous Ocean of Sentiment
With a heart full of earnest concern, they counsel those drowning in the sea of emotional entanglements to let go of these attachments. This is especially vital for those who have dedicated their lives to practice. If you can listen to this advice, there is a path to salvation; you can be rescued and continue your journey of practice. However, if you find it difficult to heed this counsel and continue to drift aimlessly in the sea of emotion, you risk drowning in its depths. By doing so, you sever your own path toward realising your true nature and attaining Buddhahood.
In the teachings of Buddhism, every thought and intention is considered a violation of the . If you harbour waves of emotion, sentimental thoughts, or attachments, you have already broken the precepts. How much more severe, then, is the impact of acting upon these emotions in the physical world?
The Karmic Burden of Emotional Entanglements
For the practitioner, whether you are a monastic or a lay practitioner, emotion is a direct violation of the precepts. This is particularly true for monastics. If you break the precepts regarding desire, you do not only damage your own foundation of discipline and lose the protection that the precepts provide for your body; you also invite profound suffering into your life:
Physical suffering: becomes heavy and burdened by karmic weight.
Mental suffering: The mind loses its clarity and becomes clouded by agitation.
Spiritual suffering: The spirit becomes restless and disconnected from the light of the Dharma.
The suffering of attached spirits: The residing within your body, who are tied to your past emotional entanglements, suffer intensely.
These attached spirits are stirred by your emotional thoughts, causing them to manifest. They relive the memories of the past, which remain vivid in their hearts. While these beings remain trapped in the space and time of those past events, filled with sorrow and hatred, the other party involved has long since forgotten. The emotion is gone; it has become empty. Yet, when these beings manifest now to seek balance, how could they possibly allow the other person to have a peaceful life or a harmonious outcome?
The Wisdom of Letting Go
When the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and the masters look at the romantic and emotional entanglements of the world, they see them for what they truly are: ignorance, delusion, suffering, , and a complex web of entanglement that is difficult to clear, causing us to tumble through the sea of emotion for lifetime after lifetime.
If you encounter emotional entanglements while you are trying to practise, how can you expect to succeed? How can you then speak of the great vow to save yourself and all beings, or the great practice of saving the world? Emotion is empty, illusory, and false. Once the moment passes, it is gone forever. Yet, it invites many karmic creditors and attached spirits from your past lives to manifest. You must then resolve the conflict, invite these spirits to hear the Dharma, and perform to alleviate their suffering and clear the obstacles from your path of practice.
The only hope within this sea of emotion is to see its true face clearly. You must save yourself by cutting off these attachments and refusing to be swayed by them again. My dear students, can you still afford to indulge in these emotions? You should avoid them as if you were fleeing from a great danger. Why would you ever want to return to that sea? To cut off these ties immediately is the mark of true wisdom, and it is the only way to continue your journey on the path of practice.
