ADVICE BOOK - The Real Chöd Practice
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Rinpoche made the following comments on chöd practice.
At my house in Aptos, I was telling one of the nuns at Kachoe Dechen Ling that when someone says something to you that really hurts your mind, then that is the most beneficial thing for your mind, because it goes straight to your ego and your heart, and touches your ego. This is what shows you, like a mirror, like a teaching from the Buddha, your own mistaken thoughts, especially the ego. It shows that there is ego and because there is ego it hurts.
If there is no ego then it would never hurt. So, these words hurt the ego, the self-cherishing thought. When people tell you your shortcomings or say words that hurt you, that is the real chöd practice. These hurtful words make you see your “I,” in Western psychological terms—the emotional “I,” and the object of ignorance, the root of samsara, which is ignorance believing the “I” is truly existent.
Normally one is not aware of this, but by doing chöd practice, inviting spirits to come, they create disturbances, and these make you see the “I,” the object of ignorance, the object to be refuted—the truly existent “I,” clearly. They show you the “I” very clearly, and then you are able to recognize that
it is false, an object of ignorance, and you are able to use logical reasoning to see that it doesn’t exist because the “I” is a dependent arising, or merely imputed on the aggregates, the base, etc. There are many other refutations; however, you recognize the object to be refuted at that moment, that it doesn’t exist at all, is totally non-existent.
So, those who use harsh words and show you your mistakes are helpful; this is similar to chöd.
In Iraq and other places where there is a lot of killing and many enemies, there are two sides attacking each other, killing an external enemy. Our practice here is killing the inner enemy. In Iraq they are killing the external enemies, who are [[sentient
beings]], the most precious, most kind sentient beings, from whom we receive all our past, present, and future happiness, liberation and enlightenment, everything; they are the most precious, kind ones.
What we should practice is killing the inner enemy, the delusions, and the only way to do that is with Dharma practice. This is the way to achieve ultimate, everlasting happiness; liberation for oneself; cessation of all the sufferings; no
more rebirth, old age, sickness, and death; and cessation of all the sufferings of each of the six realms, of karma, and delusions. Not only can you achieve liberation for yourself, but also enlightenment—great liberation for the benefit of all sentient beings.