Unconscious Guidance Helps Us To Pursue Our Goals

The Three Poisons

“Three objects, three poisons, and three seeds of virtue” is a pithy slogan from the lojong (mind training) teachings of Tibetan Buddhism. In the passages below, from her book Start Where You Are, the Buddhist nun and philosopher Pema Chodron delves into the meaning of this slogan.

“In the Buddhist teachings, the messy stuff is called klesha, which means poison. Boiling it all down to the simplest possible formula, there are three main poisons: passion, aggression, and ignorance. We could talk about these in different ways – for example, craving, aversion, and couldn’t care less. Addictions of all kinds come under the category of craving, which is wanting, wanting, wanting – feeling that we have to have some kind of resolution. Aversion encompasses violence, rage, hatred, and negativity of all kinds, as well as garden-variety irritation. And ignorance? Nowadays, it’s usually called denial.

…There’s nothing really wrong with passion or aggression or ignorance, except that we take it so personally and therefore waste all that juicy stuff. The peacock eats poison and that’s what makes the colors of its tail so brilliant. That’s the traditional image for this practice, that the poison becomes the source of great beauty and joy; poison becomes medicine.

…In terms of “Three objects, three poisons, and three seeds of virtue”, when these poisons arise, the instruction is to drop the story line, which means – instead of acting out or repressing – use the situation as an opportunity to feel your heart, to feel the wound. Use it as an opportunity to touch that soft spot. Underneath all that craving or aversion or jealousy or feeling wretched about yourself, underneath all that hopelessness and despair and depression, there’s something extremely soft…

When we do that, the three poisons become three seeds of how to make friends with ourselves. They give us the chance to work on patience and kindness, the chance not to give up on ourselves and not to act out or repress. They give us the chance to change our habits completely. This is what helps both ourselves and others. This is instruction on how to turn unwanted circumstances into the path of enlightenment. By following it, we can transform all that messy stuff that we usually push away into the path of awakening: reconnecting with our soft heart, our clarity, and our ability to open further.”

When approaching our Daily Actions in conjunction with PGST, some form of klesha is often waiting for us at the threshold. If one has set out to “work on the outline of my novel for at least twenty minutes” three forms of resistance can often happen: 1) I must write this f*&^%ing novel! – it’s my last shot at the brass ring and true redemption!! 2) I can’t write this f*&^%ing novel! What’s the point anyway? – I’ll never finish 3) Who cares about this f*&^%ing novel? I’m going to go play video games and smoke a joint. These three examples of resistance are the three poisons in full effect.

If we remain at the mercy of any of these poisons, odds are, just as Pema says, either we act out (smoke, drink, eat, sex, titillate, consume, distract) or repress (pretend we are truly engaged with real action while we futilely attempt to manage our emotions and neurosis). So how do we allow the poisons to “become three seeds of how to make friends with ourselves”? How do we swallow the poison and, like the peacock, create our colorful and magnificent brilliance?
The TAG! Inventory process used in PGST is a gentle tool that can help us move toward this transformation and grounded transcendence.

TAG! (Truth Acceptance Go!) is a simple written inventory system of acknowledging we are in some form of fear/resistance/obsession. We physically articulate and name what I would call the Core Old Belief or what Pema would call the “story line” and then surrender this looping thought spiral by accepting and embracing our current emotional state (uncomfortable yuckiness and all!) and gently moving into the Next Right Action. By becoming conscious of the three poisons, they become not only signposts that we are on the path (for facing obstacle is the path), but also fuel for the path itself. As Pema says “underneath all that hopelessness and despair and depression, there’s something extremely soft” and we may come to discover that this soft and vulnerable center is where all real creativity is born. The three poisons, if handled properly, can then be seen in their true form; angels heralding human growth, and not the marauding demons they appear to be when first encountered.

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