Affiliated with the FPMT

The purpose of meditation is to gain realizations leading to the cessation of delusion and superstition. This cessation depends, first of all, on recognizing the character or function of the deluded mind. In addition, it is necessary to understand the various factors causing such a deluded mind to arise. Regarding this, Je Tsongkhapa has explained six factors leading to the growth of delusion: (1) karmic imprints, (2) the object, (3) the influence of misleading companions, (4) following false teachings, (5) habit and (6) mistaken conceptualizations.

The fundamental cause of the deluded mind is the karmic imprint left on your consciousness by previous non-virtuous actions. Because of past actions done in ignorance and motivated by desire, hatred or any of the other delusions, various imprints—or seeds of karmic instinct—have been planted on your mind. When the conditions are right, these seeds ripen and the deluded mind rises again.

The object itself is the second factor encouraging this ripening. Most of the time when the object is there near you and the karmic imprint is there in your mind, bang!—delusion arises. A good example is when you go shopping. The object is there on the shelf. Through the sense perception of your eye you come into contact with it and before you are aware of what is happening, your mind sinks with attachment into the object. It can happen in a very sneaky way and be extremely difficult to separate your mind from this desired object. Your hand automatically moves to your pocket, finds some money and you buy even before you know what you are doing. It is so simple, isn't it! Thus when the deluded subject (mind) comes into relationship with the appropriate object, superstition explodes like an atomic bomb.

In the West it is incredible how everything is exaggerated so that the deluded mind is certain to pay attention to it. "Look at this; how fantastic it is!" This technique is used so extensively that even when we give a meditation course we have to advertise, "Come to our fantastic meditation course and learn all about your amazing mind!" Western culture seems a little too much for me.

Buddha gave a very simple name to all of this. He called the realm that we are living in the desire world. It is now easy to see clearly why he gave it this name. The desire world. Desire is here! The deluded mind coming into contact with desirable objects leads to superstition producing more and more delusion. It is for this reason that Milarepa stayed in a cave. He knew that once the deluded mind comes into contact with the object of desire, delusions arise uncontrollably. That is why he thought it better to avoid such contact until his mind was tamed.

The object causing the deluded mind to arise must have some relationship to the karmic imprint. That is why technically it is called a "related object." For example, you may have a particular imprint of attachment on your mind. This will be activated by an object having desirable qualities, but not by one having repulsive, hateful qualities. Thus there has to be the proper combination of both the imprint on the mind of the subject and the object's characteristic qualities. If there is no contact with an appropriate object, it is impossible for the subjective delusion to function.

The third factor mentioned by Lama Tsongkhapa is influences from the outside. Negative, misleading friends giving you deluded information are included here. These are the people you know who make you confused. Therefore whom you have for friends, whom you stay in close contact with, is very important. All around you people are drinking, for instance. If you have some kind of control, you may be able to remain uninfluenced by them for a week or so. But after a while you can no longer control yourself because the situation is too overpowering.

It is very difficult to maintain control in opposition to such influence. If you check up in your own life, I am sure that you will find many examples of this. Such influence is not limited to bad friends or good friends. In your life you have so many "teachers," people who feed you information that only adds to your delusions. Therefore it is very important to stay around those people who give you the right vibration, the wisdom vibration. This is much better than exposing yourself all the time to polluted, confused vibrations. But this does not mean that you give up completely on all misleading friends, hating them and having bad thoughts about them. No, this should not be your reaction. It is essential always to remain compassionate. Also remember that we are polluted already; our friends are not to blame for our delusions. Their influence just makes this pollution thicker and thicker.

The Western mind is very interesting. In some respects it is very skeptical, doubting everything. This can be a very good attitude, especially when surrounded by untruth. Yet in some respects the Western mind is totally the opposite of skeptical. If it sees something that has one good aspect, that has one interesting side to it, without hesitation it accepts the whole thing as good. This overly emotional attitude is very dangerous. Every philosophy, doctrine, and religion has at least one point which is good. Even the most evil person in the world—whoever that may be according to your interpretation—has something good about him or her. Therefore, the mind that runs uncontrollably to things that it finds interesting can easily grasp onto what is really not very good at all.

I do not know why, but it seems that the Western mind likes mixtures. Something that has many different flavors mixed together in it is seen as very interesting. Please check up and see if this observation is correct. In any event, such an attitude can cause problems in certain situations. For instance, you might be listening to someone expressing an idea which, in fact, is a total misconception. You think, "It does not matter if what he says is true or not, it is interesting. Let him tell me more." I think the Western mind is like that, having incredible curiosity and ready to listen to anything. But actually, each misconception, each piece of wrong information that you grasp at in this way thickens your deluded mind. That is why I said that this uncritical attitude can be dangerous.

All this relates to the fourth factor causing delusions to arise: following false teachings. This factor differs from the previous one, which concerns going together with those who are bad influences. The third factor relates in general to your life style, to your surroundings. This fourth factor, however, means believing that someone is a special teacher and therefore listening to and following all the wrong conceptions he or she teaches.

For example, at the time of Shakyamuni Buddha there lived a man who wanted liberation very badly, and so he went to see a certain guru. The guru told him to kill a thousand people and make a rosary out of their thumbs. "When you are finished, and have gained realizations, come back to me for more teachings." This man, known as Angulimala, actually believed this so-called guru, and collected 999 thumbs before he finally met Buddha and was persuaded to practice real Dharma. His devotion had been blind, and led to nothing but suffering.

Teachings, of whatever quality, can be very interesting. But when people find things interesting it often just means that they crave information. The same thing can be seen in children. Before Western children go to sleep they like their mother or father to read them a story. That's true, isn't it? The stories are very interesting, but most of them are garbage. Children are very sensitive and have fantastic imaginations. They also believe in things very strongly, so that what they hear makes a deep imprint on their minds. Most parents are not fully aware of this and think, "It doesn't matter. As long as the kid likes this story and falls asleep, that's okay." There is no idea of what kind of effect it is having on the child's mind, what result it is producing. The important thing is that he falls asleep quickly so that you can be free, free to go to sleep yourself or whatever. Just as long he doesn't make any noise. But this is not right. It is not being kind to your children to give them such garbage information. It only makes their delusions and superstitions thicker and thicker.

Of course, if you have wisdom you can read any type of garbage information at all without being affected by it. You can be checking up on it without taking it all in greedily. That's okay. But when you are too interested, too attracted—"Yes, yes, tell me more!"—it leaves a very strong impression on your mind. There is a total lack of discriminating wisdom-knowledge, no clear idea of what is right and wrong. You take everything in with no judgment whatsoever.

The same is true about all types of information. So much comes in but generally there is no integration and no differentiation between what is useful and what is harmful. In fact, nearly every aspect of popular Western culture—books, magazines, movies, television and the like—is totally dedicated to producing more and more desire and superstition. There are exceptions to this, of course. Some movies, for instance, are different. But most of them show you what you like, what the superstitious mind wants to see.

Anything to arouse your interest. The people who create these films, books and so forth have a practical understanding of psychology. They know exactly what arouses people's desires and superstitions and what will make them more confused than they already are.

In short, misconceptions and misinformation cause more delusion if the mind lacks discriminating wisdom-knowledge. You receive so much information from the television, for example, that you actually become excited. Sometimes you cannot take it any longer and have to leave the room! So whatever information there is that makes you become more confused should be avoided as much as possible.

The fifth factor increasing the strength of the delusions is habit. It can work this way: at one time you had a certain experience with an object. When you meet a similar object you remember the first experience, and each time you repeat the action the strength of that memory increases, becoming more powerful and distorted in your imagination. Habit builds up certain associations so strongly that whenever a similar situation arises, your mind automatically runs towards delusion. Some people become so obsessed in this way with a deluded object that they cannot forget it. Why does this happen! Because the experience has been repeated over and over and over again, making the imprint of it thicker and thicker. The mind dwells in the recollection of this experience, adding to the delusion. A person cannot even sleep without a vision of that object appearing in his or her dreams. I am sure that everyone has had experience with this phenomenon. If a habit is repeated often enough and its imprint becomes strong enough, you can actually go mad.

Sometimes the object of delusion forcefully impresses itself on your imagination. For example, in the West when you are about to part from a girlfriend or boyfriend, you both plead, "Please don't forget me! Keep me in your memory. If you forget me, it means you don't love me anymore." That's why you are not free. You can see that you are not free because you have become obsessed in this way with one object.

The sixth factor also concerns things that appear interesting. When the memory of something comes, you make a certain type of judgment about it: "This thing is so good. It is fantastic. It has this quality, and that quality, and this and that..." You exaggerate tremendously the worth of something until it does not resemble the original at all. It has become merely the product of your mistaken conceptualizations.

You have a boyfriend, for example, with whom you are obsessed. You find his every movement and gesture interesting. The way he walks, what he says, what he does—it all seems good to you. Even when he does something incredibly bad, for you it becomes a source of pleasure. You are concentrating so much on his attractive qualities that his negative aspects are totally obscured.

The mind works in such a way, however, that if one day he says something particularly unpleasant to you, your attitude begins to change. You think, "He's not nice at all." Your mind concentrates on this thought. "Not nice, not nice, not nice..." Soon everything about him appears repulsive; there is nothing about him anymore that is pleasing to you. You can see this happen, can't you! It is incredible how the deluded mind works. First something appears completely positive and then it changes to its opposite. But I say that it is totally impossible for any object, any sentient being to be completely positive or completely negative. Everything has both positive and negative energy. It is only the obsessed mind that sees things in terms of black and white. There is a certain saying I heard in the West: "You hear what you want to hear." This is a very accurate psychological statement, a very good Dharma point. It emphasizes the truth of what we have been discussing.

Seeing some kind of desirable object, then, always involves an overestimation. Its good aspects are emphasized so much that you lose all judgment about it. Simultaneously, you view that object as if it were somehow self-existent. You conceive of it as something permanent, existing self-sufficiently the way it appears to you. You fail to see that the way it appears is actually a function of your own projections. Instead, you think that these exaggerated qualities come from the object itself rather than being what you have put onto the object from your own side. You do not see what has happened. This deluded projection covering the object is much thicker than make-up. Impermanent things are viewed as permanent. Objects being in the nature of suffering are thought of as the causes of happiness. And although all things lack true, independent self-existence, they are conceived of as having such self-existence.

Je Tsongkhapa defined this process as holding onto something that has nothing to do with reality. It is completely unrelated to the way things actually exist. You grasp onto something, perceiving and believing it to exist in a certain way, and as a result your delusions grow. The deluded mind becomes more powerful. This brings us back to an earlier point: whatever exists—good news, bad news, heaven and hell, samsara or nirvana—is a manifestation of the mind. When the mind is covered with superstitions it creates suffering. Therefore, in order to gain release from this suffering it is important to understand both the characteristic nature of the deluded mind and the factors causing these superstitions to arise and increase. So check up and meditate on these six factors. It is so worthwhile. Your understanding can become so powerful that it makes your mind really straight. Otherwise there is no way to begin to rid yourself of delusions.