Gem of Wisdom for Daily Reflection: 

Removing Afflictive Emotions

A Peacock

In response to a question put forward by his disciple Ananda, Shakyamuni Buddha, the World Honoured One, explained that the teaching of Buddha Dharma, of all the Buddhas of the past, present and future, is always the same:

Do not commit any transgressions;
Generate benefit for all beings;
Purify your mind.
This is what the Buddhas teach.

This famous verse is explained by Venerable Lama Dondrup Dorje in the opening of the audio teaching, ‘Removing Afflictive Emotions’, which contains essential guidance for those who wish to overcome the emotions that afflict our minds, and to protect their vows, such as those of the Refuge Vow, the Monastic Vows, Bodhisattva and Vajrayana Vows. Venerable Lama Dondrup Dorje explains the causes of afflictive emotions (such as aversion and attachment) as the misguided perceptions of sentient beings. He then identifies their root causes and disadvantages, and explains the benefits of protecting one's vows and in the process succeeding in cultivating qualities such as bodhicitta and selflessness.

Offering a remedy to these afflictions, Venerable Lama Dondrup Dorje prescribes the method of guiding our emotion with wisdom and discipline, through which we can all rid ourselves of attachment to afflictive emotion and in so doing give rise to such compassion from within that extends without condition, and transcend the obsession with the conceptual label of the ‘I’ to benefit all sentient beings.

Play Audio (28 mins)

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