“As Shantideva says, you have been sick for a long time with the illness of the afflictions such as attachment—an illness that is long-lasting, intractable, and causes strong suffering. Therefore, you must recognize this to be your situation. Ga-ma-Pa (Ka-ma-ba) said that if we were not in fact sick, then meditating on our sick condition would be misguided. However, stricken with the virulent and chronic disease of the three mental poisons [attachment, hostiltiy, and ignorance], we are extremeley sick, but we are completely unaware that we are ill.”
From The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment by Je Tsong Khapa.
As translated in: The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment: The Lam Rim Chen Mo by Tsong Khapa. Translated by the Lamrim Chenmo Translation Committee. Snow Lion/Shambhala Publications.
Photo: His Holiness the Dalai Lama giving the 2013 Jangchup Lamrim Teachings, Sera Monastery, Bylakuppe, India, December 2013, © Rio Helmi/JLTOC
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