The Inner Warrier
A four weeks course to highlight the inner war we need to wage against our inner enemies
The word 'war' is to emphasise that we do have an enemy - and that only delusions are our enemies.
Living beings are our kind mothers.
We need to love living beings and to destroy our delusions in general but specifically our self-cherishing and self-grasping. And standing up to our delusions and destroying them is what we refer to as the war.
Inner warrier is obviously indicating we are the warrier who wages an war on our inner enemies - our only enemies
- 1st class - Who are our enemies
- 2nd Class - Down the armour of patience
- 3rd Class - Shielding our self with love
- 4th Class - The Sword of Wisdom
1st class - Who are our enemies
For the first class we explain the meaning of delusions, and how delusions are our real enemy. How we need to move away from seeing other people as our enemies. This of course is very difficult to do and we need to have very strong motivation to do so. Our motivation is to find the happiness that we look for. Pure and lasting inner peace. It may seem like we repeatedly return to this point. This is true, but only because people are not quite yet getting how important it is. We need to emphasize this. We need to encourage people to develop the courage to start leading a different life. To discriminate people situations and events in a different way.
- The Enemy: Self-Cherishing and the "Inner Enemies" (delusions in general).
- Training to become stronger: Two excellent trainings we can do
- Recongnize our own faults in the mirror of dharma p.64 in 8 Steps(think why this is so helpful)
- learning to distinguish a person from delusions 8 Steps p.76
- The Dharma practice - abandoning pride and developing humility.
- Daily practice: Noting when we are blaming other people. Studying what goes on in our mind at such times. The warrier discovers their real enemies.
2nd Class - Down the armour of patience
The enemies we wage war in this teaching are our anger and resentment Explaining once again what are delusions in general Explanation of anger can be found in many books Explanation of resentment is found in How to Understand the Mind
A warrier trains to deal with harsh and difficult situations. We train in the various kinds of patiences - volunterily enduring suffering, thinking about dharma, not retaliating When training in these three types of patience our mind will become very powerful. Elite warriers have the ability to survive harsh conditions and perform delicate dangerous work. Training in patience will strengthen our mind to the harsh conditions of samsaric existence and we can then do the delicate work of improving our self and benefiting others.
Consider introducing one or both of the following practices:
- Transforming adverse conditions 8 Steps p.141 - challenging our patience, love and other virtues.
- Offering the victory and accepting defeat(8 Steps p.149) - which acts as a basis for the more advanced practice of taking and giving out of love and compassion.
3rd Class - Shielding our self with love
The Armor of Love: Protecting the Good Heart
The Enemy: Attachment and Jealousy.
The Warrior’s Training: Developing the Three Types of Love (Affectionate, Cherishing, and Wishing Love) (p. 135).
The Weapon: Contentment and Rejoicing in others' good fortune (p. 43).
Goal: To build an unbreakable shield of cherishing love that views every living being as a "rare and precious treasure" (p. 121).
4th Class - The Sword of Wisdom
The Sword of Wisdom: Striking the Root
The Enemy: The Ignorance of Self-Grasping (the root of all other enemies).
The Warrior’s Training: Training in Ultimate Bodhichitta (p. 201).
The Weapon: The Wisdom of Emptiness and Conventional Bodhichitta.
Goal: To strike at the very heart of the ego by realizing the unfindability of the "I" (p. 216) and attaining the final victory of full enlightenment for the sake of all beings.