Spiritual Teacher: Bennie Spirit
Translated by: Chơn Ngộ (Thimytrang LE)
10/02/2024
1.What is Delusion?
All sentient beings are deeply immersed in the realm of delusion. But what exactly is delusion? It is essentially the fabric of thoughts woven from the memories formed by our six senses interacting with the world around us. These memories, encompassing what we see, hear, feel, and so on, are stored within our eight consciousnesses. Intertwined with greed, hatred, delusion, arrogance, and doubt, these memories create an endless stream of thoughts.
2.The Process of Conditioning and Weaving Delusions
From childhood, we are taught to weave these mental fabrics. Parents guide us, and teachers instruct us in the art of creation. Starting with simple sentence construction, carefully fitting words together to create a harmonious whole, and progressing to writing diaries and various types of articles, we are constantly engaged in the act of creation. Under the guidance of adults and teachers, we weave day by day, gradually reaching a state of habitual, unconscious creation. At this point, delusions operate automatically without conscious effort. They have no specific theme or central idea, but are entirely based on momentary sensations. For instance, upon seeing someone, one might instantly think of another person, and all associated images and memories would be instantly recalled, seamlessly woven into the current thought, creating a unique mental image. For example, if someone is deemed “worthless,” all their faults will be listed, and even experiences that may not have actually occurred will be fabricated in the mind. This is delusional thinking, pure and simple, a form of mental fabrication.
In this process, delusions can freely change direction, switch protagonists, and connect unrelated things, completely disregarding logic and causality, and relying solely on personal preferences and priorities. If something aligns with one’s desires, they feel joy; if not, they become angry and may even plot revenge to vent their frustration.
3.Why Delusions Often Differ from Reality?
Why do delusions often diverge from reality? Let’s use an orange as an example for a detailed explanation. On the surface, everyone seems to like oranges. However, upon closer examination, we find that some people prefer the peel, others crave the sweetness, and still others prefer the sourness. Moreover, people have different preferences for the degree of sweetness and sourness. Some like a mild sweetness, while others insist on a very high level of sweetness. Even among those who like sweetness, there are variations in their preferred level. The same goes for sourness. Additionally, people have different preferences for the medicinal properties of the orange peel and how it is processed. Clearly, although it is the same orange, people’s preferences vary greatly and rarely align perfectly. This is the result of conditioning. Parental teachings, teachers’ guidance, societal influences, and one’s own diligent practice all contribute to the conditioning of consciousness, forming fixed patterns. Once a pattern is formed, it is difficult to break. Only when one’s awareness surpasses consciousness can this situation be reversed.
4.Consequences of Delusions
What are the consequences of delusion? For students, if they are deeply immersed in daydreaming, even if they stare intently at the teacher lecturing on the blackboard and their ears are perked up listening attentively, their minds are actually weaving their own stories. Naturally, they cannot learn the knowledge content, and their academic achievements will suffer. For workers, if they daydream while working, they will inevitably fail to do their jobs well. For example, when typing data, if one is daydreaming while operating, it is easy to make mistakes, leading to low work efficiency and hindered career development. In daily life at home, if one does not cook when they should cook, does not do laundry when they should do laundry, does not clean when they should clean, and does not take care of children when they should take care of children, but just daydreams, then life will inevitably be a mess. If both men and women indulge in daydreaming and each does their own thing, their relationship will surely fail, and they are destined for failure.
5.Methods to Leave Delusion
Since we know the harm of delusion, how should we deal with it? We must not confront it head-on. Why? Because delusion is not a physical entity and cannot be fought. Even if a person’s body is chopped into meat, the consciousness will not be harmed in the slightest, and it will continue to weave. Delusion does not rely on the body to exist, so no matter what extreme measures are taken against a person, delusion cannot be eliminated. Therefore, the wise thing to do is to train oneself just as one would train a delusion. For example, we can train ourselves to accurately follow the ten good deeds in every word and every action, creating a brilliant future for ourselves, and even striving towards the goal of becoming a universal monarch. We should always be vigilant, that is, through repeated training, we should always think, speak, and act according to rules and precepts. In this way, we continuously nourish the precepts, causing them to grow day by day. The weaving consciousness needs someone to power it up and refuel it in order to keep running. If we no longer provide it with energy and focus on cultivating precepts, when the precepts have grown strong, looking back at delusion, we will find that at some point, the delusion has stopped due to lack of energy. Because we have not paid attention to it and have been focusing on cultivating precepts, when we have gone a long way on this path, the delusion has long been forgotten.
You should constantly investigate the workings of delusion. Try to figure out exactly how every detail is woven together, why it is woven in this way, and at what point in the process there is a faulty connection that leads to deviating from the goal and the right path… In this way, you can confirm how delusion harms, traps, confuses, pitied, and grieved itself! Overwhelming fear will prevent you from believing in delusion, following your feelings, and acting impulsively. Naturally, you will guard the eightfold path of right view, right conduct, right mindfulness…
Delusion is inherently inexplicable and without foundation. It is such a substanceless delusion that causes us to be confused all day long, ruining even the greatest good things, leading to failure in our careers, studies, and lives.
6.On Cultivating Meditation
If one wishes to practice meditation, one should focus one’s mind on the point that needs to be guarded and maintain the true nature. Continuously cultivate and protect it, fueling and energizing it, and persist in this practice. When the eternal and unchanging light appears, one will find that the afflictions, habitual tendencies, karmic obstacles, and karmic results born of the six sense organs will all fall away. As we continue to progress, these negative factors will fall off one by one. Ultimately, we will achieve a pure self. As for where these negative factors have fallen, there is no need to worry, for we have already come a long way. In this way, one can attain the supreme enlightenment. It may seem difficult, but it is actually simple; one only needs to have firm faith and take action.
7. Conclusion
In summary, delusion is the consciousness woven from the memories of the six senses interacting with the six sense objects, intertwined with greed, hatred, delusion, arrogance, and doubt. It is difficult to reconcile with reality and brings us many failures. The way to deal with it is to train oneself just as one would train a delusion, following the ten good deeds, not resisting delusion, cultivating the constant light, and achieving enlightenment. Only in this way can we break free from the bondage of delusion and move towards a bright future.