Chinese Metaphysics Blog

    The source of all suffering is attachment. And at the root of all attachment is the attachment to a self—the clinging to the idea of an independent, intrinsic "I." Because of this attachment to self, we create a duality between self and others, which in turn gives rise to further suffering. In daily life, we can see that those who are especially self-centered tend to have many worries and afflictions, whereas those who are selfless are often more at ease and joyful.

    What is this "I"? In fact, it is just a feeling. Take a book, for example—there is no intrinsic "mine" or "not mine" about it. But once we buy the book, we attach a label of "mine" to it. Once that feeling is established, the damage or loss of the book affects us. Before that, no matter what happened to the book, it would not hurt us. Similarly, when we are about to buy a house, issues with it don't matter much because it hasn't yet become "ours." But after we buy it, any change in the house tugs at our hearts. That distress arises precisely from the added sense of "mine."

    Why do we get bothered by such trivial matters rather than by more significant things? Every day, disasters happen around the world—many people suffer setbacks or pass away. Yet we merely sigh in passing and rarely feel personally affected, let alone lose sleep over it. That’s because we haven’t yet attached the label of "I" or "mine" to those events. Once the self gets involved, the feeling changes instantly. If the person suffering the setback is "me," or the one who died is "my" loved one, then an ordinary human tragedy suddenly becomes the most important thing in the world. Indeed, in our world, is there any event more serious than harm to "me"? When an unrelated person dies, we think, "Everyone dies—nothing unusual." But when it’s a loved one or our own death approaching, we can no longer face it calmly. Instead, we complain about the injustice of fate or lament our own misfortune.

    Thus, all afflictions revolve around the "self." We mistake fleeting, conditioned thoughts and feelings for "me," and take things that are not "me" as "me." If not for this misperception, how could those coming-and-going thoughts ever take root in our minds and harm us? Without the interference of "self," the changing, impermanent nature of the world would be an objective law we could accept, just as we accept the turning of seasons and the withering and blossoming of plants.