Mind-blowing teaching from LA

All stimuli that serves to excite or disgust are based on lack of true permanence therefore only exist in a projected manner.

Tsem Rinpoche http://www.tsemrinpoche.com 

Recently on facebook, I was asked by Rinpoche to elaborate on this quote for the benefit of Victor Choi. This teaching was recently given to a bunch of students who are assisting Rinpoche here in Los Angeles. Rinpoche frequently adds Dharma to everything that we do here and often gives powerful and insightful teachings to help further our spiritual path. Hence, I thought I blog about this explanation as it was based on my understanding of a recent teaching that Rinpoche gave. Here it is :- 

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Stimuli refers to any experience, people or object that serves to make us happy, unhappy, attached or something that make us want to runaway from it. This could be our partners, career, family, friends, possessions, house, car, cigarettes, alcohol, childhood experience, teenage experience and so forth. 

Rinpoche says that these stimuli lack true permanence because our opinion and reaction to these stimuli can change due to maturity, experience, knowledge, advice, environment etc. The stimuli from its side, does not actually change. It is our opinion and hence, our reaction to it that actually changes. This shows that what we like or don’t like about a stimuli was really just a projection, which is illusory or unreal. 

Projections are just an impermanent value that we place on stimuli that does not really bring long term benefit. For example, career, money, relationship and marriage are believed to be the source of happiness according to society, culture and the media. However, if we think deeper and look closer into many examples around us, can we logically say that these people are truly happy when they just focus on career, money, relationships and marriages. 

If these things truly bring happiness, then the more money we get or the higher we climb on the corporate ladder or the more or the longer the relationship and marriage we have, we should be happier and happier. However, due to habituation and other reasons, we still pursue these stimuli although they never brought real benefit over and over again across lifetimes. 

And for each of us, the stimuli that we tend to be attached to is different from individual to individual. All of us have a certain attachment to a certain stimuli. This is something to ponder and Rinpoche stress that this is not right or wrong or even a condemnation. It is something to make us realize the true nature of these stimuli so we can balance our lives with Dharma. We can change and transformation comes with new input, knowledge, Dharma, merits, contemplation, effort and so forth. Hope this little explanation helps.

PS: I have pictures of Los Angeles and Hollywood in this post because the city, Hollywood, glitz and glamor represents everything illusory.