On the nature of habitual tendencies
by Khenpo Tashi
Question: I have practiced Vajrasattva purification. But my desire for beautiful people and objects are still very much there.
It is good for you to know this. The more you know that you have very strong clinging, then, that is good. You are practicing very well, with strong positive motivation. Just continue that.
As for purifying one’s grasping and clinging, be patient. Because the tendencies (to search for pleasures), we have accumulated for soooooo many past lives! It is like the example of a feather rubbing on the steel bar. Haha! You know this example, right? Now, one’s Buddhist practice is actually very effective. But the effect of one’s practice on one’s clinging is like the feather rubbing against the steel bar – our strong self-clinging and habitual tendencies. (READ: Dangers of Samsara)
So, the feather will eventually destroy the steel bar. It will. Haha! You believe, or not? If you have sincerity and strong motivation, the practice is working. But, the past negative Karma that we have accumulated are much harder. Just continue. Slowly and be patient. (READ: Never-Ending Spinning Samsara)
Recurring Nature of Habitual Tendencies
In the Way of the Bodhisattva, in Chapter 8, Shantideva (the author) explains how to deal with our attachment to sex, pleasure and the opposite sex. He questioned there, somewhat detailed, how and why we are so fascinated with the physical body of the opposite sex.
He said, human body is made up of blood, pus, bones, skin, organs. We are disgusted with any of these, right? But bring them all together, and wrap them with some skin, then we are tricked into thinking that the product is beautiful. He enumerated these kinds of meditation.
In fact, that skin, so thin, only around 1 millimeter, that is the only difference why we become so attracted and excited towards normally disgusting things (the pus, blood, organs etc).
Behind that skin, if you flip it, the other side of the skin, there is blood, veins, fats, and skin, those are disgusting again. See? Only one side of the skin looks pretty. If we get into an accident, that skin gets damaged. We will be disgusted again by that situation.
So, there are such meditations. Logical reasonings on the ugliness of the human body. To reduce our strong attraction to the human body.
But, after we do such contemplations, we go back to our daily activities. What happens when we go back to our daily activities? The attraction (for physical bodies) is back. Why?
That is habitual tendency.
The Tricky Habitual Tendency
Where is ‘habitual tendency’? Can you hold habitual tendencies? Can you count it? Can you destroy it with nuclear bombs, with the strongest physical weapons, guns and swords that humans have made?
Can any medicine fix that? Can any political power even touch it? Haha!
See, the most powerful ones in this world are the invisible ones, such as one’s ‘habitual tendencies’. But, we humans are so fascinated with the visible ones, such as the newest material inventions.
The invisible, such as the habitual tendency (of attraction), we cannot even touch, we cannot subdue. It controls us all the time. And yet, we don’t want to deal with it.
If you say, Buddhist practices are useless, because you cannot see any physical benefit coming from them, haha. Remember that there are habitual tendencies controlling us all the time. Buddhist practices can reduce those negative tendencies. Buddhist practices aim to remove those.
Wow, how wise is the Buddha, then? For him to teach how to reduce and remove the habitual tendencies. That is a very great, great kindness from him.
It is the same for our habitual tendencies of worries, envy, our anger, our impatience, our guilt, habit for negativity. They are very strong, at the moment. As for our own personal negative habitual tendencies, be patient. Be consistent with practice. If they come, it is ok. We continue practicing.
We value Buddhist practices more and more, because we are slowly understanding that these (Buddhist) practices are dealing with something very exceptional – the invisible, the tricky, cannot hold, cannot locate, ordinarily we cannot subdue (using even the strongest physical weapons) – the habitual tendencies.