Slogan #4
Self-liberate even the antidote (aka Don’t get stuck on peace!)
Slogan #4 addresses our tendency to cling to the false sense of having figured out the previous two slogans; that is, we have now conceptualized the inherent emptiness of all phenomena and the ungraspable nature of awareness. Life can get dreamy and abstract. “Self-liberate even the antidote” can be explained as follows: “The need to find solid ground is so strong that you can even make the groundless nature of inner and outer experience into some kind of ground. You can make emptiness into a catch-all explanation for everything. It is almost instantaneous—as soon as one thing slips away, you have already grasped onto something else.” _Judy Lief
Atisha is calling us out—I can hear him saying, “Pat, get over yourself!” My visceral response of discomfort when I first studied this slogan is still palpable today. There is not a “one size fits all” remedy and our need to concretize, to be safe, opens the door to dogma and spiritual bypassing. Western psychology often teaches that if we understand the cause of a given issue or trauma, we can move past it. Similarly, Eastern practices use techniques to quiet the mind in the hopes of rising above the intolerable feelings that life evokes. Both seek to escape, to numb, to not feel, to avoid grief, or to hide. This slogan asks us to stay with the edgy feeling of intrapersonal dissonance. To be open to healing takes receptivity and vulnerability and to be open to constant states of change allows for constant states of becoming. ”One can choose to go back towards safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again” (Abraham Maslow). Let go of the pride, the security, that sense of ground. Or as Norman Fischer so aptly writes: “Don’t get stuck on peace.” This process of becoming whole is a fluid, ongoing journey of discovery. It takes courage and a radical humility to be open to all of it.
Journaling Prompts
Are you open to accepting what you’ll learn about yourself? How can you reclaim your life? What is your willingness to change?
Reflect on difficult or uncomfortable emotions such as pride, shame, guilt, anger, and fear and how they show up in your life. Make this compassionate and judgment-free. How might these emotions that you’re experiencing help to make you a better friend, student, teacher, or person? How do these emotions serve you in helping you to move towards wholeness?
Apply the ethics of Bodhicitta to the principles of social action and political advocacy.
Apply the practice of compassion to your commitment to awakening. Be direct. Personal. Simple. In this way, compassion is both a practice and the effect of your practice.