Be Nobody by Lama Marut Page A

potentiality of being nobody that we can really begin to help and improve ourselves.
    Action Plan: Managing Pride
    Make a list of personal traits that you are proud of—your looks or physical abilities, acquired skills, natural gifts, accomplishments, whatever. This is not the time to be falsely humble. We’re all proud of something about ourselves.
    First off, consider whether these traits are permanent and will always be with you. Do you really suppose that you will always be beautiful, strong, clever, adept, successful, or famous? How will you feel when what you are proud of is diminished or lost altogether due to the ravages of time and changing circumstances?
    Second, check to see whether the pride you take in these characteristics is only in relation to others who don’t have them or who have only lesser versions of them. Isn’t it always the case that what you’re proud of depends on feelings of superiority to others?
    Finally, reflect on the fact that there are others who definitely have more or better versions of these traits. Be more realistic about your place in life: are you really the most talented, beautiful, rich, skilled, accomplished, or intelligent? Get the fish out of the small pond, at least theoretically, and realize your true place in whatever hierarchy you’ve bought into!
Notes:
    I.  The five aggregates that comprise the basis for our sense of self are the physical body, the ability to discriminate, consciousness, feelings, and mental imprints.



3
Clutching at Straws and Chasing Shadows
    Knock, knock.
    Who’s there?
    Exactly.
    â€”—Author unknown
F REEDOM’S J UST A NOTHER W ORD FOR N OTHING L EFT TO L OSE (OR G AIN)
    Beneath it all, it is only true contentment—the glorious sensation of being utterly free, unencumbered, and relaxed—that we all desire. The goals depicted in many religions reflect this understanding of what we are shooting for: moksha or mukti (both meaning “liberation”) in Hinduism; nirvana (the great “extinguishing” or “sigh of relief” as one becomes free of all troubling thoughts and feelings) in Buddhism; the dropping of the old self and being “born again” into Christ; the release that comes from following God’s will and law in Judaism and Islam.
    We all want to be free. So what, exactly, are the chains that bind us? What is the nature of the prison that we feel encloses us?
    Being free isn’t just a matter of doing, saying, or thinking anything that comes into your head. That much should be obvious to anyone who has lived more than a few years in the company of other humans. We’ve tried that version of “freedom” over and over and over again, to no avail. Whenever some strong impulse arises, unlessthwarted by fear of reprisal (or jail!), we usually just give in to it, consequences be damned! We yell back at those who yell at us, try to hurt those who hurt us, plot our revenge when we feel betrayed . . . just because we “feel like it.”
    Until we have thoroughly trained ourselves, we are enslaved by our negative emotions, our mental afflictions. When anger, jealousy, pride, or lust raise their nasty little heads, we are usually rendered helpless in their thrall. Worse yet, we stick our head into the carnival cutouts of these irrational feelings and say, “ I am angry! I am depressed! I am jealous!”
    Among the large array of mental afflictions that plague and tyrannize us (the Buddha said we have 84,000 of them!), two lie at the root of our unhappiness and imprisonment.
    They are desire and ignorance.
    â€œDesire” here really means perpetual dissatisfaction—with what we have, with the life we are leading, and with who we are. It’s like when we have an itchy mosquito bite. We scratch the itch, hoping that by doing so it won’t itch anymore.
    We’re slaves to our itches, and that’s one very important way in which we