Aspiring for Liberation

Like dew on the tip of a blade of grass, pleasures of the three worlds

Last only a while and then vanish.

Aspire to the never-changing

Supreme state of liberation—

This is the practice of bodhisattvas.

Worldly Pleasures Last Only A While and Vanish

This verse relates to the practice of an intermediate level practitioner—a person who aspires for liberation from cyclic existence. Why should we aspire for liberation or nirvana? Because the pleasures of the three worlds are transitory. They’re nice while we have them, but they don’t last long and afterwards we are left, once again, struggling for pleasure.  

The three worlds refers to the desire realm, form realm and formless realm. The desire realm is so called because the beings in it are hooked on sensual objects—sights, sounds, odours, tastes and tactile objects, as well as on proliferating conceptions resulting from these. We human beings are part of the desire realm and we can see from our own experience how geared we are to external objects—procuring the ones we find desirable and protecting ourselves from the ones we deem undesirable. Beings in the form realms have deep levels of concentration, which is very blissful, and beings of the formless realm abide in subtle states of meditative absorption in a state of equanimity, which is more refined than the joy of the concentrations of the form realm.

 Samsara is comprised of those three realms. No matter where we are born in these three realms, the joys of existence there are like dew on the tip of a blade of grass. It is there for a short while, and then it evaporates, gone forever. We may consider our human life very long, but in comparison to beings in the celestial desire realms and in the form and formless realms, it is short. Even so that pleasure lasts only a while, and then it is gone. At the end of our lives, what we are left with at most are good memories and a lot of photo albums and scrapbooks. But what good are they? It’s pretty sad if the only happiness we have comes from remembering past experiences. It’s like being happy watching other people’s lives on TV. No one makes movies showing people watching TV or looking at photo albums for hours. Why not? Because that’s boring. Would you watch a movie that only showed someone watching TV? Instead of having a vibrant and lively mind ourselves, our pleasure comes only from sitting there observing others’ lives. 

Happiness that doesn’t last is not true happiness. It is not something we want to devote our life trying to attain because there is never any end to our efforts in attaining happiness. Whatever happiness we manage to have is always in the process of fading and going out of existence. So, if we really want a top grade happiness, an AAA type of happiness, we should aspire for the peace of liberation which never disappears. For that reason, nirvana is also called the unconditioned and the deathless. 

Rather than seek out the pleasures found in cyclic existence, only to have them end when a good rebirth ceases, let’s aspire for the never-changing supreme state of liberation. Nirvana is never-changing in that once liberation is attained, it never ceases. Once ignorance has been completely eradicated from our mindstream, there is no cause for it to ever return. In this way, a state of lasting happiness, peace and freedom from afflictions and karma is attained. 

Americans often say they stand up for freedom. But, in consumer society we are bound by attachment and thus are not free. Our minds are tied up, not just by craving, but also by resentment, hostility and a host of other disturbing emotions. Are you free when your mind is tormented by craving something—a house, a relationship, delicious food or whatever? Are you free when your mind is overwhelmed by jealousy because others have more or by competition, wanting to prove yourself and be better than someone else? These mental states aren’t indicative of true freedom, even if on the physical level we have the “freedom” to buy what we want or go where we like. 

In a Buddhist sense, real freedom is not about having the ability to act out any kind of impulse that comes into our mind. True freedom is not being enslaved by hostility, clinging, craving, resentment, spite and so on. So, we want to generate a sincere and steady aspiration for liberation—the kind of freedom where we are free from having a body and mind under the influence of ignorance, afflictions and karma. That’s true freedom, because the mind is free—it can abide in deep concentration with wisdom and compassion.

~Commentary by Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron