When a fisher puts a worm on a hook, it is not dead. Seeing the moving worm, the fish sees something to eat. It sees only pleasure; it cannot see all the suffering it will get by taking the worm, so it goes to the worm without hesitation. Then what happens? The hook gets caught in its mouth, and there is incredible pain and no way to escape. Then, before death, before the consciousness even leaves the body, its body is cut into pieces, causing it to experience unbelievable suffering. This is similar to the mouse and the mousetrap. The mouse, seeing food in a mousetrap, goes in, thinking of the food as pleasure, as something worthwhile. Blinded by the desire for the food, it cannot see it will be caught and killed. It doesn’t see the suffering involved in the pleasure. Samsaric pleasure is like this. Our attachment labels the object as good and we desire it, not understanding that suffering will result from our attachment.
We must see that all cyclic existence is suffering. What we think of as pleasure, what we crave, such as praise and reputation, is suffering. It will not bring us any happiness, and it will cause us terrible suffering in our next life. We crave being praised and yet the praise is just a collection of words; it cannot bring us any physical advantage. We might seek pleasure in drinking alcohol or gambling, but these are at best transitory pleasurable sensations that cannot be sustained and will definitely end, turning into the suffering of pain. And, of course, we all know how a little drinking can lead to more and then to alcoholism. The habit of drinking becomes an addiction that destroys a person’s whole life, consuming all their money and harming their family terribly. When they die, they usually have a horrible death and are reborn in the lower realms.
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Patience
Book by Thubten Zopa Rinpoche
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