Anger, jealousy, pride, and desire are all grounded in wrong perception. Wrong perception of ourself. Wrong perception of the other. We don’t recognize this wrong perception. It becomes our norm. Oh, so familiar, so warm and comforting. Even to question whether our perception of ourself is correct or not is deeply unsettling. We are uncomfortable going there. It is as if on a deeper intuitive level, we feel the house of cards, or the castle built in the sand will blow or wash away. This is why the premier scholar Professor Jeffrey Hopkins was told by his teacher Geshe Wangyal to say, “false” to everything he saw. “Door – false.” “Table – false.” “Sky – false.” “Reflection of his face in the mirror – false.” Yet as we learn that all our disturbing emotions stem from this wrong perception, gradually the fear of examining or analyzing our perception melts away. Still yet it is elusive, like a wet bar of soap in the shower. It easily can slip out of our grip. We can easily lose it. When trying to exam there is often thick mental fog. What was it that I was trying to investigate? Persist, persist, persist. The path is laden with obstacles. Never mind. Persist, persist, persist. The riches are unimaginable.
