The Middle Way

The Middle Way

By some dint of fate…Tenzin Palmo, as Khamtrul Rinpoche’s ‘only nun’, managed to find herself in the bizarre situation of being a lone woman among 100 monks. By absolute accident, she had entered the mighty portals of Tibetan monasticism, barred to the opposite sex for centuries. Later, Tenzin Palmo was to remark pointedly: ‘People are always asking me how they can give up anger, but no one has yet asked me how to give up desire.’ (Cave in the Snow)

Do you see the point made by this nun (Diane Perry of London), in her biography? While the monks and the nun were working on ending such compulsions as their anger, they also had to deal with such tensions as sexual desire.

In other words, you are concerned as to how to curb your emotions which create pain. You are not asking how to curb such emotions as those which create pleasure, such as joy.

Her point is that it is desire which needs to be defused: the desire to avoid pain, and the desire to seek pleasure; or, the effort to change dissatisfaction into satisfaction.

The teachings of nonduality are pointing toward equanimity. And they are emphasizing the absence of personhood. Where there is no ‘I’, there is no beneficiary for sustained joy. Where there is no I, there is no personage lessened by an expression of anger. Where there is no I, there is not a preference for one condition over the other.