A Brief Explanation of Parting From the Four Attachments
If there is attachment to this life, one is not a Dharma practitioner.
If there is attachment to samsara, there is no renunciation.
If there is attachment to self, there is no bodhicitta.
If there is grasping, it is not the view.
If there is attachment to this life, one is not a Dharma practitioner.
First, if there is attachment to this life, one is not a pure Dharma practitioner. The reason for that is if there is attachment to the things of this life it is a hindrance to pure practice of the holy Dharma. For example, like people of these modern times, they are distracted solely by objects of their five senses. When they encounter pleasant sense objects such as sights and sounds, they grasp them as happiness and chase after them without the slightest investigation. This results in negative karma that seeks profit for oneself and defeat of others, and ultimately leads to nothing but physical and mental frustration and suffering. As I said in my Exhortation to Isolated Places, Revealing the Path to Liberation,
What you want is only happiness
Yet what you create is nothing but suffering.
O mothers following mistaken paths,
Go to isolated places of Liberation!
Thus, if we remain fooled and distracted by our slight experiences of imitation happiness in this ocean of samsara of attachment and aversion, that temporary happiness will soon become suffering of change and, like a fish caught on a hook, we will continue wandering through samsara without an opportunity to practice sacred Dharma. Even if we supposedly practice Dharma, it will not be pure Dharma. That is why the strong negation is expressed: if there is attachment to this life, one is not a Dharma practitioner.
If there is attachment to samsara, there is no renunciation.
Secondly, if there is attachment to samsara, there is no renunciation. Samsara is the beings and environment included in the five contaminated aggregates. As long as a person has attachment to any of it, they lack renunciation. This is because renunciation and attachment to samsaric objects are polar opposites. Just as love and hatred cannot simultaneously coexist in one person’s mind, so it is with attachment and renunciation. The reason for this is that they are mutually contradictory, like light and darkness. As Je Tsongkhapa says in Three Principles of the Path,
Without a wish to leave samsara
The yearning for its pleasures cannot be stilled.
Since beings are bound by their thirst for samsara
First seek to develop a wish to leave it.
Buddha himself was born as an Indian prince, heir to kingship, power, dominion, immense wealth and property. Yet, unattached to temporary pleasures, in order to attain unexcelled, ultimate happiness, he gave up everything, his kingdom, his wife and family, his wealth and property, and turned towards the Dharma. This is because he developed very strong renunciation. The quality of a Dharma practitioner relates to their degree of renunciation: strong renunciation makes for the best Dharma practitioner; middling renunciation, a middling practitioner; and weak renunciation, a poor Dharma practitioner. If someone lacks renunciation completely, they are in no way a Dharma practitioner. Since the presence or absence of renunciation determines the quality of a Dharma practitioner, that is why the strong negation is expressed: if there is attachment to samsara, there is no renunciation.
If there is attachment to self, there is no bodhicitta.
Thirdly, if there is attachment to self interest, there is no bodhicitta. This is because bodhisattvas give up self interest and take responsibility for the welfare of others. As said in Guide to the Bodhisattva Conduct,
As long as space exists,
As long as there are living beings,
That long may I remain
To alleviate their suffering.
As said, Bodhisattvas remain focused on the welfare of others throughout the six periods of day and night, not their own welfare. In general, focus on self-interest or selfishness is the source of all problems, whereas cherishing others is the source of all good qualities. That is because the main cause of sentient beings wandering in samsara out of ignorance and confusion is selfishness or ‘self-cherishing,’ whereas the main cause of Bodhisattvas taking the path of Liberation realized through transcendent wisdom is the cherishing of others; that’s all there is to it.
Self-cherishing results in loss and ruin both temporarily and ultimately. The ultimate loss is that as long as we remain a slave to self-cherishing we cannot attain liberation from samsara. If we can’t get free of samsara, we will never stop creating negative karma through the force of self-cherishing. If we do not stop creating its cause, we will never be able to stop experiencing the resultant suffering, and we will not attain liberation from samsara for many eons of time.
The temporary loss is that, for as long as we live, the stronger our self-cherishing, the less we will be able to develop love, compassion, contentment, patience, and so forth. Without these, we will have delusions such as anger, competitiveness, and jealousy which will cause us unhappiness and disturb our mental peace; it may even prevent us from being able to sleep! The main reason for this is the self-cherishing mind. That is why the strong negation is expressed: if there is attachment to self interest, one is not a Bodhisattva.
If there is grasping, it is not the view.
Fourthly, if there is grasping, it is not the view. When meditating in equipoise, if there is grasping, doubts, conceptual thought, etc, it is not the right view or meditation. That is because right view or actual meditation is free from dualistic, doubtful mind. As an example, the view and meditation is like the sun, while doubt and dualistic grasping are like clouds or mist obscuring the sun; the sun must be freed of cloud cover! As the Third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje said,
Not sullied by meditation that is conceptual effort,
Not disturbed by winds of ordinary distractions,
May we master and cultivate practice of actual mind itself
Naturally settling in its original state, without alteration.
As said, when in meditative equipoise, we should meditate right on whatever appears in that fresh moment of awareness without alteration, without rejection or approval. When meditating, without hope or fear regarding ordinary concepts and experiences, with pure transcendent wisdom or mindfulness, we should recognize what appears without thinking about it. It should become like snow falling on the ocean: whatever appears instantly dissolves, appearance and release happening simultaneously. As I said in my Excellent Path of Freedom, The Jewel Ornament of Liberation in Brief,
Dropping in to our own present moment of awareness, fresh, unaltered,
With mindfulness and alertness, without distraction,
Not thinking of stillness as good and movement as bad,
In pure awareness, inexpressible, beyond thought,
Understanding concepts and emptiness to be equal,
If we develop certainty in our own experience, that is an ornament of Liberation.
As said, settling in a state free from contrivance or alteration is meditation. That is why the strong negation is expressed: meditation is not discovered somewhere else through contrivance or alteration. Therefore, when in meditative equipoise, if grasping or conceptual thought arises, that is not the view or meditation.
In Conclusion
To briefly summarize, this teaching of Parting From the Four Attachments which comes from the Sakya tradition has been commented on by many previous Lamas. Some of these commentaries were too long or too short to be suitable for our one day retreat. Some were of suitable length but I have not received a transmission of any of them, so it was not suitable for me to teach them according to my own assertions. When I was twenty-five, respectfully, at Parpung Monastery in Dege Kham, I received transmission of the root lines of Parting From the Four Attachments from the Sakya abbot Puntsog Namgyel. Therefore, at this time, wishing to benefit those who are like myself, without poetic verse or scholarly language in order to make it easily understandable, this writer, Khenpo Karten, has explained the words of the root text as soon as I finished my morning session of meditation on November 13, 2019. Through this virtue may the blessings of Parting From the Four Attachments enter the minds of all beings so that their minds may turn towards the Dharma.
Sarva Mangalam Tashi Deleks
Translation by Jampa Tharchin