Wisdom lies just beyond the reach of fixation.

One of the fascinating aspects of understanding the Buddha's presentation of the mind is that confusion and wisdom are so closely connected, and often what separates us from experiencing one or the other is but a subtle shift in perspective. The Buddha taught that the primary negative emotions that we experience, called the five poisons, are all experienced as wisdom when we are free from grasping and fixation, otherwise called the five wisdoms.

Take jealousy for example. All of us experience jealousy, or the feeling that what we do isn't good enough or that others are somehow more talented or have better opportunities that we have. When we no longer fixate on our own inadequacy or ability, we can open ourselves up to experience the wisdom of innate fulfillment.

Arrogance is another common negative emotion. Arrogance holds tightly to our position, our view, our ideas or beliefs. Arrogance doesn't listen to what others have to say. When we relinquish these self-focused perspectives, we can give rise to the wisdom of equality, that all beings are equal and that all phenomena are equal in their nature.

Anger is experienced as a being averse to what is happening. When things aren't going our way, aren't meeting our expectations or are turning our the way we intended, we get angry. Anger is an attempt to maintain control or maintain power over a situation. When we let go of fixation, we can experience what is called mirror-like wisdom, where we respond and reflect what is happening. There is no distortion in a mirror, whatever you place in front of it is what it reflects back.

Desire or craving is a fixation on the particular qualities of characteristics of an object. We may be attached to a certain type of fashion, or brand, or person. The craving mind imputes so many characteristics onto the object that we cannot discern what is real from what is projected. When we are free from fixation, we experience the wisdom of discernment, which allows us to appreciate and acknowledge diverse qualities and characteristics but without the attendant forces of craving distorting our vision.

Lastly we come to confusion or ignorance. Ignorance fundamentally misconceives of who we are and the nature of the world around us. We think we are stuck as we are. We think the world around us is never going to improve. Everything seems rather inflexible and concrete. We we can break free from this type of fixation, we can experience with wisdom of the true nature, where we realize that everything is connected and interwoven.

We experience the five poisons regularly throughout our day. Wisdom lies just beyond, and the only thing holding us back is our own grasping and fixation. The Buddha's second noble truth is to let go of the origin, meaning to let go of these five poisons so that we can actualize and realize the state of cessation, our own true nature.

Amogasiddhi.

OM AH HUNG AMOGASIDDHI AH

Amogasiddhi is one of the Five Family Buddhas.  

His pure land is Karmaprasiddhi, representing the accomplishment of perfect activity.  His color is green, representing the activity of subjugating and overcoming resistance, obstacles and problems.   His element is wind, representing movement and change, along with the continual energetic process occurring in the outer world and in our own body and mind.  His right hand is in the mudra of fearlessness, representing an authentic refuge that protects from the fears of cyclic existence.  His left hand rests in his lap in meditative equipoise holding a crossed vajra, representing an immovable foundation and support.  The crossed vajra also represents the vajra seat, the immovable posture in which the Buddha gained enlightenment.  The vajra seat, or vajrasana, in the outer world is Bodhgaya, but it also represents the unshakeable ground in which all beings awaken to buddhahood. 

Amogasiddhi is the Buddha that represents completely purified jealousy.  Jealousy or envy manifests as paranoia, an internal dialogue that plays itself out again and again with fear of failure or not being chosen at its very root.  In order to combat this internal struggle, we often assume very negative postures- we become power hungry, manipulating and controlling people around us to uphold and maintain our status.  We dominate the conversation so no one else has an opportunity to outshine us.  Amogasiddhi represents the transformation of that jealousy and insecurity into all-accomplishing wisdom, the wisdom of spontaneous fulfillment. 

Amogasiddhi rides a garuda possessed with all the major and minor marks.  A garuda is a great eagle-like bird, a mythological horned golden eagle.  The garuda is a powerful guardian, offering servitude and often shown biting down on nagas.  Nagas are serpent-like human deities that live in bodies of water.  They are said to be the holders of great treasures and secret teachings, but if upset cause disease and create unpredictable weather patterns.  The garuda also has an unusual birth, for as soon as it hatches from its shell it is able to soar in the sky.  The shell represents the limitations of our own five skandhas and upon breaking free from their confines, great spontaneous awareness is able to soar in the sky of awakened mind. 

In regard to our own mind and self, Amogasiddhi represents the skandha of mental formations, ideas, concepts and opinions along with the habitual patterns associated with these.  Throughout the day we enter into numerous mental states, high and low.  We are continuously trying to 'make sense' of our world and justify who we are and our place in the world.  This process of thought and intention creates action and karma.  As we cycle through this process of cause and effect, we are constantly fighting to guard ourselves from loss and vulnerability.  We fight day and night to control our fate in hopes of accomplishing our aims and finding happiness and prosperity. 

When we deeply contemplate and integrate the wisdom and symbolism of Amogasiddhi, we can learn to transmute this insecurity and paranoia into the wisdom of spontaneous fulfillment.  We take our vajra seat amidst the unceasing windstorm of thoughts and mental states with the firm resolve not to waver from this immovable ground which is the way of abiding.  Breaking out from the confines of the shell of ignorance and mistaken views, great spontaneous awareness takes its second birth and flies unobstructedly, riding the winds of change.  This awareness is practical and effective, efficient, timely and in sync with the world around it.  It does not manipulate or control, demand or distort.  No longer needing to justify your own position or qualifications, you discover a natural ease and fulfillment, a profound sense of inner wealth and satisfaction.  Having fulfilled your own aims, you are able to work for the aims of others, sheltering them from fear and vulnerability. 

Others see you in a dynamic dance, awed by your fearlessness.  Yet you never waver from your unshakeable ground, the unchanging vajra seat that supports the whole universe.  In this way you abide in Karmaprasiddhi, the accomplishment of perfect activity. 

We all fall.

We all fall sometimes.

It happens in different ways.  It is almost always unexpected and out of the blue.

When we fall, we know it.  It hurts, we look like a fool and we put in the effort to get back up.

But what does falling look like?

You've fallen when your mind is filled with anxiety and worry, when you are feeling insecure and self-conscious.

You've fallen when fear and apprehension dictate your course, when you feel unsettled.

You've fallen when you are selfish and rude, when your words are sharp and cut at people's hearts.

You fallen when you act with an air of indifference, concerned with only your own comfort and needs.

You've fallen when you fume with anger and jealousy gnaws at your heart, when you mind is caught up in strong wants and mistaken needs.

If you don't listen, don't give a damn and can't stop talking about yourself, you've fallen.

So get up.

Things don't need to be this way, there is a path out of this.  This isn't permanent.  But you have to recognize that you have fallen.

It is ordinary to fall.  It is the extraordinary that can maintain their composure and get back up.

We need you to get up.

Go Back, and Learn.

Step back for a moment, from where you are, what you know.

Take a beginner's lesson in mathematics or programming at the Khan Academy.  Learn the proper technique used to row a boat.  Look up words you already know in the dictionary.

When you approach things you 'already know' with a beginner's mind, you discover all kinds of insight.  You see new connections.  You discover nuance, precision. 

The simplicity is refreshing.  The deliberateness humbling. 

What happens when we use this same mindset to approach our own anger, jealousy or fear?  Our preferences and perceptions?

If we deconstruct impatience, what does it look like?

What are the building blocks of anxiety and stress, is what we already know about them true?

Give yourself a chance to be a beginner again, with your self.

You may give rise to insight and understanding.  You may even feel refreshed.