Expert: Laurie McLauglin - 10/9/2009

Question
Hi Laurie,
I am in the process of reading "How to See yourself As You Really Are" by HH the Dalai Lama. One point that is made which has me quite confused is how ignorance (seeing things as having inherent existence?) leads to undesirable emotions ie lust. The book reads "1. Ignorance leads to exaggerating the importance of beauty, ugliness and other qualities. 2.Exaggeration of these qualities leads to lust (etc)...". I would think that lust, hate etc would not be caused by aesthetic appeal so much as the potential advantages or disadvantages that object could bring you. Is this what is really meant by beauty, or have I misunderstood something? Could you please explain the theory to me?

Thanks in advance.

Answer
Thank you for letting me answer your question.

I am not sure I am qualified to interpret what His Holiness, the Dalai Lama said or meant, but I will answer as best as I can based on what I have learned thus far.

From what I understand, seeing things as having inherent existence can indeed lead to undesirable emotions. Why?  If we see something as inherently existent that means we think it really exists; like lust.

I believe and again, I am not really qualified to interpret what His Holiness meant, (you should really go to a monk or nun or Geshe or lama to verify what I am telling you) but aesthetic things like beauty can lead to lust.  If you see a beautiful, goregeous, naked body, lust can develop. So can anger or any of several other emotions. And yes, you lust because you see the advantages of having that body and the disadvantages of not having it. I believe what you said is what His Holiness is implying when he says if you see something beautiful you lust for it. You lust for it because you see the potential of having it for yourself.

What His Holiness is also saying, I believe is that currently we do not see things as they really are. That is why we suffer. When we see something we lust after, we do so because we are exaggerating the good qualities of that thing and diminishing the bad qualities.  Would you agree with that?

We do that because we believe that the very qualities that we are exaggerating really do exist and are really a part of the thing we are lusting for.  We think for example that that person is the most beautiful person in the world and we lust after them. We think that the beauty that that person has is an inherent quality of that person and so we must possess it. Would you agree that is usually how we think?

If for whatever reason we cannot possess that person we lust after, we suffer.  Or if we do get that person and they are mean to us, we suffer.
Buddha teaches that if something inherently exists, like we think this person’s beauty does, then it must always be true that that person will always be beautiful because that is an inherent nature of that person. Thinking in that concrete manner causes us to do very bad things in order to possess that thing after which we lust.

What Buddhism teaches is that the person for whom we lust is not inherently beautiful. The person’s beauty exists due merely to causes and conditions that brought it about and that because it is not inherently beautiful, the beauty will not last forever.  It will arise, abide and fade. Buddhism teaches that the qualities with which we endow someone really come from our own minds. We decide someone is so beautiful that we must lust after them and have them at all costs.

If beauty were an inherent nature of people then EVERYONE in the world who saw Marilyn Monroe would think she was beautiful.  There would not be even one person who thought “Yeah, she’s kind of pretty, but not really my type.”  But I would wager a year’s salary that we can find at least one person who thinks like this. Therefore she cannot be inherently beautiful – the beauty cannot be coming from Marilyn.  We who are looking at her put that label on her.
Therefore, when we lust after something, we are lusting after qualities we are applying to a person and that are not coming from their own side. That is why, I think, His Holiness says we see through the eyes of ignorance and do not see how things truly exist.

Once we realize that we are seeing through the eyes of ignorace, we can stop following our own emotions (or delusions as we call them) that lead us into trouble. Does that make sense?
Don’t hesitate to ask any further questions if this confused you or did not answer your question entirely.

Namaste - Laurie