Don’t Be Hard on Yourself; Engage With the Practice (Link #516)

Instead of struggling with a divided mind, blaming ourselves for our habit of being hard on ourselves, we can recognize ignorance itself as the root of the problem and engage in dharma practice to familiarize ourselves with our nondual buddha nature. Conventional advice for alleviating the habit of beating ourselves up is often not very helpful. To root it out, we need to recognize that the cause of suffering is self-grasping ignorance-the mistaken belief in the true existence of a self. Analyzing our experience reveals how impersonal ignorance gives rise to self-cherishing, self-protecting, and self-importance, and how these in turn lead to the experience of a mind confused and divided against itself. The alternative to this loop of self-blame is to engage in practicing the dharma, which offers a perspective based on our nondual buddha nature. Over time, familiarizing ourselves with the practice will liberate us from the delusion and suffering of a divided mind.