Bearing Chyoshe: Experiencing Sadness as Freedom

When we feel negative feelings or aggression towards others, if we look at our mind honestly and very openly, we will discover that those feelings are nothing other than our own attachments manifesting.

Consider this: whomever we think is close to us now, and for whom we have warm feelings toward now, all these relations will eventually change. By the same token, someone who we feel aggression towards now, could later become close. Relationships always change. So that aggression, just as much as our attachments, has no permanent, stable basis, although we take it so seriously and often act it out. Reflecting on this irony can be a source of sadness, or chyoshe, arising in our mind.

Some might think that feeling aggression, or any of the other disturbing emotions, is a positive experience, but in some ways, there is that sense of sadness that attends them too, if you look openly. As we pay attention to it, and enhance it, that sadness becomes a great awakening. With our eyes open to the pain of samsara, we find a strong dissatisfaction with samsara, which in turn makes us seek something greater. So, this kind of sadness is a protection against the lifestyle of the god realms of just forgetting samsara and indulging in temporary happiness.

My point here is that we might misunderstand this experience of chyoshe. We might see it as suffering, or depression. Depression however, is often mainly about yourself and how unhappy you are. But this chyoshe is actually about your disillusionment with samsara and the suffering that people cause for themselves, as we, and they, pursue samsara and the samsaric way of life. So chyoshe is quite the opposite of depression, and it it protects from pursuing samsara, while also inspiring us to seek something much deeper.  This kind of sadness, or chyoshe, goes hand in hand with realization, and it ensures realization to become much more stable, rather than returning back into samsara and enjoying samsara while forgetting that samsara is samsara!

So please do not misunderstand chyoshe. It can become your opportunity to feel great freedom and happiness in your life.

Excerpt from:
Title: Venerable Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche teaching on The Words of My Perfect Teacher
Date: 14 January 2006
Talk: Chapter 2: Impermanence (Importance of Faith and Devotion)