Self-Liberate even the antidote. I admit, that sounds super confusing. But as the fourth lojong slogan, it’s well timed. If we get too caught up in recognizing that our thoughts aren’t as solid as we thought, and life isn’t as secure as we thought, and on and on…things get fuzzy. And we can do one of two things: we can get prideful, or we can use it as an excuse to live lazy.
We become prideful when we walk around feeling like we’ve become aware of the bigger picture and look condescendingly on those who, we assume, haven’t. Look at that guy, we tell ourselves, so wrapped up in his reactions and thoughts. He clearly hasn’t examined the nature of unborn awareness! So, then we become just like him again, caught up in our own judgments and thoughts. What a ride!
So the first warning of this slogan sounds a lot like Han Solo to young Luke Skywalker: “Great, kid. Don’t get cocky.”
Sometimes, we start examining our thoughts and seeing everything as a dream and we let it take us completely into la-la land. We just zone all the way out. Nothing matters, nothing’s real, it’s all “whatever.” When we get this way, we’ve gone too far into seeing everything as a dream and need to come back to reality. Which is why the fourth slogan says to liberate even the antidote.
The antidote is clear seeing. When we realize the fuzziness of things, we see it more clearly. But even too much of an antidote can be harmful. Think of a vaccine. You get just enough of the bad virus to awaken your inner pathogen fighters. But if you get too much, you just overwhelm your system and get sick. So the point of this slogan is: don’t get sick, kid. Take just enough awareness to provide an antidote.
We want to honor the lojong slogans. To do that, we actually have to take them with a grain of salt. None of this is supposed to make us rigid or judgmental or cocky or lazy. It’s just here to wake us up a little.
So. Where this week do you need to self-liberate even the antidote? Where do you need to find some balance and harmony in how you’re holding this, or anything?
