We tend only to believe what we can see, and what we see is always filtered by our personal perception. Take the example of a man who is already extremely paranoid about imaginary problems and firmly believes he has ghostly tenants living in his cupboard. To tell such a person that the ghosts are a figment of his imagination will not help him at all because he is quite certain that ghosts exist. A far less time-consuming and more efficient approach would be to agree skillfully that in a way his paranoid delusion is real, and then offer a method for dispelling that delusion — such as calling in the Ghostbusters!
Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
from the book Not for Happiness: A Guide to the So-Called Preliminary Practices
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Further quotes from the book Not for Happiness:
- Sign of a mature practitioner
- Not designed to cheer you up
- No end to samsara’s sufferings
- Intention to benefit all sentient beings
- Wishing happiness for those who have hurt you
- Sources of our inspiration
- Being able to start practicing right away
- Relative and absolute truth
- Rip that ego apart
- The decision to follow a spiritual path
- It’s all a matter of motivation
- Three higher trainings
- No substitute for being guided by a guru
- Opposite direction to dharma
- Merely the product of your own perception
- Maintaining a strong grip on the habits
- Our fundamental problem
- Dharma is not a therapy
- Mara’s five arrows