Secondly, without first investigating the object of your attachment, many mistaken thoughts, such as of attachment, crowd into your mind one after another, connecting your mind’s way of seeing to the object of attachment. Because of this, what your mind sees is not objective and does not accord with reality. This happens a lot with our five senses. In any case, we must understand that happiness and suffering are not caused by the objects of our senses, but by the way we perceive those objects. Our way of seeing follows a mistaken awareness. The actual object does not truly exist as it appears, like a mirage or dream. If objects of the senses were happiness, modern day people who are rich and famous should be happy, but they aren’t.
As said in the Guide to the Bodhisattva Conduct:
Tormented by collecting, protecting, and losing it,
You should know that wealth brings endless ruin.
Those who are distracted by attachment to wealth
Have no chance to be free from suffering existence.
Buddha, as well, said:
One who has wealth has suffering.
He said that the more wealth a person has, the more mental suffering they have. No matter how much you enjoy desirable objects of the senses, it brings no satisfaction and finally brings additional suffering. The best wealth is contentment. We can be sure of that.
Written by Khenpo Karten Rinpoche in the book Precious Teachings, the chapter entitled “Happiness and Suffering Are Only Appearances, They Are Not Real” page 103 in the paper version and 110 of the PDF version.
