Illuminate the Committee in Your Head – Day 11
Illuminate the Committee in Your Head Day 11
By Stephanie Foley
Buddha’s Committee
“Ultimately, happiness comes down to choosing between the discomfort of becoming aware of your mental afflictions and the discomfort of being ruled by them.”
~Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
The discomfort of living has been described in Buddhism as first and second darts. A first dart is the immediate pain of an experience and the second dart is suffering over the intention of how and why the experience happened. We cannot avoid the pain, but we can avoid the suffering. Imagine that you cut your finger while chopping vegetables – the first dart is the pain. The second dart is your berating yourself for not having been careful. Imagine that you are abruptly awoken by a loud noise – a first dart experience. How does the cause of the sound effect whether there will be a second dart? What if it was a raccoon in your garbage can. What if it was a careless neighbor running his car into your garbage can? The intention or lack of attention we ascribe to an event creates a second dart.
As it relates to the committee in your head, how often are various parts of you ascribing intentions to other parts of you and to people around you? Many second darts can be eliminated by illuminating the committee in your head. Consider this practice described by Rick Hanson and Richard Mendius in their book Buddha’s Brain:
“As you deal with different issues on your path of awakening, you’ll repeatedly encounter these stages of growth:
