9. Three objects, three poisons, and three seeds of virtue.

With this slogan, we encounter the idea that whatever we experience can be part of the path of compassion and awakening. The three objects are things we like, things we dislike, and things about which we are neutral. The three poisons are our habitual responses to these three objects: craving, aversion and indifference. You could also call them passion, aggression and ignorance.

These three poisons are very powerful because they immediately steal my mind away into past and future. When I am attracted to someone, for example, perhaps my mind spins a compelling story of getting together with this person and finally being happy. Or when I see someone I despise, my mind dives into the past and the story of all the awful things this person has done to me. When I encounter something I just couldn’t care less about, my indifference distances me from the world around me. Once my mind has been captured in one of these ways, acting out and repressing are my most typical habitual responses.

This slogan also contains some good news: each of these pairs is also a seed of virtue. What does this mean? Simply, we can use the experiences of craving what we like, running away from what we don’t like and ignoring the rest as “grist for the mill” of waking up. Each reaction is a reminder and an opportunity to drop the story line and feel the tender heart beneath. This reclaims my mind from distraction by past and future, bringing my awareness back to my direct experience in the present moment. I can also practice Tonglen as a middle way between acting out and repressing.

11.2025