We are also caught up with wanting to be good, in not wanting to be bad. It really becomes the very root of suffering for ourselves because we are so stuck in the good and the bad. If you mix up your work and, let’s give it a label, “spiritual nature”, you are sure going to suffer. 

Because, like what I said just now, imagine if you have a friend who is a salesman, and then you keep on thinking that when you go out with your friend, your salesman friend is going to keep on selling you something; you're going to be scared right? Or if you got a friend who is a doctor and then your doctor friend keeps telling you “Cannot eat this cannot eat that, cannot do this cannot do that, because you're going to get this, you going to get that,” you are also going to be scared.  

You’ll say “better don't have doctor friend, better don’t have insurance agent friend, don't have lawyer friend, don't have business people friend, because business people, ask you to buy things or invest here invest there correct or not?  

This is where most of this duality comes from, and it really makes us all suffer like hell. 

So, I got asked a question. In Buddhism, how do we settle this dualistic struggle?  

Because we are living in it, we cannot say that we are free from it. I give you a good example:  

You are drinking a hot drink because you are feeling cold. And then you feel very nice. Whatever we do, we are doing it because we are numbing the pain. Isn't it? When you are hungry, you eat, right? You're numbing the pain, because the body will definitely finish up whatever we have eaten and after that you will start feeling hungry again. If you are thirsty you drink. If we keep on focusing on, I'm suffering, I'm suffering, I'm suffering from hunger, suffering from thirst, suffering from this suffering from that. Whatever we are doing, the reality is unmistaken. We are numbing the pain, okay. Or we are freeing ourselves from this suffering momentarily. The other extreme is, I'm not eating because I'm hungry. I'm eating because I have a greed for taste.  

Many of us Buddhists are very disconnected in our hearts. Not just Buddhists, but many people who are very religious are also very disconnected with their hearts. They feel that “I don't want to feel anything, I don't want to think anything, I just know this is the way to do like this, we just follow like this and just do.”  

You don't need to be Buddhist if you just want to be good. If you just want to have a good life, want to have a good rebirth, you don't need to be Buddhist, there's no need to.  

The main thing right now is we must go beyond the duality of good and bad. Most people already know about the bad. We also know, everybody does not want us to do bad things, everybody does not want to be bad. This swings to the next extreme. We know what everybody thinks is good, and so we want to show ourselves to be good. So, it's like the pendulum of the clock, swing here swing there.  

We have to sit down and meditate. When we meditate, our body is here and now, right? Because when we meditate, we don't talk. Our mind is flying everywhere, but our body war is settled. We are sitting here, so our speech war is also settled. We don't talk. We just face the one war that we are going to fight, the “so-called” war we fight with ourselves is, “oh, we are going here going there”. So, dualism comes from uncontrolled thinking, because whatever we learn, even Buddha Dharma arises because it is to benefit dualistic beings.  

Isn't being good enough akin to keeping the peace? But there’s no peace and harmony inside of us. Now, you tell me, good, is it enough or not? Is being good, enough?  

We have to go to the next step, beyond good and bad, where we start to say, instead of blaring out our emotion, we say “I’m feeling this…” You have to feel the emotion, that we can take time out, and walk away, take a few deep breaths. You recognize the emotion, then allow this emotion to leave.  

You cognize something, then you recognize something. Through recognition, you recognize this then after that, once you give it awareness and recognition you allow it to move.  

So, Dharma practice is really not about being good. Isn't being good, enough? Enough for who, for other people or for yourself? We must go beyond good. We have already gone beyond bad, and then swing to the extreme of good, but let's have responsibility of our own mind. To say it is very easy, and we are bound to fail.  

Take it that you will fail, that there will be moments that you will fail and it's okay. Tell yourself, it's okay. We tell ourselves it's okay, by me telling you it's okay now. You cannot say today we learn this tomorrow immediately we can do, it is not possible, right? It's not possible, okay, but slowly, slowly, slowly, then we can do, addition and alteration. We have to do ‘A’ and ‘A’ to our body speech and mind.  

Tear down and rebuild this next life, correct? Renovation, addition and alteration is possible!  

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