You Are IT

In truth, the notion of self we attach to the aggregates is a mere mental fabrication, a label put on something that does not exist.

People who wear tinted glasses or suffer from a visual impairment would see a white conch as yellow, even though the conch has never been anything but white.

In the same way, our deluded minds attribute reality to something that is utterly nonexistent.

This is what we call ignorance: not recognizing the void nature of phenomena and assuming that phenomena possess the attribute of true existence although in fact they are devoid of it.

With ignorance comes attachment to all that is pleasant to the ego as well as hatred and repulsion for all that is unpleasant.

In that way the three poisons—ignorance, attachment, and hatred—come into being. Under the influence of these three poisons, the mind becomes like a servant running here and there.

This is how the suffering of samsara is built up. It all derives from a lack of discernment and a distorted perception of the nature of phenomena.

– Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche