Lojong Slogan 4: Self-liberate even the antidote

This is part 4 of the lojong series. Click the links to read the previous posts.Once we get clear on slogans two and three we have a tendency to cling to them. Slogan 4 asks that we not cling to the antidote- the emptiness or realization that our thoughts have no origin that was uncovered by slogans one and two. We realize that everything is like a dream and that we cannot really grasp onto awareness, but we continue to search for something solid on which to hold. Perhaps we are proud of our insights, or we think that we can simply deny painful experiences because they aren’t real anyway. Perhaps we get a little bit lazy in life because what does it matter anyway if nothing is real? Maybe we begin to grasp at the meditative and insightful experiences that we have hoping to feel some solidity in them. But any attachment we develop, even if only to an idea or antidote as referred to in this slogan, is something else of which to let go. Dwelling on the emptiness is referred to as the poison of shunyata (freedom of limitation). Begin to ask yourself how you relate to your experiences, what antidotes are you clinging to? When you realize that there are no antidotes you will self-liberate.