The Inner Demon Is the True Obstacle

📖Master’s Reading

Life's greatest enemy is often not outside but within our own heart. All obstacles in fact come from the "inner demon." We often suspect and fear everything, are too stressed, and are deluded by fear, greed and inferiority, producing wrong thinking. All demons are easy to handle; only the inner demon is hardest, because it is all made by yourself.

We think fate or circumstance struck us down, but the truth is: "once your own inner demon rises, you are defeated by the outer demon." The outer difficulty is only the fuse; what truly crushes us is the shrinking that rises within. If the inner demon is not handled, life can hardly show a new mode. The root of the inner demon is our clinging to the six consciousnesses — eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind — which then breeds the tangles of the eight sufferings.

How to transcend the inner demon? One must learn the great wisdom of the Prajñā Heart Sūtra. When we understand that "as long as I do not cling to 'me,' no problem is a problem to me," no longer stubborn in our own view, we release the obstacle. Practice is learning to face the heart squarely. Do not flee negative emotion; to see the inner demon is the start of transcending it.

🌱Reflection for Daily Life

• Understand that the greatest enemy is often the inner demon.
• Once the inner demon rises, you are easily defeated by the outer demon.
• Set down clinging to the six consciousnesses and leave the eight sufferings.
• Grasp the wisdom of no-self and transcend the obstacle.
• To see the inner demon is the start of transcending it.