process, rather than becoming more dependent.
- Resolution. The fourth aspect of laying down
your evil action is the resolve not to repeat it. Again,
this can be tricky if misunderstood: the point is not to
be harsh with yourself. Don’t let an authoritarian
inner voice tell you that if you do it again you’re going
to get a lump of coal in the bottom of your stocking.
All four parts of this process come from confi-
dence in your basic goodness. All four come out of
some gentleness toward yourself because there’s al-
ready a sense of appreciation. You can regret your
neurosis and open. You can refrain from doing it
again because you don’t want to harm yourself any-
more. You can practice because you have basic re-
spect for yourself, and you wish to do what nurtures
your sense of confidence and warriorship rather than
what makes you feel more poverty-stricken and iso-
lated. So, finally, resolving not to do it again becomes
a complete surrender, the last stage in a fourfold
process of opening further.
Feeding the ghosts. So far we’ve described two of the
practices in “Four practices are the best of methods”:
accumulating merit and confessing our neurotic
crimes, or purifying our neurosis through this four-
fold process. The third practice is to feed the ghosts.
This involves relating to your unreasonableness. The
way you relate to it is by making a relationship with it.
Traditionally, you make a little torma—a little cake—
104 Overcoming Resistance