seat and feel completely what’s underneath all that
story line of wanting, not wanting, and so forth.
In terms of “Three objects, three poisons, and
three seeds of virtue,” when these poisons arise, the
instruction is to drop the story line, which means—
instead of acting out or repressing—use the situation
as an opportunity to feel your heart, to feel the
wound. Use it as an opportunity to touch that soft
spot. Underneath all that craving or aversion or jeal-
ousy or feeling wretched about yourself, underneath
all that hopelessness and despair and depression,
there’s something extremely soft, which is called
bodhichitta.
When these things arise, train gradually and very
gently without making it into a big deal. Begin to get
the hang of feeling what’s underneath the story line.
Feel the wounded heart that’s underneath the addic-
tion, self-loathing, or anger. If someone comes along
and shoots an arrow into your heart, it’s fruitless to
stand there and yell at the person. It would be much
better to turn your attention to the fact that there’s an
arrow in your heart and to relate to that wound.
When we do that, the three poisons become three
seeds of how to make friends with ourselves. They
give us the chance to work on patience and kindness,
the chance not to give up on ourselves and not to act
out or repress. They give us the chance to change our
habits completely. This is what helps both ourselves
and others. This is instruction on how to turn un-
42 Poison as Medicine