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Openness, Clarity, Sensitivity
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Openness, Clarity, Sensitivity
Written by Rigdzin Shikpo
There is a way in which openness, clarity, sensitivity are intrinsic to what we are. We already have a certain openness, a certain way of relating to space, even if it is just the idea of a crude external space; you must have that to be a human being, to be any kind of being in fact. Since perceptions do appear to us in some way or another, we have a certain amount of clarity as well. There is also something intrinsic about having emotions like desire, hatred, love, genuine empathy and so on; we all have that kind of sensitivity to some degree. Some people do seem to have more of these qualities than others and they can appear in distorted forms, but nevertheless you don’t actually have to be anything or do anything to have a certain amount of openness, clarity, sensitivity. So there is an intrinsic basis of these three qualities which is just given, you could say you are born with it. But then there is also the sense in which you can cultivate those qualities. These two ways of looking at the three qualities can be expressed in terms of what is called ground, path and fruit.