3 fires that burn our well-being

Buddhism, more than other philosophies, emphasizes the importance of evolving so that the external stops tormenting us.

There are three fires that severely cause suffering and can consume us. They have the effect of a powerful energy, capable of provoking self-destructive compulsions in human beings and of intensifying any conflict with others, leading directly to unhappiness and dissatisfaction in both our daily and work lives. But we do not have to fear these fires but rather take them as an opportunity to evolve through training the will to face them.

What are those three poisons?

1. Ignorance

This is not the opposite of knowledge, but of enlightenment. It is not that the ignorant lack intellectual knowledge, but rather wisdom, which is a deeper form of knowledge and is not born of intellect, but of conscience.

2. Attachment

Attachment is born from ignorance and leads to hatred. In turn, hate causes attachment and ignorance and ignorance, attachment and hatred. Human beings do not attach themselves to something because they really appreciate or love it, but rather that something serves in some way as support for the ego and that is why it is considered indispensable.

It’s a denial of the law of impermanence. Everything is constantly changing and that makes attachment basically absurd, since we are tying ourselves to something that has a changing existence. The desire to possess, have or maintain a person, an object or a situation is doomed to failure and is therefore considered a source of suffering.

3. Hate

Hate is a feeling that leads to an intense desire to destroy. It almost always appears associated with other feelings such as resentment, contempt and aversion, among others. It is also a feeling that demands an enormous amount of vital energy.

Likewise, hate is invasive because once it sets in, it tends to permeate everything else. It makes us prone to anger and becomes a barrier that prevents the expansion of our essence, in all its fullness. Hate is ignorance because it feeds a superficial view of the errors or defects of others. If we looked at them carefully, we would understand their limitations and feel compassion, instead of anger.

The three fires that consume us, ignorance, attachment and hatred, do precisely that: consume us. These are forces that eat away at us, that steal our vital energy or lead us to waste it without any benefit. The main victims of these forces are ourselves. Feeding these internal poisons is paid with suffering.

Ignorance in the work environment

In the workplace, ignorance can manifest itself in different ways, such as lack of knowledge about the risks associated with a task, lack of adequate training or training, or lack of access to relevant information.

This capacity for improvement is based on the quality of the communications that occur in the organization and here leadership, communication, feedback, and work environment skills come into play.

Ensuring that information flows internally is the leader's obligation so that everyone is informed in a timely manner about what is happening in the company, both good and bad. By having greater understanding and knowledge of what is happening, rumors and conjectures will tend to be reduced. Meetings do not exist in vain but play an important role because they are a space to share topics in a broad way with an open mind and heart so that no doubts remain and that knowledge about a particular topic is understood by everyone equally. Also 1 to 1 meetings, where the leader practices active listening with each member of his team to find out their needs, doubts, concerns, etc. and give feedback as necessary.

Constant training and quality conversations are the pillars of organizational learning and competitiveness.

How to detoxify ourselves from these three poisons?

The Buddha's teachings offer a liberating path. We should not take the kilesas as something personal and identify with them, thinking: “I am an angry, greedy and deluded person.”

Seeing greed, hatred, and deception in this way encourages us to respond to these painful emotions with kindness, compassion, and wisdom. At the end of the day, we improve in what we practice.

The first step is to recognize that a kilesa (poison) is occurring. We may experience it first as a pain in the heart, a stinging in the body, or a dullness in the mind. Just recognizing a kilesa as such is a big step. It is the beginning of becoming aware of a habit. It is only when something becomes conscious that it can be worked on, modified and transformed.

The second step is to allow ourselves to fully experience kilesa as it is, without desire or attachment to the idea that it should be any other way. The third step is to investigate its true nature and the beliefs we have about it.

Also traditional heart practices, such as generosity, loving-kindness and tonglen, are powerful medicines against the harmful effects of the three poisons. Generosity makes us aware of the abundance of material and immaterial treasures that we have at our disposal at every moment. The practice of giving—whether possessions, money, time, or our presence—helps us recognize that we have more than we need.

All of these practices for dealing with negative emotions set the stage for working with the Vajrayana practice of transmutation. Transmutation is like alchemy: it is turning poison into medicine, confusion into wisdom.

I invite you to put it into practice and share your own reflections and experience in the comments.