Lesson 9 from A Comprehensive Commentary on the Words of My Perfect Teacher covers the fifth and sixth of the six stains that obstruct proper listening: inward tension and discouragement.
On inward tension, the teaching uses the image of a dremo bear digging up marmots — grabbing one while losing another — to show how over-focusing on individual points causes the listener to retain only fragments. The central instruction is the principle of balance: neither too tight nor too loose. The Buddha's conversation with the monk Srona about the lute illustrates this perfectly — just as a string too tight or too slack produces no good sound, practice strained or slack bears no fruit. Dakini Machik Labdron's instruction and Sarahapa's verse on untying the mind's constraints reinforce the same teaching.
On discouragement, the lesson recounts how practitioners at Larung Gar once sat on frozen ground in heavy snow, without cushions or cloaks, to receive teachings outdoors for years. By contrast, modern practitioners tire after three hours on a cushioned floor. The antidote is joy: recognising each teaching as the fruit of merit accumulated over countless kalpas, and approaching it accordingly.
