Emotional Release · “Die to Be Reborn”
Three Objects, Three Poisons, Three Seeds of Virtue
To catch craving, aversion, or indifference the instant it arises, fully own it, and immediately convert it into compassion by wishing all beings free of that same poison — turning the emotion that usually causes suffering into a ‘seed of virtue.
Three poisons in 5 lines: When craving, aversion, or indifference arises toward someone, catch it and name it. Don’t suppress it; don’t act it out. Own it fully — yes, this is mine. Then wish all beings free of that same poison: may everyone’s [poison] be held in this one of mine; may all be free of it. The grip loosens and the affliction becomes a seed of compassion. (Optional: breathe it in for all, breathe out love.)
What it is
Slogan 8 of Atisha’s lojong — “Three objects, three poisons, three seeds of virtue” — is a fast, in-daily-life emotional-transmutation practice. The three objects are the people we encounter: those we like (friends), those we dislike (enemies), and those we don’t notice (neutrals/strangers).
Each tends to trigger one of the three poisons: craving/attachment toward what we like, aversion/aggression toward what we dislike, and indifference toward the rest. Ordinarily these poisons run us and cause suffering.
This practice flips them: the moment a poison arises, instead of suppressing it or acting it out, you fully own it and then wish that all beings could be free of it — turning the very affliction into a seed of virtue (compassion).
What poisons you becomes, on the spot, fuel for an open heart. It sits in emotional release because its essence is meeting a charged emotion directly and discharging its grip by redirecting it into compassion.
The Method
Following Pema Chödrön’s standard teaching of the slogan:
- Notice the poison the instant it fires. In ordinary life — seeing someone attractive, getting cut off in traffic, walking past a stranger — catch the moment craving, aversion, or indifference arises. Naming which poison it is sharpens the catch.
- Don’t suppress it and don’t act it out. The practice lives in between. You neither push the emotion away nor get swept into the story or behaviour it wants.
- Own it fully — make it yours, completely. Rather than disowning the feeling, claim it without reservation: yes, this is craving / this is aversion / this is indifference, and it is fully mine right now. Full acknowledgment, not a flinch.
- Wish all beings free of it. Immediately extend it: May every bit of every being’s [craving / aversion / indifference] be contained in this one of mine; may all beings be free of it and have the seed of virtue that is its opposite. You take it on, in imagination, on behalf of everyone caught in the same poison — and send out the freedom.
- Let the redirection release the grip. In owning the poison fully and turning it toward all beings’ liberation, its private, contracting hold loosens; the energy that was suffering becomes compassion. The “seed of virtue” is this turning.
- (Optional, on the breath.) Many teach this riding tonglen’s breath: breathe in the poison and confusion for all who feel it, breathe out love and its remedy. → (Sourcing note: the three objects [friends/enemies/neutrals], three poisons [craving/aversion/indifference], and three seeds of virtue [their remedies] are Slogan 8 of Chekawa’s Seven Points, the lojong Atisha transmitted. The “own it fully / may all beings’ attachment be contained in mine / may all be free of it” formulation and the optional breath-pairing follow Pema Chödrön’s commentary. Faithfully paraphrased.)
Source & Lineage
Atisha Dīpaṃkara Śrījñāna (982–1054) brought the lojong mind-training to Tibet and founded the Kadampa lineage; Geshe Chekawa Yeshe Dorje (1101–1175) compiled the slogans into the Seven Points of Mind Training, where this is Slogan 8 within the second point on absolute and relative bodhichitta.
The practice is associated with post-meditation discipline — working with the poisons as they arise in everyday life. It reached the West especially through Chögyam Trungpa and Pema Chödrön (Start Where You Are, 1994). → (Atisha; Tibetan lojong teachers).
The Traditions' versions
Tonglen — the breath engine often used to carry this slogan; same lineage.
- Affect labelling (affective neuroscience) — naming “this is craving/aversion” to reduce its grip; step 1 of this practice.
- Self-compassion’s “common humanity” (Kristin Neff) — reframing a private affliction as a shared human experience; structurally the slogan’s heart.
- RAIN (Tara Brach) — Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture: recognize-and-allow mirrors “own it fully”; nurture mirrors the compassionate wish.
- Vajrayana “poison as medicine” — the broader principle that afflictive energies, met skilfully, become the path.
Common refinements
Suppressing instead of owning. The practice is not “don’t feel craving.” You feel it fully, then redirect it. Suppression rebounds.
- Acting it out under cover of “practice.” Equally, owning the poison doesn’t mean indulging it. The discipline is to neither push away nor obey.
- Skipping the “all beings” turn. Owning the poison without the compassionate extension just leaves you marinating in it. The turn is what makes it a seed of virtue.
- Forcing it during overwhelm. With a flooding emotion (rage, panic, intense craving), grounding comes first; this practice is for workable charge, not for overriding a system in alarm.
- Refinement: start with the indifference poison — easiest and least studied in oneself. Catch a stranger you’d normally ignore and run the slogan; it trains the catch without high emotional stakes.