In the "holding on to fire" example that I do in the hall on Day 7 in the morning, one way that I hold onto fire, I say, is that we can't see it clearly; 'it's me, it's me'; we like it for that reason, so we keep doing it. The second way is that we see some of the burning; we actually see it's painful; we hit and beat at it, but that's kind of stimulating, exciting, and we still hold on: "it's me, it's mine".
A lot of people do have a conditioning that they want to hit and beat. They want to get angry, just to feel bad about themselves later, and hit and beat themselves, and beat the other people, and whatever else. Even when they know it's wrong to do, they can't stop it, because there is a very energetic "rush", as they say, of "excitement". Yes, it can happen to a lot of people, this is exciting, I like this. To overcome this type of attachment to these very negative qualities, we have to open up our Dukkha reflection and really label: "this is Dukkha"; "this is burning", "this is fire". We have to really look at it more closely, and give it the name of what it truly is.
As long as we're happy with the excitement, we're not really labeling what the problem truly is. So we have to open the Dukkha reflection up first, to truly acknowledge what the problem is. Opening up the Dukkha reflection for what purpose? Why do we examine Dukkha here at all? Why do we tell you to examine your Dukkha? To open up your Compassion for your Dukkha. You have to identify it; you have to see it's painful, and then the thought must arise: "I don't want this any more". Then we work with all the techniques to end it.
So, indeed, we have to re-condition the mind. We have to open up the Compassion/Lovingkindness thoughts, and the meditation in itself, more and more; and we have to examine Dukkha over and over, to see more clearly what it is that we actually do want to let go?
When I use that example, in the third part, I say, "we have to look at it over and over: it's Dukkha; it's fire, it's fire, it's fire". We have to say it over and over and over. Saying it once, saying it twice, doesn't always work. The conditioning can be so strong, that even though we acknowledge something as Dukkha, "No, I shouldn't do it; I don't want this any more..." Five minutes later; five days later; five years later, we'll find that we're just doing it again, because we didn't pump it into the head enough; we didn't see the burning enough.
When holding real fire itself, you can feel it, it's burning, you know - whooh! The minute you touch it you don't even want to hold it, you just want to go away from it. It's easy. Our mind's more tricky because it doesn't really show the fire in its true nature, so it is very important to open it up so that you can see the fire clearly; then open the Compassion for it, because if you only see the fire clearly then you think "Oh well, that's neat. Yeah, I don't want it now", and you let go of it now; but then it comes again later. It's having the Compassion "I don't want it later either.".
So we're back to the Moral Shame and Moral Dread. Moral Dread in particular: "I don't want it again. I don't want it again". What are we also back to? Being determined. The Compassionate "I don't want it" - but unless you're determined that you don't ever want it again, then of course it will come back again. So we're back to Determination again.