Emptiness is
a remedy for the foundation of all delusions-ignorance-so all the other delusions
will disappear. The minute one meditates on emptiness, anger for example, will
stop. Anger arises when you believe in the false I, false object-all this which
does not exist. So when one meditates on emptiness of the self and other objects,
there is no foundation for anger. This is the most powerful antidote. But if it
arises again, it is because there is no continuation of the meditation; the meditation,
the mindfulness, has stopped. The problem is to remember the technique. Once you
remember the technique, it always works. When you don't remember the technique,
it is delayed and the delusion, anger and so forth, has already arisen and taken
you over.
One thing I tell people is always to think about karma. His Holiness
always says Buddhists don't believe in God. This basic Buddhist philosophy helps
you remember there is no separate mind outside of yours that creates your life,
creates you karma. Whatever happens in one's own life comes from one's own mind.
These aggregates, all the views of the senses, all of the feelings, happiness,
sadness and so forth-your whole world comes from your consciousness. The imprints
of past good karma and negative karma left on the consciousness manifest, become
actualized. The imprints to have a human body, senses, views, aggregates, all
the feelings-everything is realized at this time, and all of it comes from consciousness,
from karma.
If your meditation on emptiness is not effective, this teaching
of karma is very powerful for us ordinary beings. The minute one meditates on
karma, there is no room in the mind for anger because there is nothing to blame.
Thinking of karma is practicing the basic Buddhist philosophy that there is no
creator other than your mind. It is not only a philosophy but a very powerful
technique. Anger is based on believing in a creator: somebody created this problem;
this happened because of this person. In daily life, when a problem arises, instead
of practicing the philosophy of no creator, we act as if there is a creator, that
the problem was created by somebody else. Even if we don't use the word God, we
still believe someone else created the problem. The minute you think of karma
and realize there is no creator, there is no basis for the anger.
We need to
think: In the past I gave such a harm to sentient beings, therefore I deserve
to receive this harm from another sentient being. When you get angry what you
are actually saying is that you can harm others, but you feel that you should
not receive harm from others. This is very illogical. So in this practice you
say, 'I deserve this harm.'
Another practice is to use this situation to develop
compassion: I received this harm because of my karma. Who started all this? It's
not because of the other person, it's because of your own actions. You treated
other sentient beings this way in the past, that is why you receive harm now;
your karma persuaded the person to harm you now. Now this person has a human birth
and they harm you because of something you inspired in the past. By harming you
now they are creating more negative karma to lose their human rebirth and to be
reborn in lower realms. Didn't I make that person get lost in the lower realms?
In
this way you are using that problem to generate bodhicitta. This means one is
able to develop the whole Mahayana path to enlightenment, including the six paramitas,
whether sutra path or tantra path. One can cease all mistakes of the mind and
achieve full enlightenment. Due to the kindness of that person you are able to
generate compassion, free sentient beings from all the sufferings, to bring enlightenment,
to cause perfect happiness for all sentient beings.
One can also think in this
way: by practicing compassion on that person, one is able to generate compassion
towards all sentient beings. This person, who is so kind, so precious, is helping
you stop harming all sentient beings, and on top of that, to receive help from
you. By not receiving harm from you, peace and happiness come; also, by receiving
help from you, numberless sentient get peace and happiness. All this peace and
happiness that you are able to offer all sentient beings comes from this person.
Similarly,
one can practice patience in this way and is able to cease anger. In the Kadampas'
advice, there are six techniques for practicing patience; I don't need to go over
all that now. They are good to memorize, to write down in a notebook, in order
to use.
Another thing that is very good is what Pabongka Rinpoche explains
in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand: generally speaking one doesn't get angry
at the stick that the person used to beat you. The stick itself is used by the
person, so therefore there is no point in getting angry at the stick. Similarly,
the person's body, speech and mind are completely used by the anger, by the delusion.
The person's body, speech and mind become like a slave, completely used as a tool
of the anger. The person themself has no freedom at all-no freedom at all. So
therefore, since the person has no freedom at all, they should become an object
of our compassion. Not only that, one must take responsibility to pacify that
person's anger. By whatever means you can find, help the person's mind, pacify
the anger; even if there is nothing you can do, pray to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha
to pacify the person's mind.
What His Holiness teaches is to meditate on how
that person is kind, how that person is precious like Dharma, precious like Buddha,
precious like Guru; kind like Buddha, like Guru. The conclusion is that if no
one has anger towards us, we can never develop patience. If everybody loves us
then we can never generate the precious quality of patience, the path of patience.
So therefore there is an incredible need in our life for someone to have anger
towards us. It is so precious, so important that someone has anger towards us.
It's not precious for that person, but for us it's very precious. For that person
it's torturous, it's like living in the lower realms. But for us, that person
having anger towards us is so precious. We have a great need for this, a great
need.
It's important that someone loves you, but it is even more important
that someone has anger towards you. You see, if someone loves you it does not
help you benefit numberless sentient beings or actualize the entire path to enlightenment.
So why is this person the most precious thing to me. Because they are angry with
you. To you, this person's anger is like a wish-granting jewel.
Also, your
anger destroys merit, destroys your happiness, not only in day to day life but
in long term happiness. AsBodhicaryavatara mentions, one moment of anger delays
realizations for one thousand eons. Anger is a great obstacle, especially for
bodhicitta realizations. Therefore, because this person is angry towards me, I
am able to develop patience and overcome my own anger and complete the entire
path to enlightenment. One can complete the two types of merit, cease all the
obscurations, achieve enlightenment, and free all sentient beings and lead them
to enlightenment.
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