Anger
by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
During a teaching at Vajrapani Institute in
Boulder Creek California on May 23, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explained
various ways to deal with anger—one's own anger and the anger of
others directed at oneself.
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.
As Bodhicaryavatara 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.
by Lama
Zopa Rinpoche
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"We
hear religious people talk a lot about morality.
What is morality? Morality is the wisdom that
understands the nature of the mind. The mind that
understands its own nature automatically becomes
moral, or positive; and the actions motivated by
such a mind also become positive. That’s what we
call morality. The basic nature of the narrow mind
is ignorance; therefore the narrow mind is
negative."
Lama Zopa Rinpoche
The above quote changes daily
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Lama Zopa
Rinpoche was born in 1946 in Thami, in the Mount
Everest region of Nepal, not far from the Lawudo
cave where his predecessor had meditated for the
last 20 years of his life. Lama Zopa Rinpoche is
now the Spiritual Director of the Foundation and
oversees all of its activities.
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