Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 47-minute teaching, Kyabje Rinpoche works through Śāntideva’s chapter on patience as a series of debates: objection after objection raised and dismantled. Anger is the chief obstacle to an awakening heart. Harsh words cannot harm us — any suffering we experience comes from our own past karma. When a materialist objects that we need possessions, Rinpoche compares worldly pursuits to dreams. He then uses the stick analogy: why do we forgive the stick that hits us but not the person holding it? This exposes an inconsistency — we forgive objects but reserve anger for people. Beings who harm us from ignorance deserve compassion. A key insight: we remember harm others caused us but forget harm we caused them. Yet if we had not harmed others, we would not be harmed back. Throughout, the law of cause and effect is central: our own past actions are always the true source of harm we receive. Suited to those with some grounding in Buddhist philosophy.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1989-02-20 – 4A – Patience – KR.mp3
UUID: a989435c-37ea-4d57-86e1-c6c8b0608c1b
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra
Date: 1989-02-20
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~3,190
Engaging in the Bodhisattva Activities in which it says that the precious mind of enlightenment or the awakening heart whether generated or developed in the mind of a human or even animal that when such a being generates the awakening heart is worthy of respect and praise of all beings both humans and and gods, and that he automatically becomes a child of the Buddha. This precious awakening heart, it is the most viable thing in all the world. If we have this one quality and we have no other we have no other positive qualities about this, then we still, simply by the force of this one quality, we’re worthy of respect and praise by all. That if we can simply begin to come to an understanding of value and preciousness of such a mind, then and develop a faith in this mind, and even this faith of aspiring to such a mind, we create a great deal of positive merit or energy. So considering the preciousness, the value of such a mind, the awakening heart, then anything which impedes the awakening heart, the development of it, is a great obstacle, is our real enemy.
And therefore, Śāntideva devotes an entire chapter in his text to eliminating that one thing which impedes our awakening heart the most, that is anger. And so it is through the elimination of anger, it serves as a development of patience as a method for developing an awakening heart. So, you know, beginning where we we left off in the last teachings. So we begin by coming to an understanding that no matter what types of harmful, unpleasant words another person might in fact say to us, that those words can, in actual fact, cannot harm us either in this life or in future lives. So, towards such a person we should not generate dislike.
But, in fact, this is we should forbear because this is simply a consequence, a result of our previously created negative karma that having spoken in this way to others, now it’s coming back to us. So in response to unpleasant words spoken to us by others that initially we should think that this is simply a consequence of negative karma or actions that we’ve created before speaking harmfully back to others. But we don’t think in this way. We don’t exercise patience but we think in such a way that, Oh, this person’s talking badly about me. That in fact if other people hear about him speaking to me in such a way that I get a bad name, a bad reputation, people think I’m a bad person, then maybe another person who was going to do something very kind to me, who looked upon me very favorably, perhaps he was going to give me a gift, that him hearing these words about me, this would act as an obstacle to him being kind to me or this this third person acting favorably toward me.
Do you do you understand that so far? Thinking thinking in this way that that because of being called bad names unpleasant spoken unpleasantly by this first by the second person that this third person is going to this will act as an obstruction to receiving gifts acting this third person acting favorably toward us. And therefore we think it quite right that we feel justified in becoming angry because our desire for gifts or whatever being looked upon with favor is being obstructed. But this is not justified because simply by experiencing the not receiving gifts, though it might be a slight suffering, the negativity that we create by generating hatred or anger is out of proportion to our loss of a gift or some small favor. That to experience this small suffering compared to the great suffering that we’re going to have to experience through the karma that we create by generating anger and hatred makes no sense.
But we might we might answer, well, you know, if I don’t receive these these gifts, these presents from others, whether it’s food, clothing, whatever, then then this is this is really a great, you know, I should try to get rid of this person because they’re me a great loss. So, but also this is such a way of thinking is very it’s quite unreasonable. That, you know, by generating anger at not having gotten the type of the gifts or possessions that you were that you thought that you should be receiving that were that this third that the second person act as an obstacle you know by by putting you down and causing others to think badly of you that you generate anger and hatred toward this person. But we should think that even if I were to receive all this favor and gifts of others then at best this would give me some slight pleasure for a short time. Perhaps maybe at most it could only last, these possessions can only last me this lifetime.
But in fact the negativity that I create by getting angry and generating hatred towards this person is not only going to harm me presently, but it’s going to continue to harm me for a long time even in future lives. You know, being creating a great deal of negativity in order to, you know, get some small gift as compared to, you know, being willing to forego a gift in order that one not creates such a type of negativity. And you know that we can think of these types of activities that you know however much negativity you might create in order to get that gift, you know we can think of these activities as if in a dream. That in the same way when you wake up from a dream that it’s finished. How much was it worth all the anger and hatred that you created in order to get this gift after you’ve woken up.
So when So as in the same case when in the dream of someone who is asleep that no matter whether that we may dream that we had experienced happiness for one hundred years or that we only experienced we dream that we experienced happiness for one moment. When we wake up, it’s they’re both the same. At the moment of waking up, there’s no difference between having experienced happiness for one hundred years or one moment in a dream. So in both in the case of someone waking up from a dream, whether he is dreaming in his dream he experienced one hundred years of happiness or one moment of happiness, it’s simply in both cases it’s merely a memory at this at that point. But in the case of in our waking life, if we were to in order to gain happiness, if we create a lot of negative actions and a lot of negative karma, then and as opposed to experiencing seeking to experience only small types of happiness at the moment I have death, then the memory is still the same, but the consequence will be greatly different.
So, in thinking from the point of view of death and what is the use, what is the benefit of all the great negativities that we create in pursuit of finding and gathering our possessions. It’s when in fact at the moment of our death we have to go empty handed destitute no matter how many possessions we may have gathered about us. That is like a thief walking down a path and being jumped upon by some bandits and who strip us clean of all our possessions and we just walk away naked. That what is the use of all this great negativity that we’re creating if in order to get these possessions when we can’t take them with us. But someone may question this and they say, well, you know, I need lots of possessions.
I need material material things to sustain myself so that I can pass my life. Even practicing by purifying various negativities and gathering together lots of positive energy, positive potential. In order to do that, I have to have possessions. I need lots of things, material things. So know, there ensues a a debate between Śāntideva and, let’s say, a materialist.
So the materialist is saying that I need lots of things to sustain my life in order that I can have a long life. And during this lifetime, you know, even if I were to create negativities, I can purify those negativities and meanwhile I can also create lots of positive potential. But if we, you know, if we conduct our life in such a way that for the sake of material gains that we exert so much effort that we make such a struggle so hard to gather together various possessions. But in the course of this struggle that if we all we do is create negativity that those who are obstacles to our gathering together our possessions, that we become angry, we generate hatred, hostility, that in fact we generate a great deal of negativity and we don’t, we exert our time in gathering possessions but spend no time in creating any positive potential, then it’s better that we don’t live a long time if that’s the type of life that we’re going to lead. So that’s the, you know, Śāntideva answers this materialist in this manner.
So this person who Śāntideva is debating with is trying to justify, thus, is trying to justify anger in some way that it’s somehow appropriate. So in this case he presents, Well, if some people have some faith in me or some confidence in me, they look up to me and this other person is putting me down saying bad things about me, then because this person’s confidence or faith in me is going to be diminished, surely that justifies my becoming angry at this person who’s putting me down. So they’re they’re debating. There’s lots of debate back and forth in this way. Then if this is then Śāntideva answers back, well, if this is the case, you feel justified in becoming angry at someone that’s putting you down because others are going to lose confidence in you, that they’re going to lose faith in you.
They’re not going to hold you as highly. Then why is it that when somebody else is being put down, that someone else that another person is deprecating or speaking badly of another person, then why is it that you don’t become unhappy about this situation? Why is it that you don’t become angry seeing that this other person who is being put down, other people are going to begin to lose confidence, to lose faith, they are going to not look up to this other person, but in fact you must always usually go along with this. You don’t become angry at this person who is putting this third person down. So it’s, you know, point which is being made is that it’s unreasonable to become angry at mere words that in fact mere words, no matter how harsh they might be, can in fact not harm you or cannot really hurt you.
Then another point is made that toward those who in some way speak badly or deprecate, for example, Buddhas or the Dharma or that even we go so far as to destroy a reliquary, a stupa, that even to become angry at such a person would not be justified since in fact, the Buddha and the Dharma and the reliquaries, the stupas, cannot actually be harmed. They’re they’re not actually hurting the Buddhas in doing this. But on the contrary to such a person who speaks in such a way, for example, putting down the Buddhas, putting down the Dharma, speaking badly of it, not only should we not generate anger or hatred for them, but in fact we should have compassion toward them since they are creating a great deal of negativity and they have it’s all has it’s source in their lack of understanding. Likewise, towards those who in some way speak harshly, put down ones for example spiritual teachers or ones speak badly about ones relatives and friends that it’s not it’s not reasonable to become angry at them. But in fact, as was previously explained, that such types of being that type of way of being spoken to was a consequence or result of these objects having created negative actions, the negative karma, the negative actions of speaking harshly to them previously.
That this is simply having created this karma in the past. This is their karma returning to them and therefore it’s not reasonable for us to generate anger or hatred toward them speaking in this way. So and then another argument is presented from the point of view that, you know, becoming angry at at beings who harm others somehow just that this is somehow justified. But in fact, beings are harmed by two objects in general, they’re harmed by sentient objects and non-sentient objects, that is beings and things. And that why is it that since they’re harmed by both of these objects, why is it that we only get we only generate anger and hatred toward beings and we don’t generate anger toward things when in fact sentient beings are being harmed by both?
So if we’re going to be consistent we should also generate anger at things that harm sentient beings. In fact this isn’t the way we generally act. That we are able to forbear with things when they hurt us, when they hurt others, but we can’t forbear in the same way with people when they hurt us or hurt other people. But we should extend this patience or this willing to forbear with things to people or beings when they hurt when they harm ourselves or others. So now if we take an example of someone who hits you on the head with a stick and it causes you a lot of pain on your head, you know, generally we get angry at the person.
We say that this person caused my pain and therefore I feel justified in getting angry at this person. But we why isn’t that we don’t get angry at the stick? That is actually the stick which is causing which is hit us on the head which has caused us the pain. Why is it we don’t get angry at his hand which held the stick? And in the same way that we don’t even the thought doesn’t even arise to get angry at the stick which in fact is just as much as cause of the pain as the person, then likewise we should take the same attitude and extend it to the person himself or herself that is willing to forbear as we do with things, not getting angry at them, likewise with people.
So likewise we can extend this to the person or the being themselves. We say, well, you know, I get angry at some people because they hurt me. That is when we examine, well who is it do you always get angry at any person who hurts you? Well, I get angry some people hurt me because out of a mistake there is some type of misjudgment. Perhaps they some obscuration, then they cause me harm.
Such type of people, when they aren’t motivated to harm me, I don’t get angry at them. But somebody who is angry, who is motivated to bring me harm, then I get angry at them. So likewise, you know, if we we should extend the same type of forbearance that we have toward those beings who hurt us. But in fact, they both beings have harmed us. Both beings have hurt us.
But we don’t get angry at one, but we get angry at the other simply because from our point of view one had the motivation or not. So we are able to forbear with hurt from one being. Well, why can’t we extend that to the other being as well? So it’s not the mere fact of it being a being that we get angry at, but in fact, their motivation, but we can extend this from one being who we don’t get angry at, the forbearance and one type of hurt, to the second type. Then, you know, further, we oftentimes someone who, you know, we we remember our acts of harm committed to us by others.
So so we we we remember the harm caused to us by others, but we we don’t remember the harm that we cause others. So we, you know, we constantly keep in mind and churn over in our mind the harm caused to us by others, but we tend to forget we don’t remember the harm that we’ve caused others. So the so this, you know, forgetting forgetting the harm that you caused others and remembering the harms that other caused caused you is a great mistake. Why why is it a great mistake? Because if we had not harmed if we had not harmed others, then we will not be harmed in return.
This is the within the within the Buddhist context, the operation of the law of cause and effect. Thinking in this way that I haven’t harmed this other person but they’ve harmed me back is not to have conviction in the law of cause and effect. We can be sure that whatever difficulties, whatever suffering that we experience is simply a return for the difficulties and the suffering that we’ve caused others. This is the operation of law of cause and effect that in accordance with the types of actions that we create there is a reaction back toward ourselves.
The same type of having the result which is in keeping with the cause that we created. In the case of any type of suffering that we undergo, we can be assured that it’s simply a reaction from the suffering that we’ve caused others in the past. So, you know, whatever it might be that we experience, whether even a slight amount of happiness, a slight amount of cheerful feeling or good feeling, then we can be sure that this is even a slight amount is simply a reaction, a consequence of some positive karma that we’ve created in the past. And likewise, any type of suffering that we experience, even a slight pain of a toothache, we can be sure that is a consequence of some negative action that we’ve created in the past. So, you know, whatever harm that others may bring us, we can it arises from the harm that we’ve caused others in the past that these other people are simply a condition whereby our karma, the latencies of past actions are being ripened and therefore it is ourselves which are causing our our own suffering.
Therefore, it’s completely unreasonable to bear any malice towards the other person considering that we’ve created the causes for this pain.