Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 44-minute session, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen teaches the mind-training practices of the Lamrim (Stages of the Path), guiding students through progressively deeper levels of compassion toward bodhicitta—the altruistic intention to achieve enlightenment for all beings. He begins by establishing sentient beings as equally worthy of respect as Buddhas, since compassion requires them as its essential object. A significant portion addresses a common misunderstanding of equanimity: not apathy or indifference, but a balanced mind free from both attachment and aversion. Drawing on Śāntideva’s vivid analogies—a drunk mother, a stick striking the head, a boot-patch protecting against thorns—he teaches that delusion and anger, not people, are the real enemies to transform. He emphasizes that genuine compassion develops through gradual, deliberate mental training. Pitched at practitioners with basic familiarity with Buddhist concepts.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 06 SoM no date.mp3
UUID: a3704427-8deb-4caa-961c-b14e70f0a02c
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Collection: Stages of Meditation (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)
Date: 1983 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.0 minutes
Words: ~5,721
Because without keeping sentient beings as an object of those, there’s no way to generate great compassion and great love. Thus, sentient beings are very kind, and one must remember their kindness very often. Since birth, we have been receiving the benefits from other sentient beings countlessly and limitlessly in many ways. So therefore, if we are not trying to generate the same kindness towards other sentient beings, then how stupid are we? Because we have been receiving all the kindness and all the help from others.
Now it is our turn to give back the same kindness and to give the same, what’s called, assistance. If we don’t try to do so, then it is really the matter of embarrassment, and it’s really the matter of shame. So thus, it is our foremost duty to try from right now onwards to generate kindness to all sentient beings without exception and try to share our knowledge and so forth for all other sentient beings because we have received and we are receiving kindness and assistance from limitless sentient beings. Yeah. This is the text.
The field of Buddha and the field of sentient beings are alike. We venerate and we respect the Buddha because we know Buddha has expounded the teachings for our sake, and through practising that, we can, what’s called, receive the same realization as past Buddhas and Bodhisattvas did. Right? Therefore, we venerate and we respect Buddhas and so forth. If it were the case, then why not we respect and we venerate all sentient beings?
Because it is through sentient beings that we are able to generate great compassion, bodhicitta mind, and love. Because without having the object of those, there won’t be generation. Thus, sentient beings are the object, and sentient beings should be venerated and should be respected like the Buddhas and other great Bodhisattvas and so on. Thus, in terms of kindness, there is no difference between these two. Thus, one has to venerate them equally as we do to the Buddha.
One might wonder. It is quite reasonable to generate compassion and love to all sentient beings, but it is hard to generate compassion and love to all sentient beings because some people are not poor and some people are not, what’s called, practically suffering. Moreover, some people are higher than me in terms of position, in terms of wealth, in terms of prestige, in terms of whatever. So therefore, those in the meantime are not object of generating the compassion and so forth. So if you think in this way, then at first, before touching them, try to reflect in your mind the reasons I have given before during the generation of compassion.
Right? So see, at the moment, they may seem to be higher than you. They may seem to be wealthier than you, and so on and so. But eventually, they have to face the same procedure of aging — what’s called birth, aging, death — as other very ordinary persons face. Right?
So from that viewpoint, they are, what’s called, right objects of compassion and love. Right? Because when they face those processes, then, of course, we know how powerless they are. There’s no power at all to utilize their position, their prestige, and their wealth to escape from that. So from that viewpoint, all sentient beings are, what’s called, objects of compassion and love alike.
So from understanding those viewpoints, one can, what’s called, generate compassion and love for all other sentient beings without exception. Very worthwhile to generate compassion to all sentient beings in terms of kindness or in terms of their kindness and in terms of, what’s called, experiencing the sufferings and in terms of helping us to generate the higher levels of realization and so forth. So from those viewpoints, one should keep all sentient beings as an object of compassion and love and so forth. This is all about the basic explanation of compassion. So I think maybe we can stop.
Seeing also in this way — I might get, you know, something as a result if I do for him. Right? If I do this change for him, that — the mind itself is not cherishing others. It itself is — oh, sorry. It’s the mind itself that is not cherishing others. It’s itself a self-cherishing attitude, because you are expecting something as a result for oneself. Sharing with others means: suppose if you see or you contact any sentient being particularly suffering from disease or whatever. So at that very moment, if you are able to generate genuine, right mind thinking, oh, this is really awful now. He’s suffering. So I must do something to help him.
Right? So within this frame — within this frame of mind, if you try to do something, that’s cherishing others. But if you think, oh, he’s particularly unwell, he’s suffering from this kind. So if I do something helpful to him, I might get something this or that at the end — that is not pure cherishing others. Because there is this self-cherishing attitude or selfish thought mixed with that.
So that is not cherishing others. I wonder if you could tell me what would be a good — To reduce self-cherishing attitude, the best method or the best way is, as I explained before, to contemplate on the faults of self-cherishing attitude. What happens now? What happens if we hold self-cherishing attitude very strongly? Right?
So as I mentioned before, due to our own self-cherishing attitude, we start fighting one another. We start quarreling. We start doing something which is negative. So therefore, those are all the results or even the effects of self-cherishing attitude. So therefore, if you try to see clearly all those faults, then automatically or naturally, you will think, oh, these are the results of self-cherishing attitude.
So therefore, I don’t want to have these results. Thus, I have to stop the self-cherishing attitude. So in this way, if you see the faults of self-cherishing attitude, you will be able to remove or you will be able to reduce the self-cherishing attitude. Yes. I guess she was saying that the small scope and the middle scope — yeah.
You have to do them thoroughly before you could go on to the high scope. Does that mean that we should practise them for a long time before we can practise the high scope? This is another. To be able to get liberation for one’s sake, you have to know the sufferings properly. Right?
So having known the sufferings properly, one will be able to extend that understanding to other sentient beings. Right? So then one will work for other sentient beings to get rid of the sufferings for others. Right? Okay.
So to be able to remove others from the suffering, the first important thing is to get rid of oneself from the suffering. And if you don’t recognize the very nature of the suffering clearly, it is very hard. It is hard to get sentient beings free from sufferings. So therefore, first, you have to recognise sufferings through training your mind in those first two scopes. Having understood the nature of the suffering clearly, one can switch on to the great scope, which means one can start working for other sentient beings through removing these sufferings. So this is the, what’s called, meaning: the former two scopes are the foundations of the great scope.
Without having understood one’s own natural suffering, it is a bit hard to generate compassion. Difference. Uh-huh. And the self-cherishing attitude. Now I think that by indifference, it means more not caring much about other people or having only — The word indifference is quite obvious. It’s quite obvious because indifference means to achieve one’s mind in balance without falling to one of the extremes.
Thinking, all sentient beings are equal in terms of wishing happiness and in terms of avoiding the sufferings. Right? So within this, there’s no difference between you and I. So this is how we are balancing our mind. It means to keep our mind in evenness without falling to one of the extremes.
Just stay there without falling. It’s called indifference. Right? Now self-cherishing attitude is not keeping the mind in balance, rather trying to hold one end, which is called wishing everything for oneself. In other words, selfishness.
Yeah? That is called self-cherishing attitude. And indifference is to keep one’s mind in balance without falling to one of the ends. Not not altogether, I don’t think. The modern definition of indifference is not to care one way or the other.
Strange. Yeah. Not to be bothered. Mhmm. Indifference.
The connotation of indifference or the equality means not to generate strong attachment as we used to generate to our relatives. Not to generate strong hatred as we used to generate to the enemy, but avoiding these extremes, just lift the mind between them neutrally. Just neutrally. That is called indifference. I think we have a different interpretation over here in the west.
Yours is kinder. Yours are kinder, certainly. Yeah. What I really was getting at was what he just said. Reduce the indifference mind.
We try to have the indifferent mind to be able to equalize. Yeah. The main idea of trying to have the indifference is to try to generate compassion, is to try to equalize self for others. Without having the proper basis, there is no way to generate equalizing thoughts. So just given the same.
If there’s no smooth base, if we are just under influence of one strong attitude, it is very hard to generate the positive one. So first we have to level. Upon that evenness, we can generate compassion and equalizing thoughts. So that is one way of generating this compassion or whatever, based on that evenness, based on that indifference, based on that neutral thought. Is that — Yeah.
Equanimity, isn’t it? It is equanimity. Is that a positive state of mind? Which one? Indifference.
Mutual feeling. I’m using the term. Give it a lot of thought. Indifference or equanimity which we are going to generate at the beginning is the part of a virtuous thought or positive thought, whose function is to equalize attachment and hatred in balanced form. Connotation.
The neutral is not necessarily negative. Such as when we have, you know, meetings or whatever. Some people are in favour, some people are against, and the people who are neutral, they don’t become negative to any of the sides. They just may be in the middle. Not going to this side or going to that way.
Connotation of non-involvement: they don’t really — So now, if there are many connotations, you don’t have to go through those connotations. Just try to understand this way. Alright? So the word neutral hasn’t got nothing to do with any negative thought. Even in the sense of the western connotation.
The neutral has got nothing to do with negative attitude. Overcome. Or to be able to generate great compassion: at the moment, we don’t have great compassion. We are devoted to great compassion, right? So we are letting you know this is the way to generate great compassion.
So if you generate this great compassion by relying on these methods, you will definitely overcome the mind which is not related to compassion. The mind which is devoid of compassion. So we are telling the method how to generate great compassion, which overcomes the mind devoid of compassion. I still don’t understand your concept of a neutral state of mind. Would a person who was walking along the street in a neutral state of mind, if they saw somebody fall down sick, would they help that person to the hospital, or would they just leave them lying in the street? If in how — how if it — Neutral.
I’m using his term. Mhmm. Would a neutral person — would a person in a neutral state of mind — If at the moment, he thinks, oh, this — he fell down, so I have — So if he starts generating compassion at that moment, he may have. And normally, the word neutral here means not having strong attachment and not having strong desire or hatred, just to keep the balance without having these two. It’s called neutral.
But that wouldn’t be a positive state of mind, would it, in that situation? So if that person was on the floor, if the only positive reaction would be to have a compassionate thought, Mhmm. To that being. Yeah. If it was a neutral and indifferent feeling, that would surely — Why negative?
If you don’t want to have harm, then why does it become negative? Couldn’t care. You know? Just couldn’t care. Not hatred.
Not hatred or attachments. I don’t care. But it is — it doesn’t care. That’s a problem with that. But that is not a negative thought.
How would it be negative? Because — He hasn’t got any intention to do any harm. Yeah. But but he also has — That’s called not to do — that’s called just neutral. Not to do is called just neutral.
That’s all. So he’s trying to hang on. Wait. We gotta finish the conversation. Conversation now.
So — It’s not positive, though, is it? So he says that it depends on his compassion. Yeah. But anything other than compassion in that situation would be a negative start. The generation of bodhicitta mind or the altruistic mind is solely dependent on the generation of compassion.
So how to develop the compassion is to understand the unbearable sufferings of all sentient beings. If your heart is touched by those unbearable sufferings of all sentient beings, then you are forming or you are establishing the foundations of generating the bodhicitta mind. Thus, upon that foundation, you can generate bodhicitta mind. You have generated compassion, thinking of the unbearable sufferings of all sentient beings. So now you have formed that thought, so now you have to see how to liberate them from such sufferings.
So now here you have to investigate thoroughly. It is true that all sentient beings have to be, what’s called, liberated from the sufferings. But have I got power at the moment to liberate them from sufferings? So if you introspect yourself, if you investigate yourself at the moment, you will find that at the moment, you have got no power even to liberate yourself from one particular suffering. So to liberate other sentient beings is out of question.
Right? So now you have to think here very sincerely, then who has got such power to liberate sentient beings from sufferings? So having asked this question, you will come to know that those beings who have become fully enlightened, such as Buddha Śākyamūni, have the power to liberate other sentient beings because they have the mental quality to understand others’ innermost dispositions, levels, and other what is called stages of sentient beings — who have the clear warm power of clairvoyance and have what’s called other powers to suit various levels of sentient beings. Thus, I will first engage into the path to be able to obtain that kind of state for the sake of all sentient beings. So with this frame of mind, you have to engage into the path mainly for the attainment of Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings.
Right? So when you engage in that way, then your intention to become enlightened is not for yourself, but for all sentient beings. Thus, all sentient beings are your object of intent, and your aspiring intention is to obtain Buddhahood or enlightenment. Therefore, you have to think: for this I will definitely try to obtain Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings. So this is the, what’s called, bodhicitta mind.
So whenever you have this kind of thought that immutably, what’s called, remains constantly within your continuum, and you have experienced that, you have generated the bodhicitta mind. The person who has this kind of thought is called a Bodhisattva, and his practices and so forth will be the practices of the Bodhisattva and so forth. Whenever you have the thought wishing to obtain Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings constantly, that kind of mental thought is called bodhicitta mind or altruistic mind. So he who has this kind of thought is called and that person is called a Bodhisattva, a Mahāyānist, who has generated the altruistic mind and so forth. So therefore, this thought is the entrance into the path of Mahāyāna, into the path of the Bodhisattva.
So therefore, this thought must be generated generally for the sake of all sentient beings. Although we may not be able to generate this precious bodhicitta mind all of a sudden because it may take some time to get familiar in terms of generating this bodhicitta mind or altruistic mind. But still then, one should not give up one’s hope because we can train our mind and practise many things which can also become the cause of generating the bodhicitta mind. Such as, as I mentioned in the morning, from the very beginning, we have to see that because we don’t want to have any kind of suffering at all.
Right? Similarly, all sentient beings equally don’t want to have any kind of sufferings at all. We feel upset and we feel depressed when somebody tries to, what’s called, direct any kind of harm towards us. Similarly, if you do harm others, they will also feel depressed and so forth. So by knowing that, you must not do anything which causes others inconvenience.
Because you know that you don’t want to have any kind of inconvenience at all. So this reasoning must be applied to each and every single being equally. So then try at least to generate some positive attitudes, such as whenever you face some disturbances, try to maintain your, what’s called, mind without getting angry. Right? And so forth.
There are many ways of controlling one’s mind. Thus, by doing those, you will be able to build up positive energy or what’s called positive qualities more gradually. Then once, if you become more powerful, then there is hope — what do you call? — there’s hope to generate the bodhicitta mind. Otherwise, at the moment, we have not formed this kind of powerful mind to generate this kind of bodhicitta mind as past Bodhisattvas did.
So we are unable to give our belongings, body, and possessions as generosity because we have not such a powerful thought. You don’t want to have any kind of sufferings at all. So similarly, others don’t want to have any kind of sufferings in the least. On the other hand, you become very happy when somebody gives you some pleasure. Similarly, if you give some pleasure to others, definitely they will feel pleasure.
So in all, by the whole point of view, every single being — you and other single beings — are equally the same in terms of wanting happiness and in terms of, what’s called, not wanting sufferings. So by judging these two equally, one should try at least to generate some good energy for others so as to provide some happiness as you receive from others. But this kind of analysis is applicable even to those animals such as dogs and cats. So whenever we truly love those dogs and cats, they always try to show their gratitude towards us. So why do they try to show their expression of gratitude?
Because they also want happiness, and therefore, when we are loving them, they receive happiness. Therefore, they are trying to show their, what’s called, expression of gratitude. So they show it in many ways. It indicates they also love those who love them.
So similarly, if we try to do all our best just to generate happiness for others, it is most beneficial in our lives. So in doing so, whichever is most beneficial to your mind and whichever is beneficial to your practice, that should be adopted as your, what it’s called, training or as your practices. Yeah. Yeah. I would say, being that — It is true that when we become familiar with those good things, then we always become happy.
Right? We can associate with others with good behaviour. And people, they like to talk, and people like to see us because they know that we are always doing good things and, what’s called, not creating any harmful things. Therefore, they are happy to come and happy to talk or happy to associate with, and we also always happily are able to, what’s called, happily succeed in doing or dealing with others, because every sentient being wants happiness and pleasure. Therefore, they also judge from that view, so they are able to, what’s called, associate with you very easily and so forth.
So if you think very closely, what brings happiness? And you will come to know this: it is only the nobility and honesty that is the best to deal with. It is due to our familiarity with any object that we are able to deal with quite successfully. In general speaking, all people, all sentient beings may not have the same, what’s called, view, because due to different opinions or due to different views, there arises disagreement. And because they have their own way of, what’s called, expressing their own ideas and so forth, so sometimes we don’t come into agreement.
But in any case, if you are quite, what’s called, happy to be a good and noble person, then you won’t mind too much about others’ disagreement. You will easily go along with those people even by relating with them honestly or whatever, justly, and so forth. This is the way how we should associate with other beings.
We become familiar with those goodnesses. Therefore, we have no special troubles in doing those goodnesses, such as in the case of Bodhisattvas. So those Bodhisattvas, they never ever feel angry to other sentient beings, because from the very beginning, they have formed such a habit not to feel angry, and they have the perfection of patience. So therefore, whenever a Bodhisattva associates or whenever a Bodhisattva delivers to other people, they happily, right, gladly are able to associate with, and there is no hesitation in terms of giving their body and belongings, whatever. Even if somebody tries to cause him some inconvenience, he never gets angry.
Rather, he generates compassion on that person. This is because of his way of thinking. Right? Because the Bodhisattva trained his mind from the very beginning into those goodnesses, therefore, they are able to transform their mind. Thus, whenever they come across any harmful person, they never feel angry with that.
Rather, they feel compassion, and therefore, they keep that person as an object of their compassion. Our way of thinking and the Bodhisattva’s way of thinking are definitely different. How we normally think is due to our being under the power of the delusions. So let us say we have no power at all. We don’t want to become upset.
We don’t want to get any kinds of inconvenience feelings within us. But powerlessly, due to the delusions, sometimes we get very, very angry. Right? So when we get very, very angry, of course, then you can see all the downfall or all the, what’s called, faults of anger. You see? You can see the face — the color of the face is being changed.
The tears are rolling down. We have to fight very violently even though we don’t want to. Right? We don’t want any kind of sufferings by ourselves; still, due to the delusion, due to the anger, we are fighting.
We don’t care about our life. Even for the sake of life, we just fight, and we break down something. And sometimes if a person is really burning out of — burning due to anger — he or she doesn’t have good sleep. And now all these sorts of things are due to our delusions. Therefore, we have no power to act otherwise.
But delusions dominate us. Therefore, we powerlessly act in that way. Whereas a Bodhisattva — so in this way, any person acting in this way, instead of feeling any anger, he will think: look. This bereaved sentient being, he hasn’t got a single antidote to a delusion. Right?
Now he is caught under the delusion, so therefore he’s acting all — what’s called — he is acting all those things which shouldn’t be acted. Right? Now he keeps that particular sentient being as his object of compassion. So therefore, he generates compassion by seeing those angry persons.
Right? So this is the way of thinking of those Bodhisattvas, and we always have no hesitation at all to retaliate to someone or to fight with someone when we are strongly angry. So we sometimes use, what’s called, various things to safeguard oneself and to destroy others due to our anger and due to our other delusions. So although we don’t want to change the color of our face, which is quite embarrassing. Right?
Still, we have no power. It happens. Right? So this is the fault of such delusions. So by knowing those things, one should lessen the arising of those delusions.
It is true that once someone is under the power of delusions, particularly anger, then he creates all those unpleasant situations around him. Normally, he who is quite good looking, when he gets angry and when he’s really burning — you know, his complexion or his, what’s called, appearance changes, then he looks very awful. You know? He looks very awful. But he has no power to control because at the moment, the anger is dominant.
Therefore, it dominates the person, so he has no power. Powerlessly, he has to stay under the power of delusions. So therefore, you can find many examples of those types. When people get quiet — when people get angry and they are really burning, they sometimes even have no hesitation to lose their own life. Right?
So this is because of the anger. Nobody wants to die. Nobody wants to have sufferings. Even so. So when those angers manifest strongly and dominate us, we have no choice but to stay calm. Right?
Because all those angers and delusions dominate us, and we have to act according to the anger. So this is one obvious — this is one obvious example of the anger. It’s one illustration. Illustrative examples to understand that kind. Suppose if our mother, right, if our mother becomes drunk, and within that drunkenness, if she tries to say things which are unpleasant, even if she hits us, then it is not — I mean, it’s not the fault of hers, because she is completely under the power of the drunkenness.
Right? She has no control at the moment. So it is, what’s called — it is useless in the sense to react or retaliate to her right at the moment. Instead of retaliating and instead of taking any reaction, knowing that at the moment she has no power of control because of the drunkenness.
So you should instead of retaliating and taking action, you should help her and you should provide all kinds of facilities. You got something for us anyway. It is senseless to retaliate to a drunk mother; then why not would it be senseless to retaliate and to react to those who are under the power of the delusions? Right? Because the delusions bring the ultimate sufferings to that person. He has no power at all to control because the delusions become more manifest and more dominant.
Therefore, he is acting right according to the delusions. Thus, it is inappropriate to retaliate to someone who is under the power of delusions. Therefore, once you know this, rather than retaliate, once you take that particular person as an object of compassion and try to, what’s called, provide all the facilities to lessen or to eliminate the delusions. As Śāntideva says, if you are wise enough to be able to retaliate to our enemy, then instead of retaliating to the person, you must retaliate to his anger, who is the dominant one, who is dominating the person, as well as who is directing his anger towards others. Right?
So if you are quite wise enough, and you really want to fight the enemies, you must fight the enemy of anger, not the person who is under the influence of anger. Right? So if we are not able to retaliate to his anger, then for the time being, we should not create any disturbances to that person, because at first, from one point, he is already under the influence of the power of anger. So this is his big problem. And secondly, if you try to create more cause, he will have, what’s called, double inconvenience, double disturbances.
Therefore, instead of helping, we are creating more suffering, more inconvenience. So better not to create any kinds of disturbances to him if you are not able to fight his real enemy, which is anger. Śāntideva says in his book: if somebody very angrily hits your head with a stick, then he sees it in this way. So therefore, when somebody who is very strongly angry hits you, hits a stick on your head. Right?
So you will feel very strong anger, and you try to retaliate to that person. Right? So here, Śāntideva says, it is inappropriate to fight against the person, because the real pain you received is from the stick, not from the person. Right? So you may argue, this is senseless because he’s the one who uses the stick.
Therefore, I was hurt. So then if it is the case and it was valid, then it’s not the person, right, who uses the stick. It was the anger which he has. Therefore, the person had no control — the anger made him hit the stick. So therefore, you have to fight with anger and not with the person who is the instrument of the anger.
So this is the appropriate, what’s called, understanding which is given in his book. Yeah. In all, we must try to train our mind to transform, so as to deal with everything quite successfully. Right? At the moment, we have this kind of attitude and this kind of behaviour.
Whenever somebody hits us, we immediately want to hit back. This is our normal attitude, and this is our normal what we call habit. But if you hit back, again, that person will hit us. So therefore, it will become more — grow more bigger and bigger. Right?
But when a Bodhisattva sees those kinds of people — so whenever a person hits a Bodhisattva, the Bodhisattva never hits back because he thinks, oh, he’s hitting me now. Look, due to his delusion. He has no power to stay calm according to his own wish because his delusions are manifest within himself and he has problems in controlling his delusions, and still he feels angry with me. So therefore, it’s really awful, and he’s creating all kinds of negativities.
So therefore, instead of feeling angry and instead of retaliating back, the Bodhisattva feels very pity on him, and therefore, the Bodhisattva keeps him as an object of his compassion. So he generates all warm heart and things like that. So this is the way of doing. If we are quite wise enough, we should also act in that way. Normally, there are two conditions that make us unhappy and bring us sufferings.
The external conditions and the internal one. So as you know, there are many external conditions which try to bring us unhappiness and try to bring us sufferings. And of course, we have internal conditions which also make us unhappy and also make us suffer. So now if you think, first, I will try to control all external conditions. Right?
So as to get happiness within myself. If you think in this way, this is a bit hard to control and to defeat all external, what’s called, conditions because external conditions are more. Right? So it’s a bit hard. Instead of controlling other outside or external conditions, try to control the inner one, which is more easy to control.
Right? For example, the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas — how they became enlightened and how they became realized persons. They haven’t controlled external conditions, but rather they have controlled their own wandering conditions. They have tamed. They have pacified their wandering thoughts.
Therefore, they are able to generate all good heart to all sentient beings without exception. So that good heart is not at a superficial level. Right? They have really and truly generated it from the depths of their hearts. That’s why whenever they associate — whenever they associate with anybody, they have no such unhappiness in their mind, and they were able to associate with everybody equally and successfully. It shows that it is more important to control inner conditions than the outer ones. That’s a very inspiring illustration given by Śāntideva in his book. He said: if there were a, what’s called, mountain or hill which is full of thorns. Right?
So to be able to destroy all those thorns, if you try to go out personally, it is impossible to cut all the thorns because they cover the whole mountain. Right? Instead of doing that — right? Instead of covering those thorns either with leather or something — he says, it is difficult to find enough leather in this existence to cover the whole mountain. But instead of doing that, if you put a patch on your boot.
Right? If you put a patch on your boot, you can walk on every surface, and you can go anywhere. At that time, the thorns have no power to prick under your heel. So whether or not they are, what’s called, harmful or not, if you prepare yourself, then you won’t receive any kind of harm from the others. So this is the, what’s called, one way of handling these things by us.