Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A war crimes trial unfolding in Adelaide becomes Khensur Rinpoche’s opening example in this 26-minute talk: karma is never simply lost, and consequences ripen when conditions eventually align. From there he builds a practical framework for working with anger. Tolerance, he explains, is a non-distressed mind; compassion is its direct support. When someone strikes you, recognize that their anger has seized control — they have become “other-powered,” no longer free — and they become objects of compassion rather than retaliation, much as a mother feels compassion rather than anger toward a child acting out under illness. He then addresses anger arising from thwarted desire, teaching that trust in cause-and-effect loosens frantic grasping and the frustration it breeds. He closes with simple practical counsel: drive across town in a relaxed manner; do office work slowly and without rushing.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 03 DWA 1991 11 16.mp3
UUID: 598b3f90-efba-4411-8e18-bb0e266eb069
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Dealing with Anger (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1991-11-16
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 25.9 minutes
Words: ~1,105
With respect to the actions not, we do not, one does not experience the results of actions not created. And this would apply to if someone were to harm us in some way, then to think we would not be experiencing this harm without having created the causes of that harm. If we didn’t create, there would be no way that this person would be harming us unless we create the causes. One does not experience a result which one has not created the cause of. And then with respect to the infallibility of actions and their results, then whatever type of action we create, there will be a concordant result.
If our action is positive, it is definite that we will experience a positive result. If it is negative, then it’s definite that we will experience negative result. That unless we, for example in the case of positive actions create anger and thereby destroy that action or in the case of negative actions unless we acknowledge or confess that action and thereby eliminate it, we will definitely experience the result. It does not become lost. It does not become destroyed but will be experienced upon meeting the conditions and even insignificant or minor acts will have their result.
Nowadays, presently in Adelaide there’s a war crimes trial going on and though this person who is accused of having killed all these people many years in the past that action has not been lost, that now he’s undergoing trial and it’s definitely he will experience the result. If we have conviction in actions and the results, then when somebody does something wrong to us, we will think that this is a result of my having done something wrong to that person in the past. It doesn’t matter. There’s no use in getting upset and we will not retaliate but we will practice tolerance. So the definition of tolerance is a non distressed attitude.
So previously an individual may be sitting peacefully and someone comes up and says some harsh words and their mind will become distressed. Their mind is completely distressed and dependent on that distress, anger will arise. Likewise, with the presence of compassion, we can practice tolerance. If someone were to, for example, harm us by hitting us on the head with a stick and even if they wounded us, through our compassion we would remain tolerant. How do develop tolerance through compassion?
If someone were to hit us, then we can understand that this person is not free. This person has come under the influence of their own anger and they have become other powered. They are no longer under their own control, that they have come under the control of anger. And it is their anger which is harming us, not this person. And so they become, not having freedom in this way, not under their own control, they become a source of compassion for us, Thinking, Oh, this is a shame in this way, that this person is no longer under their own control and this way we remain tolerant.
So the same analogy would be that if a mother’s child was ill, very sick, and due to the force of that illness the child acted very badly. And the mother would not become angry at the child but would understand that the child was acting this way under the influence of the illness. And rather than becoming angry at the child, on the contrary, the mother would become, would have tremendous compassion for a child and wish that the child didn’t have this illness, it was free of this illness. So it’s quite, it’s not uncommon that people become angry at non human objects. People become angry at trees and stones.
They can become angry at anything. So you have to think about the faults of this temper. And just as we talked about, I mean it’s just anger and we talked about all the faults of anger. So this would additionally apply even though the object is different. So just apply the faults of anger even though the object is different.
As compared to getting angry people? So there’s a difference in the severity of the karma created because sentient beings are beneficial toward us. Therefore it’s more harmful to get angry at sentient beings than non-sentient objects. So when you have to drive across town, try to do it in a relaxed manner. Don’t get agitated.
And when you have to do your office work, then to think through well and do it slowly. Don’t try to do it quickly and this will be helpful. So this is the way you practice. So this is the way compassion can help us in the cultivation of tolerance. Also we talk about another hindrance to the development of tolerance was being highly desirous, highly desirous.
And that often times we have a great desire for something and something interferes, frustrates our desire. And we get upset, distressed and become angry. But if we were to understand that things are going to come to us due to the power of our creative potential, that is to say our merit, our creative potential, then we will not become so wrapped up in making effort in getting these objects. When our efforts are thwarted, we will not get upset because if we have created the causes, then the result will come without becoming completely wrapped up in making effort toward them. If we have not created the causes, then no matter how much effort we make, we’re not going to get the result.
So we make effort but we don’t get completely wrapped up in the effort, and then when something obstructs that, we won’t become distressed because we know we haven’t created enough creative potential. So it’s the same as in the case of getting, being paid in accordance, the pay we get according with the amount of work that we put in and that we can expect in accordance with the work that we put in a certain amount of pay. To expect more than what our work is worth would not be reasonable. So this is a similar case. Maybe, I don’t know, we’re going to stop there.
I was thinking whether we should have questions or not. We already had some questions. Maybe, again, you could read books, but maybe you’re hungry. Maybe it’s a little more so in the West because it’s very rare that people have conviction in cause and effect. A prayer on page ten.
And then on page verses five, verses eight and nine.