Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 66-minute talk, Ven Thubten Dondrub teaches the Buddhist practice of patience as an antidote to anger, drawing extensively from Śāntideva’s eighth-century text on the subject. After guiding students through preparatory refuge and bodhicitta meditation, he identifies three kinds of patience: patience toward harm from others, patience toward one’s own difficulties, and patience with obstacles in spiritual practice. The core teaching uses Śāntideva’s logical approach: if a problem can be remedied, why get angry? If it cannot be remedied, what is the point of anger? Dondrub then explores consequences of anger from both worldly and karmic perspectives—how it damages relationships and reputation, clouds judgment in crises, and most significantly, how a single moment of anger destroys accumulated merit and generates negative karma that can determine rebirth in lower realms. He emphasizes that anger obscures the mind, creating obstacles to understanding and practicing the dharma, and urges students to meditate repeatedly on these disadvantages rather than merely accepting them intellectually. The teaching is pitched at practitioners who have some familiarity with Buddhist teachings and the concepts of karma, saṃsāra, and spiritual practice.
File metadata (for organising)
File: Patience 2 2015 03 19.mp3
UUID: e1caffd1-2258-4090-8860-241efb05cc76
Teacher: Ven Thubten Dondrub
Collection: Patience (Ven Thubten Dondrub)
Date: 2015-03-19
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 66.6 minutes
Words: ~6,877
Right. So we start on page six. People would like to join in. So we’re studying, looking into the practice of patience, is really vital in life in general, but especially if we want to follow the spiritual path and particularly if we want to follow Mahāyāna path to enlightenment because the whole purpose of the Mahāyāna path is to benefit, only benefit sentient beings and not to harm them. Anger creates incredible harm to ourselves but to others.
And so it’s really important to be able to learn to develop patience so that we don’t harm other beings and also we don’t create through creating negative karma, negative imprints through getting angry, we learn to avoid that and therefore we avoid creating obstacles to following the spiritual path that benefits sentient beings. So in studying the teachings and listening to the teachings, the Tibetan tradition emphasizes so much that we should prepare our mind beforehand. Traditionally the Heart Sūtra is done, but since we have just short classes and that takes a while to recite, just do the very end part, which is actually a tantric prayer, which is said after the Heart Sūtra which is the prayer to the lion face dakini which is about getting rid of obstacles. I prostrate to the gathering of dakinis in the three chakras who abide in the holy yoga of using space by your powers of clairvoyance and magical emanation. Look after practitioners like a mother, her child.
Akasamarajasadhara Samara Yepe. Akasamara Yepe. By the teachings of the three supreme jewels possessing the power of truth, may inner and outer hindrances be transformed. May they be dispelled. May they be pacified.
May they be completely pacified. Pacified, may all negative forces opposed to dharma be completely pacified, may the host of eighty thousand obstacles be pacified, may we be separated from problems and harmful conditions to dharma, may all enjoyments be in accord with the Dharma, and may there be auspiciousness and perfect happiness here right now. So then we make an offering of the mandala of the whole universe to the field of merit as a way to request the teachings, to accumulate the merit that helps us to understand and practise the teachings, in this case patience, and to reduce the afflictions in our mind that are obstacles, that create obstacles to being able to understand and practise the teachings. So we visualise Śākyamūni Buddha in front of us as our source of refuge, inspiration and guidance, thinking of the Buddha as the embodiment of the Three Jewels of refuge, the embodiment of all our perfect teachers of the past, present and future. So then the main thing we need to do to prepare our mind so that the teachings are most beneficial is to cultivate that mind of refuge in the triple gem and what that is really all about is developing refuge, is developing that attitude that is determined to take care of the mind, realising that the mind is the source of all happiness and suffering.
And so being determined to take care of the mind, we have made the decision to rely solely on the Buddhist methods to do so, having spent time checking the Buddhist methods and coming to the conclusion that the Buddha’s teachings are complete, perfect and unbetrayable, the perfect refuge. Because they come from that perfect source, the enlightened mind. So we need to generate that mind of refuge as strongly as possible as we think of the Buddha in front of us. And then on the basis of that, try as much as possible right now to generate what my teacher, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, calls the effortful bodhicitta that arises from thinking strongly about the main causes of bodhicitta, which is developing an understanding of our connection with all sentient beings, how we totally depend on them directly and indirectly. We receive every kind of kindness from sentient beings and we need that kindness to survive and to flourish, particularly the kindness of the mother which we have received from every sentient being countless times in beginning of Samsāra.
And so the more we think about that kindness, we can develop the mind that wishes to repay that kindness and that leads to an understanding that the only way to repay that kindness properly, completely, is to help each sentient being achieve what they most deeply want, which is a complete freedom from suffering and to experience instead perfect happiness, pure, endless, everlasting happiness. So the only way to do that is to achieve enlightenment. So we can generate that mind that thinks, No matter what, I must use this and all future lives to achieve enlightenment in order to repay the kindness of mother sentient beings. And to achieve enlightenment, that involves following the path, and that path is all about benefiting sentient beings and not harming them. And so to accomplish that, I need to develop the mind of patience, which is the antidote, the direct antidote to the most destructive of the emotions, which is anger.
So for the sake of all sentient beings, I will study this subject. I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Supreme Assembly. By the merits I create through teaching the Dharma. May I become a Buddha in order to benefit all sentient beings. So thinking the Buddha is pleased with our motivation, we can imagine that the Buddha now comes to the crown of our head and when directly above our crown, imagine that the Buddha then dissolves into blissful golden light That pours down into us, blessing our mind.
So think that that blessing enables to, oneself, to be able to understand the teachings on patience, blessing one’s mind to be able to put them into practice correctly, blessing the mind to be able to eventually gain the authentic realization of every type of patience. So then just for a very short time, can do some breathing meditation such as the nine round breathing exercise just to let the mind become a little bit calmer, clearer, more concentrated so that we can use that level of mind to listen to and think about the Buddhist teachings tonight. K. Thank you. Right.
So we need to develop patience, the antidote to anger in relation to there are three kinds of patience. Is the patience that is the antidote to the anger and agitation and irritation and annoyance and so on that arises in relation to sentient beings, most particularly human beings. That’s one kind of patience. Then, oh sorry, one kind of patience and then there’s the patience to subdue that anger. But in developing that kind of patience, then we were able to apply that patience also to the anger that arises in relation to ourself, to our own difficult internal difficulties just in relation to ourselves.
For example, if we get sick, we can get angry just because we get sick. We can get upset and irritated and annoyed because we’re sick, because we grow old, because we die. People can get very angry when they die, thinking, Why me? Why am I dying? I shouldn’t be dying.
This is quite a common thing to happen amongst people. One can get angry because one isn’t as good looking as one thought, you know, one would like to be. One isn’t as thin, tall, this, that, or as sexy as one would like to be. So one can be very angry and so on with all of those things. One can be angry with one’s inability to practice the Dharma.
So many ways we can be angry in relation to ourselves, so none of that is helpful. So we need to be able to pacify that, not suppress it, but pacify it, undermine it. So we need the antidote patience. And then most importantly, well, actually, most importantly, It’s difficult to say which one is more important because they’re all interconnected, but very importantly is developing the patience to the anger that can arise or the frustrations that can arise in the practice of Dharma itself. That there are many difficulties in following especially the Mahāyāna path.
There’s the difficulties of meditating for long periods of time, studying the teachings, especially the teachings on emptiness, which are very difficult to understand when one really gets into them. Just a general presentation of them can give the impression, oh, this is not so difficult. I’ll understand this in a few weeks or months. But when one gets into like a real study of it, it is a very, very complex subject. Then there is simply the difficulties of practising the dharma in relation to sentient beings who may not be enthralled by our wonderful efforts to benefit them.
And that can be very frustrating and annoying, so we need to have patience for all of those things. So patience is really important. So how does one practise patience? Right, so we’re not going to get into it tonight. So there are many ways, but one basic method which really applies to virtually every aspect of the Dharma, or all the lam rim meditations involve in one way this fundamental process of looking at the disadvantages of something and the advantages of the opposite.
So one way to cultivate patience is to look at the disadvantages of not having it. In other words, the disadvantages of getting angry and not being patient. And then looking at the advantages of not having anger and instead having patience. And what we have to do, and I try not to go on about it too much now because I tried to talk quite a bit about it last week, is what we have to do in relation to these points is to meditate on them, to analyse them over and over again because to understand them intellectually is not difficult. If we have any connection with the Buddhadharma at all, to understand these points intellectually doesn’t require much effort at all.
And so one can then make the mistake, oh, I understood that, you know, he said this or I read that, you know, I understand that, so I don’t have to think about it anymore. But we do because, as I tried to say last week, just a little bit of intellectual understanding doesn’t have the power to undermine the delusions and the behaviour motivated by those delusions that has been going on for lifetimes, inconceivable numbers of lifetimes. So we have to empower that understanding, and the way to empower it is to meditate on it over and over again, to put the effort to do some formal meditation on it, right, until one gets the realisation. And as I said last week, even when one gets the realisation, if one doesn’t sustain that realisation by putting effort into maintaining it, it will fade away because it also is impermanent. It’s only at a very, very high, high level, which I can never remember being a very poor monk, but the Geshes will tell you that it’s somewhere around the path, somewhere along the path of preparation, I think.
It’s at that level when one’s actually entered the Mahāyāna path that those realisations become stable and one doesn’t lose them. But we are a long way from that. So we can have some realisation of patience, but if we don’t keep reflecting on it, we can lose it. But to gain the different realisations takes quite a lot of time and effort. Once one’s gained it, to maintain it doesn’t require anywhere near as much effort, but it still requires some.
But anyway, we have to meditate on these things because our understanding itself will deepen from something quite superficial and limited to something much vaster and deeper, which will then progressively affect the mind more and more. I’ll never become a dignified teacher. No way. No way. Sorry, you’ve got a bit of a clown.
So what are the disadvantages of not having patience and being under the control of anger? Just to quote from Śāntideva’s text, chapter six on patience, some of the general disadvantages are where he says, There is no evil like hatred and no fortitude like patience. Thus I should strive in various ways to meditate on patience. So there is nothing more harmful, destructive than anger. Nothing more of all the kinds of fortitudes or strengths of mind that we can have, nothing compares to patience, because if we have that, then we will be able to gain all the other positive qualities.
Because if we have patience, we’ll be able to put in the effort, no matter how difficult, to develop wisdom, love, compassion, concentration, all the other good things, generosity, etc. But if we don’t have any patience, then we won’t be able to develop all these good qualities. Because the moment we have trouble developing these good qualities, we’ll get upset and we’ll give up. So patience is the most beneficial thing, hatred the most harmful. So I should strive in various ways to meditate on patience.
So Śāntideva is saying there’s not just one way to cultivate patience and there are many, many methods that one can apply and that one can try and use all of them actually. And he goes on to say, My mind will not experience peace if it fosters painful thoughts of hatred. So as soon as hatred arises in the mind, the great disadvantage is it destroys whatever peace of mind we have. There’s no way to have any peace of mind when we’re under the control of anger simply because the mind in any one moment can only be in one state in one moment. Yeah?
It can be in a virtuous state or a non virtuous state. It can’t be both. Or it can be in a neutral state, but a neutral state is not a mixture of a negative and positive state. It is a completely separate one. Yeah.
That’s that’s very important to understand that, you know, that being half half negative, half positive is how you create a neutral state. It’s not like that at all. There are negative states of mind, positive states of mind, and neutral states of mind. And with negative states of mind go negative feelings, that is suffering, unpleasant feelings. With virtuous states of mind go pleasant feelings, happiness.
And with neutral states of mind there are neutral feelings. Not a lack of feeling, but neutral feelings, like what we’re experiencing on the tip of our finger at the moment. Neutral feeling. Yeah. Boring.
So my mind will not experience peace if it fosters painful thoughts of hatred. I shall find no joy or happiness, unable to sleep, I shall not feel settled. Hatred and anger harms our joy, our happiness, our bodily comfort. Even when one has a lot of anger, one can’t even sleep properly, and then one is completely unsettled and agitated. Later on, Śāntideva goes on to say, Therefore I should totally eradicate the fuel of this enemy, for this enemy, meaning anger, has no other function than that of causing me harm.
Many people ask the question, Isn’t it good to be angry sometimes? Isn’t there some beneficial kinds of anger? And here, Śāntideva is quite simply saying that the enemy anger has no other function, no other function than that of causing harm, because it is a product, a byproduct of ignorance. Ignorance is the root of all suffering. Because of ignorance, we have attachment, which brings more suffering, more confusion, and because of that, we have anger.
One thing you can meditate on, check out, is in every situation where we get angry, irritated, annoyed, disturbed, upset, bitter and so on, vengeful, whatever, underlying that if you check, you you should be able to find that underlying it is attachment. There is attachment to something that makes us angry. I’ll talk about that later on, but in another way. But we have it, of course, one of the main attachments to check out is attachment to ourself. Because of attachment to ourself, if someone contradicts what my attachment to myself tells me that I am like this, I am this good person, I am this special person, blah blah blah, I am right.
My attachment tells me all these things, I don’t make mistakes or I only make little insignificant mistakes and blah blah blah, my attachment tells me all these things. Blah blah, all that stuff. And so when someone goes against that, bingo, one is upset, one gets angry. Or it’s because of attachment to one’s family, to one’s friends, to some group we belong to or our country, our ethnic group, our racial group, our religion, our political group that we assign ourselves to, that we’re attached to, and if that’s threatened, we get angry. Our philosophies, we can be attached to even simple things like wanting something done in a particular way, something to happen in a particular way and if it doesn’t, we get angry.
Or we want something to happen at a particular time and it doesn’t and we get angry. As, you know, I always give the same boring examples, but if you can’t get your key, car key, in the car, you you want it to happen now, and you can’t. Sometimes when you can’t find a hole of the key, it’s always been in the same place, but tonight it’s not there. Somehow the key doesn’t go in or the door key, and you want to, and there is attachment to doing it and there is attachment to it happening now, the way you want, and we get irritated. Check up.
There’s all sorts of sneaky attachments we have in so many ways, and when they are, you know, because of that, because we have projected something important, which is onto something that is not there, and when that’s frustrated, we get angry. Check up. Yeah? So of course, the big solution to practicing patience is to have no attachment, but that’s another big thing. Or at least to reduce one’s attachments.
And then in verse ten of this chapter, Śāntideva says this amazing thing where he says, why be unhappy about something if it can be remedied? And what is the use of being unhappy about something if it cannot be remedied? So this is, you know, something to really memorise this verse as a way to help us practise patience. So in other words, if something’s going wrong that is upsetting us, but we know we can remedy it in some way sooner or later, why be angry? There’s no point, There’s no benefit.
There’s no advantage of getting angry because the anger is not going to positively change the situation. Yeah? I’m I’m going to be able to remedy the situation, but my anger is not going to remedy it. So what’s the point of getting angry if one knows that this situation will change, will go away? It’s there now, but it won’t last because something can be done about it.
So what’s the point in getting angry? There is no point. There is no advantage. Yeah? And even more amazingly see, this is the power of logic, you know?
Śāntideva presents these arguments very bluntly and very, very simply, and one could dismiss, oh, because we like something very complicated explanation, long and complicated. Śāntideva doesn’t do that. He just says it in four lines, If you don’t get it, that’s it. And he just says, And what is the use of being unhappy about something if it can’t be remedied? In other words, if something is going wrong that we don’t like that is making us unhappy and where we know there is nothing we can do to change it, what’s the point of getting upset and angry and unhappy?
Because that unhappiness, that anger, is not going to improve it. We already know we can’t make it go away. So the anger has no advantage. It’s only making it worse. So what’s the point of getting angry?
Isn’t that brilliant? Because it is brilliant. You have to agree. It is brilliant way of thinking, because if you check the way of thinking of the delusions, when we are caught up in them, we think when we’re caught up in our delusions, our reasons for following our delusions are brilliant. We convince ourselves this is just the smartest thing to do.
But actually, if one really checks up, the delusions are really stupid. Getting angry is really dumb because it’s only harmful. I can remember when I was first a monk at Chenrezig Institute, we at some point had a goat there, a little white goat. I think we may have had several at one point, but we ended up with one, which used to be kept on a very long lead on a rope, and by the end of the day, that little goat would have wound that rope around the stake in this big complicated knot. And every night, I would have to go there and unravel the thing.
And I would start out being very patient and after some time, because the goat would never help me unravel the goat, the goat would just, you know, I would unravel it a bit and it would wander around and ravel it up some more. So by the end, I would be really furious. And I would think, you know, this is really stupid getting angry with a goat. What is the point of expecting a goat to understand what you’re trying to do? The goat has no idea.
Yeah. Anyway, so anger is really dumb. So there’s no point in getting angry. Anger isn’t going to remedy the situation. It has no advantage in remedying the situation.
It actually is going to make it worse. So there are some general disadvantages. Then from another point of view, so we have to reflect on those things again and again and again. So from just a very worldly point of view, what are some disadvantages of getting angry? Firstly, it causes suffering to others, even in this life.
And so by causing suffering to others, we can, from our side, we can end up feeling a lot of guilt and regret as a result of this, of all the stupid things we said and did because of anger, because when anger takes over our mind, we quite literally become another person. There is the peaceful, kind person, which we can be, but then when anger takes over, there is another we transform because I am not some fixed rigid thing. I am what arises depending on my body and mind. If mind is out of control, I become out of control. If my mind is at peace, I am at peace.
So I may start out being peaceful, then the mind becomes out of control, then I become an out of control person. But then the anger ceases and I can revert back to being a peaceful person, and that peaceful person looks back at that angry one and thinks, Oh, how terrible. What have I said? What have I done? So there’s all that sense of embarrassment and guilt and worry about the effects of what one has done.
And of course, by harming other people physically or just through one’s speech, One loses friends. One gets a bad reputation. People don’t want to know you because, you know, oh, this is the person who just goes ballistic like this. Even from a worldly point of view, one can see that when anger takes over, one’s peace of mind is lost. So what’s the point of being angry?
So it creates enemies. You know, you say things, do things, so you’ve harmed someone, so that person is likely to then dislike you, and that person has friends, so that person’s friends will tend to dislike you and say bad things about you so you get a bad reputation, which spreads. So these are just worldly disadvantages. Also, even just from a worldly point of view, anger, of course, does this to the mind, so when the mind is like that, it can’t see, it can’t experience things clearly, correctly. So in that disturbed state of mind, we can make really big mistakes, because our mind is so disturbed, so angry, we’re so agitated.
So we can make really major errors of judgement that can have long term repercussions because of what we say and do. And of course, once those actions are done, it’s very difficult to rectify them. So instead of improving a situation, anger is more likely to make it worse. Actually from a dharma point of view, every time we get angry, we put an imprint of anger in our mind so we build up the habit of getting angry. And actually, I read some time ago about some psychologist or scientist of some kind had done some experiments where they encouraged a certain group of people in difficult situations to not be angry, and there are some other people, they encouraged people to express their anger in difficult situations and surprise, surprise, the results came back that the people who were encouraged to let out their anger in difficult situations became more angry.
The Buddha could have told these psychologists that two and a half thousand years ago, but anyway, now it’s a scientific fact. It’s true. Even from a worldly point of view, if one is in an extremely difficult situation such as a life threatening situation, which is where people would say one is justified in getting angry, actually even from a worldly point of view, maybe that is not such a good idea because in a really dangerous situation and the mind gets very agitated, again, it’s very difficult to analyse what is the best thing to do. And in a very dangerous situation, actually what would be ideal would be to have an extremely calm, clear mind to be able to work out how am I going to get out of this. Because actually in all those blockbuster movies, which I haven’t watched, but I think in in I’ve seen trailers, the the hero is always in these unbelievable situations, but he’s very calm and clear for a short time.
Then, of course, he chops people’s heads off and everything. But for a short period of time, he’s very calm and clear to work out what to do. So that’s what we need, calmness and clarity, and you can’t be calm and clear and angry at the same time. These are some things to think about, that these are even from a worldly point of view, difficulties and problems that come from being angry. And all of these problems and difficulties and suffering that can arise can arise from just one moment of anger, you know?
The anger arises in one moment because of one thing, Something’s been going on and in one moment it becomes unbearable. In one moment our mind labels it unbearable. Maybe not consciously, but that’s what happens. Something is difficult and unpleasant, but it’s there and we can deal Maybe we’re not happy about it, but we haven’t exploded, but in one moment, at some point, the mind decides, This is too much. I can’t cope.
I can’t bear this. And then we explode. The anger comes out, but it never comes out in some kind of controlled way. It’s something completely uncontrolled. But in that moment, because of that moment where we decided, No, this is enough.
Can’t bear this. Then all these terrible results can come from that moment. And so difficult to repair all of that, the disasters that come from that. So this is just from a worldly point of view. So for example, Śāntideva says, A master who has hatred is in danger of being killed even by those who for their wealth and happiness depend on his kindness.
So of course, Śāntideva was living at a time, this was the eighth century, a very feudal kind of time, but he was making this point that even if someone depends on the kindness of a particular person, but because that person is very angry, that they can be killed by people who depend on this person, but they can’t stand this person because they’re so angry, so they’ll be killed. Even though the person killing them knows they’re gonna suffer because they depend on this person, but because the person is so unpleasant, so angry, they get killed. And by it, friends and relatives are disheartened, though drawn by my generosity, they will not trust me. In brief, there is nobody who lives happily with anger. So even if you have good qualities like being a generous person, You have friends and relatives who like you, but if you tend to get angry, if we tend to get angry over and over, even friends and relatives will get disheartened with us.
And even if we’re generous with people, but we’re also angry, they’ll end up not trusting us. So there’s no way we can live happily with anger. So these are things we have to meditate on. But these are just the worldly disadvantages. What are the disadvantages from a deeper perspective, from a Dharma perspective?
So one of the worst disadvantages of anger is that, well it following our anger, we engage in negative actions. Those negative actions generate negative karmic imprints and those karmic imprints can only ripen as suffering. There is the suffering of being angry, and there is the suffering that comes in this life from our angry actions, but then on top of all of that, for example, to take an extreme example, due to our anger, we can kill a person. So as a result of killing a person, we can feel incredible guilt for the rest of our life. We can, before we’re arrested and tried or whatever, it can be all the fear and worry about being arrested and being thrown in jail and what’s going to happen to us.
Then there’s all the embarrassment and the humiliation of being known as a killer and going to trial, and then you get thrown in jail, where all sorts of horrible things can happen, all that, even if one is not in a country where you get executed for killing, but you have to live for years and years in this horrific situation. So that’s you know, but that’s only the suffering that comes as a result of action in this life, but as well, because one has killed, one has created this very heavy negative karmic imprint, and when that ripens, that ripens firstly to throw one into one of the lower realms. When that imprint ripens, because killing that human being definitely creates a throwing negative karma, not just an ordinary negative karma, it’s a throwing negative karma that is powerful enough to determine what kind of rebirth one has so that there’s no way one could be reborn as a human being as a result of that imprint. One gets reborn in the lower realms. And of course, once one falls into the lower realms, it’s very difficult to get out of them.
But when one does get out of the lower realms as a human being again, then one has, as a human being, one is in the condition for all the other aspects, other karmic results of killing to occur. Because a throwing karma has four major karmic results. One is being reborn in the lower realms, and the other three occur in the human realm when one finally gets reborn as a human being due to good karma. So there’s the karma, the results similar to the cause, so the results similar to the cause of killing is to be killed or to have a short life or to have lots of disease. Or in fact, if one can have all of those experiences in the one life of having a short life, lots of disease, and being killed as well.
Or it could be spread out over many lives. And then there’s the environmental result of being born in a violent environment where there’s lots of hatred and violence and brutality where there’s lots of disease. Plenty of places like that in this world where we can be reborn. And then there is the final result, which Lama Zopa Rinpoche says is the worst result of all, which is the habit of killing. Why is this the worst?
Because you kill again, and then you get all the other results again, one of which is the habit, and then so you do it again, and you get all the results again. And this is how is how Samsāra goes on and on and on. So from anger, so much suffering comes. And the ridiculous thing is, the sad thing is, we get angry believing our anger is the method to stop our suffering. We get angry to stop believing it’s going to stop our suffering, but it actually is creating the cause for far more suffering that is going to last far longer than the suffering we’re trying to stop.
It’s like, you know, I’ve got a headache, so I’ll shoot myself in the head. That will stop the headache for sure. Definitely, it works to stop the headache. No more headache, but a lot more suffering that are unplanned for. And another disadvantage to think of along those same lines is that to die in a state of anger is one of the worst ways to die because for a negative state of mind that we die in strongly affects what kind of throwing karma is going to ripen that will cause our next rebirth.
So if we’re in a positive state of mind, a peaceful state of mind at death, it’s almost certain that one of the virtuous throwing karmas ripens to bring a good rebirth. If we die in a negative state of mind, it is almost definite that one of the negative throwing karmas ripens. So if we die angry, it’s almost guaranteed that one of the negative throwing karmas ripens that brings bad rebirths. And the common expression is one dies the way one lives. So if one has lived a life following anger a lot, then it’s very easy to get in that state at the time of death.
Especially as I said, because many people who are not understanding impermanence and death, then at the time of death, feel that this is an incredible injustice. Everyone else is alive and I’m dying. This is not right. This is terrible. And one can feel very angry, get very angry because of that.
And it’s just another example of life, you know, how bad life is. The world is against me. Everyone’s having a good time and I’m dying. Another point to reflect on over and over again is that as Lama Zopa Rinpoche says, No external enemy or harmful condition can throw me into the lower realms. Only my own anger can do that.
So if all the most terrible people in the world ganged up against me, all they could do is kill me, but I’m going to die anyway. Their efforts of killing me cannot put me in the lower realms. Only my own negative mind can do that. So these are some of the worst aspects of disadvantages of getting angry. It doesn’t bring the result we want in this life, but on top of that, it creates the cause for far greater suffering in future lives.
But in addition to that, what we need to reflect on, what is even worse is that our anger destroys our positive imprints, our virtuous imprints, our merit. Every time we get angry, we destroy piles of our merit. The more angry we become, the more we destroy that merit. And that merit, which is the source of some kind of happiness while we’re in saṃsāra, but especially that merit is the basis for getting out of saṃsāra and also is the basis for achieving enlightenment. Just to clarify a little bit, to get out of saṃsāra, we have to destroy ignorance, and what destroys ignorance is developing the wisdom that is the antidote to ignorance.
So that is the actual direct way to get out of saṃsāra, is studying the wisdom teachings of the Buddha and meditating on them in order to destroy ignorance. But in order to study those teachings of wisdom and to be able to meditate on them, underlying that, we need a lot of merit. We need the merit to meet the teachings, have faith in them. We need the merit to understand the teachings. We need even the simple merit to be able to know Dharma centers where there are teachers teaching these things.
And then we need the merit to have the food and shelter and clothing and whatever to keep alive while we’re studying the teachings. And then we need the merit to be able to meditate properly. So one has to engage in virtuous actions to create that merit. Is to get all the realizations. And that is burned up in a moment with when we get angry.
As the the very first verse of Śāntideva’s verse six says, whatever wholesome deeds such as venerating the Buddhas and generosity that have been amassed over a thousand eons will all be destroyed in one moment of anger. One moment can be destroyed. That’s why the Buddha said we need to dedicate our merit as much as possible because that protects it from our anger. But of course we have to dedicate it really well, really strongly, really sincerely. Just saying, singing this song, I’m not sure if that’s really enough.
One has to really want you know, that merit, those imprints to produce a particular cause, a result. But if we do dedicate, then that helps. But if we haven’t dedicated our merits, then anger just wipes them out. I’ll let you go. We’ll have tea, but just one more thing.
Another disadvantage is that in addition to that, the negative imprints that we generate as a result of getting angry, those negative imprints, before they ripen as suffering, exist, for want of a better word, in our mind, really that’s not actually accurately the way things are, it’s difficult to understand how karmic imprints work in relation to the mind. But anyway, but what they do is those negative imprints which are existing in our mind now are obscuring our mind. Every time we engage in a non virtuous action, it generates negative imprints and those negative imprints are obscuring our mind. So as I said last week, I’ll quickly repeat again, with an obscured mind, it’s difficult to meet the dharma. Even if one meets the dharma with an obscured mind, it’s difficult to have faith in it.
Even if we have faith with an obscured mind, it’s difficult to understand the Dharma. Even if we understand the Dharma with an obscured mind, it’s difficult to practice it. Even if we practice, the more obscure our mind is, the difficult it is to get the realizations. So we do not need to obscure our mind. It’s already obscured, all our minds here, because potentially we are Buddhas.
Why we’re not Buddhas is because that Buddha potential is obscured. We brought an obscured mind into this world. Ideally, what we should do is leave with a less obscured mind. So we don’t want to add to that because that obscured mind is just creating obstacles to benefiting ourself and especially benefiting sentient beings. It’s creating obstacles to be able to practice the Dharma, to be able to enter the path and follow the path.
The very thing that hopefully we are trying to do. So there aren’t any advantages at all. There’s only disadvantages in following anger. It is a total disaster. In the present moment, throughout this life and in our future lives, for our self and others.
Anger harms others but it brings even greater harm to ourself and stops us benefiting others. And for ourselves to benefit others, of course, brings benefit to others, an incredible benefit to ourselves. And what stops us doing that is our own anger. So why be angry? Because inside us, one of the factors that enables us for anger to arise is this mind that is telling us it’s okay to be angry, it’s good to be angry, you should be angry, you should be angry, you must be angry.
And we believe that lie because we never check it. We never investigate it. And this is what, you know, Śāntideva is asking us to do, is be wise, use our wisdom, and check up. Okay. Thank you.