Methods to control anger

1. Eliminating hatred is a top priority

In our lives and work, the troubles of greed, anger, and delusion can be seen at any time and are everywhere. As Mahayana beginners, we often cannot control our emotions just like non-Buddhists. Not to mention saving all sentient beings, such a result will discredit Buddhism. Hatred, in particular, is particularly harmful. It will not only destroy your own good roots, but also cause others to have a bad view of Buddhists and even Buddhism.

It is very clear in "The Theory of Entrance" that a moment of strong hatred can completely destroy most of the good roots accumulated over the past millions or tens of millions of years. Just like a moment of compassion or bodhicitta, you can also accumulate incredible merit and merit.

Mahayana Buddhism believes that among all worries, the most serious is hatred, because the foundation and starting point of Mahayana Buddhism is compassion. The direct opposite of compassion is hatred. It is said in the Mahayana Bodhisattva Precepts that as long as you completely give up compassion for anyone and develop a heart of hatred, the fundamental precepts of the Bodhisattva Precepts will be broken, and you will not be able to develop bodhicitta. Of all the worries, hatred is the most serious. The faults of hatred are too numerous to describe.

Everyone has seen that Manjushri and many other Buddhas and Bodhisattvas hold swords, guns and other weapons in their hands. These weapons are not used to subdue any living being, but to kill the worries of greed, anger, and ignorance. Learning and practicing any method is to face, control and eliminate troubles. This is the task and goal of Buddhists. The criterion for measuring the quality of spiritual practice is not who recites more mantras, who makes greater merit, nor who gets rich, healthy, or has a successful job, but whether the worries are reduced. For example, when someone insults our personality, or bullies or beats us, see if our hatred is the same as before. If it is the same, then our study of Buddhism has no practical significance. Of course, before realizing emptiness, we can’t talk about completely eradicating the afflictions, we can only control them appropriately.

The direction of studying Buddhism is very important. If you are a Buddhist but do not listen, think or practice, but only engage in formal activities, such as holding Dharma meetings, salvation, fire offerings, group offerings, kowtows, burning incense, burning incense, empowerment, etc., even if you are very pious, It will also lose the true meaning of studying Buddhism. Although formal initiations are very useful, if there is only these without substantive listening, thinking, and practice, the Buddha's thoughts and Buddha's Dharma cannot be promoted. The ultimate goal of Buddhist practitioners will only be for their own health and longevity. , get rich, have a successful job, have children go to college, have good work, etc. In this way, you will not get the actual effect of practicing the law, and you will not be able to truly follow the path to liberation. The so-called Buddhism has lost its true core value.

2. Classification of hatred

Hatred can be divided into three types: the first is hatred towards sentient beings; the second is hatred towards heartless beings. The third kind is the hatred or fear of non-human beings such as ghosts and gods.

3. Methods to control anger

There are two ways to control anger: first, the method of conventional truth; second, the method of ultimate truth.

(1) The method of secular truth

First, understand

Many times, dissatisfaction, complaints and resentment between people are all caused by It is caused by mutual incomprehension.

When others insult, beat, or bully you, it will be difficult to control your anger. You may not behave well at the time of the incident. But after the incident has passed, you should calm down, visualize the person you just had a conflict with in front of you, and then say to yourself: "My impulsiveness and temper tantrum just now were inappropriate, even if this person is not related to me by blood in this world. , but she must have been my mother in the past, and she was as kind to me as she is now. The evil god of death forced her to abandon the love between mother and child, and when she was reincarnated again, her past memories would no longer exist. She didn't know the truth, so she came to harm me, but I knew the truth and understood the truth, so how could I repay her with hatred and blame her with hatred? I must learn to understand and should not talk back or fight back, let alone seek revenge afterwards.

Although she hurt me today, it was not her fault, but the fault of her troubles. Because of ignorance, she forgot the past experience of mother and son. , it is impossible for her to harm me or insult me.

Even if I hit her, scolded her, or insulted her, she would not fight back, hold grudges, and would never hurt me. She didn't mean to hurt me, but she was filled with resentment, causing her actions to become crazy and out of control, and she couldn't control herself. Including myself, it's the same. Whenever worries attack my mind, it's like my computer is infected by a virus. It can be seen that the culprit of all culprits is the devil of worry. If you want to blame it, you can only blame the worry, anger and hatred. ”

This is not Ah Q’s self-consolation. As long as you understand that reincarnation is true, you will know that this is a conclusive fact. People who do not believe in the reincarnation of cause and effect cannot be grateful to strangers who have nothing to do with it. Even if they say it verbally, it is just talk. But if you accept the concept of reincarnation and understand that the other person was once your mother, it will be easy to convince yourself.

Second, be grateful

You should also think: "If I can tolerate being hurt or insulted, it will not only make others look at me with admiration, but also train me In my heart. If everyone is very kind to me, how can I have the opportunity to practice patience? Since they have created such a good opportunity for me and helped me accumulate such great blessings, how can I be ungrateful? Why do you think of kindness, but say evil words and fight back? ”

At that time, Venerable Atisha considered that when he preached the Dharma in Tibet, he would be respected like stars holding the moon, and no one would be humiliated. In order to practice patience, I deliberately brought a bad-tempered person to Tibet to be his entourage. Even siddhas like Atisha are trying every means to create conditions for practicing patience. How can we become resentful towards situations where we endure humiliation? You should be grateful!

Just think, reflect, repent, learn lessons, and make up your mind. Next time you encounter this kind of thing, you must not be impulsive or act on impulse. You must face it calmly and properly. deal with.

"An iron pestle sharpens a needle, and a drop of water penetrates a stone." Although it is difficult to control hatred, if you can start from the smallest hatred, after repeated training, you will definitely make progress, and your future performance will definitely be better. Getting better and better.

Why should we start with the smallest hatred? Everything must be done in order, easy first and then difficult. When you win in the face of small hatreds, you will be confident and enthusiastic. As my spiritual practice continues to increase, I will eventually be able to deal with severe worries with ease and ease. On the contrary, if you try to conquer huge troubles at the beginning, you will easily get hit with a bloody mess. If you fail miserably for the first time, you will become discouraged and will never be interested in practice again.

(2) The method of ultimate truth

1. Hatred towards sentient beings

The first step is awareness

When hatred first emerges, the first reaction is to realize that you are angry. Many times, we don't realize that we are angry. We have no awareness at all and cannot observe our emotions. We just think that someone is not good to us, etc. In the absence of awareness, there is no opportunity to take measures to deal with it. But unfortunately, when we are angry, we are often unwilling to calm down and reflect on ourselves. We want to vent it out before we are satisfied. Even if the situation is corrected afterwards, it will have certain consequences.

The second step, disappear

If you can know that you are angry, you need to calm down further and look inwards: What is it about me that is angry? Is it the flesh, blood, brain, bones, or the spirit and consciousness that is angry? What does the so-called hatred look like? At this time, the relatively weak hatred will immediately stop and disappear, and will not continue. Does disappearing mean we have realized emptiness? no. It's the same with any thought. As long as you watch it and don't add fuel to the fire, it will definitely stop. This has nothing to do with enlightenment or not.

The so-called "gazing" here does not mean looking with the naked eye. The naked eye cannot see the spirit. Only the inner self can feel its own essence. It is said in the Sutra of Cause and Consciousness that the spirit can know and understand itself. Ordinary heartless things cannot feel themselves because they have no spirit.

Some people believe that when there is no inner observation, the emotion of anger exists; now that it disappears, it becomes emptiness.

In fact, this is not called emptiness, but just severance. Emptiness has nothing to do with whether a certain state lasts or not. Regardless of any state, its essence is emptiness. Even when hatred is very serious, its essence does not exist. This is called "form is not different from emptiness, and emptiness is not different from form."

The third step is awakening

There is another situation where although the resentment has not stopped and is still angry, one can feel that the resentment does not exist at the same time. Real hatred.

This is a bit difficult to understand for people who have not realized emptiness: since the anger continues, why does it not exist? Completely contradictory! Only enlightened people know what this is all about. Although there is the phenomenon of hatred, in essence it has no real substance, so it is illusory, like a dream. To a certain extent, this is called realizing emptiness, but the level of realization is not very high. Once we can realize the nature of our hatred, our consciousness can gradually transform into the wisdom of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. This is a very useful way to deal with troubles.

At that time, Venerable Atisha told his greatest disciple Dromdumba: "My master told me that when thoughts arise, observe and understand the nature of the thoughts. In the process, You will encounter the Buddha's dharma body." Drungoppa asked, "What if the thought arises for the second time?" Venerable Atisha replied, "When the thought arises for the second time, realize the nature of the thought again. , you will encounter the Buddha's Dharmakaya for the second time. Then the third, fourth, and so on, if you have a hundred thoughts of hatred, greed, etc., you can use this method every day. You can see the Buddha's Dharmakaya a hundred times. "What is the Buddha's Dharmakaya?" It is the essence of our mind, also called Buddha-nature, which is the "nature" in the clear mind and nature taught in Zen Buddhism.

The "Diamond Sutra" makes it very clear: "If you see me with form and seek me with sound, you are on the wrong path and cannot see the Tathagata." The Buddha shown by form and sound is not the real one. Buddha. Thinking that seeing the Buddha's body means seeing the Buddha, and hearing the Buddha's voice means hearing the Buddha. These views are all wrong and wrong knowledge. The "Ksitigarbha Sutra" also makes it very clear that only the Dharmakaya is the real Buddha

The Sixth Patriarch Huineng condensed what he learned into four sentences, the most important of which The words are "originally nothing." All things do not exist, have no birth, no death, no coming and no going. Through the hatred that seems to have birth and death on the surface, it is possible to enter the non-birth and non-destruction of the Dharma Realm and encounter the Buddha's Dharma Body. At this time, the hatred will not create karma at all, and it is more conducive to practice, which is a very successful practice. But the prerequisite is that enlightenment must be achieved before that. Enlightenment is also conditional, which is to cultivate renunciation and bodhicitta. People who have not yet attained enlightenment still need to use conventional methods to get rid of their hatred.

Although we are not blessed to see the incarnations and sambhogakayas of Buddhas such as Amitabha and Vajrasattva, we can see the dharma body of the Buddha.

2. Hatred towards heartless things

The same method can be used to hate heartless things.

For example, we are often very disgusted with noise. At this time, we can also look at the nature of the idea of ??disgust, or not reject the noise, but focus all our attention on the sound. In the process, you will also realize that the so-called sound is just a feeling produced in the ears after external sound waves vibrate our eardrums, and they all belong to the spiritual category. Once you focus on these sounds, you can realize their emptiness and illusion.

Some Taoists’ Buddhist halls face the street and are often very noisy, making it difficult to calm down during meditation. At this time, you can use this method.

Over time, we learn to adapt to noisy environments. Not only will noise not interfere with or hinder our practice, but it will become an aid to our realization of emptiness.

3. Hatred or fear of non-human beings such as ghosts and gods

Many people are afraid of ghosts, including those who practice Buddhism. I don’t dare to go to dark places at night, and I feel nervous when passing by tombs. If you have enough courage at this time, stop and stand in this place without moving forward, and then observe: What was the very nervous and fearful thought I had just now? At this time, you may feel that even though the fear still exists, its essence is completely empty, as ethereal as a bubble. Immediately, the fear of ghosts and gods will disappear.

If we are not afraid of ghosts, even if we see ghosts, they cannot harm us. But if you see something like a ghost, even if it is not a ghost, as long as you have a huge fear in your heart and think that seeing a ghost is unlucky, through psychological effects, it will really make you or your family sick, and cause a lot of troubles, Unpleasant things.

Therefore, once you suspect that there is a ghost, stop and look at the nature of your mind. Your fear and distress will disappear immediately, and there will be no more negative effects.

Of course, this method can be used for fear of ghosts and gods, but if you encounter real-life dangers such as wild beasts, poisonous snakes, floods, earthquakes, etc., you still cannot stop, otherwise you will be in trouble. Because the interference of ghosts and gods is not a real entity in the minds of ordinary people, it is purely a mental fear, and the habit is not deep, so it is easier to deal with. And dealing with disasters such as floods and wild beasts is beyond the power of ordinary people.

Each sect of Tibetan Buddhism has a practice of breaking up the practice. Breaking up the practice is a very special practice that can be divided into many types. In "Dzogchen Preliminary Practice", a preliminary practice of cessation of practice - the practice of Gusali is discussed. That is to visualize one's own body as an offering to the Guru and the Three Jewels, and to various ghosts and gods below. The true practice of breaking up conduct is to realize the wisdom of emptiness and use a relatively special method to break away attachments and worries. The prerequisite for this kind of practice is to realize emptiness and allow the state of realization to grow and expand. When a certain time comes, go to those places where ghosts and gods are rumored to be and meditate. At this time, you will often see phenomena similar to seeing ghosts, hear unusual sounds, or see some strange phenomena. Most people will be very nervous and their ego will be very obvious. If you can focus on emptiness at this time, you can cut off self-grasping very smoothly, and at the same time, you can eliminate negative emotions such as fear and fear.