The Very Venerable Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

The Seven Points Of Mind Training

Birmingham Karma Ling, December 2002

VI. The Commitments of the Mind Training

B. Specific Principles

Questions

Q. If someone else's anger effects you is that because you have a weak mind?

A. The main point is to look at one's own mistakes. If one has made a mistake then apologise for it. If you find you have done nothing wrong which you need to apologise for then you look at this anger which someone is sending to you and you think, I have done nothing wrong I am in the right here there is nothing I can do about it. So you just look at it like that but don't get involved in it because it is without meaning. In general if you have suffering because of someone else's anger it is because of a little weakness in the mind.

Q. if the person is accusing you of something and you know it is not your fault does that mean you shouldn't apologise for it?

A. If you haven't done what they are accusing you of then you don't have to apologise. You haven't caused them any harm you should be neutral towards them. The person who is accusing you maybe they will think about it later on and it will become clear to them that they have made a mistake.

Q. So just be neutral and not point out their mistake to them?

A. If the person says something you can give the reason why you are not saying sorry or why you are not reacting. You don't have to say "I didn't say or do that, you're wrong." You don't have to start off at that level you just talk very gently and give a reasonable answer. You should be peaceful. If the person is screaming in your face you should just be peaceful and smile at them. You don't have to be scared if they are coming at you like a dog about to bite you don't have to be scared of them at all. There is no cause for you to be scared.

Then you can just speak truthfully and explain your reason in a very gentle way. If you speak peacefully to them then that person will more easily recognise their fault, they will realise that. Then they will pacify it and be able to let it go. They will be able to see the truth of the matter and they will see that what you said is true.

Q. If you notice that you start to become emotionally involved if you start to become angry?

A. Then at that moment you have to apply the method of the shiney to that anger and you just have to look at it meditate on emptiness. Look at the anger itself. Then yesterday Rinpoche said when anger arises then this is good, may all the sentient being's anger be dissolved into this may I carry everybody's anger in that.

That is one method the second method is using the anger as a support for ones shiney and another method is to look at from the view of emptiness. There are lots of different methods; whatever you do is fine. How are you going to apply this shiney method? So the shiney the Samantha meditation the main point is the mindfulness the awareness.

If one has this mindfulness awareness then everything becomes a support for your shiney. Generally when one is doing shiney one relies on the breath and uses this as a support for your practise. The breath becomes the support for your mindfulness, now when your anger arises you this as a support for your practise you replace the breath with the anger as the support. Then you have to have this awareness of the anger when it arises. You have to be one pointed with this awareness.

Anger is a feeling so you look at the feeling that is associated with the anger and be one pointed with it. If you can do that and have this one pointed awareness of the feeling of the anger, then the anger itself has become the support for your shiney and mindfulness.

So isn't that good. So if you get angry that's fine it can be your friend for the shiney. If you become angry lots of times you have many friends for your shiney.

For example you see an enemy and you think I will rush and hit him but then you think "ah I'm angry " and you just look at the anger itself so you just put the one pointed awareness of the anger you won't immediately get rid of the anger but gradually your mindfulness will increase and then your anger will get less.

This anger will not appear like it normally appears. Normally when you have anger you don't have any control with it. At that moment if you can look at the anger you can see it's not like the normal anger arising. When the anger arises it won't be out of control. It's the same with pride, jealousy and suffering. You think I'm very bad I've got so much suffering. I'm not a good person this kind of thing. You look at the feeling; you don't look at the object you look at the feeling. You look at the perceiver of the object. You don't look at the enemy you look at the anger itself, you don't look at the object you don't have to block out the enemy completely you can see a little bit but your main focus is the feeling.

When you have an angry mind or negative thoughts, the main thing to look at is the perceiver. Don't look at the object, look at the subject.

For example with a neutral feeling, I want to go to the city centre I want to look around .At that point you can look at the object, where am I going to? I'm going to the shops. You can also look at the thought itself I want to go to the shops. There are two things you can look at.

If you think now I'm going to the Birmingham City centre, immediately one looks at that thought and then one looks at the shops and the various things. Then if you have the mindfulness then all of these things can become a support for your shiney.

If one doesn't have the mindfulness then it's just like normal everyday thought. If one has mindfulness then all of the thoughts become transformed into meditation. The anger can also become transformed into a support for your shiney so isn't that good?

Q. A general trap I find in this for myself is that you get involved with guilt for these negative thoughts or these emotions.

A. If you feel somewhat guilty because the anger has come up, generally that's ok you don't have to take it to the extreme and think now the anger has come up and I cant study the mind training properly I'm not a good person, I cant manage to do this. If one does have the mind poisons coming up then one thinks well its not really a positive thing to have. It's not going to help me and it's not going to help others. So if you think of it like that in a general way but you don't lay a big trip on it and think now I'm not able to do anything I'm a totally bad person because this has arisen in my mind.

If you can get angry towards the anger that's fine, that's very good.