So, we finished-- We're done with conceit, right?
Okay. Now we're on to anger.
The fire of anger.
So the first Dalai Lama says:
"Driven by the wind of inappropriate attention, billowing forth swirling smoke clouds of misconduct,
it has the power to burn down great forests of goodness, the fire of anger, please protect
us from this danger."
Okay, so driven by the wind of inappropriate attention. So inappropriate attention is one
mental factor that comes up that pays attention to objects in an inappropriate way. So in
the teachings on the four establishments of mindfulness, those four distortions--seeing
impermanent things as permanent and so on--those are all factors of inappropriate attention.
The mind that makes stories out of everything, and misconstrues things, and thinks everything
is revolving around me--interprets everything that way... That's all inappropriate attention.
And so that is like the wind that fans the fire. Because if we didn't have inappropriate
attention we wouldn't get angry. But it's because the mind looks at something in a distorted
way--interprets it in an incorrect way, makes a story about it that doesn't exist at all--that
causes the anger to arise. And then the anger causes the misconduct.
So driven by the wind of inappropriate attention, billowing forth swirling smoke clouds of misconduct.
So the anger billows forth that. And we can see that in our lives, can't we? I mean, when
we remember about times we got angry? Probably some of the biggest regrets we have in our
lives--what we said and did under the influence of anger. So anger doesn't really benefit us, does it?
And it's amazing to see-- This is how screwy the mind is and how inappropriate the attention
is. We think the anger is our friend and will get out needs met. So we're not quite sure
what our needs are, but never mind. The other person should be able to-- They should be
clairvoyant and know them. Okay? And then if they don't, then if we get angry at them
then they should definitely feel bad and awful. That's the way we're thinking. If they feel
so hurt and so bad because of what they did to me, then they'll change their behavior.
Now, how many times in our lives has that strategy worked? [laughter] Zero. Because
first of all if we do succeed in making somebody feel guilty and bad they may kind of do what
we want but not with their heart in it and they're certainly going to try and retaliate
afterwards. And if we don't succeed in making them feel guilty and bad then they're just
going to get angry and they'll retaliate immediately. Why wait? And so then the situation that we
were angry about just gets inflamed.
Very often a situation of anger starts out over one topic, one small thing, and then
it ceases to be about that thing and it starts to be about the way the people communicate.
Or rather, the way they don't communicate. So often people are fighting--one person may
still be on this, somebody else has gone on to the way they're communicating, then sometimes
it may be a third issue after that... Because once we paint somebody negative, everything
they do--including saying "good morning"--is bad, and we get upset about it.
So we'll continue with this one. Unfortunately... [laughter] But something to be aware of.