How can we use meditation more skillfully
to deal with people we don't like?
The meaning of "skillful," or how to deal with others skillfully,
is of course connected with your mind.
The body without the mind cannot do anything, yeah?
It's just like a corpse.
It cannot say, "hee hee." It cannot say,
"Hello. Nice to meet you. How are you?"
The skill, at first, comes from the mind.
And how does this skill develops in your mind?
Through thoughts and emotions, thoughts and feelings.
What do we have in our mind?
Thoughts, emotions, and feelings — that's all!
That's all we have, all we've got.
And…
To have the right type of skill — to develop wisdom, knowledge,
skillful methods,
is to know the right thoughts, the right emotions.
To develop positive emotions and positive thoughts.
"Positive" means it is of benefit to you and of benefit to others.
That's what I call "positive."
And, this way, you are becoming skillful,
and you know how to deal with other people.
Otherwise,
if your mind is full of negative emotions —
like anger, hatred, and jealousy, you know —
there may be depression, hopelessness,
and you cannot find any good skill.
So, how to develop these positive thoughts
and positive emotions?
Through meditation.
Meditation opens up your mind, so it becomes open
and allows you to develop your potential,
your innate goodness, your basic goodness.
Some scientist said
if you have ten qualities,
nine of them are positive, and one of them is negative,
but you don't see the nine positive qualities within you.
You only see the one negative, and exaggerate it.
That negative one is made bigger.
And, even though you have good qualities –
such as wisdom, kindness, compassion, caring, skillful means,
how to deal with others, knowledge, intelligence,
wisdom, and many things, and capabilities —
if you don't recognize your innate, good qualities,
it's almost like you cannot use them,
even though you have them.
I have a watch here. It's a very expensive watch.
This is worth 30,000 US dollars.
No, no, no, no!
120 rupees, I think! [about two US dollars]
I bought this in India. It's waterproof and very light.
So far, it tells the time very accurately.
So far, so good!
Although I have a nice watch, if I don't recognize my watch,
even though I wear this watch 24 hours a day,
I may think it's just a bracelet.
I cannot tell the time, yeah? I have to recognize the watch.
Then the watch becomes of benefit to me.
OK.
So...
Meditation is very important, in order to see your potential,
and to see your basic goodness.
Yeah.