Teacher’s Discourse, 12/08/2017  

There was this Master Chay-ga-wa whose cultivation of Bodhicitta was his main practice. He once said, “When a situation triggers us to arise afflictions, be it by an enemy or loved ones, if a practitioner is able to view them as excellent teachers, this practitioner will be happy regardless of where they are.”

This illustrates one point: No matter what happens, our mind may not be perturbed by the situation. Usually, when you get praise, you will feel happy, and when you are not praised, you feel troubled –  This seems like the mind does not have any self-control; a slave to the circumstances. Therefore, when we diligently cultivate our mind, it is to extricate our mind from attaching to and entangle with the state of the situation, directing the mind to have its own aspiration and direction.  

Therefore, if we can view our loved ones or enemies as excellent teachers, and diligently develop our mind, in actual fact, how could we ever lose the tranquillity, expansiveness, love and compassion, and forgiveness in our hearts and mind… those wonderful moral characteristics? As we strengthen these (characteristics) day by day, we will become a worrisome-free person. Regardless of whether we are in negative or positive situations, we will reap lots of happiness, because the source of happiness is dependent on: We will use love and compassion to treat others. Let us strive to practice loving others more than ourselves, placing the sentient beings in our hearts, like treating honourable guests respectfully. For those who hurt us, we will view them as companions on the path of mind cultivation, practice well, and arise the sense of gratitude from the depths of our hearts. If he had not display the harm, how would we have the opportunity to cultivate and practice patience?   

真如老师开示 2017/08/12　

有一位伽喀巴大师，他是修菩提心为主修的这样一个大师。他也曾经说过，他说："只要是能令我们生起烦恼的境，不管他是仇人还是亲友，如果修心者能把他视为善知识的话，那么这个修心者无论在哪个地方都会是快乐的。"

这显示了一个：境界上发生什么，我们的内心不一定是跟着境界那样去搅扰，就是——赞美你就快乐，不赞美你就忧恼——完全显示了心没有什么自主力，是境界的奴隶。那么我们努力修心，就是要心摆脱对境界的这种执着和牵缠，心有自己的志向，心有自己的方向。

所以，无论是亲人还是仇人，如果我们都能够把他当作善知识，来努力地修心的话，实际上，我们又怎能失去内心的平静、宽阔、慈悲、宽恕......很多美好的那些品德呢？我们日益地加强这些，我们就会成为一个快乐无忧的人。无论我们身处逆境和顺境，我们都会收获很多快乐，因为快乐的源泉就在于：我们用慈悲心对待别人。我们要努力地修行“爱他胜自”，把有情放在心上，像尊贵的宾客那样去恭敬他，甚至对于伤害我们的人来说，我们也视为是修心的助伴，好好地在内心上修心，在内心深处生出对他真实的感恩心，因为如果没有他示现这样的伤害，我们岂有机会修习忍辱呢？