Welcome everyone,
And thank you for taking time today to be here.
Outside of motivation,
We'll do a brief breathing exercise to bring ourselves here,
Calm the mind.
Imagine that we are completely free from any fear,
Anxiety,
Depression,
Pain,
Free of the tears of sorrow.
And instead,
We have sublime happiness.
Each moment of the mind is resting in peace and calm.
This is our potential.
This is the treasure inside of all of us.
Our mission is to discover this most important treasure in the universe.
This treasure of ultimate happiness within us.
And at this moment,
This treasure is hidden.
Like a piece of gold or for an ordinary people like us,
Like me,
We see this as just a piece of rock.
But in the eyes of the gold expert,
There's gold inside there.
In the same way,
This gold like treasure inside of us is obscure.
Two things obscure this precious treasure inside of us.
That's the dirt that adheres to the goal.
And there's the impurities that's mixed with the goal.
And we can see this dirt as like the abrasive mental states that we have,
By anger,
Jealousy,
That pushes involuntarily.
And then we have attachment that pulls the mind without any choice from us.
In these mental states,
Rob outs of our freedom.
And when our mind is pull and push like this involuntarily,
There is no space for positive states of mind,
Like love and compassion to grow.
If instead we remove these mental states,
These dirt like abrasive mental states,
It allows us to see that there is this raw gold that's inside of us.
And then if we use techniques to refine this goal,
To burn away the impurities,
And the result is pure gold.
So today we're going to learn about one of these abrasive mental states called anger.
So that we can be free of this tyranny.
Free of the fear that comes when it invades our mind.
So we want to generate this motivation for listening to the teachings.
To the best of my ability,
Whatever I'm learning may help me not to harm myself and others.
May I be able to use it to benefit myself and others.
And ultimately,
May I be able to use it so that I can awaken this most precious treasure of ultimate happiness within myself and others.
So now we're gonna take some time to bring ourself into the space by watching our breath.
And you can choose to focus on the rise and fall of your belly as you breathe in and out.
Or if you are able to notice the air moving out of your nostrils,
There's also a place that you can concentrate and relax the body as much as you can.
Feeling the support of the ground,
The chair.
Now slowly relax the mind from the breath.
Expand your awareness to the room.
We're gonna do a little analytical meditation and get to know this,
This thief that comes and steals the peace in our mind.
We do that so that we can identify what it's like.
Be able to catch it and politely ask it to leave our mind.
So bring to mind an experience of anger.
Then we'll investigate it.
How did this anger affect you?
Was your mind peaceful and happy?
Or was it disturbed and discontent?
Were you able to think clearly and make intelligent decisions?
Or did your thinking become confused and irrational?
How did it affect you physically?
Did you feel calm and relaxed?
Or agitated and tense?
How do you think your anger affected other people who are nearby?
When you got angry?
Or people that you met later?
While you were still feeling angry?
What conclusions can you draw from this reflection?
For example,
Do you think anger is helpful to yourself and to others?
Or do you think there are more skillful ways of responding to difficult people and situations?
As we come to the conclusion of the meditation,
Take a moment to observe your mind.
And specifically to observe the lack of anger.
Right now.
What does that feel like?
Just the lack,
The more peaceful right now.
That is a mind that is strong.
And if you want to,
You can imagine this sense of peace and calmness.
Manifest just a ball of light center of your chest.
This light spontaneously going out to anyone who right now needs that peace and calm.
And we can also imagine when that light touches them.
Immediately the anxiety melts away.
Their fear disappears.
And physically they relax.
How wonderful that will be.
You can also imagine this lighter again,
Going out from our heart.
And bringing the ability to make intelligent decisions.
More choices.
Having that mental space to look at situations calmly and see what other options and actions that we can take wisely and see the strength in the other person as they receive this light.
