We're meditating on the delusions,
You can have countless imprints of negative karma ripened by the delusions.
If there's no delusions,
The karma can't ripen.
The delusions are like the rain helping the seed to grow.
So when Buddha,
Shakyamuni Buddha was teaching,
He found 84,
000 delusions.
Usually we talk about just a few.
You can think about jealousy,
Hatred,
Pride,
But I think what's common is irritability or anger.
So it's said that this is the most destructive of the delusions because when we're angry,
We can do anything negative and it produces the opposite result of what we want.
Less love,
Less kindness.
I want you to visualize yourself being patient,
Being loving or kind.
Think of a time when this is you,
This is who you are.
So you visualize yourself in that aspect and then try to remember the feeling of being loving and kind.
Remember how good it feels to be loving,
To be open to the people around you,
To care about them.
We all like that feeling.
It produces happiness within ourselves and it gives others happiness.
So it's not just about visualizing you in a certain way,
But it's also about feeling it.
How does it feel to be loving,
To be kind?
It feels good.
It makes you happy and it makes the other people happy.
And then you loosen that visualization and then you visualize another aspect of yourself,
The irritable one or the angry one.
Remember a time when you were irritable or angry with somebody or even with yourself.
Again,
How do you look?
How does it feel?
Just like a doctor analyzing the sickness,
Look at yourself.
How is it to be irritable or angry?
How does it feel?
Now do you feel happy?
Because often from the irritability or the anger,
We feel we're going to get something good from it.
But do we?
Isn't it destructive,
Harmful to you and to others,
The people you love,
The people you care about?
Which would you rather be?
The person on the left,
The loving,
Kind one,
Or the person on the right,
The angry,
Irritable one?
Which do you choose?
They're not complementary.
They're opposites.
So when you're full of love and kindness,
The person on the left,
There's no irritability or anger.
And when you're the person on the right,
Irritable,
Angry,
There's no love,
There's no kindness.
So it's important to understand that these are opposing forces.
Anger is the antidote to love and vice versa.
If we want more love and more kindness in our lives,
We need to control our irritability and anger.
So you go back to the visualization of those two aspects,
The loving one,
The angry one.
Look at the two dispassionately as if you're watching TV.
Which would you choose?
Which is better for you and which is better for others?
Which is the cause of happiness and which is the cause of suffering?
You need to decide.
Once you've made a decision,
Then you single-pointedly hold on that feeling.
I want more love in my life.
I want to be a loving person.
So you hold on that feeling.
You allow that feeling to develop and to grow into a realization.
This is who I am.
Just two more minutes.
And slowly becoming aware of the room we're sitting in,
The cushion you're sitting on,
The meditation we've just been doing.
