We practice to accord with the world, 

not to have it conform to our wishes. 

Much of our energy seems directed at trying to get others to comply with our wishes.

We plan and rehearse what we’ll say. Or, utterly frustrated, we just blurt out what it is we want. Upon seeing the other person’s reaction, we frantically devise Plan B. Whatever our scheme, the goal is to get someone to stop doing something their way and start doing it ours. Unsurprisingly, regardless of our strategy, our desired effect invariably remains just that—a desire.

What we’re trying to do is change conditions, and they’re not amenable to a quick fix. A good understanding of causality is necessary to know the correct method to alter them. For now, we need to stop fussing over the barking dog, our midnight music-playing neighbor, the world’s laziest co-worker and stop allowing them to irritate us. Yes, they are annoying. No, they are not life-threatening.

So, let’s view them as tools for our practice of patience, instead of a means of torture.

Sentient beings are innumerable . . . (Click image for video)

Have greed and anger?

You’re ignorant! 

Having written, edited, re-written, and finally filmed a lecture on Buddhism’s three poisons of greed, anger, and ignorance, I faced the toughest part of producing a Dharma talk: coming up with a title.

While I was lamenting my problem and struggling with possible options, another nun looked over and asked me what the talk was about.

“The three poisons,” I replied.

She whipped back, “Have greed and anger? You’re ignorant!”

Wow. I wished I had come up with that. Regrettably, I couldn’t use her idea. (It was a bit too forthright.)

But she was so right. If we indulge in greed and succumb to anger, it’s due to our ignorance, our failure to deeply comprehend cause and effect. All that we’ll end up with from giving in to the three poisons will be disappointment and regret. The three are a package deal: due to ignorance, we crave, and when this is unfulfilled, we get angry.

This is one deal we can live without.