You know your cultivation is working when . . . 

you laugh! 

Laughter! Surely, before Buddhism that would not have been your answer.

Imagine the following in your kitchen:

Wanting to add another smidgen of almond milk to a dish, you vigorously shake the bottle. And with that, the lid flies off. You immediately remember that after the last pour you did not cap it properly. The loosely placed cap cannot hold back the excited milk. Liberated at last from its plastic prison, the milk jubilantly makes a run for it! And in the briefest instant of time imaginable, you have almond milk on you, your clothes, the counter, and both upper and lower cabinets. Also, the milk’s mad dash for freedom has landed it on an impressively extensive area of the kitchen floor (washed the day before) and, finally, down the front of the stove across the floor.

Surveying the scene, you do the only logical thing—you laugh. It’s heartening that test moments like these assure us that—yes—those years of cultivation are indeed paying off.

The clarity we need to resolve a problem 

is never found in anger. 

“Wait a minute. Won’t righteous outrage strengthen my resolve and provide the energy I need to remedy a bad situation?” Sounds reasonable, but no. In our cultivation, we’re supposed to manage negative feelings by detecting when they arise and eliminating them.

“Okay then, what am I supposed to do when I’m tempted, and encouraged, to act on my righteous indignation?” Recognize that under that need to act is seething and, at times, uncontrollable anger. The energy that comes from anger is blind—not insightful. It burns through good intentions and leaves us exhausted. Not the “something” we are looking for. With insight, we will be able to better understand the karmic causality unfolding before us.

And remind ourselves that there’s already too much anger in the world. Our adding more fuel to the fire won’t fix anything.

Only with a clear, rational mind will we discern the wisest way to react. And have the confidence to do what we know to be right.