Dharma Quote of the Week, Snowlion

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Actually, if we look around, people whom we don't like
and people who harm us are in the minority. Let's say
we're at work, at a social gathering, or at a Dharma
center with thirty people. How many of them do we
really dislike? We may have problems with a few people
here and there, but we manage to stay in a room
together, don't we? It's not like we despise them and
they hate us. The number of people we can't stand in
this world is actually very small. These people are
rare. To practice patience we need the people that we
don't like. We can't practice patience with our
friends or with people who are kind to us. Finding
people that we don't like or who threaten us is not so
easy. So, when we finally find them, they are a
precious treasure! They are rare to find. When we meet
them, we can think, "Fantastic, I get to practice
patience now."

They say that high-level bodhisattvas pray to meet
disgusting, uncooperative people because they want to
practice patience. Of course, when you really want to
meet obnoxious people, they don't show up! Why don't
they turn up for high-level bodhisattvas? Because
high-level bodhisattvas don't have any anger. We could
be sitting in a room with many people whom we consider
unbearable, but high-level bodhisattvas don't see them
that way at all. To them, these people appear lovable.
Bodhisattvas have such a hard time finding detestable
people, whereas we come across them so easily! So,
when we find people whom we don't like, feel
threatened by, or find despicable, we should recognize
that there aren't so many of them around. Therefore,
we should cherish them and take the opportunity to
practice patience with them.

--from Cultivating a Compassionate Heart: The Yoga
Method of Chenrezig by Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron,
foreword by H.H. the Dalai Lama, published by Snow
Lion Publications
Visit www.thubtenchodron.org/Activities/ to see
Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron's current teaching schedule.

www.snowlionpub.com/pages/chodron.php.

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