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insults us, we should not immediately react in a negative way or reply in<br />
words full of anger, we should react compassionately. This can be achieved<br />
through generating skillful thoughts, producing moral words and doing<br />
wholesome deeds. Replying in anger is like putting poison onto the wound.<br />
The poison will never heal the wound, but will cause much more damage. In<br />
the same way, getting angry with someone who insults us does not solve the<br />
problem, but increases it. If we raise a compassionate mind towards an<br />
angry person, he will be able to realize his shortcomings and develop<br />
humility.<br />
When someone out of anger harms or insults us, our minds should<br />
compassionately and happily accept the defeat without holding frustrations.<br />
This will help us to practise patience and attain happiness. It is better to<br />
accept the blame patiently, than causing suffering for oneself. This will<br />
make our minds calm and balanced. Remember, everything is created by<br />
our minds and it is the same mind that can control everything. As Venerable<br />
Gsha Kelsang Gyatso in Transform your Life writes,<br />
‘States of mind that disturb our inner peace, such as anger, jealousy and<br />
desirous attachment, are called ‘delusions’ and these are principal causes<br />
of all our suffering. We may think that our suffering is caused by other<br />
people, by poor material conditions, or by society, but in reality it all comes<br />
from our own deluded states of mind. The essence of spiritual practice is to<br />
reduce and eventually to eradicate altogether our delusions, and to replace<br />
them with permanent inner peace. This is the real meaning of human life. ‘<br />
Anger can also be overcome by earnestly saying to oneself ‘it is nothing.’<br />
This means, act as if adverse emotions do not exist and do not be moved by<br />
external circumstances. Even if someone insults, harms, scolds or does any<br />
misdemeanor that can change the state of our minds, don’t react, just let it<br />
go, consider it to be nothing, pretend as if it does not exist. In this way we<br />
will be able to maintain permanent inner peace of mind. By having ‘it is<br />
nothing’ in the mind, negative forces will not affect us, but we will be<br />
always mindful of skillful and meritorious actions, right speech and<br />
thoughts.<br />
Mindfulness is also an effective method to defeat anger. This can be<br />
possible by being mindful of each and every phenomenon that we<br />
encounter. Mindfulness helps to eradicate misconception. Sometimes anger<br />
is caused by misconceptions that we bear in our minds. Therefore, if we are<br />
mindful enough, we will be able to look deeply into the nature of every<br />
phenomenon, situation and perception that we experience in our lives. This<br />
method is practical and we need to apply it in all our daily undertakings.<br />
This means we can apply it in each and every minute that we have in our<br />
lives; for example, when eating, speaking, walking, breathing, sitting,<br />
learning, driving, working, wearing clothes, opening the door, sleeping and<br />
the like. If we are mindful, we will be tranquil and will not give chance to
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