The Eight Verses of Training the Mind

I had reason today to be reminded of a quote that a Buddhist friend of mine always appended to his emails (I haven't heard from him in a while). It went like this:

I will learn to cherish ill-natured beings
And those oppressed by strong misdeeds and sufferings
As if I had found a precious
Treasure difficult to find.

It had always struck me as an exceedingly hard thing to do. Having not ventured out of the house for two days, Desy and I went to the local mall today. It was fairly crowded as expected for a Saturday and the coffee shop was almost full. There was only one place to sit and that was beside a guy who was smoking a cigarette. This is a common occurrence in Jakarta malls where smoking is supposedly banned but where patrons of restaurants and coffee lounges can light up uninhibitedly. It's difficult not to feel intense dislike toward the "ill-natured being" who is the source of the noxious smoke that is drifting into my nostrils.

However, rather than viewing the person as a source of irritation, the Buddhist verse sees the person as a "precious treasure" and an opportunity to practise compassion, understanding and non-reaction. It's possible to muster some compassion and understanding, after all the person is probably addicted to nicotine and he is steadily destroying his lungs. He can only relax in a coffee lounge if he is smoking. Non-reaction is more difficult because my tendency now is to stifle the negativity. I still see the person as rude and insensitive but I'll ignore it because I want to remain calm and unperturbed.

Indeed I have remained remarkably calm and unperturbed for two days but of course I never left the house and so it was rather easy. Outside, it's a different matter as I discovered in the coffee lounge. I can now see this Buddhist verse as a way of not suppressing the emotion that rises up when "oppressed by strong misdeeds". If the person or situation can be seen as an opportunity to cultivate equanimity, then that thought may be enough to stop the emotion arising in the first place.

A little investigation revealed that the verse my friend was quoting is part of a larger whole called "Eight Verses on Training the Mind". Here it is:

Here is a slightly different translation to the one that appears above (and that may be difficult to read easily because of the small print):

Eight Verses on Training the Mind                                               
by Geshe Lang-ri Tang-pa
translated by Jeffrey Hopkins
               
With the determination to accomplish
The highest welfare of all sentient beings,
Who surpass even a wish-granting jewel,
I will learn to hold them supremely dear.

Whenever I associate with others I will learn
To think of myself as the lowest amongst all
And respectfully hold others to be supreme
From the very depths of my heart.

In all actions I will learn to search into my mind
And as soon as a disturbing emotion arises
Endangering myself and others,
I will firmly face and avert it.

I will learn to cherish ill-natured beings
And those oppressed by strong misdeeds and sufferings
As if I had found a precious
Treasure difficult to find.

When others out of jealousy treat me badly
With abuse, slander, and so on,
I will learn to take all loss
And offer the victory to them.

When the one whom I had benefited with great hope
Unreasonably hurts me very badly,
I will learn to view that person
As an excellent spiritual guide.

In short, I will learn to offer to everyone without exception
All help and happiness directly and indirectly
And respectfully take upon myself
All harm and suffering of my mothers.

I will learn to keep all these practices
Undefiled by the stains of the eight worldly concerns,
And by understanding all phenomena as like illusions,
Be released from the bondage of attachment.

Well I can tell you, I'm a long way from that but I'll definitely try this approach in future difficult situations or when interacting with difficult people. Tolle explains emotion as the body's reaction to thought and that's a useful way of viewing things. If I think that the person smoking the cigarette in the coffee shop is annoying me personally then emotion is inevitable. Whether that emotion finds outer expression is another matter but it will certainly have inner expression in terms of increased blood pressure and pulse rate. If I realise that he's annoying everybody that is nearby and not just me, then the emotional response will be more subdued because there is less ego involved.

However, if I think of the person's behaviour as an opportunity rather than an insult or annoyance, the emotion doesn't arise in the first place. In this case, the ego doesn't instinctively leap to my defence. The ego is like a guard dog that protects its owner from perceived threats like smoke wafting from a cigarette. It's not that the ego sees the smoke as physically threatening (even though it probably is) but it views the inconsiderate behaviour as a threat because it feels diminished. "What right has this guy got to smoke a cigarette near me", it thinks? Of course, one thought leads to another. I may not like the way the person looks or the way that he's sitting. In fact, this rotund, middle-aged man was lounging back in his seat as if he were in his living room. The chain of thought quickly escalates the intensity of emotion generated. The ego thinks "who's this rotund, middle-aged guy anyway? I shouldn't just sit here and take this."

It all comes down to ego of course and even if, in future, I can sit down beside people who are smoking and "cherish" such "ill-natured beings", the ego may will be there to claim some credit. It may whisper in my ear "you really have come a long way from the quick-tempered son-of-a-gun that you used to be, old son. Well done." As Meher Baba says on page 170 of his "Discourses", "the ego is hydra-headed and expresses itself in numberless ways ... (it) is activated by the principle of self-perpetuation and has a tendency to live and grow by any and all means not closed to it. If the ego faces curtailment in one direction, it seeks compensating expansion in another."