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Hi, this is Margaret Maloney and welcome to the Death Dhamma Podcast. In a series I used to read, occasionally one character would say to the other, may you live in interesting times. It was understood that this was a curse, where interesting times meant chaos and difficulty. Well, we do live in interesting times. I mean, don't we always? So this season, together we'll explore equanimity and chaos, recognizing that many aspects of life are beyond our control. Let's find a sense of balance and peace amid external chaos. Hi, everyone. Today, some quick thoughts, or actually, I'm really going to read you a sutta about anger and subduing anger, which is also can be called hatred. So hatred and the reason that we are looking at this today. Well, the reasons could be kind of obvious because, you know, going through a lot of change and what can be difficult times or in a previous episode, I said, you know, living in interesting, you know, living in interesting times, living in interesting times here in the United States, and there's divisiveness and disagreement and fear and things are happening. And within the context of our practice, it is difficult when all these things are happening around us if you're not happy about the things that are happening. But the truth is, within the context of our practice, we need to find a way to handle this and to move towards equanimity. And anger does not help with any of this. In fact, anger is one of the poisons, right, or the unskillful roots that keeps us which holds us back on our practice. And so we need to work with our anger, no matter what side you think you are or what you're feeling or seeing around you. And because of that, I'm going to read. So, Agandhakara 5.161, Subduing Hatred. And this version comes from Thanissaro Bhikkhu. There are these five ways of subduing hatred by which when hatred arises in a monk, he should wipe it out completely. Which five? When one gives birth to hatred for an individual, one should develop goodwill for that individual. Thus, the hatred for that individual should be subdued. When one gives birth to hatred for an individual, one should develop compassion for that individual. Thus, the hatred for that individual should be subdued. When one gives birth to hatred for an individual, one should develop equanimity toward that individual. Thus, the hatred for the individual should be subdued. When one gives birth to hatred for an individual, one should pay him no mind and pay him no attention. Thus, the hatred for that individual should be subdued. When one gives birth to hatred for an individual, one should direct one's thoughts to the The fact of his being the product of his actions. This Venerable One is the doer of his actions, heir to his actions, born of his actions, related by his actions, and has his actions as his arbitrator. Whatever action he does, for good or for evil, to that will he fall heir. Thus the hatred for that individual should be subdued. These are five ways of subduing hatred by which when hatred arises in a monk, he should wipe it out completely. All right. This is for all of us. Just because it says arises in a monk, you remember that the Buddha spoke mostly to the group of monks who wandered around with him back in his times. So when hatred arises in a person, male, female, him, her, they, that's us. And again, we need it. We need to work to subdue hatred because hatred is only harming us and our overarching, more important piece of our lives, which is the spiritual practice and the goal of overcoming suffering so that you don't have to keep coming back to this place over and over again. Right? So that is more important than whatever else is happening. And I understand that what is happening in the world is making it difficult. It's making the practice more difficult. And the Buddha's teachings were meant for easy times, difficult times, whatever you wanted to call them, good times, bad times, however you perceive them. And remember that, you know, as we're going through things and things are changing, we don't know if the outcome is going to be good or bad. We know how we feel about it right now. We know our interpretation. If our interpretation is giving birth to hatred, then we need to subdue that hatred. And look what we're being told here. Goodwill, which is like loving kindness, compassion, equanimity. So it's really the Brahma Viharas minus sympathetic joy. Just because generally, if we're having sympathetic joy for someone, it's not really part of hatred. We don't really need to worry about that. Well, in this context, I'm saying we don't need to worry about that. We don't need to worry about sympathetic joy. We do want to develop sympathetic joy. In fact, let me just retract what I said and point out that in these times where there's people or groups that you may disagree with the decisions they're making and what the policies and the actions that they are taking, if something good happens for them, I know it might be difficult, but we still want to develop sympathetic joy for some of the good things that could be happening to us. So we don't want to come to people who we think are enacting difficult things to the rest of us because we don't want to come towards them from a place of hostility and again, anger and hatred that is only hurting us and our ability to be free from suffering. So we do want to develop compassion. We do want to try to develop equanimity. And to be able to consider that person from a place of dispassion, of calm, of trying to see both sides of how they are. I remember we spoke about equanimity. We've been speaking about equanimity, but a couple of episodes ago, we talked about how equanimity can mean seeing over, right? Seeing how things really are and then pay him no mind and pay him no attention. Okay. That's a good call for not letting people or groups take up too much time or too much of your energy or direct too much of your emotion to them. But I'm not saying don't disagree with them. And I'm not saying don't work for causes you believe in. I am saying don't let these people or groups overwhelm you. Don't let them take an overwhelming amount of your time and energy. And this last piece, when one gives birth to hatred for an individual, one should direct one's thoughts to the fact of his being the product of his actions. That's karma. That's karma. We are all subject to karma. What we think, what rises in us, what we act on, what we say. This is all creating our karma and it is our karma which is impacting how we move forward, if we come back, how we come back. And it's very important in these times to be mindful. It's always important, but it's very important to be mindful of your thoughts and your words and your actions. So we don't want to act out or speak out in anger, which brings us back to coming to that place of balance, of equanimity, so that we can speak and act from this place of seeing over and seeing how things are. And again, you can still act on behalf of your beliefs and the causes you believe in. But remember, you are born of your actions. You're related by your actions. Your actions are your arbitrator. In other words, your actions decide your karma. And whatever action you do, for good or for evil, to that will you fall heir. So don't let anything that could be happening throw you off balance. As much as possible, don't let anything cause you to act in a way that generates negative karma for you. And again, that's why we need to come to a place of subduing our hatred. Come to a place of subduing our hatred. Is it easy? Not every day. So when you have that day where, you know, you look and you go, Ooh, I think I just created some bad karma for myself. It's done. Work to do good. Work to continue on. Don't obsess over the karma you just created, but work to move forward in a positive way and do good things and say good things and have good thoughts to generate better karma. You've been listening to the Death Dhamma Podcast with your host, Margaret Maloney. Thank you so much for being here. Come find me on margaretmaloney.com. M-A-R-G-A-R-E-T-M-E-L-O-N-I.com. And until we meet again, may you be well, may you be happy, may you be at ease, and may you be free from suffering. Bye for now.