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A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Emma - Lopen Ani Pema Deki

Good morning.

Buddhism says that the human mind is incredible but also vulnerable. Vulnerable to being under the influence of greed, anger and confusion – these are often compared to clouds obscuring the clear sunlight of our mind. It can be quite helpful to think like this. To know for example that when you spoke harshly your mind was under the influence of anger. It can be more helpful than thinking it is inherently you who were angry.

Buddhism says that anger is not a cause of happiness but rather is a source of suffering. Due to this if we wish to be happy freeing ourself from the influence of anger can be an important place to start.

And as someone on a spiritual path I had rather hoped I would quickly be free of the influence of anger but its been a journey. I can recall talking to one of my teachers in Bhutan who suggested being realistic that it was likely to take some time to be truly free of this affliction and in the meanwhile if I did become irritated or frustrated to concentrate on seeing how quickly I could return to a calm place again. I remember imagining a graph and picturing being able to drop my anger like a straight line down from a high peak to a level plane once more. I found this very helpful.

All positive qualities such as peacefulness, calmness and kindness are ones to cultivated and our capacity to make them more stable, more long lasting states of mind will be much easier as we begin to sweep away the clouds of anger, greed and confusion.

‘May all beings be at peace and may this begin with us’