3rd verse from the eight verses

[wmw111]

In all actions I will examine my mind
and the moment a disturbing attitude arises,
endangering myself or others,
I will firmly confront and avert it.

Confronting the disturbing emotion and averting it , anyone has an insight to this ?

[pummy369]

I wouldn't call it insight when it comes from me but what it brings to mind.. (in relation mostly to anger etc.)

thinking that the disturbing emotions will only harm myself and others

thinking that this was my mother, whom I before treated very badly and who treated me with love

thinking that this is my mother, precious, deserving of all good things and who I have treated badly in this life and how I do really want her to be happy and I wouldn't want others to do or say bad things to her

thinking how the other person might be feeling/what is going on in their life and trying to awaken compassion towards them

thinking how this moment a person appears as my enemy but how quickly this can change, so why get involved in the strong negetive emotions towards them

having a sense of dislike for these horrible thoughts I am having, instead of  for the object



These are my ideas and what helps me to transform bad feelings - but steam still comes out of my ears.

[stevet]

In my experience "confronting" the disturbing emotion means recognizing and taking responsibility for it on the spot; not hiding from it or being lazy and so forth, but being outwardly active towards it.  "Averting" it means applying the method to antidote it, transform it.

So for example, if one feels strong anger towards someone, recognizes it, and confronts it and takes responsibility for it, an antidote could be to apply analytical meditation on that particular person, how they suffer from the same things you do, and to generate compassion.

[wmw111]

thanks thats a good way of looking at it.

[spiritnoname]

  There is a practice where you see your bad qualities as a separate individual, full of greed anger and misconception they steal happiness from you and others and cause misery. This way when bad states arise you confront them, bind them up and blame them for the trouble they've caused so you'll think twice before letting them act as guides to happiness.

 It's like shame, but without the guilt and your conduct is corrected.

[wmw111]

What practice are you referring to?

[spiritnoname]

 A practice mentioned in the Bodhicharyavatara chapter 4 and elaborated in some commentaries I think.

 A nun, Thubten Chodron, mentioned it in one of her lam rim talks and I thought it was really innovative and I have applied it and think it's genius.

[wmw111]

Oh , do you put your anger and unhappiness in front of you like a separate being ? U put them infront so you can watch them, and not react immediately , it might just give you the time to reflect before acting out from them interesting !

Is that how you do it?

[spiritnoname]

 I said something wrong, Thubten Chodron talked about something slightly different but along the same lines and from the same source.

 But what I remember about one description is to like visualize two versions of yourself, one with bad qualities and one with good and think about how the bad one takes away from you and others and causes harm and generate a distaste and rivalry against the unskillful one. This sort of cements the fact that bad qualities are your enemy and you should treat them as such I think.

  haha, I wish I knew the exact source so I could point you there, it would probably explain if far better where as I am just trying to not fill in the gaps in my memory with my own thoughts on the subject.

[greasypalm]

If we keep all the 8 verses close to our heart and meditate on them everyday, it then becomes second nature to us and we can very quickly react in a positive manner to counter the afflictive emotions that arises.

[wmw111]

Greasy,
Lets say we encounter 'attachment'  or 'aversion' what will you do ,   in the next steps ?

[seekingpurity]

In all actions I will examine my mind
and the moment a disturbing attitude arises,
endangering myself or others,
I will firmly confront and avert it.

Ok Im not greasy (well most of the time) but I need an action plan too.

I think the key is to recognise it endangers. If you think its just a thought so its not so important as behaving correctly is the most important thing, then your not realising the power of mental actions. Thoughts are what direct your life, one day a while back you had a moment where you developed a thought and that thought led you to spend however many years at Kekara house. You may think it was many thoughts. But the first thought led to the rest.

In the same way with one thought you can do an action & end up in completely different situation. Like prison or as an animal or heroin addict or married to a certain person or in a 30 year long career. They all start with one thought leading to others. We think thoughts have little effect but if we look at our lives with can see the fruits of all our good & bad ideas coming back to us.

If you dont recognise the danger of these minds when they arise you will feel like you are meeting a familiar friend not like you are in danger at all. If you feel fear the anger or attatchment will already be diminished in power just by that. Like a child who is afraid of throwing a tantrum because he fears being told off by his mother.

[Joey]

In all actions I will examine my mind
and the moment a disturbing attitude arises,
endangering myself or others,
I will firmly confront and avert it.

Confronting the disturbing emotion and averting it , anyone has an insight to this ?

I think this verse has been explained in an example in the Lamrim about Geshe Baen-Gung-Gael

"I guard the door of my mind, holding the spear of Wisdom. Whenever my enemy appears at the doorstep, I stab it immediately"

strictly speaking, disturbing emotions are anything that is based on the 8 worldy concerns. Geshe Baen has reached the level where he can catch any thoughts that is based on the 8 worldly concerns and stop them immediately before they appear.

As for me, I have a 25% success rate =( not 100% yet