To “know” the emotion is to understand that, as it has no root, there is and never has been an emotion. Some people talk about emotion, particularly the negative emotions, as if they were some kind of hideous, demonic force that willfully invades your being, but they are not like that at all.
When you feel angry, just watch your anger. Not the cause of the anger or its result, just the emotion of anger. As you stare at your anger, you will discover there is nothing you can point to and say, “That is my anger.” And the understanding that there is absolutely nothing there is what is called the “dawn of wisdom.”
Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
from the book Not for Happiness: A Guide to the So-Called Preliminary Practices
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Further quotes from the book Not for Happiness:
- Life is a stream of sensory illusions
- What is merit
- Avoid being distracted
- Absolutely nothing genuinely works
- Self Trapped
- Remain alone and practise the dharma
- Not designed to cheer you up
- Sign of a mature practitioner
- No end to samsara’s sufferings
- Intention to benefit all sentient beings
- Wishing happiness for those who have hurt you
- Filtered perception
- Being able to start practicing right away
- Sources of our inspiration
- Rip that ego apart
- Relative and absolute truth
- It’s all a matter of motivation
- The decision to follow a spiritual path
- Three higher trainings
- Opposite direction to dharma