Sometimes harsh words must be said in order to help someone, but generally when we speak harshly, it is because we are angry, and it does not help. It is difficult to speak harsh words with love and compassion. In these situations, we can take ourselves as an example. Putting ourselves in someone else’s place, we ask, “If someone said these words to me in that way, how would I feel?” When we truly think of others, we will find some part of them that resembles us, because every one of us experiences pleasure and pain. Before we act or speak, thinking of others as similar to us is quite useful.
17th Karmapa
from the book Traveling the Path of Compassion: A Commentary on The Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva
translated by Ringu Tulku & Michele Martin
Read a random quote or see all quotes by the 17th Karmapa.
Further quotes from the book Traveling the Path of Compassion:
- Why the Dharma is so important
- Discipline
- The true test of meditation
- Teaching what is really useful
- Seeing what Dharma practice actually is
- Finding real solitude
- Why we need to give up our worldly concerns
- The Greatest Satisfaction
- Giving and Receiving
- Taking advantage of opportunities
- Our Actual Enemy
- Joyful discipline
- Taming Our Mind
- Avoiding criticism
- Seeing clearly what is genuine and what is false
- Remembering the Lama