Push & Pull: Stopping the Cycle of Anger and Attachment
“Because we do not understand the real nature of things, we are alway creating our own suffering and problems by performing inappropriate, or non-virtuous, actions. The source of all our daily problems is our delusions such as attachment.”
– Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Modern Buddhism
When we something we do not like, such as an unpleasant situation or person, our knee-jerk reaction is to reject the offending object with an unhappy, irritated, or angry mind. When we see something we do like, such as a pleasant person or a meal we enjoy, our knee-jerk reaction is to grasp onto that object and try to keep it for as long as we can.
Unfortunately, our normal reactions of pushing away things we do not like out of anger and clinging to things we find attractive out of attachment create all of our daily problems. Due to our anger we create tension and stress within our minds and damage our relationships. Due to our attachment we feel dissatisfied and develop compulsive bad habits.
Fortunately, Buddha’s teachings clearly explain both anger and attachment, as well as how to reverse these negative states of mind. During this course, Kelsang Nyema will explain how we can learn to recognize, reduce, and eventually remove these two problem-making states of mind.
Part 1, 12:30 – 2pm: Stopping the “Push” — Recognizing and Reducing Anger
Part 2, 2:30 – 3:45pm: Stopping the “Pull” — Recognizing and Reducing Attachment
