THE GOLDEN PRACTICE TO AVOID NEGATIVE TIES
Master Jun Hong Lu: Interpersonal relationships are inevitable as long as we live in this world. Although self-discipline may help spare us from establishing negative karmic affinities with others, we cannot expect the same from the people around us. When others engender negative karmic affinities with us, that is when we are faced with unjust encounters and we find ourselves being misunderstood, or even reviled. In times like these, the practice of patience under humiliation is the means to upkeep the purity of our spiritual self.
Being patient when insulted is not a manifestation of cowardice but a golden practice that spares us from establishing negative karmic affinities. The moment we take offence when someone launches a string of negative affinity at us, we will be infected by its potential ramifications, which set the karma of negative affinity in motion.
It is only through practising patience under insult that we are able to prevent the anger from getting the better of us and the negative affinity from taking root. The virtue of patience is but an outward expression. Its essence lies in ensuring our mind is unswayed irrespective of circumstances and that we are able to see the voidness of humiliation. This is in line with the principle of mind cultivation, that is, “As external conditions change, let the mind remain unperturbed”.
Source: Master Jun Hong Lu’s Buddhism In Plain Terms, Volume 1 Chapter 2
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