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
Read a random quote or see all quotes by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche.
Further quotes from the book Not for Happiness:
- Mara’s five arrows
- Filtered perception
- Wishing happiness for those who have hurt you
- Very little time left for practice
- Dealing with Emotions
- Remain alone and practise the dharma
- Opposite direction to dharma
- Sources of our inspiration
- Practise whichever method works for you
- Intention to benefit all sentient beings
- Sadness
- The decision to follow a spiritual path
- Absolutely nothing genuinely works
- Right intention
- As they truly are
- Merely the product of your own perception
- To reject your aggression is a weakness
- Rip that ego apart
- Spiritual practice is like riding a bicycle