(excerpt)
There is little you can do about what arises in the mind.
What arises is karmically conditioned by what has gone
before. There is nothing that need be done about any
object as it arises. There is only something we can do
about how we respond to that object. How we respond
creates the next moment, and conditions how that same
object will be related to in the future.
The sooner we notice the arising of moods and thoughts
and realize they are Just karmic fruits of the past, the
easier they can be let go. There's no need to reinforce
these states by reaction, to become as Trungpa Rinpoche
says, "negative in the negative." When negative, unwhole-
some states arise, don't hit at them with a hammer. Don't
get angry at yourself for being angry which only creates
more karma. We can learn to respond in a skillful manner
that allows compassionate recognition of our conditioning
to pull us out again and again. Then we can begin to under-
stand why we will find ourselves angry, jealous, selfish,
greedy so many more times. And how many more times we
are going to find ourselves without such unwholesome
tendencies, and think "Ah, I'm done with them at last."
And how that greed for being "done with them at last"
will create the next state of mind. How letting go of it
all is really the only way.
~Steven Levine
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