When we are angry, we do not think very clearly, and we do not plan what we are going to say very well, so it often comes out as a mess. This applies to situations where somebody is getting abused, injustice, or any of the social situations in the world that we feel strongly about. We can get so angry about them, but when we act out of our anger, we are not acting very clearly. Whereas if we have compassion, not only for the person who is the victim but compassion for the perpetrator, we can act with some clarity of mind in a way that maybe the perpetrator would hear. Whereas if we act with anger usually the perpetrator would not hear it — they get defensive and they get more aggressive.

This really hit me many years ago when I was in Tibet and we had gone to Ganden Monastery. It is up on a hill outside of Lhasa — and it was hard getting up that hill in this bus we were on. Lots of switchbacks. We arrived at the top and were shocked and disheartened by what we found. Only ruins. Most of Ganden was destroyed in the Cultural Revolution. The Chinese and Tibetans who cooperated with them, put in so much effort to get up that hill to destroy the Dharma. I thought, “If I had put that much effort into practicing the Dharma as they put into destroying it, I would have gotten somewhere.”

It made me have compassion for the people who did this because I realised that, especially on the part of the People’s Liberation Army, it was mostly young boys from a village who wanted some work so they could bring some funds home to the family because they were poor. They enlisted in the army and got sent to Tibet where none of them wanted to be given orders. They did not think about what they were doing and just did as they were told. Certainly, they created a whole lot of negative karma. I am not justifying what they did. But when I thought of where they came from, how they were raised, how they did not have a clue, and about the whole turmoil in China and Tibet during that time, I could not help but have some compassion for them. I take that into social situations that are happening today and think of having compassion for not only the Muslims whom people are saying so many horrible things about but for the people who are being so discriminatory. I have some compassion for them because they think that talking and thinking that way is going to bring them happiness and bring well-being to the country. They do not realise what they are doing. With compassion for them and compassion for the Muslims, we can speak up and say, “No, this is not the way we want our country to be. Our country is inclusive. Our country welcomes everybody, and everybody can be a citizen.”

“365 Gems of Wisdom” e-book is out now!