While the enemy of your own anger is unsubdued, though you conquer external foes, they will only increase. Therefore, with the militia of love and compassion subdue your own mind. This is the practice of Bodhisattvas. 

Compassion is a very important element on the Bodhisattva path. Without it, there is no way to benefit sentient beings or attain awakening. The chief enemy of compassion is anger because when we are angry at someone, be it ourselves or others, it is impossible to have compassion for them at the same time. 

As we know from our own experience, anger can be disastrous. We can all probably think of times in our life when we were overwhelmed by our anger, we have said or done things to people we cared about, things that we regret and never would have done if anger had not overtaken our mind. Anger destroys or prevents merits from ripening that may have taken us years, lifetimes or aeons to acquire. There is really nothing good to say about anger except that it is possible to eliminate it, so we need to strive for this instead of telling ourselves we are a bad person because we got angry. It is crucial that we do not identify with the anger and instead, see it as an enemy afflicting our minds that is only causing harm to ourselves and others. 

Just as a militia trains and works together and does not give up until the enemy is conquered, to combat the enemy of our own anger we must develop strong love that wants others to be happy and strong compassion that wants them to be free of suffering. We need to nurture these attitudes conscientiously and deliberately by practising the meditations for cultivating bodhicitta, such as the seven-point instruction of cause and effect, or equalising and exchanging self for others. As our mind gets more familiar with love and compassion, anger cannot arise as easily because our whole attitude towards others has shifted. A mind grounded in loving-kindness and compassion also makes it much easier to subdue any anger that does happen to arise.

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