Question asked by L
Dear Rinpoche, Dear Pastors,
I respectfully post the question in this manner: When you are able to succeed in a field and your friends cant accept your success, some may put up a gossip (calling u a scumbag that betray friends for success), or even harm you constantly, sometimes even family members are also involve, they hate your success, because these people always think that your attitude is permanent, and these type of people are really smart they usually drag you down and beat you with their experience by taking your past negative action as an evidence, to support their fear and jealousy. As a Buddhist how can we apply the dharma to solve the situation? Since friends and family members consider a part of samsara, samsara is an illusion, if we apply ignorant attitude on them, will it be beneficial? and solvable? or a bad karma? If they constantly harm us what should we do? Our patient has limit, we are not a Buddha. I hope that i can get a beneficial answer.
Thank you very much in advance.
Dear L,
It is possible that the difficulties and conflicts you are experiencing are due to karma from this and past lives. Since you are a Buddhist, you should know that the primary characteristic of samsara is suffering. In samsara, things can appear to be very confusing and sometimes we feel that it is impossible to solve our problems and be free of this confusion (suffering). I urge you to put your dharma knowledge into practice. Now is the time to practice patience, forgiveness and kindness. Do not react to criticism with anger. Otherwise you will not be able to overcome your own shortcomings/faults. Read the “Eight Verses of Mind Transformation” by Geshe Langri Tangpa. One of the verses reads:
“When others out of jealousy treat me badly
With abuse, slander, and so on,
I will learn to take all loss
And offer the victory to them.”
You have to deal with your problems with a lot of skill and practical wisdom. Read up on the six paramitas and practice moral discipline and patience diligently.