Don't Let Anger Remain in Your Mind

I came from a family of 6 siblings. I'm close to the two elder sisters. My youngest sister, the six child of the family is 11 years younger than me. Both of us sometimes misunderstand each other. Many years ago we were upset with each other and we didn't talk for a long time. A few years ago we started to talk to each other again and recently we have been communicating by email. My sister is now living with her husband and children in Phnom Penh. This morning she wrote to me and apologized for the incident in the past which created a distance between the two of us. She said the anger was caused by her thinking that I didn't love her enough. Although it's not always pleasant to be reminded of the negative experience, I would like to thank her to openly acknowledge her feeling and to be willing to go beyond it. I related this incident because I thought it's extremely important that we understand ourselves, we understand our loved ones, friends and anyone we know, and we do not let anger remain in our mind. Anger will create disharmony, harm ourselves, and in many cases can lead to hatred, one of the most negative feelings of all. Because of anger, we can't be happy, despite the fact that happiness and inner peace are natural qualities of human beings. To make sure that there is no trace of anger left in our heart, it's wise to talk about it openly just like my sister did.

Here is the main message I told my sister:

"The past is the past. We should focus only on the present in which we love and care for each other. If we have no karmic connection in the past, we wouldn't have been born as sisters in this life. Ringu Tulku Rinpoche told everybody to be relaxed and calm, as this is the true nature of our mind. It's important to remain peaceful, calm and happy no matter what situation we find ourself. This training will help us particularly at the moment of death, when great suffering arises because the five elements collapse and consciousness has no support. Confused mind, angry mind, sad mind will only lead to more suffering and rebirth in a lower realm.

Vajrayana Buddism is in essence the same as Theravada Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism (like the one practiced
by Thich Nhat Hanh). Only the path is different. The main message is to spread our love and compassion to everyone, including devas, asuras, pretas and hell beings. After all, we are not separated from them. We are being just like them. Vajrayana Buddhism specially emphasizes the Buddha nature which is inherent in all of us."

Being angry, we obstruct our mind from being like the mind of Buddha.