By Lama Lena

If you are well-trained in trekcho and dzogchen you can look right through those hateful and negative thoughts and see that they are no thing in nowhere and therefore they won't bother you or the subject of them.

If you are well trained in tantra you can transform these hateful and negative thoughts into the mirror-like wisdom of equanimity.

If you are well trained in sutrayana you can antidote this with patience and return kindness for harm. 

These are the three methods; dzogchen, tantra, and sutra.

The anger is not coming from them. Their actions to you appear harmful. Therefore you experience the emotion of anger about the story you are telling yourself. Therefore you add story upon story to justify your anger. Fear is underneath it. Anger and fear are the same thing.

Relax. Don't constrict around it. Look through the story. See it for what it really is; no thing in nowhere. Mind seeing mind. And yet your heart, a feeling remains. Leave it there. Don't bother it. Accept that sensation. Don't name it fear or anger, it is just a physical sensation of the ye. Leave it be as it is. Don't mind feeling the sensation. Release it from the girdle of your support with thought and suppression. Do nothing at all to it. Leave it be as it is. And it will take the shape of it’s own nature; the clarity of mirror-like wisdom.

If that's too hard then let's try tantra.

Arise yourself as your yidam. All phenomena you see with your eyes is the mandala of your yidam; including the person you are angry at. All sound you hear with your ears is the sound of the mantra echoing, including the words of the person you are angry at. All taste and touch and smell perceived is simply the dance of the phenomena of your mandala. Rest in this, allowing the stories to be within the mandala and dissipate as solidity made of light, dancing in the different directions as the dakinis of each direction. See it as your reality. And let your hate arise as Vajrasattva, clarity of the East, Samantabhadra, white in color, transparent, and clear.

But if that's too difficult for you; when anger arises practice patience. 

This poor person; who is doing harm. Look at the terrible karma they're creating for themselves. Oh dear! You're going to find them next life as a pariah puppy starving with mange on a dung heap. A poor puppy they don't remember. Consider and return kindness for cruelty. Love who they could be if they weren't stuck in being who they were. Be patient with who they're stuck as being. It may take time for them to get over it. 

So I've talked you through working with anger in three methods. Pick the one that works for you.

Working with Emotions through the Dzogchen Method

This is the practice and method of working with emotions in Dzogchen. In order to be able to work with emotions by this method you need to already be capable of working with thoughts. Basically meditating while thinking. Seeing the nature of thought while you think them. If you can't do that you will find it difficult to perform a method which is based on that. 

So that is the key. To be able to sit in trekcho well enough to be able to see the nature of your thoughts. While you have the thoughts not after thinking them. Not putting another overlay on top of the thought you just thought – this is another thought. But actually seeing for yourself what they are made of. Right while they are happening. That's your key.

To make emotions easier to work with we categorize them. There are two basic categories of emotion – liking and disliking. Reaching for, grasping, wanting, and shoving away, not wanting, running from; these are your baseline feelings that are arise out of the basis of duality. Duality is the belief that you're here and everything else is out there. And once you succumb to that error then some of the stuff that you think is out there you want to come here and others of the stuff that you think is out there you want to go away – to cease… liking and disliking.

But that's a little too basic to work with so we allow that to further proliferate into five categories. These categories are not real. They are ideas – mind made. As all thoughts and ideas are.

Recognizing thoughts as mind made is the first key I talked about. They're nothing more than that. And every single one of them is the same whether it is a thought of pride and competitiveness and winning and losing; whether it is a thought of fear or anger; whether it is a thought of desire and wanting this(s) and that(s); whether it is a thought of loneliness or love or even lust and whether it is a kind of overriding sadness and depression; these are your five categories. We formed them into a mandala with symbolism to make them easier to work with. We made it up. It's not real. But it has been worked with by yogis from time on time upon time and it is known to work. 

We associate the northern direction with the color green. We associate that with feelings of comparativeness and competitiveness, with winning and losing, with pride and humbleness

Humbleness is just the flip side of pride. They're the same thing you just turned it upside down.

When this category of feelings resolves into its own true nature without you shoving at it or grabbing at it it resolves into All-accomplishing Wisdom which is symbolized by Buddha Amoghasiddhi.

In the west associated with the color red is that “urge to merge,” loneliness, love, lust, the desire to be understood, to be seen, desire not to be seen but to be invisible. When that type of emotions resolves into its own natural state without your deforming it by grabbing or shoving, it resolves into the pure Bodhichitta. The real one not the made up one that's got pity in it and helpfulness. Those aren't bad but they're a pale reflection like the moon in a mud puddle of the real Bodhichitta. This is associated with Buddha Amitabha, the symbol of the clear light nature of dharmakaya the very inherent life force of the universe.

Associated to the southern direction, everything you want, all your hopes, desires, favorite things, and ambitions. When that desiring resolves into its own true nature by not being deformed by grasping or shoving, it resolves into the Wish Fulfilling Jewel symbolized by Buddha Ratnasambhava.

Associated with the western direction, fear and anger. That whole ball. And they flip into each other. You're rarely actually angry at someone you don't also fear to some extent. When you're afraid of something you're usually angry at it for scaring you. Most road rage happens when you scare another driver and he flips is scared into anger and acts upon it because he thinks it's real. He doesn't know what it's made of, how it arises, how it dissolves, how it transforms when not poked at into Discerning Wisdom sometimes symbolized by Vajrasattva white in color.

These are the categories you'll be working with. You'll need to familiarize yourself with this mandala. 

The central direction, Primordial Buddha itself, is that sludgy depression that you all get when you're overwhelmed – that sense of exhaustion when can't move, dullness. But when it releases it releases to the infinite spaciousness of the central direction often associated with the blue of the sky. 

Mandala:

East - White: Fear and Anger. Things are not going my way.

Result of the practice- The Absolute Clarity and precision of Discerning Wisdom

South - Yellow: Hope for stuff, lacking, lacking time, money, energy. “I lack …”

Result of the practice- Richness of texture, the Wish Fulfilling Jewel. Feels like complete contentment and sufficiency of form.

West - Red: Love, Lust, Loneliness, Desire to be seen, loss, never being loved.

Result of the practice- Infinite open awareness of Bodhichitta. The Life-force of the union of form and emptiness.

North - Green: Competitiveness. Feeling you are lacking. Not good enough. Or “I am the best.” Pride and Inferiority. Jealousy.

Result of the practice- All-Accomplishing (Flowing) Wisdom

Center - Blue: A Dull Sadness. Depression. I don’t wanna do anything. I want something different, na.. too much work. I wish to distract myself with media. I should be doing …. Laziness, sludge.

Result of the practice- Infinite Open Spaciousness of Dharmakaya

These categories aren't real. They're mind made. They're useful. A screwdriver is not real in the sense of existing forever and singular. It's made of parts: there's the head, there's the handle, there's the blade, there's the staff. It's an aggregate. But it's a useful aggregate when you've got a screw you want to get loose. So in the same way this mandala is a useful tool in this practice.

A lot of emotions will be in between two categories or will have components of two and that's okay. 

How to do the practice:

So we begin with an exercise. It's traditional to begin in the east with fear and anger. They're usually fairly simple and easy to get at. There is something in the world that either frightens you or makes you angry. Think about it. 

As you think about what makes you frightened or angry do this with your channels in alignment. It works better. If you sit twisted and not in the proper position, this is likely to be much less effective for you. 

Now be afraid or be angry. Whichever one for you is the one that you can get at easiest. If you want a combination of the two go for it. I read the news this morning so this is going to be fairly easy. Get the feeling going by telling yourself the story that you are afraid of and angry about.

Feel it. Feel it strongly. Now look at the story while you think it. Look at it. See what the thoughts are made of. The moment you notice their true nature they're gone, they dissipate, they never were –trackless like a bird across the sky. In your body probably in your solar plexus where your ye –your sixth sense organ lies– and possibly also elsewhere such as your neck or shoulders but could be anywhere, there will be sensations. Accept the sensations. Do not try to make them go away. Do not focus your attention on them and grab them. Open-handedly accept them without grasping or shoving. Relax. Don't try to get rid of the anger. Don't try to make it dissolve or dissipate. Don't grab it or focus on it or try to keep it. Leave it be in its natural state.

We call this “pulling the rug of thought out from under it” or  “stripping it naked.” It's still got its underwear on. Its underwear is the name of the feeling. The word “fear” or the word “anger” that's a thought. See it like every other thought. Let go. Don't shove or grab. Leave it exactly as it is. Do not try to get it to do anything. Don't try to make it transform. Don't try to make it stay. Don't stare at it. Don't look away from it. 

This is the practice. Simple isn't it? But easy it isn't. After time after time, when you actually learn how to let go of it without shoving it away, an indescribable clarity which does not come instead of it but it's part of it – it's its own self, clear, transparent & discerning.

Physical intense sensations of the body might arise. That is okay. Don’t mind them, and leave them be. Even if they are uncomfortable, don’t do anything. Don’t place a story on the body and sensations. Strip the story off the body sensations. Don’t act on the feeling or sensation. To act is to do something –to try to change it, and that is not what we are doing here. We accept and leave it as it is. 

To place your point focus attention on the feeling is to grab it. Don’t do that. But also don’t do the other way which is try to make it feel better. Sit with the feeling and leave it be as it is without messing with it. Out stubborn it! Don’t wait for it to change, don’t wait for anything. Just sit there in complete acceptance. It takes a while to do this properly. 

How long should you practice?

It varies. You're all competent adults figure it out. 

If you tend to get lung disease, do this in short sessions. Ten minutes is enough.

If you tend to be rather grounded, do longer sessions.

If you hit your own boogie man, then do short sweet sessions. We've all got a boogeyman somewhere in one direction or another. Some of you are gonna hit the one that's hardest for you. Starting with fear and anger helps because you definitely have in your life stuff to be afraid of and angry about. We start with the one that's easy to feel. Use your pains and hurts. But don't overuse this to the point of making yourself crazy. Be a little gentle with yourself here if you need to. You can always take a break and fall back to loving kindness practices to help.

If your sessions are short, do more often. Perhaps a few minutes break in between. If doing a longer session, take longer breaks. Simply dedicate the merit and take a break.

Summary of the Practice:

Sit with your channels in alignment, comfortably and relaxedly. Tell yourself a story to bring forth a feeling of fear, anger or both. Look through the story and see the nature of the thoughts which make up the story while you think them. The story dissipates & what's left is almost a physical sensation. Don't do anything with it! Don't think about it! Don't follow where it goes! Don't rest in creation! Don't do anything! Just feel. You are going to feel it in your body, don’t mind it. Don’t try to fix it. Just feel it and leave the sensation be. No poking! None of the dharma things we learned in the past to cope with and tend to it. Avoid your coping mechanisms. 

You bring up the feeling using your imagination. Telling yourself the story both in words and

sensations, however you can make it intense enough to feel that strongly. Relive the situation as close as possible. Having the situation and having the feeling come up. Then you then look directly through the thoughts directly seeing the nature of the thoughts. Whether they are visual, audio, tactile, or verbal –whatever you made them out of they're all actually made of the same thing. And you see that – Trekcho. And in seeing that the wrapping around the feeling which contains it, is removed. However the feeling still has a name like fear or anger – that's its underwear. You do the same thing to the name of the feeling so it becomes a nameless sensation feeling. And you sit with that just as it is without grabbing or shoving, without trying to get it to turn into anything else without trying to substitute anything else for it. You leave it be as it is and you sit there relaxing with that. You don't stare at it. You don't point focus your attention on it. You don't shove at it. You don't take your attention away from it. You rest in Trekcho with the feeling, the sensation.

In Trekcho, you see the nature of the story. You see what they're made of – which is no thing at all. They aren't. You see through them. You see mind itself, tawa. And you recognize the thoughts as the sparkle of tawa – without meaning or importance, without solidity or anything else. And in doing that the thoughts no longer surround and wrap the feeling. The feeling is raw and naked. Once you get the name off it's absolutely raw and naked; simply a feeling sensation. And then you rest with that. Just sit there as that, without any expectations. 

Additional Comments:

In the beginning, it is easier to work with feelings in the mandala of categories on purpose. So you bring up a specific category. Once you are skilled at this then it is possible to work with feelings without naming them first. But in the beginning it's better to work specifically with the categories. That's why we made this method of using the categories so you can get a handle on it and learn how to do it.

Feelings are not as simple as the mandala makes them. Thoughts, feelings, and perceptions together are actually a single clump. We only take it apart for purposes of learning to work with them. Someday you will be able to work with the entire clump. But that takes a certain amount of training and this is a piece of the training. The speech rushen is another piece of that training where you learn to work with perceptions. The three words of Garab Dorje –three words that strike the heart– is another piece of that training where you learn to work with thoughts. Once you have all the pieces you put them together. But it's so much easier to learn this in pieces. So we separate it out, we give an order: we first give working with thoughts,  then we give working with feelings, then we give working with perceptions.

When we talk about Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, and Nirmanakaya we can also associate thoughts, feelings, and perceptions with those three. Feelings are the manifestation or the sparkle of the life force. They are inspired by phenomena which is the way the nirmanakaya arises. Distorted by thoughts which are not seen in their own nature. But this practice taught here is specifically feelings.

If you are having trouble finding the feeling in your mind, look for it in the body. If the story keeps dissipating quickly, get a bigger more intense emotional story going. Find what really scares you and pisses you off.

Be aware that trekcho does not delete the vitality of life when done properly. Trekcho doesn’t make the thoughts and words go away. Trekcho is the basis of things. If your practice deletes things then you're focusing too far towards dharmakaya and you've got to come back to the middle which is sambhogakaya –the base upon which we stand, Bodhichitta– the life force of the universe. So that you can simultaneously perceive the infinite openness of dharmakaya and the sparkle movement dance of nirmanakaya as the same thing. You rest in the bliss of Bodhichitta, of the vitality, the clear light. You identify with that. And part of you is the openness in which the clear light arises as part of that openness. And part of you is the sparkle in all the stories. And you don't shove away anything.

We are not trying to get rid of feelings. The feeling should not go away. Strip the story, get the name off of it. Do not focus on it, or ignore it. Just then rest with the naked feeling. Relax and leave it be.

Accept your own intensity. When done properly, it is extremely intense.

If you are still feeling it as a “fearful” “anger” “sad” experience… it still has it’s underwear on. Get it all the way naked.

There is a primal emotion, first divide it up into it’s five aspects. Work the circle first. Then when you are proficient bring it back to dualistic attachment & aversion, and then to the primal emotion which has no name. Then dissolve that into emptiness.