Working With the Negative – Public Teaching in Hong Kong

Drupon Rinpoche gave a public teaching in Thrangu Hong Kong Centre. During the teaching Rinpoche emphasized the need to use what we see to be negative rather than disregarding it and only focusing on the positive. He taught that we can’t understand the positive without the negative. If we were to constantly remember the harm anger causes, we would see the benefit of being without it and be able to abandon it more easily. Just focusing on cultivating patience alone would not be nearly as effective.

Rinpoche pointed out how the truth of this can be seen when we think about the stages of the practice. The first of the preliminaries is the contemplation of the freedoms and advantages of a human birth. We start this contemplation by thinking about the eight states without freedom: being born as a hell being, yidak, animal, long lived god and so on. We reflect on what’s wrong with such a rebirth so that we can appreciate the value of our human existence and therefore ensure that we use it for something worthwhile.

Rinpoche taught at length about thinking and working with the negative for the sake of our progress along the path and its benefits in everyday life. He also mentioned it in relation to meditation practice and how most people concentrate on getting rid of thoughts to attain something they feel to be better. It would, however, be far more effective to first spend time and effort coming to know what thought is. Once we know that, we will be more clear about what we need to do.

The teaching was translated into Mandarin by Khenpo Tengye, whilst Tse Siu Lam Neil provided Cantonese translation via FM radio transmission.