A person who is usually smiling, like a bodhisattva, once hatred arises in his heart, his entire face and language will change, and he will completely change into another person. This is something we rarely observe. From the tantric point of view, the Buddha compassionately manifested two phases, one of wrath and the other of stillness. Both appearances are completely pure, calm, and compassionate Buddhas inside. A Buddha is a complete purifier within, with omniscient wisdom and great compassion, and can manifest different aspects for the sake of sentient beings, sometimes with anger on the outside, but unshaken on the inside. Because ordinary people are not purified inside, anger is often an emotional reaction that arises from not being in line with their own desires. At first, it may be out of kindness that anger appears, but in the end it is often dominated by emotions, and the inner waves are as terrible as the outward appearance. Therefore, no matter how we dress up on the outside, we must always remind ourselves that there is an angry part within us, and we may run out to hurt ourselves and others anytime and anywhere.

Many people find reasons for resentment and blame all their sins on others, as if the best in the world is himself, and everyone else is at fault. This kind of deviant thinking that puts all the blame on others and thinks that you are never wrong is the biggest root cause of modern people's difficulty in understanding themselves. Human beings cannot be perfect, and in addition to the complete purity of the Buddha, there are sometimes places where the Bodhisattvas and Arhats are not perfect. Therefore, of course, ordinary people will make mistakes, and the important thing is to know how to reflect when they make mistakes, and to be able to correct them after reflection. If you don't reflect on yourself and do good, you will blame your mistakes and hurt others, and in the end, you won't even let go of yourself. Therefore, when some people have a strong sense of resentment, they think that they can solve everything by leaving, regardless of the feelings of relatives and friends, and hurt others by jumping off buildings, cutting their wrists, taking drugs and other self-defeating behaviors, which ultimately bring a lot of trouble and pain to society and family. Isn't it painful to act irresponsibly? Painful, of course. Many people who commit suicide think that suicide will end all suffering, but they do not know that the horror and feeling of suicide must be repeated every seven days during the bardo, which is even more miserable.

And having compassion can reduce the harm you do to yourself and others, and you can live a happier life. Generally speaking, we are narrow-minded, so for us, there are many hurts in life, especially for people living in cities, who are even narrow-minded and hurt a lot. I don't know if you have noticed: looking left and right in the city, there are either high-rise buildings or crowds, and there is really not enough space for us to open our minds. In this environment, we will gradually feel that it hurts a lot. Where does this damage come from? A lot of times it's someone else who challenges us emotionally, and sometimes it's someone who doesn't speak what we like to hear. In this way, for a long time, dissatisfaction will accumulate, so there will often be thoughts such as "this person speaks ill of me", "this person never praises me", "I have done a lot, but this person will never be grateful", etc., invisibly, the space of the heart will become smaller and smaller, and finally only a little bit is left, which is the selfish me!

Once this selfish self is the leader of your mind, and then you get in touch with the outside world through your eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body, most of the feelings you get are negative, and most of what others do will cause us harm. Shantideva in India aptly described it – "Those who care do more harm". If you are very concerned about every bit of it, and you always feel that this is not good, that is not right, and slowly you will find that you have been hurt a lot, and you will feel that what everyone says and does seems to be aimed at you.

Just because we rarely have the ability to reflect on ourselves, the concept of "clinging to me" becomes a terrifying giant, always thinking that we are the biggest and the others are short, as if we can be trampled to death by ourselves at any time. When I insist on inflating myself to the point where I can't inflate anymore, people become very greedy, very extreme, very emotional......

In fact, only 5 percent of the harm from others is continuous, and 95 percent of the harm that continues is to help others hurt oneself. When we talk about "killing people with a knife", we are now hurting ourselves by borrowing other people's words or actions, stabbing ourselves desperately, but saying that everything is harmed by others—from this point of view, have we become the most scoundrels in the world? If this kind of thing can be litigated by legal means, then we must be the losers - most of the harm is due to ourselves, and we like to falsely accuse others.

Therefore, if we do not clearly observe the inside, we will not be able to self-reflect and correct, and what will follow will be suffering, and of course, we will not get a happy and beautiful life.

On the other hand, the role of self-reflection can not only help us recognize that the root cause of suffering is internal, but also enable us to see clearly the various illusions that others are negative to ourselves that we have created under the deception of the role of "self-grasping". This kind of introspection will give us the awareness to judge that the only person who is creating a momentum is our intentions, and there is nothing to blame and hold accountable. This will also save us the time we have wasted constantly reminiscing and perpetuating those sufferings and joys.