When something comes to provoke or disturb us, rather than retaliating with harsh words, it is far better to turn to chanting.
Why is chanting the better course? Commit this well to memory: having entered the path of the temple, do not allow the wrongdoing that others hurl at us to become the cause for us to commit wrongdoing in return. We will not do so. When someone assails us with a torrent of harsh words — hurling their wrongdoing upon us — we do not hurl it back. We do not retaliate in kind. Instead, we simply continue with our chanting.
This is what is meant by not allowing the wrongdoing of others to become the cause for us to commit wrongdoing in return — or in other words, not taking the wrongdoing of others as a cause for inner disturbance — and this is achieved through the power of our own patience and forbearance, khanti. Before long, all will right itself.
March 1st, 2020
