Verse 20: The real enemy: subdue your own anger
Verse 20 of Gyalse Tokme Zangpo’s 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva, from the section “Transforming adversity.” Below: the verse in three translations and what seven teachers say about it.
Open in the study browser →If the enemy—your own anger—is not tamed, subduing outer enemies will only make them increase. Therefore, subdue your own mind with the army of love and compassion. This is the way of a bodhisattva.
The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to subdue the mind With the forces of loving kindness and compassion. For unless the real adversary—my own anger—is defeated, Outer enemies, though I may conquer them, will continue to appear.
If you don't subdue the opponent inside, your own anger, Although you subdue opponents outside, they just keep coming. Muster the forces of loving kindness and compassion And subdue your own mind — this is the practice of a bodhisattva.
Unsubdued inner hatred multiplies outer enemies until the whole village is one; anger primarily wounds the angry ("like your leg had been stabbed"). Love and hatred can't coexist — a chair seats one person. Story: the monk whose nightmares of killing dissolved through bodhicitta — "images generated from Bodhicitta actualize as pureland and images generated from hatred thoughts actualize as hell." Practical vow: don't speak while angry; explain after it subsides.
Overtly political: quoting Shantideva's leather-soles image, he points to "the Chinese Communists" — from 1959 to "now in 1974" their troubles increase because the enemy within is unconquered. "We have to defeat the enemy within by the force of love and compassion." Applied to mediation: while "them and us" persists, negotiation worsens things; inwardly pacified people become "like new people."
The real enemy is internal disturbing emotions; love and compassion are the army. Shantideva: can't cover the earth in leather — cover your feet. Defeating anger once doesn't end the campaign; fittingly, "bodhisattva" in Tibetan means "brave one."
The Buddha conquered the maras through the samadhi of loving-kindness; Milarepa conquered ego-clinging with selfless wisdom — and his bitter enemies (his aunt!) became devoted disciples. Taming your own mind literally transforms adversaries.
The dog chases the stone; the lion attacks the thrower — fools fight circumstances, the wise attack the affliction. "When your mind is tamed, outside enemies cannot hurt you" (Atisha). With bodhicitta, neither the four elements nor humans and non-humans can truly harm you.
Winter Retreat vv16–21 talk.
Talk 8, "Transforming Anger and Desire" (vv20–22): seven or eight methods for anger across three levels — direct awareness (anger as clarity), energetic, and emotional-component work; "methods don't work uniformly; find what actually works for you." Compassion and reactive anger cannot coexist. Tricycle v20.
Shantideva's leather-soles image appears in four of them independently — it is the verse. KS's lion-and-stone and GR's one-chair are the teachable images; KM's "find what actually works for you" is the honest methodological note a group needs. ---
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche — The Heart of Compassion (Shambhala). A purchased book — no text is reproduced here.