ISJS Transactions 2018 07 To 09 Vol 02 No 03

Author(s): International School for Jain Studies
Publisher: International School for Jain Studies

Page 42

we take control of our lives, taking responsibility for what is happening to us. In this way, anger will not have any scope to survive. Instead of complaining or criticizing, we learn to appreciate and gladly accept. Our equation changes from 'Why me?' to 'Try me!' or 'Why not me?'
Example: when you have a cup of coffee in your hand, and by mistake it spills on someone. What will come out of the cup? Ice tea? No. Coke? No.
34 ISJS-Transactions, Vol.2, No.3, Jul-Sep, 2018
Hot chocolate? No. Coffee? Yes. Only coffee can spill from a coffee cup.
Similarly, what is within you is what will 'spill' on others. Beware, check yourself before blaming others. Indeed, if anger is within us, we 'spill' it on others. But if our hearts are filled with love, we 'spill' love on others in the form of forgiveness. Just as the karma theory beautifully explains that we all have to bear the fruits of our actions, external situations are only triggers, but the way we respond is in our hands. Instead of binding more karmic particles, why can't we simply learn to let go and close the debts that we need to pay anyways? If we choose to forgive, we happily close karmic accounts and take a step closer to liberation. But if we choose anger, we create new ones, which keep us running in the unending cycle of rebirth. Choice is ours.
Let us now see as to who bears the pain of Anger?
Here is a quote from which we can easily understand it:
I am my own torturer as well as my own liberator.
Hell is not a geographical place. When I am in kaşāya (of anger), I am in Hell. I can either create Heaven or Hell, here & now.
So choose wisely.
Meaning of the quote is: The one who loses the most when in anger is the person who is angry. Indeed, despite hurting the other person, the true and most important loss is of the person who allowed anger to take the front seat. By getting upset, we are dirtying ourselves and we are taking millions of steps away from our True Selves. We aren't giving ourselves a chance to liberate. Therefore, there is no benefit or gain anger. There lies only peace and bliss in the seat of forgiveness. Let us make use of this birth by cultivating and blooming the virtue of forgiveness within us, and not putting ourselves in an unending vicious cycle of life and deaths.
Tools to practice Forgiveness in Modern Day World through 5 As
1. Appreciate (Pramoda Bhāva)
It is interesting to point out that even in the most important Navakāra Mantra in Jainism, it is only guna-focused, not name-focused. Indeed, let us learn the power of appreciation by