Page 135 - The Buddha‘s Noble Eightfold Path

unskillful mental states? In Buddhism four methods are

traditionally recommended, and they are usually tried in the
order in which I shall now explain them.

The first method consists in considering the consequences of
that unskillful mental state. If you allow yourself to get angry,

what may happen? You may speak angrily, may speak harshly,
and that may lead to unpleasantness or misunderstanding. If

you get very angry, you may even strike someone. You may even
kill someone. That is the logical result of anger, if it is not
checked and controlled. So, reflect on the consequences of the

unskillful mental state. This is the first method, and it can be
applied to any of the Hindrances. In the case of sloth and torpor,

you can reflect that if you go on stagnating you won't get
anywhere, won't make any progress. In fact you will lose
whatever you have already gained, whether materially or

spiritually.

The second method consists in cultivating the opposite. Each
unwholesome mental state has a positive wholesome
counterpart. If you find on examination that your mind is

overpowered by the unskillful mental state of anger and hatred
— if you dislike people, if you don't get on with them, don't

think well of them — then cultivate the opposite of hatred,
which is love, in the spiritual sense. Practise the Metta Bhavana,
the development of loving-kindness. Hatred and love cannot

exist in the mind simultaneously. If hatred is there, love cannot
be there. If love is introduced, hatred has to depart.

The third method is that of allowing the unskillful thoughts

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