Selected Questions and Answers

The Soul’s Worst Enemy
is Ignorance not Anger

Spoken by Supreme Master Ching Hai, Florida, USA,
February 14, 1999 (Originally in English) Videotape #633A

If you keep truly wanting to kill your temper, that won't do. The more you want that, the less you’ll succeed. So don't want; just do what you can. Also, I’m sure that many situations aren’t completely your fault. Sometimes it’s the circumstances you’re in, and sometimes we’re born with different traces of past experiences; this is out of our control. But I’m very proud that you’re so young and already so wise and humble that you admit your shortcomings, even in public. I’m sure you’ll do very well in the future because half of your sickness has already been cured by your own knowledge, that you seek help and that you humbly admit it. So, I’m sure; I have a lot of faith in you.
But temper is not the worst enemy of our soul. The worst enemy is ignorance, or lack of enlightenment, which you’ve already destroyed. Temper is just a trace of the unfortunate, extra garbage that we sometimes happen to house in our being. With time, either you get rid of it or it will rot by itself. So don't worry too much. Take it one day at a time, as much as you can. (Applause)
If you can sometimes control it, then control it. But don’t hurt yourself by bottling it up. Or, you can sometimes try to express your feelings in a different way. The feeling is true. It doesn't matter who says what to you: If you feel bad about something, you feel bad. But if you can, try to express it in a clearer and more loving way. If you can’t and you feel that you must explode and later you feel you were wrong, just apologize and say, "Mom, brother, I meant it this way, but I couldn't express it better before. Now that I’m calmer, I see it clearly. I’m sorry; I should have told you in another way instead of getting angry." Then it's OK.
It's not that we can’t make mistakes; it's just that we should know that it was a mistake and try to make up for it. And it's not that we can't be angry; but if we know we were wrong, we should make up for it by being more loving later or by apologizing or doing something nice to erase the effects of our negative personality residues on other people.