BE FRIENDLY TOWARD PROBLEMS
To develop ahimsa, or the nonviolent approach, first of all you have to see that your problems are not really trying to destroy you. Usually, we immediately try to get rid of our problems. We think that there are forces operating against us and that we have to get rid of them. The important thing is to learn to be friendly toward our problems, by developing what is called metta in Pali, maitri in Sanskrit, or loving-kindness in English translation. All of these problems and difficulties are fundamentally generated from the concept of duality, or separateness. On the one hand, you are very aware of other and also very aware of yourself, and you want to do something to work with and make use of others. But you are unable to do this, because there is such a big gap between other and yourself. So a sense of threat or separation develops. That is the root of the problem.
From "The Martial Arts and the Art of War," in Volume Eight of THE COLLECTED WORKS OF CHOGYAM TRUNGPA, page 414.
All material by Chogyam Trungpa is copyright Diana J. Mukpo and used by permission.
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