Think about something that irritated you recently — perhaps not a deep wound, just a tone in a message or a decision made without you.
Notice how readily the mind returns to it, and starts obsessing over it, even now.
The Dhammapada is interested in exactly that kind of fixation.
The text from this ancient collection of teachings doesn’t deny that something happened to us. It points at what the mind does afterwards — in the endless replaying and rehearsing.
When a story is repeated enough, it can stop feeling like a memory and start to feel like a fact about who we are. This identification is where suffering sets in, rather than in the event itself.
“Hatred never ends through hatred. By non-hate alone does it end,” says the teachings.
Non-hate here doesn’t equate to love. The practice doesn’t ask you to feel affection towards someone who hurt you, nor is forgiveness the entry fee.
Non-hate sits closer with equanimity — a refusal to swing to extremes, and a choice of not picking at our own wounds.
The Dhammapada draws a useful distinction between someone who works skilfully with anger — called a charioteer, and everyone else — merely a rein-holder: composed on the outside but still seething underneath.
Suppression can easily be mistaken as having control over the emotion.
The freedom beyond anger being described here isn’t tolerance, and it isn’t passivity in the face of harm either.
It’s the capacity to meet a person or situation we don’t like with greater ease.
It is the ability to enjoy peace of mind without being dependent on someone else changing.
At Take A Pause Live on Insight Timer over 1-2 August 2026, we practiced watching anger show up in the body and mind, moment by moment, with awareness and equanimity. We closed the session with a reading from Erin Lee’s Take A Pause: Waking up to a life of clarity.
Meditation Practice
Tap Play to Practice Together:
The Wholehearted Woman Retreat
A five-day mindfulness retreat into quiet wisdom and the light within
1-5 October 2026
Siem Reap, Cambodia
*Early Bird Offer till 31 August 2026
Led by Erin Lee
Power & Pause Retreat
A high-touch program supported by structured processes, guided practices, and reflective assignments
8 - 12 October 2026
Ubud, Bali
Led by Subba Sattvic and Erin Lee
Have a chat with Erin and Subba on the retreat program and details.
