Anger cannot be overcome by anger. If a person shows anger to you and you respond with anger, the result is a disaster. In contrast, if you control anger and show the opposite attitude – compassion, tolerance, patience – then not only do you yourself remain in peace, but the other person’s anger will gradually diminish….

An old Tibetan lama who was thrown into a Chinese prison for eighteen years said that he viewed his prison guards and torturers as his greatest teachers. There, he says, he learned the compassion of a Buddha. It is the spirit that allows the Dalai Lama to refer to the Communist Chinese who have occupied and destroyed his country as “my friends, the enemy.”

What freedom this attitude shows. It is the power of the heart to encounter any difficult circumstance and turn it into golden opportunity. This is the fruit of true practice. Such freedom and love is the fulfillment of spiritual life, its true goal. (From the book “A Path With Heart” by Jack Kornfield, p. 29 & 75)