As a Kadampa geshe once said, “If someone criticizes you, this destroys your mistakes; it blows away immediately one’s own mistakes. If you are praised, it causes pride/the ego to inflate and causes great pride.”
These are some quotations for transforming bad conditions into happiness by looking at them as positive, favorable conditions:
“If one has wealth, there is suffering in collecting and protecting it. If one is poor, this is the objectivity of Dharma.”
“Suffering is the broom clearing away negative karmas.”
Geshe Kharag Gomchung said, “Bad or adverse conditions are the virtuous friend, these obstacles are the inspiration persuading you to practice virtue.”
“Suffering is the result of my negative karma, therefore don’t dislike it or look at it as an obstacle.”
Transforming bad conditions into happiness by looking at them as positive, favorable conditions is the way to make problems, bad conditions, beneficial, by using them as the path to enlightenment. How? Meditating on loving kindness and bodhicitta destroys the ego. We use them as a weapon to destroy the self-cherishing thought, which brings all obstacles. So, meditate on bodhicitta and wisdom.
Adapted from: Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive