You don't want to get fixated on the eloquence that comes with delight in speaking Dharma and end up being lead around and turned by living beings. What do I mean by that? Suppose you wanted to save a pig, but then you get so wrapped up in speaking Dharma for the pig that you forget who you are and end up becoming a pig yourself. Not only do you fail to influence the pig, you end up being turned by it.

Another example: you are a left-home person and you decide you want to save a lay person. But you end up not being able to save the person. Suppose the person smokes dope. Basically left-home people do not smoke dope, but upon meeting such a lay person, he starts to smoke dope too. He is turned by the lay person. You try to save a dog, but in the process, you end up being influence by the dog. "Wow! This is a great dog! I really like this dog!" You end up liking the dog and forget that you were trying to save the dog. You get turned by the dog and get involved with it.

I remember an actor who loved his dog. I've told you about this before, it happened in Manchuria. The actor was quite intelligent and could quote a lot of interesting phrases from the plays he had acted in, but the thing he loved most was his dog. In this life, the dog he loved before became his wife and she nagged at him all day long. She was just like a small dog, constantly nipping and yipping, and would sometimes just go nuts. She kept the household in such an uproar that he didn't know whether to laugh or cry. If you took her seriously, she would say she was just teasing. If you accused her of teasing, she insisted that she was serious. He didn't know what to do. Finally he told me his wife was a big problem that never let up. He was unable to cultivate. He wanted to cultivate but she would not allow it.

I told him, "You don't have any samadhi power. If you had, she would leave you. If she makes a fuss, don't say anything. No matter what she does, ignore her. Before long, it will all be over."

"Really?" he said.

"Try it out," I replied. After that, at home he practiced patience. He cultivated patience for three years; his wife nagged him for three years and then she died. After that the dog didn't bite him anymore.