How Should Buddhist Practitioners Face Conflicts

When we face conflicts/disputes/gossip, when facing the faults of others, and when we cannot empty ourselves of or avoid these states, and must resolve these human affairs, what should we do? We should engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) on the illusory and unreal nature of the states of human affairs, contemplating that all dharmas have no self, no person, no sentient beings, and no marks of events. If one must discuss human affairs verbally, it should only be at the level of the mind consciousness, making an objective evaluation, resolving matters in a reasonable manner according to the Dharma, without any agitation in the mind, without being dragged along by the plotlines of human affairs and becoming mired in them, unable to extricate oneself. Otherwise, one would lose all the power of awareness and vigilance; the mark of self, the mark of person, the mark of sentient beings, and the mark of events would all manifest, and one would grasp them as real. The mind would be defiled by the marks of events, and the defiled karmic seeds would be stored in one's own tathāgatagarbha, with the future retribution to be borne by oneself — the loss would far outweigh the gain.

How could there be a wise person who stores the faults of others in his own mind, defiling his own field, burdening his future lives, and unable to attain purity? When seeing the faults of others, turn the light around and shine it back upon one's own mind; do not blame others without blaming oneself. Whoever cultivates, that person resolves it; who can cultivate in place of another, achieve attainment on another's behalf, while oneself bearing the karmic consequences? There is no such principle!