How Should Buddhist Practitioners Face Conflicts and Gossip

When we face conflicts and disputes, when we face the faults of others, and when we cannot empty ourselves of or avoid these states and must resolve these human matters, what should we do? We should contemplate the illusory and unreal nature of the states of human affairs, contemplating that all dharmas are without self, without persons, without sentient beings, and without the marks of events. If we must speak of human affairs, it should only be at the level of the mind consciousness, making an objective evaluation and resolving matters in a reasonable manner according to the Dharma, without letting the mind be stirred up, without being dragged along by the plots and details of human affairs and becoming mired in them, unable to extricate ourselves. Otherwise, we will lose all power of vigilant awareness; the mark of self, the mark of others, the mark of sentient beings, and the mark of events will all manifest, and we will grasp them as real. The mind will be defiled by the marks of events, and the defiled karmic seeds will be stored in our own tathāgatagarbha, and we ourselves will undergo the retribution in future lives—an outcome where the loss far outweighs the gain.

How could there be any wise person who stores the faults of others in their own mind, defiling their own field and burdening future lives, unable to attain purity? When seeing the faults of others, turn the light inward and reflect upon your own mind; do not blame others while failing to blame yourself. Whoever cultivates the path, it is for that person to resolve; who can cultivate in place of another, accomplish realization for another, while bearing the karmic results oneself? There is no such principle!