Dealing with evil thoughts (short question and answer)

 

Question by a Dharma friend: “When you are at home or walking around the village or somewhere and you see and feel evil impulses in your mind, do you feel regret or disliking that they arose?”
 
My answer: “When I see evil impulses in my mind I am aware of their occurrence and I let them come and go by themselves. I change the focus from them to something else that I am doing at the moment, be it Nembutsu or cutting firewood, carrying water, etc, and by simply leaving them alone. I don't give them attention because that would make them grow even more, and I cannot solve them by feeling regret or by disliking them.
 
It is useless to dislike thoughts and feelings. If I focus on them with dislike or regret then I empower them, so I do not do that. After I instantly realize their appearance, I simply leave them alone. I do not take them seriously. Thoughts and feelings are like clouds that appear on the empty sky. They do not deserve my attention because they are not real, so I do not want to give them a reality they don't actually have.
 
Thoughts and feelings appear and disappear naturally if we allow them to disappear. But if we start judging them, feeling regret about them or disliking them, then we help them become greater and greater. This is how obsession grows. Obsessions are simple thoughts and feelings that were given too much attention and were taken too seriously.
 
My way is to not take the evil thoughts and feelings too serious, but leave them, let them come and go, not focusing on them. Shinran Shonin made a wonderfully true statement when he said that "the Nembutsu alone is true and real" while everything else is a delusion. If the Nembutsu alone is true and real, then why take seriously all the residual thoughts and garbage that normally appears in my monkey mind?
Namo Amida Bu