As long as your actions (whether physical, mental, emotional, or behavioral) are under the control of your own ego, you will continue to get into conflicts that lead to arguments. These arguments are born from your identification with your own or adopted mental formations, which you call principles, opinions, statements, moral norms, etc.. Because of this identification, you feel personally attacked when these mental formations are criticized, denied or rejected. What actually happens is that your ego is reacting vigorously out of fear that destabilized mental formations will lead to its breakdown and death.
Upon awakening, any identification, including identification with opinions and views, disappears, as a result of which the awakened person no longer perceives opposing attitudes as a danger or seeks confrontation. Since the truth is embodied in him, he understands that words are not identical with thoughts, nor can they accurately convey knowledge or truth, which is why verbal arguing loses its meaning and importance.
The ability to see clearly through the veil of the ego’s construction also enables him to see its weaknesses, making him a precious teacher, who, at the right moment, uses this knowledge to shake up the mental constructions of people and thus initiate destruction of their egos. However, during such a process of initiation, he is neither mentally involved in the quarrel, nor is he trying to prove anything or to be loved.
Yet, for those whose ego is triggered, this is not clearly recognizable, which is why they may perceive an awakened person as someone who is fully engaged in the argument. But in fact, it is not an arguing person that they see, but rather their own ego, which is reflected on the clear surface of the enlightened being.
Since the awakened teacher often communicates directly and without embellishment, this inevitably provokes the interlocutor's ego, which is why such teacher would often be exposed to reactions containing the energy of argument, irritation and hostility. However, he would not get involved in arguments or fights, even when it comes to issues that are important to human communities, such as social and human rights, freedom or higher truth. Namely, indulging in arguing, even if it appears to have a higher purpose, requires the ego which can be triggered by an event, action, word, or feeling. Yet, when Buddhahood is attained, there is nothing that can be triggered.
With enlightenment all desires and passions disappear or are consciously kept at the level necessary only to fulfill the role of a bodhisattva. But even if certain karmic structures are consciously retained, a return to genuine dualistic perception after awakening is no longer an option. When there is no duality, one dwells in an unprejudiced compassion that makes it impossible to take an exclusive "for" or "against" position. Therefore, even when the quarrelsome energy grows during communication, arguing with a fully conscious person can only be one-sided. But if the quarrel escalates, it is a sign that the egos have collided and are trying to protect their mental formations. Thereby, it does not matter whether these formations serve to secure one's own social position or whether one fights seemingly in the name of knowledge, religion or the well-being of the world. In fact, regardless of the offered justification for a quarrel or the place where this act is played out, engagement in a dispute is always just an act of the ego that penetrates all levels of worldly life - a family, the office, a research facility, the town hall, the street, social media, and also monastery or church.
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