24 Apr
2012
2012
By now many of you, my friends and students, must be used to my crazy style, my horribly spontaneous way of writing and doing things. I guess I am not very good at pretending and being what I am not. I heard that many people find it very difficult to follow my style and my teaching, therefore compared to many spiritual gurus, I have relatively less followers and I am less popular, or rather not popular. Whether popular or not, I don’t mind, at least I hope I am helping some beings.
Anyway, I know I am not a great being, I am just wandering in samsara, trying my best to be a good human and working very hard to preserve and protect our dying lineage of yogis. Sometimes, I wonder, are we too pure that we have become too naive, that we don’t mind losing our heritages? I don’t know what to say, it’s a sad story of a few hundred years. We have lost mountains of treasures, if I may say, yet many of my colleagues, including myself, are completely blur as to what we should be doing. People take advantage of us, no problem. But actually, it’s a big problem. It’s too bad that we are in an unbalanced world that encourages materialism more than spirituality. It’s difficult to stay pure.
You must be wondering whose photo is it that I am putting up here. I haven’t really met him in person. My father and I were talking about him a lot today. If you have been following my messages, you must be knowing by now that I always say we should be a good example for others to follow. By being good examples, we are becoming virtuous friends for others. Here is Khenchen Tsultrim Lodro, an honest monk, a sincere practitioner, a genuine master and an authentic follower of Buddhadharma. I congratulate his students and followers for having found an authentic master.
He is a student of my father’s very good friend, His Holiness Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok, who sadly passed away some years ago. Great masters like His Holiness Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok should be living for 100 years, unfortunately he left when he was 70 years old. He’s same age as my father and his activities are very similar to my activities, but I am not as great as him. I feel very much at home to talk about him. His main pillar is Khenchen Tsultrim whom I really admire.
Young spiritual teachers should be focusing their energy on actively helping beings. The way Khenchen Trultrim encourages others not to kill, inspires the monks to come out to work for others, rather than spending years in retreat and having spiritual indigestion, and most importantly, the way he requests all the monks to be pure rather than playing drama, are the things that I really admire. I am very proud of him, he is still young and active in that way. I will always pray for his longevity for the sake of all beings.
Regardless of any spiritual belief, we need spiritual teachers who care and who practise what they preach. These days, we have very few of such genuine examples. Most leaders, whether they are into spiritual, political or commercial activities, are not genuine and sincere in their roles. A spiritual teacher means one who holds the torch and shows the way. But if the teacher himself or herself is lost or is not familiar with the path, how is he or she able to show you the way? I am interested to even mention about reincarnations, great memories from the past. If one is a great reincarnation in name, one should then live up to the name, stand up from your cushion to do all the beneficial activities you are able to do. Be a leader in action. We cannot ask others to do good, while we sit there watching. I can’t bear to hear complaints and scandals about spiritual masters involving in any kind of non-virtuous activities that harm beings. I feel a great pain, because spirituality is pure, it has to be guarded with great sense of responsibility.
For example, for people like me, why are we wearing what we are wearing? There is a reason. It’s not very convenient, and it’s certainly not very fashionable. But there is a message and a figure. Therefore whoever in our shoes have to inspire by examples.
There are some people who often don’t like what I say. I don’t mind. I have been doing everything, all the activities, as much as possible, according to what the Universal Truth is showing. Sometimes I am successful, sometimes I fail. But I don’t want to mislead others. Misleading others is very bad karma. Most people go all out to lie about others and make big fuss out of small issues because of egoistic reasons. We as authentic followers of Buddhadharma or the Universal Truth should not be falling into the trap set up by our ego. Ego wants us to fail on our spiritual path. Ego makes us do nonsense, speak nonsense and think nonsense. We want to be happy, we want others to respect us, we want this and we want that, but we are doing everything that chase away happiness, good friends, success, peace, harmony, good karma, great merit. Everything disappears one after another, even after we have done such a great job, such a great virtue, because of our selfish ego and if I may say, our impure motivation.
Whether we are spiritual gurus, spiritual practitioners or just common beings, let’s try our best to stop thinking, doing and talking nonsense. We only have 24 hours in one day, this is a golden opportunity for us to do positive things, develop positive thoughts and talk positively. If you do the opposite way, don’t you ever think that no one will know. Your karma will at least catch up with you. Whoever you harm or whoever you try to harm will not need to do anything. You are your own enemy, and you are also your own friend.
I am therefore very happy to be able to show you at least a real and living human master who is doing great job in inspiring everyone, especially me. I look forward to meeting him one day and making a great connection full-heartedly. Thank you, Khenchen Tsultrim. You are great!