Dear friends near and far
Happy Guru Rinpoche Day to all of you. I am going to take this opportunity to remind all of my Dharma brothers and sisters who are on the path to pay more attention to three things.
Keep the Right Motivation
First, whatever we practice, whatever we do in life, our motivation is very crucial, because one of my teachers tells me, “A lot of things that we do in life, they are very much undecided.” Undecided as virtues or non-virtues. We usually say in Tibetan “lung maten.” “Lung maten” means neither virtue nor non-virtue. Because of that reason we forget how important our motivation is in many things that we do in our daily lives and especially things that we practice. So please have intention with your motivation.
Stay Committed
Secondly, I want to mention that sometimes we are inspired to practice and sometimes we lose inspiration. So when that happens, it is very important to make the intention to have a commitment or, as we say, discipline or samayas. It is very important to have some sort of rules towards yourself that whether we are inspired or not, we are going to keep practicing. Yes, some of you can say when I’m not inspired, my practice is not genuine and not pure. But the point is that you are not practicing. Life is very precious. To stop the practice that we began is one of the biggest obstacles. To not have pure motivation in the practice because you do not have the inspiration to practice, yes is a problem, is an obstacle, but not as huge an obstacle as stopping the practices. So please find different ways to gain inspiration such as a spiritual way to say supplications to the teachers like Guru Padmasambhava and to make aspirations whenever you accumulate practices and merits. It is very important to find inspiration. Life stories can inspire you to practice and to understand how beneficial the practice can be in your daily life and future lives.
Don’t Stop
The third thing I want to mention is that you are going to find inspiration in the beginning when you start practicing and then on the way you will find inspiration to carry on the practice, but suddenly something could happen. Like a middle-life crisis or middle-life practice crisis so that you completely stop doing the practices. If that happens, it is very important to do something such as ask some great lamas, monks, or monasteries to do some pujas or prayers for you to remove the obstacles. Or you need to go on pilgrimages. And, try to go to see sanghas and the teacher to whom you belong. Many of the people, they carry on the practice, then they completely stop at the end of the life. That is very important not to do that. When you find slowly you are losing the interest in practice, that means you not getting the support of the teacher or the sangha, which means that they have the support for you, but you don’t feel the support and you don’t feel motivated. Or, you are not doing the practice correctly and obstacles are slowly seeping into your mind.
So the three things I want to say on this occasion of Guru Rinpoche’s Day are:
- To have correct motivation;
- To keep our commitment to carry on the practice; and
- Whatever happens, don’t stop completely.
You can have a crisis, but don’t stop the practice completely. At least, do the minimum practice that you can do. So, generally when you practice, whatever you do, it is good to do dedication. Dedicate so that you do not fall into obstacles like the ones I mentioned. It is very important to make sure you don’t go astray from the path. We have been astray for eons until now. Now we are finally reaching a meaningful life and doing some dharma, so if we have these kinds of obstacles, it is really worthless. So make sure that all of you keep this in mind, and please share this with some of your friends.
Now, the last thing that I want to say, when you practice Dharma, when you receive teachings, and when you get inspiration, don’t be excited. Excitement is something that always falls, so don’t go into excitement. Go along with your practice with inspiration, without the expectation. I feel this is very important. Yes, you can have a little bit of excitement, but excitement is always is very dangerous.
I am happy to announce again that this month’s video message has subtitles in English, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese, Spanish, German, Portuguese, and now Russian. Please click the settings wheel in the bottom right corner of the video to access these options.
So this is the opportunity I’m taking from Guru Rinpoche’s Day. Please chant Guru Rinpoche’s Six Vajra Line Supplication and chant Guru Rinpoche’s mantra and carry on with your practice how much you can and dedicate the merit and make aspirations in life. All of this is very important. And be happy. Do a little bit of meaningful things in life and don’t complain too much. Complaining doesn’t solve the problem. Always you need to watch your own self in how to carry on life. Practice a little bit more balanced, especially not going completely astray from the path.
I’m sending my love and prayers to all of you and please take care of yourself, your health, your emotions, your family, your life, your happiness and especially your Dharma.
Sarva Mangalam,
Phakchok Rinpoche
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