Keeping up the Practice

Dear friends near and far

On this Guru Rinpoche Day, I would like to first share with all of you that I think it is very important to have a balance of dharma practice. We must consider our lack of practice, our lack of understanding, our lack of virtuous activity and also the difficulties we face in our life. Dharma practice is very valuable for improving our daily life, especially our way of thinking and how we perceive.

Please look toward the great masters. How do they actually practice compassion? How do they actually practice devotion? How do they actually practice patience? How do they change their habitual patterns? Remind yourselves of the masters like Kyabje Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, Kyabje Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche, Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche, Kyabje Mindrolling Trichen Rinpoche. All the great masters that have lived until now are really important to understand. All the great masters have aspirations for you to improve in your practices. So keep in mind that all of the great masters of Guru Rinpoche’s lineage are all with us.

We must never lose our dignity and our strength on the spiritual path. We must persist in the transformation of our mind, in realizing the nature of our mind, and in purifying our perceptions and way of perceiving. We need to remind ourselves that we are benefiting all of the beings by the practicing and changing our way of life. Immediately we are benefitting our friends and families. Indirectly, we are benefitting their friends and families and so on. The benefit extends to all sentient beings. I want to remind all of you on this Guru Rinpoche Day to sustain your spiritual path, to motivate yourself, and keep in mind the benefits of practice.

The most important is keeping up. And it is crucial to understand that you must see with a positive perspective. I really think that dharma practice means seeing yourself in a positive light. This means seeing your own strength, your mind’s enlightened nature, and your habits as change-able. It is possible to purify absolutely any of our negative habits. This kind of positivity is really, really important! And how do we improve ourselves? We must keep reminding and keep maintaining these dharma ideas in our mind and our heart. It is also important to keep reminding other people to understand and remind themselves about what it means to be positive. This what the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, Arhants and all the great masters have done from the past until the present. Think about this.

I am writing this message in Bangkok, Thailand, where I am transiting from Kathmandu to Indonesia for the Asia Tour teachings that have been organized for me. I am in the hotel room, writing this to all of you. In the middle of checking and rearranging my bags, I am discussing with some friends here about keeping up our practice and especially maintaining positive thinking with our work. I would like to share with you that I was very much a negative person, and by receiving through my practice, all of the blessings of Guru Rinpoche, all the Buddhas and all my gurus, I have been able to have more positive thinking. Please remember the great masters’ aspiration to benefit all the beings is close at hand for us. Keep it near your heart.

Some of you are not spiritual. You can improve your way of thinking whether or not you are spiritual, or religious. Our nature of mind is actually perfected. The nature is already clean and perfected. Please learn this and know this. Let’s learn through our mistakes, especially to recognize our own faults instead of making excuses. Please recognize and avoid the tendency to always make excuses instead of pointing the finger towards our own faults. Whenever you do the finger pointing at yourself, do not blame your nature. There is nothing big to blame, it is simply the mistake of not seeing our own faults.

It is a simple mistake, so please don’t be too emotional. Now, as I am transiting to Indonesia, I just wanted to send you some love and care and these reminders. Some of my students have also created this video clip of a talk I gave in November in Kuala Lumpur on Anger: The Fire that Burns.

Sending my love and prayers always.

Sarva Mangalam,

Phakchok Rinpoche