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Teaching

This is a collection of Dharma teachings given by Lama during weekly teachings at the temple. These serve as both an introduction to Buddhism for the uninitiated and a reminder for students of the Dharma. If you enjoy reading these teachings, we welcome you to join us at Thekchen Choling on Thursdays (Chinese teaching) and Fridays (English teachings) for an engaging live teaching!

Latest Teaching

Overcoming Obstacles by Going to the Root of the Issue

Past Teachings

Overcoming Obstacles by Going to the Root of the Issue

What is an obstacle? Obstacles in our dharma practice are actually similar to obstacles faced in our daily life. If we cannot live our life to be free from problems then when you practice the dharma, you will also face similar obstacles. Many people conveniently blame the dharma, that after practicing the dharma, they get even more obstacles and problems. All obstacles are created by our own mind. We suffer because of our own mind. If you cannot think of how to break through from an obstacle, then you should just destroy the whole thought of it all together. This is very beneficial for all of us as food for thought and to put into practice, when you feel that you are facing some obstacles.

We need to do some self-reflection. As a matter of fact, many of us are egoists or control freaks by nature. As long as we cannot control whatever we want to control- be it your wife, your husband, your children, your job or your duty- we start to term this lack of control as an obstacle. These seemingly, perplexing ‘obstacles’ create so much tension in our minds that we cannot become happy and we cannot even remember how to live our lives properly anymore. Simply speaking, we cannot even breathe properly. Some people are so engrossed in their own obstacles that they do not realize that they are not breathing properly. Their minds become confused and upset and enter into a state of ‘lung’ (Tibetan term for ‘wind’ in the mind, likened to mental frustration).

When you meet with some difficulty, your mind will generally start feeling that, “I need to do this or I was told to do that.” It feels that it has many tasks to do, or your duty to complete these tasks. When your mind keeps thinking that it is a job and a duty to do something, you will not be happy. You become so unhappy that even the simple act of smiling at others becomes a chore. When you are in that mental state, it is difficult for you to realize that you do not know how to engage other people anymore. In this mental state, you start to lose the ability to be your true nature - your Buddha nature. We need to cultivate awareness when we start to feel this way. Reflect and think about whether you are a control freak?

If your Lama asks you to do something, you should try to do it with your best effort. When you agree to do something, and you turn your back to go against his wishes, you will stop progressing in your practice and will start degenerating. Why is this so? It is not that your Lama is trying to play God. It is not the case where you did not do what God told you to do and hence you will suffer. It is important to realize the logic and reasoning behind this.

Firstly, if you have accepted this Lama as your Guru then when he asks you to do something, you must try to do it to your best ability. Your Guru is kinder than all Buddhas. Your Guru is the manifestation of the Buddha, to come and teach you in a way that you can understand. He makes relevant all of Buddha’s teachings to your current life, so that you can apply the dharma in your daily life. Because of our own obscurations we cannot see the Buddha’s movement and listen to the Buddha’s speech, hence your Guru reincarnated as a human to speak and demonstrate the activities and speech of the Buddha. Realizing this point, we must not make a fool of ourselves and go against the wishes of one’s Guru.

Do not make your Lama or your Guru give up on you or manifest giving up on you. If he really gives up on you, you are really ‘gone’. It does not matter whether the Guru really gives up on you because real Lamas do not give up. However, if you make yourself attract that manifestation out of your Guru, you will never have any result. You will stop all progress in your dharma cultivation and start the path of degeneration very quickly.

Actually, our life is very free and relaxed but sometimes we choose to create something to show that we are special or better or we want to get things our way. This is the root of our problem. What is the difference between the root of self and the root of Guru? We need to understand this, then we can let go of our own self-cherishing and egotistical thoughts and actions, which only bring about more harm and suffering to ourselves. Let us observe these scenarios.

The root of self can be likened to that of the seed of a plant. When you plant a poppy seed or a marijuana seed into the ground and when there are all the right conditions such as soil, sunlight and water, this seed will start to germinate and roots will start to grow. From that root, a poisonous stem or trunk, branch, leaves, flowers and fruits will grow. Every single thing that grows from this poisonous root is poisonous. Similarly, if the self is poisoned by a self-cherishing mind, every activity that arises will be poisoned by self-cherishing.

In contrast, the root of Guru with his pure motivation and pure mind will produce a plant that is beneficial to all. The seed of Buddha nature, when planted, will take root with all the right conditions. This root will produce medicinal trunk, branches, leaves, flowers and fruits that are beneficial for others, with the ability to heal others of their suffering. This is the fundamental difference between the root of Self and the root of Guru. By understanding this, as disciples, we must try to do what our Guru advises us to do.

Root Gurus they have a very strong, positive potential for us. Within ourselves, most people do not believe in themselves. I do know of some people who believe in themselves. Once they say something or make a promise, they will fulfill it. This kind of people are quite rare. When we make promises to Buddha or to your Guru, we are actually making promises to ourselves. We must believe in ourselves and fulfill these promises to our best capacity.

In our own mind and own nature, we will have a mixture of positive and negative potential. Which one takes effect faster? If you think that all negative karma will take effect faster, you must be quite a negative person. In Buddhism, through logical reasoning, good or bad potential have the same possible potential of taking effect. In our minds, when we focus on the negative thoughts then negative things ripen faster. If you have good thoughts and maintain good and happy thoughts, the good things will ripen as quickly! Bad thoughts are like shadows which cast darkness into our lives. Why do you want darkness to pervade your mind and your life? Think about it, it does not make sense. Also by speaking the truth and opening up, it is like casting light on darkness. Somehow, nobody dares to tell the truth as they are worried to get into trouble. If you are the big boss and have become ‘somebody’ in society, not many people dare to chat with your casually or correct you when you are wrong. However, your Guru will always dare to speak the truth to you. Your Guru is someone who dares to ‘burst your bubble’.

Everybody is very much ‘in love’ with themselves. We love ourselves so much that we cannot let go of what we are suppose to be and our possessions of external objects. For instance, you just bought a new camera that cost a few thousand dollars and you love it so much that when I ask you to give me your camera, you will make all sorts of excuses not to give it to me. It is not that I am after your camera, but this goes to show that you have been enslaved by your own mind. You make your own life very difficult and so cheap! This camera may cost a few thousand dollars but you have made yourself belong to the camera and not the other way round- where the camera belongs to you. If the camera cost a few thousand dollars, is your life worth less than that? This thing has possessed your body, speech and mind. When this camera is not the newest and loses its novelty as technology advances, you will start to feel empty again. Do some self-reflection on the objects that you possess. Do they possess you or do you possess them?

Additionally, there are times when we do something then after that we regret doing it. When you start to regret and start thinking why you are suffering from this obstacle, your mind starts to feel mental frustration. Why do we put ourselves in such situations? This is because we have no clear motivation and we do not practice awareness. We just see and do, without thinking. Then after that, we panic, regret and cry. By holding on to different kinds of beliefs and superstitious thoughts in our minds, we will live to regret our lives. What is the point of feeling sad? It is better to apply the antidote.

When you want to make a decision, think thoroughly through your plans and make a well-informed decision. We are all definitely going to die and just before you draw your last breath, it will be good if you can say to yourself that you have done everything to your best ability and thought through all decisions as according to your conscience. In this way, you can let go of this life and move on to your next without having regrets. We need to do things with the kind of real conscience in our hearts. If you can lie on your death bed and think, “Oh, I have lived my life doing everything my Guru wanted me to do.” That will be good. But if you think that you have done everything that your Guru has asked you to do but you are not happy, you do get the blessings but you will not get the result. Most people will do what their Lama asks them to do but they are not doing it happily, so they drag out the process. There are so many people who have made empty promises to me but I have chosen not to remember all these details. Whether you fulfill your promises or not, I will still pray for you. But you need to ask your own conscience, whether you will regret later on for not fulfilling your promises.

We also need to be realistic and not have unrealistic expectations of things to avoid mental frustrations. When we practice, we have so many obscurations. Lama Zopa Rinpoche said that all problems are empty on their own side and they do not truly exist. Some people feel that after they start practicing dharma, that they start to have more problems. Is this true? Perhaps, you are only beginning to realize your ‘problems’ as you have become more aware as you practice. When we cultivate our mind, we start to have more awareness. Suddenly, you seem to be in a lot of ‘shit’. This means that you are beginning to clean your eyes and start ‘seeing’. That is why some people feel that as they practice, the worse they have become. Sometimes, they consult with their Lama and the problem does not go away then they think praying to the Buddha is better, that it is more powerful. But they did not realize that they are having an unrealistic expectation of the outcome.

Due to our love of wanting things immediately and instantly as we live in an ‘instant’ world with a fast-food culture, we have become very impatient people. Even if you plant a seed in the soil, it will take a while before it takes root and become a seedling. We are spoilt rotten and too pampered by our modern day instant amenities and convenience. That is why I like to take you on pilgrimages to some ‘god-forsaken’ lands such as Ladakh or Tibet. In these countries, when you need water, you need to walk a far distance to gather water. When you need a fire, you need to gather wood and slowly set up a fire. There is no electricity in some parts of these countries, and you can get ‘back to basics.’ Think about how we have become very spoilt and unappreciative people. It is beneficial for your mind to understand how we are living like Gods in the god-realm right here in Singapore where everything is at our fingertips at a touch of a switch.


Becoming Buddha - Part 3

In the 3rd and final part of Becoming Buddha, Lama Dorje shares the importance of letting the Self go and immersing ourselves in the bigger scheme of things to experience happiness, peace, love and hope.

The final point I want to share with you is the importance of slowly giving yourself up in your journey to becoming Buddha. . When you start to realise that you are but just a small part of a very large picture, you will be able to give up the ego or what we call the Self. Practice this by retreating to a dark place. You can choose to lie down on the grass to watch the vastness of the night sky.

Appreciate the sky, the stars and the moon. In short, just start appreciating. When you ponder on the vastness of the sky, you will start to realise that you are not so great and big after all. This is the first step to start giving up the thought or hallucination that you are the centre of everything and are great. Some of us have this hallucination because we are famous or hold a top position in a company. However, what is important is that when you are out there in the world going about your daily routine, when people want to pick a fight with you, are you able to amplify the Buddha’s teachings or do such situations bring out the worst in you?

As Dharma cultivators, we need to exercise compassion and wisdom. Hence, we must make it a point to attend teachings and develop the habit of reading. You must also learn to empathise with others. Buddha’s teachings aim to offer happiness, peace, love and hope. However, in most cases, we have been brought up to judge others. Refrain from doing that, but instead try to empathise with others. Give others a chance to change and most importantly, give yourself the opportunity to change as well.


Becoming Buddha - Part 2

In the 2nd part of this series, Lama Dorje shares the importance of being natural in your approach to life, the importance of a retreat and understanding the essence of a prayer.

To become Buddha, you must be natural in your approach and avoid faking your intentions. Trying to chant all day to show others you are a good practitioner of Buddhism is a fruitless exercise. Bear in mind that you must allow yourself to evolve and think differently. You must allow your practice to become part of your nature and your everyday life, whatever you do.

You do not need to chant and pray all day. The most important thing is to allow the prayer to become part of your nature. When you pray daily, you should aspire to become one with the prayer. This is an important aspect of living the Buddha life. If you are a practitioner, you become part of the prayer and the prayer becomes part of you. You do not need to hold the incense in your hand, kneel down and recite the whole prayer. Instead, learn to incorporate the prayer into your mind. When you have the prayer in your mind, whatever you do becomes the prayer. With this natural flow, you will slowly start to feel your actions amplifying your prayer. Your prayer may consist of four simple lines but once you start to feel it in your heart, you have taken a step in the right direction.

We must also try to read Dharma books as part of our daily routine. You do not need to read the entire book in one sitting. It is more important to read one or two paragraphs and meditate on its very essence and its meaning. Doing this on a daily basis will have beneficial and positive effects. In your dharma practice, you must have a mind that thinks. Do not be passive and simply listen to what others tell you. You must think and analyse, and you must feel. You must make your mind sharp yet very calm. How can one achieve this state of calmness? You will have to ponder, reflect and meditate in order to get to know yourself.

Besides reading dharma books, it is always good to go on a retreat. What effect will a retreat have on you? Imagine that you are like a lump of rock sugar, and I dip you in a cup of cold water. In the process, willingly or otherwise and given the time and right conditions, you, just like the rock sugar, will melt to become one with the water and the water will go into you.

I would like to take this opportunity to share with you my experience of my first retreat. I was a young 16-year old teenager when I visited Kopan monastery in Nepal. My guru told me to go on a retreat, and to recite a million Om Mani Padme Hung mantras. I told myself I had to become a great meditator. Over the first few days of the retreat, I sat with my back straight, in full lotus posture and I felt very enthusiastic and good. A week went by, and I started to ask myself why I was in this remote place on a retreat. I began to get bored. It was cold and it did not help that the food was horrible too. By about the 10th day, I started hallucinating about fishballs, cheng tng and other favourite food I was so used to. All this while, I was trying my hardest to maintain my visualisations. I wrote all my thoughts in a journal and I labeled this whole retreat experience as a stupid exercise.

How long did this ‘stupid’ retreat last? It lasted more than nine months. I remember writing in my journal, “nine bloody months of Om Mani Padme Hung!' Halfway through my retreat, I tried to keep my mind blank as my guru had asked me to ponder upon the nature of emptiness. Instead, I believe I perfected the nature of blankness! Though my first retreat was quite a disaster, it was still a blessing. After that, I had many more retreats and some things started to change.

What I want to share with you is that, when you are first forced into a retreat, your mind is like a wild monkey, but after some time of practicing discipline and motivation, your mind will start to settle down.

When you go on a retreat, it is a whole new experience, like a new spiritual culture that will take some time to adjust to. Adjusting to this new experience is a slow process, helped by reading and studying one paragraph of a prayer and closing your eyes to feel that prayer. Once you experience that special feeling, you should stop for the day. When you develop that certain feeling, you need to maintain the sense of peace, bliss, calm and emptiness that comes with the feeling. This is very important. When you face adversity, or when someone scolds you, always remember this feeling of calm and bliss. Apply it to your daily life.

Stay tuned: Look out for the 3rd and final part of this series where Lama Dorje shares the importance of being natural in your approach to life and Buddhism.


Becoming Buddha - Part 1

Introduction
In the first of a three-part series, we begin our journey into what it means to embrace and live Buddhism.

There are a number of steps one must undergo before one can truly understand Buddhism. One of the most fundamental starting points is to view oneself as part of a bigger picture. Most of the time, we view ourselves as the heart or the main focus of a picture. If we can see ourselves as part of the bigger picture, then it becomes a lot easier to see that we do not truly exist. If we can do that, it is one big step towards becoming Buddha.

As Buddhist practitioners, when we say that we want to become Buddha, we must first analyse how to become Buddha. The Buddha said, “If you want to become like me, you must try to become me.' We therefore have to make a strong effort in our practice to become like him. To become Buddha, there are three main points we must consider and cultivate within ourselves.

First, we must learn to cherish others. The Buddha has all beings in his heart. When you care or cherish another sentient being, you are actually doing Buddha’s work. If you find it hard to cherish others, your mind / heart will not grow. You will only think of yourself, your problems, your job, your fame, your wealth, and other self-related issues.

When you start cherishing others, you will learn to realise that your heart is not as small as you think. You can improve and you can make a positive difference to others The Buddha once said, “He who cares for the sick, cares for me.'

There is a story about a monk who developed an infection, with maggots eating at his wounds. There was pus flowing out from his wounds and everyone avoided going near the monk, fearing they would contract his disease. Buddha ordered his attendants to carry the monk into the open to enjoy some fresh air. After boiling some water, the Buddha himself cleaned the monk.

Leprosy is a contagious disease, but I have witnessed people who have have continued to help people suffering from leprosy for years. Nothing has happened to them. Hence, it depends on your mind/heart. The important question is, how big is yours?

Stay tuned: Look out for the 2nd part of this series where Lama Dorje shares the importance of being natural in your approach to life and Buddhism.


Who Am I?

Do you know who you are? What do you want in life? 5Cs? Happy family? Good careers? These are the typical answers most of us would give but is that really true?

Our guru kindly tells us that beneath all that goals and dreams that we pursue, what we really want at the end of the day is for someone to appreciate us so that we know our worth. Here’s a simple way to examine this truth: Whenever we have achieved something, be it a trivial matter like baking cookies or a major achievement like clinching a million dollar deal for the company, would we crave for someone to pat us on our shoulder and say “Well Done!'?

If all you ever wanted to achieve in life was to be able to afford a posh car and when you do, don’t you secretly enjoy envy stares or remarks from the people around us? Yes. It is that simple. We all need that social recognition and appreciation from others to weigh our self worth. Social status and material need means so much to us that we forgot who we are. We are so concern with how others judge us that we have to create an identity for ourselves which is not real. For example, every one of us dress differently. Some dress in a certain fashion while some do not bother. However, how an individual dress tells us something about his or her personality. It is a statement to our image and identity. If we want to be identified as being trendy and different, certainly we will dress in something that will associate ourselves as being fashionable.

Therefore, now we ask ourselves, why do we dress the way that we do. No doubt that being well dressed does no harm but it is how we become overly concern that we no longer listen to our own mind. We become slaves to other people’s mind that we cannot discern what is more appropriate for our own good.

The big question now: Is that is all that we seek in life. Is there something more to just satisfying our big fat ego? Are we truly contented with our life? Very often, we have been told by our guru to meditate which allows us to spend quality time with ourselves. This is the only way to look into our own mind because most of us dare not face the truth. Rinpoche says that its like opening a can of worms. Now that we have been told how to get to know our true self, it is only through right effort that will allow us to discover what we all have been searching for – everlasting happiness.

“Whatever joy there is in this world
All comes from desiring others to be happy,
And whatever suffering there is in this world
All comes from desiring myself to be happy.'
          - SHANTIDEVA


1 Step to Getting Your Dharma Practice Out of the Rut

Why is it that sometimes you feel as though your practice gets stuck? You feel bored, lazy and your practice becomes stagnant. Why does this happen?

The reason is because you have attended a lot of Dharma teachings but you have not meditated on these teachings and made them a part of you. You have merely accumulated a lot of intellectual baggage, and after a while when you have learnt so much your mind becomes overwhelmed by all this knowledge with which you have no idea how to utilize.

Having a lot of merely intellectual Dharma knowledge is like having a bowl of uncooked rice. You can bring the rice everywhere with you, put it in your bag or hold it in your hand but unless you cook the rice, you will never be able to eat it. In the same way, you must meditate and contemplate the Dharma you have learnt, then only will you be able to digest it and make it part of your mind, and you will then not be overwhelmed by all this knowledge and your practice will not become ‘stuck’ or ‘jammed’.

We must not intellectualize the Dharma and merely ‘collect’ Dharma teachings. If you do this, then the more you learn, the lazier and more bored you will get. You will begin to lose your desire to seek the truth.

Only if you sit down and meditate everyday will you not fall into this hole. Even if you sit down for ten to fifteen minutes a day, it is very good! We can do with less sleep!

We all ‘meditate’, but our ‘meditation’ is worldly meditation. What is this ‘worldly meditation’? Daydreaming! We like to lie down and stare blankly into space and let our thoughts run wild. We love to daydream and think about all kinds of things. If we take this time wasted on our daydreaming and use it to meditate on the Dharma we have learnt, this will be most beneficial for us. You should meditate on taking refuge, the Four Immeasurables, and think of the teachings your Lama has taught you.

If you really want to learn and practice Dharma, you must meditate everyday. Even five minutes is good! If you really want to benefit others, you cannot just pay lip service to the Buddha Dharma. You must meditate! Otherwise all this talk about wanting to benefit all sentient beings is like a verbal fart.

You must try to meditate everyday and attain a sense of openness, spaciousness, oneness and you must be totally at ease. We are all too uptight and stiff. We need to open our minds and become more peaceful and at ease with ourselves, others and the world. Lose your strong sense of ‘I’. When you sit and meditate, become one with the floor or the chair you are on. Let go of your ego and strong sense of ‘I’ and ‘Me’. Release yourself from your constant obsession with yourself and always wanting things to go your way. Be free of your iron-like self-grasping! And to be free of your self-grasping, you must follow the instructions given by your Lama.

When Atisha went to Tibet, he saw how Tibetans worshipped a huge pantheon of deities but did not accomplish the practice of even a single one. It is like how many Taoists like to worship every single god yet are ignorant of which god actually benefited them. Atisha later established the Kadampa tradition which focused only on four Buddhas: Chenresig, Tara, Shakyamuni and a Protector. They focused only on 4 Buddhas but attained great accomplishments and realizations, while some others tried to do the practices of many, many Buddhas but because their practice was very superficial, they did not attain mastery.

In the same way, there is no point for us to merely seek to gather lots of Dharma as mere knowledge. We already have a huge intellectual burden. Now it is time to meditate on all our Dharma knowledge and internalize it!

If you really want results in your practice, you must persevere. You should do the 9 Preliminaries, mani wheel practices, Guru Puja and the other practices I have told you to do. Only if you persevere will you see results.


Overcoming 'Loong' - Mental Frustration

Some students on the spiritual path try to ‘speed’ up their progress. They overexert or push too hard to improve their practice. After continuing like this for a while, you get what we call loong. This in Tibetan literally means “wind' but in this case refers to mental imbalance or frustration. For instance, when you compare what you would like to be against what you really consider your true self, this gap in expectations can make you frustrated. When loong comes, you can get angry, upset or depressed. You can even get angry with your own guru!

A symptom of loong is a general feeling of feeling down. The key is to try your best and be happy with whatever improvement you have achieved in mindfulness, and not become obsessed and overexert yourself. Remember Lord Buddha said that for a string instrument to make beautiful music, the strings should neither be too loose nor too tight.

It is okay to relax, you are not expected to pray, chant and go to a dharma centre everyday. If you feel stressed, then unwind - go to a disco, pub, gym, whatever. But while you are there, your motivation should be “I want to enjoy, recharge myself and after that, I will work for all beings'.

Wherever you are - even at a disco - think of all the people around you as your close friends whom you will lead to enlightenment. So externally, you may seem like you are ‘enjoying’ samsara, internally, you are in fact practicing dharma. Remember to be sincere to yourself when you do this.

Exercise helps to reduce the buildup of ‘winds’ and hence mental frustration. Endorphins are released when we exercise. Chanting day in day out is not necessarily practice. Just like some people who are vegetarians and chant all their life but once they stop chanting whatever they speak about is negative – gossiping or cursing.

We need to understand samsara (cyclic existence) as opposed to dharma. Everybody has expectations of things that should be done in a certain way, even the view of spiritual teachings. Due to this rigid view of how things MUST be, there is frustration with others and with yourself. Often, we hold tightly to our own small-minded view and completely forget the teachings of impermanence and emptiness. Once you re-focus on the big picture and remember the billions of billions of sentient beings in the six realms, we recognize how small-minded we are.

So, as Lama Yeshe says, be gentle with yourself and do not lose the big picture; it is okay to make mistakes but it is not alright to make mistakes and give in to them. For each time that you feel you have failed, reflect; use the mirror of the teachings of dharma to evaluate things from a dharma viewpoint. Then with a good and kind heart, do deeds happily and sincerely with the genuine feeling of closeness to all beings. When your mind is balanced and suffused with renunciation, bodhichitta and emptiness, there will be no space for small-minded pettiness. Then you will get over ‘feeling down’ very quickly.

Look at the big picture and do not think of everything in relation to yourself. When you do that frustration dissolves and you feel quite silly in relation to the magnitude of life. One way is to lie on your back when the sun is rising or lie down in an open field with minimal lights and look at the stars. You will realize how small you are in comparison to the galaxy. Seeing this and realizing dependent origination and that we all need each other to survive, then how can you develop mental frustration?

Just because things are not going the way you want them to, do not get frustrated. Do not seek escape through continually searching for yet another spiritual tradition or another escape back to your ‘old’ ways and ‘normal’ life or some perfection. For my many intellectual and highly educated students, one of the dangers they face is the use the words of these teachings to justify their actions. Don’t use the teachings to further your own perspective. Dharma is not meant as some form of intellectual gymnastics to boost your own ego.

Dharma is the ability to see things as its own nature, not to judge but to have compassion, love and wisdom. Samsara – is the continual judging of what is right and wrong, what is the right way or what must be done in a certain way – and basically rigidity in ideas.

As we do not have full realizations of cause and effect, there is a tendency for us to pass judgment and have preconceptions about the things that happen around us. Wisdom is not something you can claim to have just because you have worldly experience. You may have worldly knowledge, but remember this is usually related to the eight worldly concerns. In studying the dharma, you must let go of your preconceptions and open yourself to realizing things through study, reflection and meditation.

You must be balanced, that is why Buddhism is the middle way. Develop renunciation so that you do not chase after things and think, "This thing will give me satisfaction; without it life would be hopeless." These preconceptions and grasping make you rigid and inflexible. Do not always expect things to happen in a certain way so that when a different situation arises you criticize and have 'loong', become tense, frustrated and disturbed. Remember that "difficult" situations also are often the best source of dharma lessons.

Renunciation of samsara is not easy. Cultivate and train your mind to be detached from all existent phenomena. For your mind to be healthy, you should not be grasping at any object - be it pleasure or suffering. Then, your mind will be relaxed. We have to break our concrete preconceptions, and that can only be done by a clean, clear mind. Because our conceptions are concrete, we are not flexible. When somebody says, "Let's do it this way," but you don't want to change, that is rigidity. Only you are right; all other people are wrong! Remember sometimes the new ideas suggested may actually be better than yours! Be open, be flexible. Relax, clear your mind and enjoy!

I hope these thoughts have been of benefit. Nothing that is written here is new. It was all taught by the Buddha thousands of years ago. I hope that you will take this advice and apply it to your life as only then will this be of any real benefit.


Removing the Stains of Anger

Sometimes when I see how husbands and wives getting angry with each other, quarrelling and later bearing grudges, I wonder why they got married in the first place. While it is inevitable that there will be disagreements and arguments, one should be able to come to terms with the issue at hand and more importantly, not bear any remnant grudges.

My best advice on how to remove the stains of anger is to meditate on impermanence. Reflect on the emptiness of inherent existence of oneself and one’s enemy. Then meditate on whether the appearance of one’s own self and of one’s enemy truly exists.

After your outburst of anger, try to sit down to pray and meditate. You should visualize all sentient beings and invite them to your side in their human forms. Your parents and those you feel closest to, should be visualized nearest to you. Imagine all the males on the left, females on the right. Visualise your enemies in front of you with their backs facing you. In front of everyone, visualize your Guru in the form of your meditational deity (say in the form of Buddha Shakyamuni, Chenresig or Tara). To have a clear perception of one’s guru at one with one’s yidam (meditational deity) will make your practice most effective. If you don’t realize that the whole host of deities are manifestations of your guru, the effects of your prayers will degenerate.

So visualize everyone around you and visualize everyone being blessed by rays of light flowing from your yidam into everyone. This method allows you to dispel any enmity you have between you and your enemies because this practice creates plenty of positive energy around you.

Anger’s Antidote
If you are feeling angry, the easiest way of dealing with it, and which doesn’t need great understanding of high Buddhist philosophy, is to simply have a friend or loved one come to you and hug you and just show love and affection to you. That’s all it takes to help you deal with the anger!

Agony Aunt
The best way to diffuse your anger is to look at an image of the Buddha as you pour out your sufferings and complaints. Feel that the Buddha is listening to you and your problems. Also, you should try to record your heartfelt conversation with the Buddha. After you’ve complained enough and have cooled off, rewind the recording and listen to yourself complaining. This method is helpful because you are able to first able to let off steam and get the anger out of your system. Second, you get to hear yourself and if you realize how irrational and yucky you sound, perhaps you will find yourself less prone to anger in the future.


Why Listen to the Dharma?

Think about what motivates you to listen to the Dharma. Without proper reflection, after the initial spurt of interest, coming for teachings and listening to Dharma will become a chore. With our mind’s natural habituation, it is natural to start thinking of alternatives like “Hey, I could be enjoying a Friday night out with my friends instead of being here listening to this' or “I could be at home watching TV and relaxing.'

To protect the mind from sinking into such a state, we need to take what I call the Dharma vaccine to cure the curse that we are all under.

We are all ‘cursed’ with death right from the moment of birth. We will all definitely die some day, although some people are less worried about it thinking they can easily pay some monk or Lama to pray for them. But why depend on someone else when, on your own side, you have the power to do something for yourself… why not save yourself?

Most of us know of people who have met with untimely deaths. One of my Dharma brothers – a senior who had attained the level of a Geshe Larampa – the PhD equivalent in Dharma, felt giddy one day and fell to his death even before reaching 40 years of age. If this can happen to someone with such great merits, it can happen to us at any time.

When we cultivate our Dharma practice, it is the Dharma vaccine that will manifest the cure at the moment of death and save us from falling into the bardo state and free us from restrictive rebirth in the six realms of samsara.

The second curse is being afflicted with negative emotions like anger, envy and jealousy. Dharma is the medicine to this curse just like insulin is medicine to Type 1 diabetes. In the same way that insulin converts harmful levels of sugar in the blood to food for body cells, Dharma teachings is the medicine that converts negative states of mind so that the mind is in a prime state to listen to Dharma and benefit from the essence of Dharma.

As students, we often have the three faults of students like overturned, leaky or dirty cups that can never be able to hold the essence of the Dharma properly. Whatever lama teaches, we forget. We must consciously remember what the Guru says and cultivate accordingly to his instructions. There can be no result if we only practise according to our own whims and wishes.

Also, don’t intellectualise the Dharma. Nobody thinks about where Panadol is made before taking it to stop a headache. All we need to know is that Panadol stops pain and lots of people have taken it and benefited from it. Dharma is like that. Just internalize the Dharma and feel it. Many cultivators of Dharma have taken it, having accepted that it is medicine that works and having been cured of the suffering of the six realms of samsara.

Take my guru Geshe Lama Konchog for example. In his previous lifetime, he engaged in so much Dharma practice before accumulating the merits to attain a perfect human rebirth as Tulku Tenzin Nyudrup Rinpoche now. Look at yourself now and evaluate your own chances at obtaining a perfect human rebirth in your next life. How much causes have you planted? How many times have you prayed and dedicated your prayers to a good rebirth?

So take the Dharma vaccine. Think of your motivation and then we will have a more meaningful time when you are receiving Dharma teaching. Remember you are here for Dharma and not drama!

Dharma will work to subdue your mind to be free, easy and liberated. If you find your mind and heart still troubled, reflect on yourself and evaluate your priorities.

We should pray that we will realize our true self so that we will know what to transform and change. Often, we are so frightened of change that we cling on to our old selves. Don’t keep carrying this emotional baggage. The importance of this is reflected in the essence of Buddha’s first and last teaching that focuses on impermanence.

Cultivate renunciation. Don’t get too hung up on what you don’t have in this lifetime. We don’t get what we want in this life simply because we haven’t cultivated the causes of it in our previous lives. To move on, we simply have to plant the seeds in this life to reap the results later in this life or in the next life. If we keep harping on the unhappiness of this life, we will never be happy. We will also probably never be a human being in the next life simply because this life as a human being was so unhappy.

So cultivate positive causes for future lives. With so much positivity, we can look forward to death because we are confident of our investment of time and prayers. We can pray so that we will have a perfect human rebirth to continue propagating the Dharma.

Take the daily vaccination so one will not slide into negative thought. Treasure the Buddha’s teaching. Attend teachings for the Dharma and not the Lama. This is not a fan club. Reflect on the teachings that should benefit you in a style that is suitable. Be motivated to cultivate the Dharma for future lives because Buddha is the root of all great fortune.

I leave you with this saying to reflect upon ... if a man can have half his wishes fulfilled, he will triple his troubles simply because he makes samsaric wishes. However, put a Bodhisattva in his place and the Bodhisattva will remove all sufferings because he makes Dharma wishes.

Your future is in your hands now... Make the right wish.