Week 8: How to Generate the Mind of Enlightenment (con’t)
[8] Endlessly reborn in cyclic existence,
Ceaselessly tormented by the three sufferings –
Thinking that all mothers are in such a condition,
Generate the supreme mind of enlightenment.
Today is an other day on bodhicitta, the reason why we should generate bodhicitta, the causes which can help us to generate bodhicitta, the series of thoughts that we should generate in order to develop bodhicitta within ourselves. As I said last time, without having this thought desiring to achieve Buddha, there is no way that we can achieve the genuine bodhicitta.
But even before the thought which desires to achieve Buddhahood, there are a series of thoughts that has to go before that, one of that is to understand why there is a need to achieve Buddhahood. Because there are many practitioners, even the monks, Buddhist practitioners, who just wish to be born in a higher realm: ‘May they’re born as human in the next life or may they’re born in a God realm’. There are many Buddhists who wish that, they see that all their practices use the results as the rebirth in the higher realm. There is also many practitioners who see that be born in higher realm is not alright, is also an object of suffering, even if you are born in a higher realm, it brings no happiness, as long as you are in samsara there is no happiness at all. Based on that background/thought, many practitioners wish to be free from samsara, they all wish nirvana or salvation, freedom from suffering just for themselves. With that thought you will not have a desire to achieve enlightenment.
To achieve enlightenment, you need to have the genuine altruism, you should have this thought that feels like ‘May I be able to remove the suffering of all sentient beings’. You have to have this desire to remove the suffering of all sentient beings, then you will see that only when you achieve enlightenment, you will be able to help all sentient beings. If you just think about yourself like ‘May I be free, may I am born as human being or a God’, then there’s no need of enlightenment, you’ll not think of achieving enlightenment, you will not think of becoming a Buddha because there is no need to become a Buddha if only care is yourself, then it’s a lot easier to just to try to achieve nirvana, freedom from suffering.
The thought that you must have before you desire enlightenment, or the thought which induce the desire to achieve enlightenment is the desire to help all the sentient beings to free from suffering, even to have that desire – the desire to free all the sentient beings from sufferings – you need to feel that the sentient beings should be free from sufferings. If you strongly feel that ‘May sentient beings free from suffering’ then you will have the desire that ‘May I be able to do that’. To feel that all the sentient beings be free from samsara, you need to have a pre-thought which is a love toward all the sentient beings. You need to have the desire or the wish to see all the sentient beings happy. To see all the sentient beings happy, again there is another thought that you should have before which is a desire to repay the kindness, a sense or a thought to do something for all sentient beings. This case, one of the most effective is if you really feel like repaying the kindness of the sentient beings. To have that feeling or repaying the kindness you need to know how kind the sentient beings have been toward us. To have that thought, you need to understand the way sentient beings have been kind to us, exactly like the person who has been the most wonderful and kind to you in this life then you can imply this on others. As I said, this is what is called ‘The six causes and the effects and boddhicitta itself’ which are shared in the last class, so these are called ‘The seven causes and effects’ through which one can generate Bodhicitta. So today’s points explain these things.
When you have this sense of achieving enlightenment not just for oneself but genuinely to benefit all the sentient beings, just having this thought literally be able to create your life a much happier life. If you start to think about sincerely others’ welfare, it literally eliminates 99% of the jealousy or envy, there’s no space, no scope for any anger. Why would you have an anger when you really want others to be happy? This is how one can bring peace and happiness within oneself, in one’s community, in one’s surroundings and eventually if everybody has this sort of thought, then there is no space for any hatred in the mind of nobody.
To have those thoughts, actually there are many ways to generate, but Lama Tsongkapa mentioned the lines that we gonna go through today, these are some powerful lines. Really one His Holiness said that His Holiness is practicing based on these words and by changing a little bit of words in the four lines that we will go through, you can practice the same thing on yourself to wish to get rid of samsara and toward others to generate the compassion and bodhicitta. In our life, if you think very closely, there are many situations and problems that we have to go through, many of these problems are just created instantly by our own mental attitude.
The way we think the way we act, even it can be really the small thing which creates all problems and sufferings within ourselves, within our mind. For example, during this Covid, many people, when they stay indoors, when they don’t have the human interaction each other, when they don’t meet many people, when they don’t get to go outside, there are many people who think that “I am so lonely in the house”, they feel like they literally lost the whole world.
To get rid of that sort of feeling, it’s very important to do such practices mentally, so that one can feel very content even one is just with oneself, one of the very effective ways to get rid of this sort of feeling by keeping oneself busy in those things with matters in life. Keeping oneself busy in creating things by seeing the potential in you to achieve lot of things that we haven’t achieved yet. The quality of precious time, the time that we have, the life that we have is so very precious, we really don’t know when it gonna end, it may end any time. We are in such a body that it might leave us at any time, look at a nerf, it is so delicate, – if you look at some flesh or some animals you can see the nerves – we are so lucky that the nerves are still working, anything goes wrong, very small things go wrong, whether in our hands, in our heart, in our brain, this life may end very easily.
In many sutras, it said that this is like just a bubble on the water. If you shake the water you may find a lot of bubbles on the water. Our life is exactly like that, it might end at any time, any moment and it might end very easily that nothing much to do. A small accident literally crash the car and then we also go through lots of situations. In some books, it says like a child in one day meet with hundred chances or hundred such things that might take the child’s life. We all go through such a way, we travel, we go in a car, we do this thing and that, a small difference can literally take our life.
At the same time, we need to understand that in our life we can do lots of things, we have this intellectual power, and can have capability do literally not only remove one’s suffering but we can also do a lot of things for the whole humanity in this world. If this virus has been created by someone in a laboratory, then it just takes one person to create such virus and see how much crises, it can bring in this world by just one person. So similarly, through a positive point, one person also can bring such a wonderful changing in this world. Whatever you’re doing; the farmer, without their farming, there would be lots of crises; a doctor, without their doing what they’re doing there will be lots of crises; a nurse, without their doing what they’re doing there will be lots of crises. Nowadays, even the problems, without their doing what they’re doing there will be lots of crises based all the time, a teacher, without the teaching, there would be lots of crises. So whatever you’re doing in your life, it’s very important to have this altruism, genuine desire to help and to serve the community/the world, because one, a single person, can affect the whole world.
From a Buddhist perspective, even if you’re helping one person, you’re helping countless person, because one person will help countless future lives, we help this person who’s helping million of persons, that is future lives of this person. For example, if you help your friend, not just helping one friend but you’re helping the family of the friend, because you’re helping the friend, if the situation of that friend is good, it also brings a positive impact on the family of the friend, no need to go and meet the family of the friend but you’re literally helping them in all the ways. By understanding this thing, it’s very important to take this opportunity and to understand how much difference one can bring to this world, especially with understanding with dharma, there are lot of things that we can do. Especially with the mind, a little bit changing of the mind, one can get through a loneliness completely. If you make yourself capable, if you really change yourself, you can be such a wonderful friend of yourself.
Further said, not just the loneliness, but the depression, stress, anxiety literally making people unhappy, one of that is like lots of expectations and rely lots on the outer phenomena to make yourself a happy person, so that is one of the weaknesses we might have in our life. If you have been relied on your friend all the time, relied on your family, if you look outward to achieve the happiness, that is one of the causes which bring all the pain and sufferings, because happiness is not something that you can achieve from external phenomena. It’s very easy that some beggars are sleeping their peaceful sleep while some millionaires are not. This loneliness is quite enough to understand how mind plays a role and how we can achieve happiness within our mind, it’s just the satisfaction, just the contentment. When we expect that ‘oh it should be this, it should be that’, it never makes you happy, doesn’t matter what you have in terms of external phenomena.
In order to bring/activate the genuine happiness, be one’s genuine friend, as I said in earlier classes, it’s a time to sincerely cherish other’s happiness and leave behind cherishing one’s happiness because that when you will start to bring unlimited happiness, it just tries for one day in imagination like change desiring one’s happiness with desiring other’s happiness and when you wake up, you just think like “Today whatever I do I will do for others”, think, it’s wonderful, even if you give a small donation to something or someone, with the time, with the skill, you have a knowledge, may be you’re working in some office, if you think that ‘it’s for me’, then there are lots of chances that you are not be happy ‘I not gonna go well’.
If you think “Oh today my work is sincerely to help others”, there would be some people who create some difficulties that they ask, there would be some people who say something which is really not alright, whatever people say. If you have the motivation to just help someone, just help others, you start to enjoy each and every moment that you spend in the office, because only one doing you should help other and then trust me you will have lots of opportunities to help others and then with each and every opportunity you’ll be happy because that’s what you want and this is what make you fulfill and satisfy and everything will go along your way, all your wishes will come true, anyone can be happy with that.
Trying to generate Bodhicitta itself, even if you are not able to generate yet, but even trying that, taking a little very baby step, it helps. You don’t need to think that “Oh I should change all over such in one day or two days, or one-two weeks, it may not happen, but it’s alright. This is such a big cause, it might take even a little bit of time – no tree grows overnight. Similarly, no high achievement can be achieved in a single day. But constantly practicing you can run, if you can walk, it is alright, otherwise you can just roll, at least you’re getting close to something. So not just when you achieve what you want to achieve but also along the way, you will achieve immense happiness just by being the way, so having this in your mind.
Last time we have been through the 7 which is:
[7] Swept away by the current of the four powerful rivers,
Tied by the tight bonds of karma, so hard to undo,
Caught in the iron net of self-grasping,
Now here after it says:
Completely enveloped by the total darkness of ignorance,
As I said last time, it is more like we are literally enveloped with a sort of dark cloud, we don’t know where to go, where is the destination that we wish to and where not; what we have to do and what not. The things that we have to engage to bring happiness within our life and not. That’s why when we enveloped by this sort of darkness of ignorance, we think that ‘ah desiring myself’, desiring only look for happiness just for oneself, we think that this is what we should have to achieve happiness, that’s a biggest mistake, a really big mistake. This is really strange at the same time, this is a secret to be happy, if you start desiring others’ happiness, you will get all the happiness. If you start to desire your own happiness all the time, all it gives is suffering and problem.
[8] Endlessly reborn in cyclic existence,
Ceaselessly tormented by the three sufferings –
Thinking that all mothers are in such a condition,
Generate the supreme mind of enlightenment.
Because of this ignorance, we are ‘endlessly reborn in cyclic existence’, that is called today’s line, stanza number eight. Because of darkness of ignorance, we are doing things that give us suffering. We always engage in the activities, even the mental attitude, that is just toward oneself – very much selfish kind of attitude that ‘I want happiness, I want this, I want that’. Because of this, we “endlessly born in cyclic existence”, again and again, because we always create such karma, because we fall again in samsara.
‘Ceaselessly tormented by the three sufferings’,
When we are born in samsara, again it seems we don’t know what to do and what not to, it seems we don’t know which activities we should engage, in which we shouldn’t. All we experience is the suffering, these suffering like three types of suffering all the time. We are tormented by, we are literally tortured by these sufferings again and again. Here it talks about the three sufferings which are suffering of suffering, the change of suffering and the all-pervasive suffering.
The first one is ‘suffering of suffering’ which means that all the pains and feeling suffering that comes to exist because of the physical aggregates or the five aggregates. In easy way, all the pains and problems that you have because of the body, for example, nowadays like depression, stress, by thinking that “Ah I can’t do, again I can’t get to do this,… or maybe a lot of depression and this and that by wondering about “Oh I might have Covid or I may have Covid, oh the world is literally suffering because of Covid, this and that”. All these come into this category ‘suffering of suffering’.
And when you have some sickness and problem, it is because the pain which is based on the physical body, so this all goes through the ‘suffering of suffering’. So when Buddha said like to get rid of the suffering, you must understand what the suffering is and Buddha explained there are three kinds of suffering. The three kinds of sufferings which are either suffering or either based on suffering, because of those you suffer.
The second one is ‘suffering of change’ which is a bit tricky. It is all the happiness we experience in this mundane world. In this world, all happiness, all the pleasant feelings come into this category. The reason, if this is pleasant feeling why this is considered into a suffering, because Buddha said this is the nature of suffering. What it really means that, for your whole life, if you always been having one meal a day, if you have just one meal a day, you will not suffer because you will have one meal tomorrow. But in your whole life, you have been eating three meals, and tomorrow you have to go to one meal, that’s will be really a difficult and pain and problem. All of us say that you have to cut two other meals and you have to leave just one meal, you’ll have a lot of pain and problems and issues. That is not something you will desire and you will be happy. The enjoyment/the luxury of having three meals actually is something positive, is something pleasant. To have three meals a day actually is pleasant, is a facility, is a luxury, but still that luxury acts as a cause which gives you suffering now. If you haven’t been having three meals a day, you will not suffer by having one meal a day tomorrow.
As I said the example earlier that you will not feel lonely. If you have been living or relying on anybody as yesterday, so the luxury or having someone to rely on yesterday act as a cause of suffering when you do not get to rely on someone tomorrow. Luxury of being able to be with that family yesterday will become a cause of suffering when you don’t get to be with your family tomorrow. We are single monks, staying in a room by himself for like one year, two years we won’t suffer. Because that house you are living or you have been living with the wonderful family, the happier family you have, the difficult time you will have when you don’t get to live with them.
If you have been sleeping on a very luxury bed, then one day you have to sleep in a very normal, ordinary bed. Exam places that I won’t say the name but I heard that after landing from the airplane, they’re taken to a specific place and let there and they have to stay as a quarantine, a friend of mine landing from somewhere outside, there is many people Indian, some people really rich, but some people really poor, then all both to one hotel where they have to stay as a quarantine for about ten days, there is to stay 4 to 5 days and check again, then they’re let go outside to their home.
The hotel is a sort of average, so those people who are really rich, they have been enjoyed the luxury everything, it can be better or it can be a lot of facilities, now they all are living in the same hotel, same bed, pretty much similar room, but those who are very rich they suffer there, they were living in the comfortable place, bed and everything with all facilities, now they have to stay in the hotel where everything is very limited in the bad term, not really as it is at their home, they are not happy, it is difficult for them even to cut a day. But those people who live very simply, who are kind in some sense, then they are happy, they enjoy there, they think this is luxury, it is more like they have really nice time there, watching television, get to sleep, comfortable bed and there is someone who’s coming there to bring in tea, food, everything, they enjoy. So the reason this person enjoy, why the other person really go to a difficult time, it’s because of the pleasant feeling that they used to have yesterday or before yesterday at their home.
This is why all the happiness that we experience now it’s a cause of the suffering, it‘s a nature of suffering, it’s more like no need to be excited, because this will give the suffering. Suppose you enjoy the coffee very much, let’s say you literally enjoy coffee, you have coffee every day; one day somebody give you such a nice/tasty coffee, I don’t know what it means such a nice coffee, suppose that comes from some part of the world, I don’t know where the coffee grows, you enjoy the coffee so very much, you must be so happy having the coffee. The situation is like from tomorrow – the usual coffee they used to enjoy will not a coffee they enjoy as they used to – you had that coffee that you really like so much, now from tomorrow you don’t like the coffee that you really like. And then what happen? From tomorrow you have to drink that coffee you don’t like that much. There is one day that coffee literally brings away all the happiness that you used to have the coffee as usual, now the rest of the days or for year, how long doesn’t matter, you won’t enjoy this coffee.
This is one of the reasons why some charity in some remote areas in Ladakh in some mountains, earlier when I’ve been there, it is not a nice place, I really don’t think that’s a nice place even in the summer, it get minus one, in the winter it literally gets around minus 30 or even below, people living there extremely limite facilities, they don’t have much cloths to wear in the winter, but they have some animals like goats and yaks and all these animals, so when animals die they make cloths of animal leather, it is similar like the Eskimos, so they live pretty much similar as animal’s life. Of course they don’t have that facilities to go to school, and then heater, they don’t have proper house, they live in tents or some rocks, if somebody literally push the rocks, it even might fall down or they just made a house out of the rocks and there are a lot of the holes around of the rock and there might be lot of the winds coming through, it is extremely difficult. Some people they have a curved back because they squirm their body when they sleep because it is so cold as a consequence many of them have curved back, curved leg, this and that thing.
But if you ask them “Are you happy here?” they answer “Yeah, so nice, that is a normal life”, they are really proud the way they are living and they think that “this is such a nice”, obviously they haven’t seen the world around. If they go to Ladakh, you can imagine like 20-30 years back how your place or country have been, the Ladakh is pretty much like that. There are some facilities that is there in Ladakh which you might not find 20-30 years back your place would be a flat color TV or some basis, some small things, but beside that pretty much like your life is 20 years back, but still when they come to Ladakh, they think that “Oh that is really nice, the van is also nice”. So many shops I get to eat a lot variety, there’s fancy everything in Ladakh, obviously there is no shop that they’ve seen in their life, they never use the brush in the whole life, last time I were there with some soaps, some children tried to open and to eat, and then I give them brushes and teach them to brush.
Obviously in such a cold place, you don’t wash your face, I really don’t know, maybe someone they get to some river or some place, then might wash. Then many kids, I’ve got some kids from there, there was two kids that come from, not that place but from south of Ladakh, the kids have few layers of dusts and the monk at my monastery, he is a kind, funny monk, he literally soaked the child in a sort of a drum like a big basket for few hours. In this place, people are still happy, they are content, they think this is life, this is what happiness is, so they are so content in the life that they are living. But if they experienced the city life, then they thought “Ah the thing not nice anymore” then they were not enjoyed where they have been enjoyed.
Many people when they get around 80 years old, they think that ‘it is difficult, I can’t run, I can’t eat, I can’t go, I can’t do this, I can’t do that’, so it is a lot of pain in their heart, the reason is that they have lived the luxury of youth. If they’re borne old, if they’re born 80 years old, they won’t suffer their past, but they’re born young, they have been through 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, so that’s why they know that “Ah, 20 luxury, 30 luxury, 40 luxury, 50, 60 luxury, 70 pretty much luxury… ah 80 so difficult, I can’t walk, I can’t stand on my own, I can’t run, I wish to go here, I wish to try with all these things but I can’t. They suffer because they have tasted, it is more like you taste a drug, then after that nothing is nice, this is why all these people who are drug addicts are addicted because when they taste they thought that they were really very nice and after that all the good things are not good anymore.
The happiness that we experience in samsara, Buddha expressed it as a nature of suffering. Buddha said that all the happiness that you experience in the samsara is the suffering of change, it is just changing of suffering, more the causes of suffering. So, it’s very important do not to attach, try to see the bigger picture of it. I don’t mean that you should avoid drinking a nice coffee, you can have coffee, enjoy coffee at the same time not get attach to, try to see as a mature person by understanding, and then you have to be very careful with what you should prioritize in your life. You can have a nice coffee, you can have a nice clothe, a nice food, alright. Sometimes some people they eat only two, three plates but to show off that they are rich, then this and that, they literally order whole plates, whole table of food. Maybe this is a kind of tradition in some parts of China or in some parts of Tibet as well, some merchants they go to a restaurant, they don’t eat lot, like four [people] but they literally order a bunch of food which might feed like 15-20 people. They live pretty much most of them, the reason why they order these like they have a lot of money, the kind of showing off maybe is not being mindful.
Thousand of people die of the hunger, then it’s not really nice to waste the food that all the farmers made, even when you pay, it is not like “I’m paying for the water so I can literally waste the water”, it’s not really fair. Yes, you’re paying but the water is a resources that belongs to the whole humanity, the whole world, you can’t just waste it, also the groundwater; even the groundwater, it is finished and to store that groundwater it is not really easy, it isn’t happen overnight. That groundwater grows very low, many places might have to be abandoned because there are many places on this earth which 100% rely on the groundwater. If you live around to see, you maybe understand that you can literally purify the sea water into the freshwater, but still, it consumes a lot of resources to convert the sea water into the freshwater, it’s not really easy. So far I’ve seen that in some countries, I’ve seen in UK, in Singapore, that they literally purify the sea water into freshwater and there is a sort of small lakes, but I see that is really dangerous, because many places don’t have sea around, then might they have to buy water from other places. I think for a very longtime, Singapore has bought the water from Malaysia in a huge tunnel of pipes. It could be possible that it is quite dangerous.
When we live this life, not to attach too much to all the happiness and pleasant and to live a very meaningful life with mindfulness is very important – because if you’re being mindful, a very small thing could make a huge difference in life of others – then even when we die, we leave an imprint, a positive impact. Again, this pen has been made by some resources, and that resources has been made by another one, it’s more like every rock is made of clay, water… and that clay, water again made by sand, by a flora… that never goes to the beginning, because there is no beginning, every rock is beginningless, there is no beginning or end of any rock. You might think of Big Bang, there was something before which exploded then Big Bang happened. A very small thing which is condensed then it couldn’t hold the pressure so Big Bang happened.
Even before Big Bang, there was something. The earth makes a shrink and goes to a black hole if that exists. The earth shrinks and becomes like this small and after a while it cannot hold the pressure and it will explode. But still, the things exist and never go to end. Similarly, each and every action, each and every energy also continues. You may die, take a rebirth, if you bring some impact, even a small advice to a person, leaving the person change something in the person; so that change also helps to change somebody else. We also have the influence of some energy and advice given by Buddha, so, that influence of the energy eventually comes from Buddha. That’s why we are talking about compassion and bodhicitta. It was him who introduce all this energy – knowledge. That knowledge converts memory, understanding, verbal, hearing, and then memory, understanding… This change has been going on, going on and it can be until now. It was studied by Buddha, so that energy goes and goes, so that energy has a power, which is why listening to Dharma, it’s fruitful and powerful, it helps us to change ourselves into positivity. But still, because of the ignorance, we are still sufferings, day by day by all two sufferings.
And the third suffering is ‘all–pervasive suffering’ which is our body, five aggregates itself is the suffering, because as long as we have this body, there is no way we can always be happy, because this is compounded phenomena. This body made of many small things, so a very small thing goes wrong, it starts to have problem. It’s not possible that every small thing/molecule in this body always goes perfectly well, not possible. Now and later, as long as we have this body, it gona give you pain, so this body is also suffering, all-pervasive suffering. This is all suffering pervade to everyone.
Now, let’s go back to the line ‘Thinking that all mothers are in such a condition’. We also can think that, ‘I’m in such a condition, so I must wake up’. All the sentient beings who have been our mothers are in such a condition. To be able to help them, by repaying their kindness, the one and only way which is by ‘generate our supreme mind of enlightenment’ – the supreme mind of enlightenment is bodhicitta, this is a wonderful opportunity. Who can do? The dog will not able to do, the cat is no way, the bird, of course is not. If we ask who can do, who has this understanding, just Buddha – one person. Look at the change that he brought in this world, we can bring exactly the same amount of changes. You may not get to see all the changes, Buddha also hadn’t seen all the positivity, influences that existed at his time. Maybe through clear one, generally nobody showed at the time of Buddha that Buddha will bring this sort of change to this world, but each and every teaching brings such positive results. Sometimes Buddha gave teachings to 1 person, 2 persons, 5 persons. Buddha gave just to 5 persons, but that five persons also bring changes to somebody else. We are also a student of that five persons, to whom Buddha gave the first teachings. That teachings which Buddha gave that five students are still exist now that acts as a basis to understand Buddhism, very much alive.
We have exactly the same potential. Buddha is not like a superman. Buddha was also a person like us, used to work, to do this and that. Buddha was one also exactly the same like us, ego, greedy, attachment, anger, everything, exactly like the neighborhood, but through cultivation, obviously make sense. Even science says that we only use 1% of our brain, even the top scholars and scientists nowadays, they just use 1 or 2% of the brain. Imagine if that percentage increases and reaches at the level of 100, obviously everything that Buddhism says make sense. Everybody thinks that “I want happiness and don’t want suffering’”, but who works toward happiness we don’t care. Everyone thinks that money, power, name and fame are what bring happiness, everybody is in that sort of mirage, illusion. You can go and ask those people who are the most riches, look at their biography, is money and wealth bring happiness? Look at the history of some kings, were they happy? No. Then why we are still in an illusion that money gonna bring happiness, the wealth, this and that same gonna bring happiness? No need to go far, just look at the biography, look at the story of Michael Jackson: he had money, he had fame, but was he happy? But people like still think that illusion that brings the real happiness.
That’s why this text says we are literally enveloped in the darkness of ignorance. There are some people, most smartest persons, they think that they are the most wonderful, successful businessman or businesswoman or whatever it is, they think they are really smart… But, when they go back to the family, they have this problem, issue, fight, doubt on this friend, that friend or this manager, that manager who holds and takes care of the company. So, what’s the point?
Try to find happiness within ourselves, this text, try to give a little bit of time to read and think. This practice really opens the different eyes, just use the brain. Don’t be influent by some influence. Wake up! If you can’t, go through this text, literally shows you a different vision. If you’ll find a better way, it makes sense. This text has been experienced by many great masters who literally spent their whole life practicing this and experiencing the happiness based on this. You just check those sound happy in this world, many of them are monks. I don’t know how they check and how is the measure, I really don’t know the course, but they found that monks were happiest, many of monks are in that list that why I understand, it’s more like mental wealth and I don’t know how to measure, anyway at least the people who are very content with their life.
Be the light which remove the darkness around others! No need to be worry about being dark, because if you are light yourself, you never ever being dark, you are the light. Be that kindness then you will never ever be lacking of kindness. This is a law, if you are compassionate, people will be compassionate to you. If you smile, then you gonna find a lot of people who smile, if you just keep smiling, then you will meet many people who’s smiling, it doesn’t mean that you meet another person, you meet the same person with smiling.
Read this text, not just when you have in the class but when you have some time.
Noted down from the Dharma Talk by Lama Nawang Kunphel on 8th June 2021, organized by The Aura of Wisdom.
Source.
https://e.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZxmuVZL4UoQNtYN6zsolKUm6JLKBmp7HdV