A short Dharma teaching given by H.H. the 9th Zigar Choktrul Rinpoche at Kaohsiung, Taiwan in August 2008
First of all, I would like to say Tashi Delek to all of you. Also I'm very happy to see you all here. Today I would like to talk about Law of Karma and Bodhicitta mind.
Generally speaking, we have achieved this precious human body. Such precious human body is very difficult to obtain and easily lost. Attaining this precious human body is a result of many lives of accumulation of our good merits and positive deeds.
As we are Buddhist, we are the followers of Buddha Shakyamuni and we have an opportunity to practice the Buddha-Dharma. Buddha Shakyamuni has given number of teachings and described various ways of practice in his life for the benefit of all sentient beings. Since all sentient beings have different mentalities and different defilements, so we need different types of teachings. Just as we need many different types of medicines to cure different diseases. Only one kind of medicine is not enough to cure all kinds of diseases. Therefore, we need so many kinds of medicines to cure many kinds of diseases. Similarly, we need many types of teachings and many different levels of teachings.
The main teachings of the Lord Buddha is the law of Karma. Karma means actions that we do with our body, speech and mind. All sentient beings have the same basic wish to be happiness and wish to avoid suffering but most of people lack of wisdom and lack of compassion. Therefore, very few people understand the real cause of happiness and cause of suffering. So most of people creating more and more causes of suffering. Things do not appear without cause, so the source of all the sufferings is the negative actions. In order to avoid suffering one must avoid negative actions. Negative action means any actions which arises from defilements such as attachment, anger and ignorance, these are the three main roots of defilements. When one creates these negative actions the result is always sufferings and problems.
The positive action means doing things with compassion and loving-kindness. So we have to training our mind into practice compassion and loving-kindness. We have to try to develop true compassion to all sentient beings. Compassion of course means wishing all sentient beings to be happiness and all sentient beings to be free from all kinds of their sufferings. Without working on the cause or Karma for something, then we cannot expect to any result. All results come from causes. For example, to grow apple, one needs apple seeds. One cannot grow orange from apple seeds. If orange seeds are planted, orange will grow, not apples. Everything must have it's own cause, things cannot appear without any cause. It's through our own positive actions in the past that today we enjoy all the good things. Therefore, cause of suffering is negative actions and cause of happiness is positive actions. We need try to abandon the real cause of suffering and create the cause of happiness. The real source of happiness is not from outer conditions, must within the mind. If our mind peaceful, we shall be happy. If our mind unpeaceful, we can never be happiness.
Most important to practice patience. If you don't practice patience, then attachment, anger and ignorance destroys your own peace and happiness. And brings so much suffering to your life. It harms yourself, also harms your friends, your family and all sentient beings. Practice patience is source of peace and happiness for life and also you are able to bring so much peace and happiness to all sentient beings. This comes from your positive thought. In order to achieve peaceful mind it is necessary to develop compassion and loving-kindness. I think it is absolutely essential for us to have compassion and loving-kindness towards all sentient beings. True compassion and loving-kindness is the essence of Bodhicitta mind, the attitude of the Bodhisattva. Bodhicitta mind or compassion for all sentient beings wish to liberate from the suffering of Samsara to get to Nirvana. Nirvana is happiness and peace. And also one should think, all sentient beings have been our mothers in past lives. Therefore, I would like to help them to liberate from the ocean of suffering. This is the true compassion and true loving-kindness.
At present our compassion and loving-kindness is not enough, it is very biased and limited. If we love someone or we have compassion for someone because that person is either our family or our friend. Such compassion and loving-kindness is basically selfishness and is not true compassion. True compassion and true loving-kindness is towards all the sentient beings without exception. Not only for our family and our friend. Just as a loving mother feels compassion and loving-kindness for all her children whether they are good or bad. Our true loving-kindness and compassion towards one's friends and also one's enemies. We have to training our mind to develop our compassion and loving-kindness in this way. So therefore everyone must have to practice patience. I request all of you to keep this short teaching and practical adviCe in your mind during your daily life and daily practice. It's really very important. I wish you all have good luck. Thank you.
