Remember Commitment

Overcome Difficulties & Move Forward

Now our masters on the mountain are all studying, contemplating, cultivating, or practicing in retreat, which is very good. I am very happy about it and everyone should continue to persevere. During the listening and contemplating period, people often feel that there is not enough time, or their physical bodies are fatigued, or beyond their knowledge when lacking of ability of understanding and contemplation. Even so, the pace of listening and contemplating cannot be interrupted, and all small and large dharma Treatises of study must be completed completely. If you don't persist, you won't be able to persist in listening, contemplating, and cultivating the Dharma later, and the origin will be very bad.

The four assemblies all have their own precepts, their own listening, contemplating, and practicing methods. Everyone must follow these seriously. Sakyamuni Buddha also said that he is his own master. So Taking care of yourself in this way is very helpful to the entire Sangha, and it also makes great progress for individuals.

How do you take care of yourself? The first thing is to pay attention to your actions, speech, and mind, and don’t talk too much. We can live anywhere, but why do we come to faraway Tibet? The purpose is to achieve liberation and become a Buddha. This is our goal! In this case, we must work hard in listening to the dharma, contemplating and cultivating. But constantly talking nonsense, busy repairing the house every day, and constantly mailing things is not what a good practitioner does. Our current living conditions are much better than in the past, from now on the simpler the better.

There are too many things in my palace. Please help to spread my word. From now on, Masters and lay people who come to the mountain please do not bring anything, just raise your mind on renunciation and Bodhicitta. We don’t engage in worldly trivia, if the living conditions is too good which will affect our concentration to listen to dharma, contemplating, and cultivation. What is the purpose of becoming a monk? We like to have a pure and simple cultivation environment. If you continue to increase desire and distraction in the mind after becoming a monk, then becoming a monk means nothing to you.

Monks should note that the simpler the better. In the past, the students of “Larung Five Science Buddhist Academy” lived in an earthen house. After the earthen walls cracked, they were covered with a layer of linoleum, which could not block the wind. They ate very little food and no shoes or socks. During the day, when we went to attend classes given by Kyabje Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok, or when we were tutoring and studying, we all walked barefoot without wearing shoes. However, the effect of listening and thinking was very good, and there were no worries. We were very united and felt very comfortable to be with each other. The listening to dharma and contemplating seems difficult, but we felt very happy inside.

Our daily utensils and afflictions need to be reduced together, towards simpler and simpler, therefore we can become true practitioners, of course, we won’t let you go hungry or cold.

During the process of building or repairing a house, if you raise your mind: "His house is warmer, my house is poor. I must have a better one..." then even if you build a three-storage house, the desire will not be satisfied. So let’s compare whose house is simpler, mine should be even simpler, that's right thinking.

Our body is like a hotel, there is no guarantee that we will be able to stay there tomorrow. "The guests (conscious mind) will eventually leave the hotel (body), giving up it is what a Bodhisattva does." Since we have obtained the human body with perfections, we must work hard in listening, contemplating, and practicing the Dharma. It's not a good idea to send things by mail all the time. Starting from now on, the life needs to be simpler and simpler. We must practice true Dharma and not engage in worldly trivia. If you do well, it doesn't matter what others say. If you don't do well, it's useless no matter how many people praise you.

Whether you are a master on the mountain or a layman from other parts of China, I would like to emphasize again that if you want to come up to listen, contemplate, and practice the Dharma, just bring a Hada. This is the origin. No need to bring anything else.