Be happy Continue reading

Be happy Continue reading

phnbh001 Each time I sit down to write and assemble my thoughts together, I will await the important moment when my precious Guru H.E. Tsem Rinpoche opens up my mind with a ray of blessings. Then my scattered thoughts and ideas which are all over the place will, like pieces... Continue reading

Hiding Creates More Regrets Later August 12, 2010 The following has been compiled from His Eminence Tsem Tulku Rinpoche’s SMS teachings. This was Rinpoche’s advice on how we should face up when we have done something wrong. When caught at old tricks and confronted, we have a few choices: 1. Hide, avoid, pretend we don’t know, become busy with work that is away from the view of our accuser. Or pretend we are not well, say we are depressed or blow an illness out of proportion to distract people’s attention away… Silly! 2. Keep quiet and when we have a chance to confess and come clean, still pretend NOTHING is WRONG because looking good is MUCH MORE IMPORTANT than the love, care, advice, support, gifts and money we have received. No matter how much we disappoint people, our looking good is the ‘yidam’ that rules our selfish short-sighted minds… 3. Come clean and don’t do it anymore. Be APPRECIATIVE of all that we have received by not being sneaky and not avoiding our responsibilities. We stop throwing our work on to others because being selfish makes us losers and we don’t want to be selfish losers anymore. We are a loser because we deny karma hence we deny Buddhahood. When we deny karma, we take refuge in selfishness and ruination.. why do that? So that’s our choice when we selfishly repeat our actions again and again and we are caught again and again. Distractions can’t hide our black deeds. When we are wrong, the BEST THING IS TO COME CLEAN AND STOP HIDING . Why do you think hiding means people don’t know what you have done? When we are caught, we should care about how much we’ve taken and how we have given nothing. Real love cannot be bribed but only earned. Once earned, don’t ever throw it away in exchange for selfishness!! Never! Don’t make wrong choice from the good things in our lives. Chances lost are forever regrets! They are rules for others, but why we don’t we SELF-APPLY? We do things to others that we don’t want others to do to us. Then we should get ready for our karma – to lose what we don’t want to lose! This is the Wheel of Sharp Weapons turning full circle on our ugly actions! Regret and Change! We will get love, respect, support, loyalty and care to the end but ONLY IF WE GIVE IT. Start now! Never lose the love and trust of people who have helped us, gave us so many chances, care, gifts, opportunities, hope and even money sometimes! People who REALLY CARE ABOUT US AND HAVE THE ABILITY TO REALLY BENEFIT US ARE VERY RARE! Rare combination – care for us and CAN BENEFIT US! Think! Never lose their love and trust! Never! Do anything to win it back and never hide and never lose again. Tsem Tulku Continue reading

Why become a teacher by Tsem Tulku Rinpoche? July 29, 2010 It’s ‘glamorous’ to sit on a throne with a title, but the Three Lower Realms make no exceptions. Teachers must practice Dharma also. I am a teacher (sorry), but am fully aware that I’m no exception to any rules of karma. I have to practice the same as my ’students’. Buddha never said, “Hey if you’re a Rinpoche, you are an exception”. Rinpoche or not, everyone is subject to karma. When I was enthroned as a tulku, my teacher (abbot) never said ‘now you can do anything you want’! He said I have to work harder now. Just because I sit on big throne and teach doesn’t mean I’m Buddha or near it. I just have a little more knowledge. We have to practice. I’m Tsem Tulku, but that doesn’t make me enlightened. It makes me more careful with myself because people respect me. Karma applies to me. Tsem Rinpoche makes offerings to his Guru, Kensur Jampa Yeshe Rinpoche Even Lord Buddha has NO power over the laws of karma, so we better practice and go beyond it according to His teachings. I never wanted to be a teacher, because I know I’m not better than most. But since I’ve no choice, I just have to be more aware. Without sentient beings how can any teacher benefit anyone? Hence a teacher needs to develop charity, giving, love and care for students. Teachers should never utter words that create intentional pain, mistrust or disharmony in others’ lives. It defeats their teaching. Teachers must take care of the students’ emotions, finances, needs and physical welfare as much as possible, then give them Dharma. Teachers must be more humble, generous, forgiving than their students otherwise why are they teachers? I’m not the greatest teacher by far. But when I teach, I try to do it from my heart and truly benefit the listener. I do care. Caring is really hard, but not caring is MUCH HARDER. Believing in karma makes you take responsibility for your actions and consequences. You don’t blame anyone, not even a ‘higher force’. Teachers are kind to students no doubt. But students help teachers a lot also. Teachers must appreciate and take care of them. Teachers and students are interdependent on each other for many things including bringing Dharma to others. Both need to be humble. Tsem Rinpoche with the reincarnation of his root Guru, Kyabje Zong Rinpoche It’s silly to look holy in front of your teacher and behind his back, to the other students, you’re arrogant or selfish. Karma is everywhere. Looking and acting virtuous only to impress is the biggest non-virtuous act. This is because every act becomes fake. If a teacher wishes to live on donations of others, the teacher has a tremendous responsibility to practice Dharma fully. The whole reason a teacher becomes a teacher is to TRULY BENEFIT OTHERS TANGIBLY not just in our fantasies. Don’t be a teacher for respect, praise and donations, it doesn’t work that way. PEOPLE ARE REALLY SUFFERING and they trust you. Teachers who are in it for the easy life, trust me, IT IS NO EASY LIFE TO BE A TEACHER. YOU’RE ON CALL 24 HOURS TO SUFFERINGS. Be open and have fun with students. Don’t be so serious. Dharma is in all phenomena, including fun. Doing Dharma doesn’t mean you need to be holy and serious all the time. Lighten up and just be you and practice with a smile. Be a teacher who is a REAL TEACHER because you’re kind. Be a student who is a REAL STUDENT because you apply the teachings and transform. Always be real. Less hassles. Less problems. Less mind games. Less fears. Just be real always. It doesn’t matter how you look. Continue reading

Work and Play Become One........ Whether we are working in a place for the next 1 year, 10 years, 100 years isn't the issue. The issue is while we are working there, we treat everyone, and our work as if we are going to be there for a hundred years. Why? Because wherever we work, we are working with other PEOPLE. People have feelings, impressions, can be happy and can be hurt. Hence when we are working there, we should never think, these people don't matter, I am just here for a short time so it doesn't matter what they think. But we should think, while I am here I AM GOING TO MAKE EVERYONE HAPPY. I am going to be kind to everyone. I am going to make everyone like me and I am going to like them. Then wherever we go, we create respect, love, care and good feelings from others towards ourselves. That is so important as it will affect other areas of our life. We may plan this or that for the next 30 years but we can die tonight. Everyone in between is insignificant or just a stepping-stone to get where I want would be a bad attitude to have. Because whether we live 30 years more or 30 hours more, it is WHAT we create in our environment which is of the ultimate importance. Do we create distrust, laziness, irresponsibility and dishonor? Or the environment we create is trust, responsibility, kindness and integrity? Whether we live long or not is out of our hands, but what we do during that time is in our hands. Life is much more than getting ahead at the expense of others. Getting ahead in life is fine, creating a happy, trusting, caring environment along the way IS MOST IMPORTANT. If we use people and a place as a stepping stone..we lose everyone's respect and we lose respect for ourselves. We may get the money and material items, but when we lose respect for ourselves, then we become bitter and unhappy. Even angersome eventually. That would not be a good result for all the hard work. Hard work must result in happiness of the mind not just material gains. HAPPINESS FOR OTHERS AND OURSELVES IS THE ULTIMATE RESULT OF WORK AND CAREER WE SHOULD SEEK. A happiness that brings zero harm to others. 1. Doing work in such a way that others don't need to correct us, or push us to meet the deadline is such a wonderful way to give back to others in the office. Free love to them. 2. Helping another member of our team to finish their work, or cover for them in emergencies without agenda is a nice spiritual way to live. 3. Never backbite about other people in our team. We have issues, talk it out in a pleasant manner with the attitude to solve the problem but not to win. Winning is not everything. Sometimes you can win, but lose everything in the process. Talk to iron things out is the best motivation. Never create schism or insinuate. Make peace and harmony. 4. Be honest. Come when you are supposed to and leave when things are done... Never leave your work for others to cover for you. You send a message to people that you haven't any integrity. Integrity is the basis of trust. When you create trust in people's mind, you create a harmonious attitude and environment. Everyone enjoys harmony. 5. Buy lunch, a birthday card, a snack, a drink and stuffed toy for others in your team from time to time. Soup when their sick. Be caring with eachother. Don't think of the office as just a place to get as much freebies and money as you can. But a place to share, give and return kindness too. When? Whenever necessary. 6. We all have personal problems that we bring to work sometimes and we can't help it because it disturbs us. So if we have reacted negatively to someone because of it, apologize from the heart when you have calmed down. Bringing our problems to work is an inevitable, but apologizing from the heart is wonderful. Apologies do not make you lose face in the long run. In fact, it helps you to gain face. 7. Sure your quitting time may be for example 6pm, but if there's work, finish it and support your team. If you run out, after a while people feel you are not with them and then eventually they will not be with you. Teamwork is not about the work, it is about how you make others feel when you finish the work and not leave it to them. It's called caring and compassion. Work and play are not different when your work makes a huge difference in other people's lives. The concept of work and play being different is applicable sometimes but not in all circumstances. There are times when we go to 'play' after work AND it becomes work. For examples being stuck in traffic, your friends cancel appointments, overcrowded loud shopping malls, relationships that drag us down, being with people who are totally into themselves, getting to a party that is totally not happening or meeting people who are not for real. These are some scenarios that play time becomes worse than 'work' time. The purpose of work is to support ourselves so we can do activities that make us happy. But if our work is such a nature that it brings others happiness, then we are priviledged to work in such a job and it is not really a job. Hence we should not treat it as work or job in the traditional sense of the word. Because helping others bring happiness to ourselves so that is not work. Hence timing is not the issue anymore. It's about giving it your all, and getting alot back as a result. How can you make a cut off time when you are happy and others are happy because of you? Think deeply about that. We are being paid to bring others happiness. How can that be work? Bringing happiness to others will bring happiness to ourselves. Of course having said that, we would like to meet with friends, go karaoke, walk in the park, pujas, retreats, a drive, shopping after 'work' sometimes and THAT IS FINE. The point here is that if you have the good affinity to work in a organization/job that benefits others, don't treat it as work. Don't treat it as a job. It is much much much more than a career. It is better than any career you can ever have. Careers give us money and a sense of purpose hoping that will bring happiness. But money and false self purpose doesn't ever bring happiness. Check it out. A job that brings purpose and satisfaction is something that enriches the lives of others SHORT TERM AND LONG TERM. Having a job like that is not a job. We should never view it as so. We should think our job is actually happy time or enjoyable time. 8. Are we lucky enough to work with people that give to us, share, generous, supportive, loving, kind, and always there to talk to us? Then why is being with these people considered being at work? It looks like enjoyment to me. Sometimes people at 'work' turn out to be better than people we have at home, our partners, even long time friends. Why do we label people at work, just work mates? They can turn out to be super-duper, loyal, loving friends. Even better than people we have labelled our partner or friends. Many instances of that. We have to change our perspective. Sometimes we bring all our problems from our friends, relationships and home to work. We make our work mates listen to us, console us, be there for us, but we give nothing back. When it's 6pm, it's quitting time and we are gone!! People outside of work bring us problems, and people at work solve it for us. It sounds like the people at work ARE OUR REAL FRIENDS sometimes. Check it out. Sometimes we feel happier with the people at work than outside of work. True? It can be true. We have to ask ourselves, why don't we do more for our work mates? Why do we do more for people outside of work? Because one is labelled for fun and the other is for work? That is wrong perception if we examine it closely. What do we do for others at work? How much do we share or give or do we just take. People at work give us the livelihood to spend it on ourselves and friends. And if your workmates are wonderful group of people on top of livelihood, they also give you friendship, love, understanding, an ear at times, advice, support and care. Don't we have a ethical and humanistic attitude to return that? Of course we do. 9. Just because we didn't go to school with them when younger, or have intimate relations with people at work does not mean they are not worth our time, energy, evenings and weekends. Remember, when we see it as 'sacrifice' of our evenings or weekends with these people at the office is when we label it work. But how come when we go with friends/partners, it is not a sacrifice of our free time? Because our view is wrong. Whether the people that support us and care for us are at work or outside work is NOT THE CRITERIA. The criteria is that these people HELP ME..and it just so happens they are from work. So when I hang out with these people in the office or outside beyond my 'working hours', it is not work, but it is with friends and enjoyable... THAT IS IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER. If we want to get ahead, we have make our priorities more important. If we have a passion for painting, but we don't set time aside for it, then how to be recognized for it or accomplish it. If we are into relationships that get us nowhere, movies, food, gossip, dancing, or very protective of our attachments and not willing to let go of anything to accomplish a bigger goal, then a bigger goal cannot be achieved. Being in some sort of job or work and not going all the way will lead to disappointment. We have to go all the way in whatever job we are in. We have to think that whatever we do, must be the best we have done. 10. It 's important to not always expect support in the office. The office may have some project or whatever going on, we must make sure we attend. It gives the whole office a feeling of solidarity, support and loyalty. Whether at home or at the job, we should go all the way. Don't treat others according to our own labels. We should treat them for who they are without being judgemental but with discernment. Judging and discerning seems similar but differentiated by motivation. If work and free time is made into such a distinction like the ex-berlin wall, then you will not treat the people at work as they deserve especially if they are good people. This is not always the case, but it can be. You treat the people at work as work and subtly you send a message that they are not worth you maybe. Just a thought... In general look carefully and see who is with you... Work and workmates should not always be viewed as having a cutting off time. When the whistle blows..bye bye! Remember, see where your friends really are. Who is there for you and give you words of wisdom. Remember their kindness whether it is at work or home. Tsem Tulku Continue reading