Dharma Work or Just Work
A few years back I approached one student to open a restaurant for KECHARA. But the student declined citing various reasons. There are people who find reasons to win and some do not. So I approached Irene and asked her to open and without hesitation she said yes. Irene has never operated a restaurant in her life. She has never worked in one also. But she said to me, if I think she can do it, she believes she can learn and she will do it. She found the premises, she did the ID, dealt with contractor, found the staff and opened our first restaurant for KECHARA. It was my way to promote vegetarianism and self sustainability. Now Irene will be opening another branch of Kechara Oasis in Viva mall soon. As you can see here, she has opened KECHARA VEGETARIAN EXPRESS offering inexpensive, quick and delicious lunch and dinners. Kechara Oasis is one of the depts of KECHARA and we are very proud of it.
To make a department successful, we have to have the attitude this is dharma work. The better I do it, the better I become. The better I do it, the better it will benefit someone else. To benefit others and oneself is the driving force…. We should not see work as work but as an act of our spirituality. However we view the work, the work is the same. But if we view the work with love and expression of our spirituality, then we will do a much better job. When we do our work well due to our attitude, then bigger and beneficial results will arise. Why not? If we do our job half heartedly or because we have to, the work will have the same results, then bigger and better things will find it hard to arise from you.
Dharma work is an expression of our spirituality. Work is work, but dharma work is dharma work DUE TO ATTITUDE. And the appropriate karma arises due to attitude mainly not so much what we do anymore. We should do our work without doubts and questioning again and again. Why? Because once we have decided, IT IS OUR DETERMINATION that will make something work although it looked bleak in the beginning or would not have worked with mediocre efforts. Our attitude and determination is strong because we have strong determination in our spirituality and hence wishing to benefit others.
The fundamental wish to benefit others can be fulfilled through hard work. Hard work in turn can fuel our fundamental wish to benefit others. Now to see if we are genuine about our fundamentals or just nice words written in the scriptures of Lam Rim or what not, then take up the challenge and win. Do Dharma work. Reach deep within and find your spirituality through working for others. Dharma work can become just mundane secular work when our attitude is not honed to supreme thoughts. Mundane work likewise can become dharma work even if we are not physically working let say for Kechara if our attitude is honed correctly. Work is work. Work is supreme when our attitude is for the benefit of others and we are determined to leave our comfort zones because the needs of the many surpass the needs of oneself.
Tsem Rinpoche
PS Remember, attitude plays a BIG PART in whether your work is fulfilling or not. Work does not need to be fun to be fulfilling. It just needs to benefit others. If benefitting others become boring, then you will find everything in life boring eventually. Make a mental shift….
(I extracted the above from my other post because I thought it could special beneficial significance for some in a positive way)
dear rinpoche,
yes, doing dharma work is fantastic. however, what’s your opinion on this – if for example, someone in all his/her determination to do dharma work and benefit kechara, oppresses, mistreats or was unkind to other people to attain the “dharma results”. what do you think of this “robin hood” approach?
if you have previously written about such a topic, do point me to the article so that i can read about your thoughts.
thank you for your time.
Dear Sherry,
Everyone has different approaches and methods to do dharma work. If someone is detrimental in their approach then you must think, HOW CAN I HELP THAT PERSON. If you are in dharma work, you have to have a dharma attitude towards those who do not or in between. You must think what can I do, or what example can I show to slowly influence this person and other persons to transform their method as they are in the right place…
Analogy. If we are in a small hospital and there are a few good doctors, one doctor is tempermental and difficult but still save many lives, would it be better to slowly transform this doctor’s mind or kick him out?
Another anology. Dharma, dharma institutions, dharma ppl cater to all types of personalities just like a hospital. When we go to the hospital, why is everyone not healed. Why is there still sick ppl? Why did some die? Because it is a hospital. Similarily, when ppl come to dharma, they are ‘sick’, so in a dharma organization you have many levels of healing and some take more time to heal. But the important thing is to stop asking WHY ARE THERE DIFFICULT PEOPLE IN THE DHARMA? You have to ask, HOW CAN I HELP THEM..IF I CANNOT HELP THEM, WHY AM I LACKING TO BE ABLE TO HELP THEM?? They are in need of help and hence that is why they are in the dharma. In dharma do not look for walking, breathing, talking, living Buddhas!! Instead you will find egotistical, difficult, disturbed, unhappy, termpermental characters and THAT IS WHY THEY ARE IN THE DHARMA. At least these ppl looked for help.
Now it’ time for us to be patient and kind and SEE HOW WE CAN TURN IT AROUND AND TAKE THE RESPONSIBILITY UPON OURSELVES TO TRANSFORM THESE PEOPLE WITH OUR LOVE, PATIENCE AND GENEROSITY. We need to stop asking why these ppl are like this although they are in the dharma, but how we can help? What examples can I set? How I have a chance to practice REAL DHARMA WITH THESE PPL WHO IN MY EYES ARE NOT PRACTICING DHARMA JUST TO ACCOMPLISH THE ENDS…what a golden opportunity for me to perfect my attitude and methods to help them and others.
Seeing their ‘wrong’ methods as a golden teaching to not do it in the same manner…seeing their wrong methods as a teaching and opportunity for you to further do dharma work by transforming yourself further. After all, the real intent of dharma work is to transform yourself so your work is dharma. I do understand there are very difficult ppl out there who find it hard to change because of overwhelming negative karma ripening and also decades of habituation, but that should serve as an inspiration for us to do more dharma while we can. Make our minds even stronger and even more determined seeing the results of negative karma fruitioning and it would be difficult to change and we would be stuck….. So we must transform now. Seeing difficult ppl should motivate us to do dharma work and dharma transformation even stronger. Like when we see someone crossing the road and a car is coming, it should motivate us to move faster, shout louder to get them out of car’s way they didn’t see coming..
For those ppl who are doing dharma work with the undharmic methods, we forgive them as they would be even worse off if they didn’t do any dharma. Ultimately take it as a great teaching making sympathy arise within you and forgiving them. When it is necessary to be firm to them and say please don’t treat me this way, then we have to tell them.
Tsem Rinpoche
I like your question and I will answer. I will blog and facebook your question/my answer as it can perhaps help many others…TR
Thank you Rinpoche for the refresher. It’ll sink in deeper now.
Come to think of it. Buddha’s didn’t come into this world to help other Buddha’s. They came to help beings in all 6 realms.. from the best of the best to the worst of the worst. To learn, it’s almost compulsory to deal with difficult people/situations. As we advance in our perceptions, we even need more and more difficult people to practice. I will strive to remember Rinpoche’s teaching the next time I come across a difficult situation. We also need to realize, that sometimes we are the cause of the problem.
I love what you wrote. I used to do dishes in a big monastery. I thought it would be so great but the attitudess of other people seemed to kill my joy. We should always think of doing anything foor dharma to be gift not just to others but ourselves.