Why do I fail?
People who say they wish to do Dharma work full time must show results. You don’t just do Dharma work when you join Dharma work full time. But evenings and weekends can be spent doing Dharma work if you are sincere immediately now. You don’t have to have the perfect circumstances to do dharma work, but you start from wherever you are immediately and CONSISTENTLY without excuses. Perfect circumstances rarely occur. You have to create the causes. Nothing appears without a cause…
Don’t make excuses to prepare others for your games, mistakes, failures and sheer laziness from habit. You are not living at home with mama anymore, so accept that and become independently sufficient and efficient already. How can you help sentient beings if you refuse to help yourself? Helping yourself is just a change of mindset.
After a while, the excuses you give others for failures might just ‘define’ you to others in a wrong way and that would take alot of effort to change in their minds again. Once bitten, twice shy….so get with it. Start and do the work perfectly now. Nice words, debate and justifications are for people who set out to lose. Your teacher and the Three Jewels never set you up to lose. Your ego makes you lose since beginningless time till now. Treasure your teacher and dharma not your ego. Your enemy is really on the inside. Whether you are sick (mentally or physical) or well, rich or poor, smart or not, sincerity and integrity is the key. Sickness, material circumstances or intelligence has nothing to do with integrity.
People’s perception of you is in your own hands. Your perception of the people around you is in your own hands.
Tsem Rinpoche
Thank you Rinpoche. It is a sobering reminder that the skills that we are so proud of, and those by which we advance ourselves with in the material world are actually of little benefit to the Dharma. Often, just by thinking that we are skilled, intelligent or having anything to offer at all are impediments enough. Every time we “work” for Dharma, it is not Dharma that benefits but ourselves. I have noticed that it is the people who work away quietly and unassumingly are the ones who really create real benefits for themselves and others. It is a shame that some people such as myself find the basic principle of Sincerity so counter-intuitive to our sense of self preservation. The hunger for Dharma can only be filled by eating humble pies. To be defined by our wrong actions is certainly not easy but it is also good because it helps to “ring-fence” our wild and dangerous egos. Some people need that. It is also much better to be “disparaged by scholars” especially if we have behave churlishly. Thank you once again.
Dear Guru,
Thanks for reminding. A lot of the wording is true. I will learn to let go more of my ego. And learn where my mistaken view arise. May i recognize the mistaken view which stop me from doing Dharma.
Thank you Rinpoche for those precious reminders
-CONSISTENTLY
-How can you help sentient beings if you refuse to help yourself? Helping yourself is just a change of mindset.
-Your enemy is really on the inside
-sincerity and integrity is the key
Dear Rinpoche, thank you so much for this enlightening post on how to pursue and actualize my dream. I will rip apart all my obstacles to joining Dharma fulltime to bits as working in my day job feels very fake as if i am an actor everyday playing a role and that i can only be at peace with myself and that it does not feel like a lie/elaborate play if i do Dharma work fulltime.
Doing dharma work seriously with a good motivation is a very powerful, self-empowering experience. One can really acknowledge and appreciate one’s own qualities, strength oneself to feel more confident through the active energy shifts as one performs dharma work with sincerity and good enthusiasm. Dharma work is said to be a blessing, a priviledge and an honour. Dharma work is all about giving, rooting out our selfish mind that brought us all our problems in the first place. By our doing dharma work is meant to transform ourself and others for better – and not for worse. Whatever problems we have, we must face them squarely and apply true dharmic solutions/remedies to solve them to get results, so to be able to learn where our mistakes lie. Thank you once again Rinpoche, for this amazing teaching to be used as reminder to guide us through in our daily dharma work at our Kechara Centre!
Thank you for sharing Rinpoche. It’s a very pleasant reminder for me to keep practicing the Dharma on a daily basis.
thank u. i have a lot to think about
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing your thought on failure. How many times we conveniently blame others for our failures when we are the cause of the failure. Enemy is within and only we can combat our enemy, this statement is so true.
Like Rinpoche mentioned we have to help ourselves to change our mindset, to transform ourselves positively in order not to be a failure again and to be beneficial to all sentient beings. This is not easy to do but always keep this in mind and it will be the motivation to keep us going.
Dearest Rinpoche, thank you the post above. When I 1st joined Kechara full time, it was more of a job than Dharma work. As I continued, I realized how selfish it was to think of it that way. Being able to help and see the joy on people’s face was so worth it. I started to think less of working for stipend into benefitting other people. The best part is that we are PAID to do Dharma! How wonderful!
I will not let my ego, laziness and pride overcome my mind in doing more for Dharma. Thank you Rinpoche for all the departments created for more people to do Dharma work. I will always believe in my Guru and the 3 Jewels.