We need to be very careful; otherwise, the Dharma will be destroyed like it was in India. There, the Sangha went astray, and became useless, due to the absence of proper rules, lack of genuine knowledge, and poor conduct, to the extent that Buddhism died in India.
There have been many sad stories about Sangha members’ broken samaya with one another, causing disharmony and fighting in the sangha over money or properties. A monk involved in business who was living near us slipped a sedative to his business partner that put him to asleep.
What makes a monastery a monastery? The physical representations of a monastery are only symbols.
The number of practitioners in the sangha has increased since Lamasang passed away. Also, we have built more retreat centers to practice Dzogpa Chenpo, the Great Perfection.
It’s very nice, very important thing that people here tonight are trying to continually practice Dharma. Not only saying about practicing Dharma but [you] are really practicing Dharma. It is not easy to practice Dharma in your daily life. It is even more difficult to get up early and not one or two days but every day.
So, we can do good things, we can benefit each other through this technology, which is very good. But the main thing is you should watch your mind, watch your motivation, watch your conduct, which is very important.
And then at the same time we should be simple. People shouldn’t argue for many things. People should be more peaceful, and more quiet when come to Dharma, come to place like this.
And since this is a very important prayer of Guru Rinpoche, a lot of Guru Rinpoche followers repeat it many, many times. It’s a very important practice.
So therefore, to recognize the reality of phenomena, reality of things, we need to take some training first, to exercise first. It’s not too visible – actually you cannot see that through your physical eye. It is not something that really understood by your mind sometimes.
Emptiness is the nature of the mind. Emptiness is in everything. That’s the main nature of the things. That emptiness is very pure, because there’s no stain in that emptiness. It is not obscured. There is no obscuration for that emptiness because it doesn’t contain any stain, any obscuration…
