Please Keep This Good Habit of Practicing [i]

(2019 talk to An Lac Center’s [ii] members)

1. Evening 15.10.19, New World, HCM

The An Lac Dharma friends make report to Rinpoche about their daily practice sessions via Zoom/Gotomeeting, every day from 4.30 am, which include meditation, daily prayers, ngondro.

Rinpoche: 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. That is something very important and something effective. Because Dharma practice is something that need a lot of patience, take a lot of patience and diligence.

Dharma practice. What are we doing when we say Dharma practice. This is a big work. We are trying to eliminate our negative karmas, eliminate ignorance. To eliminate ignorance is not easy. It is not easy so some people are asking if it is possible. If not possible then why one should try. Still, it is possible to eliminate ignorance. How long does it take? That is a big question. That depends on individual’s conditions and faculty.

Therefore, I highly recommend you to continue as much as you can.

I am not sure if you can continue for your entire life. One day maybe you are too tired. But until that happens we should try. That is something very nice to do.

Question: I think individually one or two persons may stop practicing. But if there are You, there are the Three Jewels, there are still someone practicing, the group still exists.

Rinpoche: Yes. I don’t mean everyone stop. But some people may leave. People somehow get lazy, but try practicing Dharma for some time or any time is good. There are some more powerful than others, some are not that powerful. The more you do the better, more effective. And you should know how to practice well. We need to have good instructions and we need to have a good teacher and then we need to have good mind, good interest. If we don’t have interest then even we have good karmas, good conditions we don’t do that. When you have good mind, wanting to practice, to develop bodhicitta then you will do that, try to succeed.

So, I recommend you highly to try to continue practicing as much as you can.

It is important to keep balance. Because when some people try too hard at beginning then they get lazy easily, they get bored. From what they are doing and they get tired. That is not very smart. And then we need to use our time, try to practice whenever one is able to do. Because you have many other responsibilities if you focus on practice too much then it affects your other activities. And later you may regret and your family may criticize you may want to change. Therefore, don’t push you too much but also diligent together.

As long as one is doing correctly one will definitely improve. I have seen some changes with people. Some people may have good changes. Some people are not as aggressive as before, not ignorant as before, not as superstitious as before. Not short-tempered as before. So this is good changes that happen now with many people. Dharma actually still alive. It is still effective if you use it properly and diligently.

To make Dharma practice more alive we need to have good non-broken lineage. We need to have some instructions. We need to have pure connections. We need to have devotion, pure faith and we need to have diligence. If we have these conditions then no question we will have good result. Result will follow because there are karmas, cause and effects. If there are causes and conditions then result will appear. Definitely appear. There are no option not to appear.

A non-broken lineage is very important source for the result of Dharma practice. You can read histories of different Dharma practitioners – there are always talks about Masters. How they passed Dharma to one another, how they keep Dharma very pure, and how they practice Dharma diligently, how they achieve accomplishment. It is very important to understand these things. If no lineage no sources of Dharma so it is very important to have a lineage. Specifically, for Tibetan Buddhism, the lineages are very clear. In other Buddhist traditions sometimes lineages are not clear, which reduces the source [of Dharma], the power of Dharma. Therefore, very important to have a lineage.

In every Tibetan Buddhist tradition there is a non-broken lineage between Buddha and one’s Guru. It is very important to have a good lineage, lineage masters because only then there is blessing from source, from figures like Vajradhara, Guru Rinpoche.

There are some people who make stories this is a complete lie. When you lie about the lineage then you lie about everything. (Rinpoche and everyone’s laughing). You are a big liar.

Anyway, I praise to you because you get up early for Dharma practice every day. Get up early [for practice] is something nice to do, nice to hear, nice to know. Because not many people are able to do that. Not many people really put efforts into their practice. Even though they may say [they] are but the practicing [is] probably verbal. They are just saying, they just sound; but if you really do that it is something really good. Karmas and causes and conditions never lie. If you put efforts into practice you will receive that good karmas. Definitely. There is no doubt. I say causes and conditions never lie.

End of excerpt from the talk on 15.10.19, HCM.

2. Evening 27.10.19, Time City, Hanoi

The difficult part is to continuity of everything. [To maintain] continuity is very difficult. But naturally as human beings it is much easier to continue things of material, regular things – things of this life. It is much harder to continue Dharma activities.

One important thing is when we talk about Dharma, when we do something for Dharma the result depends very much on continuity. If you change many practices, change deities, yidams, dakinis you will get nothing. And also it becomes contradictory in between different deities. And it’s also no enough confidence, not enough devotion. Therefore, if you change many practices, that reduces strength of your practice.

Since your karmas, your aspiration have brought the practice to you should appreciate, should value it. Otherwise, things are not perfect if you don’t see the value of practice, the quality of the practice. Therefore, stability, strength of mind, confidence is the main foundation for your practice, and for you to be successful on your path.

Many great masters accomplished great results through these practices. That proves how good they are. If you thing the practice is not good enough that is only your mind’s problem, problem with your understanding. There is nothing wrong with the practice. Therefore, you should understand the value of the practice, the use of the practice. The only thing we need is to trust, to have strong, genuine, beautiful faith. It takes some time to see some improvement in our mind, improvement in our understanding of the path. Because we have great great negative karmas, not easy to get rid of that in a moment. We need to have a lot of patience to really eliminate these negative karmas.

Please continue. Otherwise you will be a big looser. Continuity is victory.

End of excerpt from the talk on 27.10.2019, Hanoi.

Scripts from Mp3 of Hungkar Dorje Rinpoche’s talk in 2019, Vietnam.

Link MP 3: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/147o2VWfkxDUnnUeoZuvgjx3_ypEvHKam?usp=sharing

Taken by Lotsawa 2019.

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[i] The title is created by the translator for the reader’s convenience. This text includes excerpts of two talks Hungkar Dorje Rinpoche gave to An Lac Center’s members at two meetings with them in 2019, during His Dharma trip to Vietnam.
[ii]Establishing the An lac center was started by Rinpoche in 2013. In 2014, during His teachings at An Lac, when the building of An Lac center was being discussed, Rinpoche gave a brief talk on the topic building Dharma centers for people to come for study and practice. Since then, during meetings with An Lac center’s members, Rinpoche have given several teachings on the topic of building Dharma centers’ communities.