 Dear Friends Near and Far:I hope you have all been happy and healthy. I am in Guadalajara, Mexico preparing for todays Guru Rinpoche Day’s feast offering. I am going to keep each and everyone of you in my mind during the feast offering.
So for today’s Guru Rinpoche Day, I would like to share with you a key that helps unlock the root of all hope and fear. To really understand the dharma, to practice the dharma, and to apply the dharma, you really need to understand this key. On a day to day basis, where does all our hope and fear arise from? It arises from identity, feeling, belief, and ego clinging. The root is ego, this self centered ego.
What is hope? Hope is a positive attachment. When you don’t receive that or don’t have that you feel pain. What is Fear? Fear is something that you don’t like to have or don’t want to be. So most of our thoughts and feelings are contained in hope and fear.
Now I am going to give you a short quotation:
“Without cutting or reducing ego clinging, no matter how much you want to practice the dharma or live a positive life it is not going to work.”
As usual, my advice is don’t believe me but see it for your own self. So usually I say “seeing” is the first step, “recognizing” is the second step, “admitting” is the third step, “changing” is the fourth step and “measuring change” is the fifth step.
From another quotation:
“Without cutting the root of ego, meditation is just a creation of mind. Understanding is just labeling. Thinking that you understood is just subtle pride. When you really cut the root of ego, you don’t differentiate between yourself and others, and then you will understand selflessness. It is then when the realization of emptiness and compassion is going to be inseparable.”
So it is very important to reduce the ego. My message today may sound complicating to some, helpful to a handful and completely gibberish to many! But from my part, it is, has been, and will always be a joyful pleasure to connect with each and everyone of you and be a constant reminder of impermanence with each passing GRD one year after another.
Enclosed is a picture of my grandfather, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche pointing his finger inward. Thinking of you all and keeping you all in the depth of my heart and aspiration.
Sarva Mangalam,
Phakchok Rinpoche |
