A comment on "Short & simple"

I was on the hunt for a short blog post to read up on, mostly because I only had three hours of sleep the previous night before going into a long, important Board of Directors meeting that required my full attention.

And as I was searching, I stumbled upon this post on Rinpoche’s blog. The more I thought about what was written, the more I thought about how applicable it was to me at that very moment in time. I was exhausted from lack of sleep and a little grouchy from an upset tummy but honestly? In terms of physical discomfort, I really wasn’t having a lot to tolerate compared to, for example, Rinpoche who had attended the meeting with a fever and had spoken nonstop for a few hours, delivering to us a teaching on the preciousness of being selected into our position by none other than Dorje Shugden.

This blog post was a perfect, timely reminder that any given moment is always the perfect opportunity to practise

Blog post:

http://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/inspiration-worthy-words/short-simple.html
 

Comment:

Many years ago, Rinpoche told me that it’s very good to go and meditate in a remote cave and for some people, that is the path they should take. But for most of us, such an endeavour is escapism – we want to leave behind all the things we are tolerating.

If we do so, how will we know we have truly achieved the realisations that we say we have? It’s easy to say you have developed patience, for example, when there is no one around to test your patience! If you can remain patient like Atisha in the face of his cook who had nothing but criticisms for him, then you can truly say you have developed patience!

So having tolerance is a good thing for now, because it shows we are making an effort to deal with something in a constructive manner. But tolerance must change into acceptance because, as Rinpoche writes, it implies there is no fault with the perceiver, and only fault in the object.

When we live under such a delusion that we are perfect, and no one else and nothing else is perfect, we are in danger of becoming complacent with our practice and self-improvement. We are in danger of developing that arrogance that there is nothing else about us that needs to be improved or transformed. As beings in samsara, is that really true? Is there NOTHING about us that needs to be improved or transformed?

Only a Buddha perceives perfectly and IS perfect (with nothing needed to be transformed) so when we live under such a belief that we are perfect… are we implying we are Buddhas? :O

Rinpoche is right, this post was short and simple, but very, very profound!

Reflections and Teachings