Newsletter No. 18 - September 2005

" ..... Next time we do more practical work, in the sense of doing retreats. Because, if you have not forgotten those teachings in the past I taught and presently, then you have quite enough foundation of basics for your practice. So, depending on the time and situation we will see what we should do in the future.

Now, more important is to be a good practitioner, to be a good human being and whatever we practice, what-ever we've learnt, whatever we've understood should not be for the sake of worldly Dharma, that is, for the sake of worldly benefits. It should not be a thing that causes our pride, it should not be a thing that makes us more important or feel more important. By being a Buddhist, by learning the Bodhisattva vow or practice, one should not say that others who are not Buddhist, who have not learned about Bodhisattvas, are inferior or are worse than us. You see sentient beings mentality in past karma are deep and far so that we cannot see directly. So, therefore, even though people have not taken the Bodhisattva vow, have not been Buddhists, what kind of good karma they had in the past and what kind of mind they have now we cannot judge that. So, there could be one who is not a religious person but, I think some-times he can be a good person, better than the Buddhists. So, we should have equal respect to everybody and we should have equal love to everybody.

Sometimes, we may feel that we have lots of merit, lots of practice by counting the time that we have practiced, for six months or one year or two years etc, but then the time doesn't make any difference! The difference is in the sincerity or genuineness in your practice. Though it looks that, in this way, we are doing something for ourselves, but then, actually, we are cheating or deceiving ourselves by wrong motivation and by wrong attitude and, then, whatever time you spend is wasted. So, Bodhicitta practice itself is quite enough for this degenerated time. It is very difficult for ordinary sentient beings to practice the Bodhicitta—the more learned, the more rich, the more famous they are, they are less inclined towards Dharma practice. So, Dharma practice is sincerely or seriously to be done because we should realize that there is something to do with ourselves through our practice. We must be sure about our goals or our objectives. If we are not sure about our goals and objectives then the practice is not necessarily important.

We should treat everybody equally and even if we've heard that there are some members who are able to practice quite a lot of time and some who are not able to practice, we should not differentiate amongst them.

Practice those who can do practice. Those who can do more practice, that is a very good thing, but this should not be the cause to say that another person is not serious or regular. Then, I think, it can be a lack of knowledge of Dharma. So, therefore, we try to make our practice as sincere as possible. Even if we can make one person happy, we should rejoice in that. But not to make a single person unhappy or cause anger is our attitude. We should have the kind of attitude that can attract people. If we have compassion, Bodhicitta and act accordingly I think naturally we will attract people to attract people to create a good atmosphere and to benefit and to promote one's own Bodhicitta practice. I said the first step is not to be a Buddhist, the first step for us is to be a good human being, a good person. Then, the second step is to go with the practice.

So, I am very, very happy that since the inception of our Centre we have gone, actually, better and better, we have not gone worse and worse, practically speaking. I know that you all have a sincere motivation and our Trustees and members, all of you, are working together for the same goal which is very important and which is our responsibility. I very much hope that through this Centre we can create a good atmosphere around the area and around the Country, but not to make more Buddhists, that is not important.

So, until now everybody has worked hard....... we have found this place now and although there may have been some disagreements about finding it, I would say that our first step is done and we have to do more and this is now a holy place. We do not need a kind of certificate to make it a holy place. We don't need a kind of seal to make this a holy place. A holy place is everywhere if you have a pure vision. There is no negative place anywhere. Negative place comes when your mind is negative. So this place is particularly used for Dharma practice and the environment also shows the Dharma practice.... it used to be a church in the past, that means it was used for many years for the spiritual purpose and it was already a holy place. Now it is us who are using this place and we also use this for good purpose and with the blessings of Buddha, Dharma, Sanghas and with the blessings of our Guru. Through the force of our faith and devotion this place is now a holy place. Even if you cannot practice you can visit this place often, you can bring your friends. There is no one who can't come to this place. You don't necessarily have to be a Buddhist to come to this place. So, usually Tibetans what they do is that, whenever they have important business or important works to do, they go to visit (the Temple) and make the offerings (flowers, incense etc) and make wishes for what particular work or job they might be doing to be achieved. So, you can also do in the same way Come here sometimes when you have time or when you are doing important things or even when you have some problems, sickness etc and say prayers and prayer is not necessarily to read Buddhist text. Prayers you can make with your own words and with your own mind. Tell them whatever difficulties you have and ask them, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, to give the blessings and if your karma and faith all go positively then I am sure there will be blessings."

Lama Jamyang Lekshey