Advice
from Kadam Geshe Karag Gomchung
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| This teaching was
paraphrased by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, written down by Ven.
Lhundup Damchö and edited by Nicholas Ribush in
August 2003. Geshe Karag Gomchung is quoted several
times in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. |
Even a small, present suffering causes previously created
negative karma to finish and brings happiness in future lives.
Don’t look at suffering as negative or an obstacle.
Rejoice. Be happy to be suffering.
If somebody praises you, it’s bad; if somebody criticizes
you, it’s good. Praise causes pride and arrogance to
arise; criticism causes you change your bad qualities into
good. Criticism is good—it makes you a better person
and allows you to practice Dharma. In this way you can benefit
others and bring peace and happiness to yourself, both now
and in the future.
If you are wealthy, you have the great suffering of accumulating
and protecting. If you are a beggar, you have freedom from
desire for this life, which results in the inner wealth of
peace and happiness.
Comfort and pleasure are no good; discomfort and suffering
are better. Comfort and pleasure exhaust your merit; discomfort
and suffering exhaust your negative karma.
Any suffering you experience, like illness, is a blessing
from your guru. It purifies your defilements. It is also a
manifestation of emptiness. Suffering is merely imputed by
your mind and therefore devoid of a real self. There is no
real suffering existing from its own side; no real illness
existing from its own side; no real pain existing from its
own side; no real problem existing from its own side. Problems
that appear to be real are like problems in a dream. The experience
of them is totally empty—they do not exist at all in
the way they appear and you believe.
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