| In this short excerpt, Tenzin Ösel Hita shares his personal experience of putting the Dharma into practice with students at Losang Dragpa Centre in Malaysia on February 19, 2015.Ösel was born in the small Spanish village of Bubión, Granada, in 1985. He was recognized as the incarnation of Lama Thubten Yeshe by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1986.
Read more about Ösel here. |
It's the law of the universe, it's the law of karma, it's the law of the human mind, right? Buddhism says it, so I don't have to say it. All of you know it, but I think it's important to really put it in practice, and not just to do meditation, read a book or come to puja. This is very good, this is a way to imprint, to put an imprint and keep on the right path, but the most important moment to put this into practice is when—like in English, I'm sorry to say, please don't get offended, in English they say—when shit hits the fan. Very metaphoric.
You know, when that happens, that's where you really have to put it into practice, keep the middle path and think about other people instead of yourself. Even if you're suffering, forget about that. Think about the other person instead of yourself. It's very easy for me to say, but for me it's really, really difficult. I had a really hard time saying it. Now it's very easy, I can say it. But if you saw me when I get frustrated, angry, you'd probably laugh at me right now.
So, I’m just sharing this because it's helpful for me too. I'm also suffering and I have a lot of difficulties and I have many frustrations. And when this happens, I try to think about what I say, but even then it's so hard. Only afterwards when I make all the mistakes and I really make a mess out of everything, then I sit down and I'm like, “Oh, I wish I could have thought about it before. Now it's too late.” But still you can learn. You can always learn from your mistakes and slowly, slowly, make an effort to be a better person.
And try to make the person next to you happier. This is my advice, from my experience and the difficulties I go through, and we're all going through the same [difficulties] so it's not like I’m sitting up and telling you “Oh you know I’m enlightened,” blah blah blah, because I'm not. I'm probably the worst of all of you.
Just when I talk it's very beautiful, very nice. But it's very difficult and we’re all in the same boat. So we're here to work together and slowly, slowly, we will achieve it. Change doesn't just happen like that. We cannot change the world but what we can do is change ourselves, and that’s the first step. So we focus on that. Okay? That's the first step.
I just want to thank all of you again. Thank you so much for being here and for doing what you are doing. Please keep up the good work, okay? Thank you.