Difficulties at Work
Practices for Life and for Obstacles at Work
A student asked for life practices and also for any practices that could help with obstacles at work.
My most dear, most precious, most kind, wish-fulfilling one,
Regarding your questions, it comes out best for you to recite Verses for the Eight Auspicious Noble Ones every morning. This is for your work for others to be most successful, as well as for His Holiness the Dalai Lama, for all sentient beings who are doing good for others, for the organization, FPMT, and for yourself.
The best way to be able to help sentient beings is to generate bodhicitta and not just that, but to develop the mind up to enlightenment. Then you can benefit all the sentient beings, even those who have higher realization than yourself now, even arhats. Then you can benefit others, all sentient beings. Otherwise you are limited, without the realization of the higher path , and you can’t help others. There is limitation.
Also meditate on lamrim. Please find attached advice [see below] about how to meditate on the lamrim and also one preliminary practice that is good for you to do.
With much love and prayers...
Lamrim
Lamrim Chenmo is the main lamrim to study and meditate. Study it five times from beginning to end.
Effortful meditation
- Guru devotion: one month
- Path of the lower capable being: three months
- Path of the middle capable being: five months
- Bodhicitta: four months
- Emptiness: five months
Preliminary practices
- Mandala offering: 16,000
Obstacles at Work
A student had severe work obstacles. Rinpoche sent his greetings with prayers, and advised the following practices.
- Read Sampa Lhundrupma (The Prayer to Guru Rinpoche that Spontaneously Fulfills All Wishes) four times every day for the next six weeks.
- For yourself, you need to read the Verses for the Eight Noble Auspicious Ones every day. This can bring great success for all that you do, so it is something to continue even after this issue is resolved if you wish. It is very powerful for success.
Problem With Others
A student wrote to Rinpoche about some difficult situations he had been encountering in his office and how people hadn’t reacted well when he had voiced his concerns.
My dear one,
Just because you might have some problem with others, it doesn’t mean you always need to express it. Sometimes, it is more skillful not to express it, otherwise, you might get in a fight with others and this is not so helpful. When you are practicing bodhicitta, sometimes you do have problems, but you don’t express them. You try to practice. You try to do what is most beneficial for the happiness of others, not for yourself.
Western psychology is all about one’s own happiness, doing what makes oneself happy; that is the main thing. So, if there is something you need to express, you do it. But Buddhism is completely the opposite. It is not about one’s own happiness, it is about the happiness of others. By practicing this way, thinking about the happiness of others, working for the happiness of others, you achieve two things: the happiness of enlightenment and temporal happiness—happiness in the future and happiness now. When you are working for your own happiness, you do not get either. You do not get happiness in the future, and you are not happy now. When you work for the happiness of others, are concerned about the happiness of others, you get both.
Life Difficulties
Rinpoche heard that one of his Spanish students was experiencing some difficulties in life. This is the letter he wrote her.
My very dear Maria Elena,
I heard you are sick and lost your job. It is the nature of the world—of samsara—for things like this to happen, because of our different past karmas, as you know well. When you practice Dharma, serving others from the heart, then very heavy past negative karmas get purified in this life. The karma to be in hell for many eons manifests as some undesirable thing, such as sickness or difficulties in this life.
On top of this, you should think you have been successful, in that all your past prayers to receive the suffering of others—the most precious, wish-fulfilling mother sentient beings—are ripening on you now. Think, “I am an extremely fortunate one, the most fortunate one.”
With big love and prayer...
Difficult Boss
A student said she was having difficulties dealing with one of her bosses. Somehow, she never felt that she was doing a good job or accomplishing anything in her work.
It is already a great success just to be able to work with your boss at all. She is doing the same job for you as a virtuous friend, or guru. A virtuous friend removes delusions. Regard her as your Dharma path for removing delusions.
The main enemy of enlightenment, the main obstacle to generating bodhicitta, the main obstacle to making our life most useful for all sentient beings, is ego. Your co-worker is here to destroy the ego, which brings all the obstacles in life.
In terms of renunciation, also think, “She is helping me, destroying my thoughts of worldly Dharma, destroying pride, which interferes with my developing qualities of mind.”
It would be good to do a lamrim retreat, taking your co-worker as your object and meditating on patience to reach enlightenment. You should also do a bodhicitta retreat, meditating on bodhicitta to eliminate ego, as well as a Wheel of Sharp Weapons retreat to destroy the ego.