His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche’s Puja Teachings – August 23, 2026

His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche instructed the leading monastic disciple to lead the assembly and all those in attendance at the Taipei Glorious Jewel Buddhist Center in reciting the Great Six-Syllable Mantra for one hour. Afterward, the disciples and believers respectfully listened to a Dharma tape of teachings given by His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche on June 29, 2003.
 
Over the past ten or twenty years, the world has been very chaotic, with many disasters and many changes. If we do not change ourselves right now and still believe that we are not at fault, it will be very easy to be swept into them. You must never have a thought that Rinpoche will protect you all day long. The Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Dharma protectors will protect those who practice in accordance with the teachings. What is so-called practice in accordance with the teachings? It is the people who completely execute what the Buddha taught. Why would the Buddha act in this way? Because there are so many people in this world, and so many sentient beings, yet those who can truly act according to what the Buddha had taught are extremely few. Therefore, when the Buddha sees such type of people, he cannot protect them quickly enough, because he is a Dharma vessel; the Buddha hopes that after he has learned, he can help even more people.
 
My mother is already seventy-eight years old this year. A while ago, she had just undergone a physical examination, and when the results came out, none of her organs had any problems. My mother originally had a gastric ulcer and once vomited blood, and there was a tumor in her uterus. In these past few years, because I have made great effort in learning Buddhism, the tumor in my mother’s uterus is gone, and the problem of her gastric ulcer is also gone. All that remains is an elderly ailment, insufficient qi, and this is something that can’t be done with any method. Therefore, you say all day long that you are filial. Filial in what way? If you practice according to the teachings of Buddha, your parents’ health will naturally improve, and they will naturally not obstruct you from learning Buddhism. You have so many problems because you have not done things properly, and therefore problems keep arising without end. You keep holding on to a mentality of taking chances, thinking that if you apologize to Rinpoche, I will forgive you. No. I don’t want to owe too much.
 
There was a disciple who had originally been working by my side. A few days ago, he asked to resign, and I said, ‘Okay,’ and told him to leave immediately. I told him to leave not because he had resigned, but because he was angry with me. He said that I had scolded his wife, who is likewise a refuge disciple.
 
I am his boss, and also his guru. If he can even become angry with me, then whom would he not become angry with? A person with such heavy thoughts of hatred, how could he possibly change? When he resigned, he had originally hoped that I would speak with him. But the moment he opened his mouth, I told him to leave that very day. Same, you follow and learn Buddhism with me now, if you still refuse to change, then please leave. There are many Buddhist Centers outside.
 
Today, your good fortune is very sufficient. Outside, there is nowhere else where monastics of both Exoteric Buddhism and Vajrayana listen to the Buddha Dharma together with you. This is extremely rare. Do not think that these three monastics are sitting below and listening to what I am saying, and that they are inferior to me. Do not think this way. Because of their participation, even more devas, nagas,, and others of the eight groups of non-humans have come here, giving you an even stronger power of blessing. It is because we accord with the fourfold assembly spoken of by the Buddha: Bhikkhus, Bhikkhunis, Upasakas, and Upasikas. This is a Sangha. Sangha does not mean that everyone has shaved heads. Rather, it is a community formed by the fourfold assembly that truly practices the Buddha Dharma in accordance with it. In many places in Taiwan today, there are only two assemblies: Bhikkhus and Bhikkhunis; others are all believers. Therefore, today, since you have this fate to learn Buddhism here, if you still do not seize it and are still being self-righteous, the opportunity will vanish in an instant. These several monastics came to participate in the puja; it is not I who found and asked them to come; they came on their own. Because of the fate of them and me, and also the fate of everyone.
 
Do not think that this is something that should be taken for granted. In this world, there are no such words as ‘it should be so.’ All of this is only because the president of the Dharma has done many things in the past and benefited many sentient beings. Only then can the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas fulfill my vow—to benefit all sentient beings with Buddha Dharma. This is not something you can obtain simply by going out and looking for it. These several monastics were not ordained only today. How many people have they met? How much Buddha Dharma have they heard? Today, they are able to set aside the pride of monastics and come to listen to a lay guru speaking the Buddha Dharma. We should praise them. Therefore, today, for you to have this good fortune and fate to be able to listen to the Buddha Dharma in a Buddhist center that possesses the fourfold assembly is very difficult. You have been to many Buddhist centers. Whether there is any Buddhist Center like this, you yourselves know.
 
These several monastics were not brought here because I went out looking for them; they came very naturally. All of this comes from fates and good fortunes accumulated over past lives, allowing everyone to gather together in this lifetime and do certain things within the Buddha Dharma, this is truly not easy. If today I had many shortcomings in the aspect of morality and cultivation, these monastics would not have appeared. Don’t listen to any words that criticize Rinpoche from others; if you continue to stay with such people, sooner or later you will leave.
 
I once expounded that if someone criticizes your parents, you should all leave. How much more so when someone speaks ill of your guru? If you often stay with such people, that means you approve of his behavior. You must never think that you have the ability to change him. You are all people who have only just started to learn Buddhism, and your minds are still not firm enough. You can’t change him; instead, he will change you. Towards this type of people, keep your distance from them. Our minds are very easy to get drawn away. Never think that it does not matter, or feel embarrassed toward others because they have found you many times and yet you have not accepted even once. Turn it around and ask yourselves: when you have hardships and tribulations, can these friends save you? If they can, go ahead and follow them! When you have hardships and tribulations, who is the one saving you? It is still the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and me!
 
Therefore, many people think that they do certain things and the guru does not know, and it does not matter. I tell you: the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Dharma Protector Achi definitely know. Therefore, if someone gives rise to evil thoughts toward me, Achi will certainly let him leave; because Achi doesn’t wish to let him continue creating evil karma, it is not that she doesn’t let him learn Buddhism. It is not that the Dharma protector is not compassionate(maitrī and karuṇā); rather, she is too compassionate (maitrī and karuṇā). She does not wish for them to commit speech karma, so she simply lets them leave, because I have no fate with them. Therefore, everyone must understand clearly that when learning Buddhism, one’s attitude towards learning Buddhism must not be lax, and you must not slacken!   With one moment of carelessness, it is very easy to be led away by others.
 
Now, when we go to work and live our lives every day, it is that we have no choice because we need to support our families. Apart from this, there truly is no need for so much socializing. Many people think that socializing will bring more opportunities and more business. This way of thinking is wrong. If wealth is destined to be yours, it will come knocking at your door; if it is not, then no matter how hard you try to draw it in, you will not be able to bring it your way. I will use a married couple who took refuge as an example. The two of them were very poor because the husband’s boss had not paid his wages. As a result, the day before taking refuge, he reported to me that he had still decided not to leave this boss. Because he was responsible for making molds, if he left, no one could make the molds. He was worried that once he left, the other employees in the factory would not be able to receive any business. Therefore, despite not being paid, he still decided to continue working. In the end, once he had taken refuge, his boss immediately paid him two months’ wages.
 
It was not because he took refuge that he received his wages. Rather, it was because he said those words in front of me; the Dharma protectors heard and helped him. This was the mind of sacrificing himself; two of his children were still ill, and he himself had already experienced suffering. Because he feared that others would suffer even more than he did, he continued to work. Because he had such a mind, fortune came to him, and the Dharma protectors immediately helped him. Have you done it yet? If you’re short even a dime, you immediately make a fuss and start arguing with your boss. This person had not yet learned Buddhism, yet he has already accomplished it because he had experienced suffering, while you have not.
 
You think that you are suffering so much? Husbands and wives quarrel all day long, and being against the guru. Such a mind of yours is the mind of a rākṣasa, a mind of hatred,  and a mind of hungry ghost. You are exactly like this: hatred toward the guru,  hatred toward the boss, hatred toward friends. Have you learned Buddhism? Immediately make an issue of it with others over even a dime—what Buddhism are you learning? Why did I prohibit these thirty-some people from making offerings? Because they were making offerings with the mind of a rākṣasa, I do not dare accept money from rākṣasas. Because making offerings brings good fortune, and that would cause them to be rākṣasas for a longer time, I do not wish to harm them.
 
In the past, I once expounded that a true practitioner, whether in joking, laughter, anger, or scolding, all of it is the Buddha Dharma. This means that when he uses joking, laughter, anger, or scolding towards you, he is using the Buddha Dharma to help you. But people are very strange, people all like others to say pleasant words to them; they like others to coax and praise them, hoping others will give them the chance to explain their thoughts, this should not be the case. The Buddha speaks very clearly that the two major conditions of learning Buddhism are to be filial toward the parents and to serve one’s teachers and elders. To ‘serve’means that whatever the teachers and elders say, one must follow and do it. These two conditions are the foundation of all Buddha Dharma.
 
Many examples have occurred in our Buddhist Center, allowing you to see under what circumstances problems will arise, and under what circumstances things will immediately turn around. Once that disciple had the thought of sacrificing for people in the factory, his boss then gave him money. From this, one can know that our thoughts are very important. Whether attaining Buddhahood, becoming a rakshasa, or a ghost, all depends on your thoughts. You claim to be intellectuals, but have your minds reached the level of intellectuals? Simply being well-read does not make one an intellectual; rather, it depends on whether your knowledge can be shared with everyone, and whether you can attain the noble mindset of an intellectual. What is called ‘noble’? Not calculating and haggling over every little thing. No matter how much one calculates, one can’t compare with heaven’s reckoning.

When I first reverently read the Avataṃsaka Sutra, two phrases left a very deep impression on me: what heaven dislikes most is the person whose heart schemes and calculates. Scheming and calculating in one’s heart means the heart is constantly calculating against others — the calculating spoken of here does not necessarily mean harming people, but spending the whole day scheming for one’s own benefit at others’ expense. This is the kind of person heaven dislikes most. What happens when heaven dislikes you? It means things go from bad to worse, misfortune keeps accumulating. Think about it yourselves — are you the kind of person who spends the whole day calculating against others? Do you think: ‘I have done so much — yet my employer still gives me so little? I have shown such respect to Rinpoche — and yet I am still scolded? I have already made offerings!’ This calculating heart is precisely the scheming and calculating mentioned above. Think about how many times in this life your heart has triggered such agendas.
 
Each and every one of our thoughts is fixed on scheming against others—we never reflect upon ourselves; therefore, this sentence from the Avataṃsaka Sutra is cautioning us not to think that because we are clever, we can manipulate and scheme all we can—however one schemes, one can never be rid of karma and causal conditions. When we watch the news every day, we see that many who scheme against others and steal money from others either end up in jail or destroy their own reputation. If one speaks in terms of karma and causal conditions, these people will all fall into hell. Many people often come to implore me about what career paths to follow, and I always tell them I don’t know. Some even ask me which direction to go towards in order to find their job—I always tell them: north, south, east, west. Because when you have sufficient good fortune and virtuous fate, you will naturally find a job that you consider to be good; if you lack good fortune and have poor fate, even if you make millions annually, you might die. One must follow fate in all matters—to have enough to eat and to become more content means that your life will be a lot easier. Unless you’re like me, when I earn my income, I give half, sometimes even all of it—if so, you may try to earn more wealth. If not, and yet you calculate your income all day, you needn’t be so penny-pinching. 
 
I am someone who has a grudge against money. Calculate it yourselves — I do not accept offerings from these thirty-some people; each time they make a small offering at a puja, accumulated over ten sessions, that would be a considerable sum. I want none of it. Why do I not want it? Because one must look at the heart behind the offering. Today I have said so much — because next year there are many things I need to speak of. Once I transmit the Four Extraordinary Vajrayana Ngongro completely, what follows is the teaching of the Vajrayana Dharma. If your mentality still cannot be changed, you will not be able to learn it. So the rate of attrition in the near future will be very high — it is not that I want you to leave, but that you will leave of your own accord. Because those without merit and without Bodhicitta cannot learn the Vajrayana.
 
What is good fortune? Making offerings truthfully —it isn’t necessarily money. Just like the disciple I mentioned earlier, who aspired to sacrifice himself for other sentient beings—this is making offerings, and thus it gave rise to his good fortune, which changed things immediately. Originally, he was not supposed to have any wealth this year, but one thought changed everything. Think about the lives that you lead every day—you calculate and think of yourselves every day, but do you ever think of others? The most important aspect of the Vajrayana Vehicle is to consider others—it isn’t important if one suffers or gets the short end of the stick, but it is most important not to let others suffer or be at a disadvantage— these are the actions and mindset of a Buddhist disciple. You must remember and train yourselves. 
 
In a previous puja, I promised I would explain the meaning behind the Exoteric mudra for greeting. Before I do so, let me first explain the ūrṇā, which is mentioned in the Buddhist sutras. What is the ūrṇā? In fact, every sentient being, whether or not they practice Buddhism, possesses the ūrṇā. When you practice, have sufficient powers of chanding (Puja Teachings Index 06), sufficient reverence, and your heart attains the compassion (maitrī and karuṇā) of śūnyatā(Puja Teachings Index 21), the ūrṇā becomes very strong. 
 
In the past, when I was learning the Exoteric Teachings, my experience of the ūrṇā was about the same as that of ordinary monastics. Until 1990, during my second visit to Kunming — one day while having a meal with friends, in the middle of eating, I suddenly saw a scene before me. This kind of seeing is not the kind where one closes one’s eyes and feels that there is light — that kind is false. I saw very clearly an ancient building, inside which there was a bronze Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva. I asked a very elderly Kunming resident whether there was such a building in the vicinity of Kunming — I even drew a picture of it for him to see. The shape of the building was of the Song dynasty architectural style, not modern. The Kunming resident immediately said that in Anning there is a Buddhist monastery containing a bronze Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, said to have been transmitted down from the Song dynasty.

The following morning, I went to see for myself immediately. Upon entering the Mahavira Hall and seeing the bronze Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, I saw that from the spot between my brows, a ray of white light was emitted straight towards the Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva as an offering. This ray of white light was similar to the laser beam that we often see, but it was even finer. Later on, when I learned the Vajrayana Dharma, I learned that the ūrṇā was not only a form of offering; it is also a form of blessing. In fact, when I look at you, I am not blessing you with my eyes, but with the ūrṇā. Between our eyebrows, we have what is called the brow chakra. In Taoism, this is regarded as a particular aperture or energetic point. Between the eyebrows, there is a channel inside the body. Through the awareness of the body, speech, and mind, we send out what we call brainwave signals. Many people think that brainwaves come out from the brain, but in fact, they don’t—they emerge from the space between the eyebrows. And this light cannot be detected by any instrument.
 
Therefore, the mudrā used when making the Exoteric Buddhist greeting is actually a mudrā of the mandala. The two fingers used in this gesture are connected with the channels of the heart. You see how profound the Buddha was—he knew that these two fingers are connected with the heart. So when you make this gesture, it is as though you are sending a message from the heart through body, speech, and mind to greet the Buddha and the guru. In that sense, it carries the same meaning as ‘Om Ah Hum’ expressed through the gesture of joining the palms in Tibetan Buddhism. It is not that Exoteric Buddhism has no Vajrayana teachings. This greeting mudrā itself is a Vajrayana practice. Why are the hands held in a triangular shape? I won’t explain that today, because you are not qualified to study the Vajrayana yet. This has to do with the solar plexus and bindus. To put it simply, this gesture is related to the structure of our body and to the light of the ūrṇā.

Therefore, those who learn the Vajrayana should not look down upon the Exoteric Teachings, nor should those who learn Exoteric Teachings look down upon the Vajrayana Teachings. When one understands both Exoteric and Vajrayana Teachings, naturally one’s practice will go more smoothly. I am unlike other Buddhist practitioners in that I have actually experienced the fact that all that is mentioned in the Buddhist sutras is correct through my daily life. Just as the Buddhist sutras mention how every pore of Buddha’s body emits light—you’d find this passage odd and wonder how the pore can emit light? In the past when I read this passage, I also found it odd. Some disciple of mine asked another person and got the answer that it’s all about the mind of equanimity; one claims that this is about the mind of equanimity precisely because one doesn’t comprehend the matter. Why does every pore of Buddha’s body emit light? I only understood that it could be achieved after learning Vajrayana Dharma, but I cannot explain this today either. 
 
In fact, many things mentioned in the Buddhist sutras are in fact Vajrayana Dharma—many think that only the empowerment is Vajrayana Dharma, but in fact the empowerment is only the guru authorizing you to practice this Dharma on behalf of Buddha. The Buddhist sutras already mention many states of mind from practicing the Vajrayana Dharma, but you don’t understand or know about it due to the fact that you haven’t learned Vajrayana Dharma, which is why someone would tell their believer that it’s all about the mind of equanimity. If it were about the mind of equanimity, the Buddhist sutra would not have emphasized the fact that Buddha’s pores emitted light; there must be certain effects and reasons for Buddha to mention it. Buddha speaks the words of truth—each word is never wasted or mentioned for no reason, and there can never be a lack of meaning. 
 
So, why do we need to learn Vajrayāna? Exoteric Buddhism gives us the theory; Vajrayāna gives us the actual practices. Only by learning and practicing Vajrayāna can we truly experience what the Buddha really meant. The scriptures of Exoteric Buddhism often tell us to delve deeply into the Buddhist canon. Many people mistakenly think this means reading through the entire Tripitaka, or that after learning Buddhism at a Buddhist college for five years, they will understand the meaning of the canon. That is an incorrect understanding. To delve deeply into the Buddhist canon means that only after learning Vajrayāna can you truly understand the meaning behind everything the Buddha taught. In Buddhist practice, we speak of faith, understanding, practice, and realization. First, you must have faith—truly believe that what the Buddha taught is something you yourself can accomplish. Then comes understanding: you listen to your guru explain the Dharma. Practice means putting those teachings into practice in your daily life. Only then can you personally experience and realize their meaning.

Nowadays, in Taiwan, people have only entered the gate of faith; they haven’t even entered the gate of understanding. Why is that? As I just mentioned, there are people out there who explain the reason the Buddha’s pores emit light by saying that it is due to equanimity. That shows that they have no real understanding of the Dharma. Why does every pore of the Buddha’s body emit light? Each and every one of us has light, and so do plants and animals. Modern science has now proven that there is light around the crown of the human head, the chest, both shoulders, the abdomen, and both knees. Older people often say, ‘Don’t be afraid of ghosts, because we have lamps on both shoulders. When ghosts see them, they will leave.’ And now science has apparently confirmed that there really is such light. What is this light? It is energy—the energy that you yourself can make use of. But you cannot give it to someone else, because there is only a small amount of it in each part of the body. It simply protects your life and sustains the light of your physical body.

How does a Buddha bless sentient beings? Throughout the entire void, the entire Dharma Realms, in every corner, the Buddha’s light illuminates all. How is this possible? It can only be accomplished by radiating light from every pore of the body. If light were emitted only from the crown of the head or from certain parts of the body, it would illuminate only in the front, leaving the space behind untouched. How do I know that light can truly radiate from the pores? I learned this through practicing solar plexus and bindus, because there is a Dharma method that cultivates all the way into the pores. I will not explain the process of the practice. However, beings in other spaces, that is, beings in the ten directions of the Dharma Realm, will naturally perceive the compassionate (maitrī and karuṇā) light of this practitioner. They will, therefore, come to receive the practitioner’s guidance and help. Sometimes, after performing the Chod, I  talk about the beings who came that day. What drew them here? It is not as simple as their coming because there was something for them to eat. There must be something that calls them forth. It is the compassionate (maitrī and karuṇā) light radiating from the practitioner’s pores that makes them feel comfortable and receptive. That is why they come.
 
The reason I do not accept offerings from believers who have not taken refuge is that I have no opportunity to explain these matters to them. Once I accept an offering, I must repay it. I do not owe any of you, because I will not come back again. There is only a thought I have in my heart: if His Holiness does not return, then I will not return either. But if His Holiness returns, I will have no choice. If His Holiness goes somewhere else, then I will follow him there. I still do not dare to ask His Holiness about this now. If His Holiness tells me that I must return, then I will be in trouble.
 
Therefore, learning Buddhism is not so simple. Merely listening to the Buddha Dharma and reading a few Buddhist books or sutras will not make you understand it. You certainly have to strengthen the practical aspect of your cultivation. Only when you personally experience these things one day in the course of actual practice will you know that the Buddha’s words are true, not false. In fact, I did not have as many questions as you do when I learned Buddhism; I seldom question this and that. My approach is very simple: How His Holiness teaches, how I do. If I do something incorrectly, His Holiness will tell me. There is no need to ask, ‘Why should I do this?’ Nor is there any need to find out what will happen after doing it. That is why the ancients said that a Buddhist practitioner should retain three parts of foolishness. Why? Because those who are too clever cannot truly learn the Buddha Dharma. Those who think they are always right are precisely the so-called clever ones. What does it mean to be foolish? Those who constantly regard themselves as foolish are instead able to learn the Buddha Dharma and attain results through practice. For people with clever minds, practicing Buddhism is truly very difficult. I have seen many examples of this.
 
The reason I have told you these two stories about light today is to show you that the Buddha’s words never deceive us. The states described in the Buddhist sutras are not myths; they are real. Let me explain a little further about light radiating from the pores. If someone has genuinely attained accomplishment through Vajrayana practice, it is easy to notice. At first glance, the person almost seems to glow. Even when exhausted, the person’s skin still looks radiant. Therefore, if women want to become beautiful, they absolutely must practice Buddhism—their skin will naturally become more beautiful. Why does the skin become more beautiful? Because light has begun to radiate from the pores, making the skin appear luminous. You buy so many cosmetics, applying this here and rubbing that there, yet in the end you still look the same—because you are not radiating any light. How can light begin to radiate from your pores? It will not happen simply because you wish for it. You must undergo training, and you must follow instructions.
 
Why do I always say that your complexion looks dark and dull? It is because you are not radiating light, so your face looks dark at first glance. This is not the darkness of a suntan, nor does having fair skin mean that you will not look dark; you still will. Your pores do not radiate light because the power of compassion (maitrī and karuṇā) has not yet spread all over you, and so you appear dark. This has nothing to do with whether your karma has been eliminated. Before attaining Buddhahood, karma continues to follow you. Even after attaining Buddhahood, karma still exists; it is just that it no longer affects you. You appear dark because your mind remains enveloped in the defilements of greed, hatred, ignorance, arrogance, and doubt. The light of your Dharma nature has not been revealed, so you look dark at first glance. As long as we continually cultivate ourselves in the Dharma, these defilements will gradually diminish, and your light will begin to emerge. But radiating light is only the third stage. The first stage is becoming more agreeable to others at first sight. The second is losing your rough edges, so that others sense a bit more compassion (maitrī and karuṇā) in you. Even the first stage, becoming more agreeable to others, is not easy. Even now, there are still people who find me disagreeable. Those who do not have a fate with me will naturally find me displeasing.
 
Learning Buddhism is entirely possible, and attainment is within our reach. The Buddha would never deceive us. If the Buddha could accomplish it, that means every one of us can accomplish it as well—it is only a matter of time. We listen to the Dharma today not to live a better life or merely to make our minds a little calmer; these things have no direct connection with the Dharma. If you simply want a calmer mind, you can consult a psychologist. The very notion of calmness implies its opposite—disturbance. Wherever there is calmness, there must also be disturbance. Therefore, the moment you seek calmness is precisely the moment your mind is disturbed and agitated. True peace means being at ease and reducing the five poisons: greed, hatred, ignorance, arrogance, and doubt.
 
If someone says something about you and you immediately think that you have done nothing wrong, hatred will arise, and your tone of voice will change. This shows that there are still the Five Poisons within you. Remember this: never think that ‘You have falsely accused me; you have misunderstood me; I am not what you have said.’ Thoughts like these are the mind of rakshasas, not the mind of a human being. You must change; only then can you progress along the path of learning Buddhism. Why do I teach you to take responsibility? The moment you try to explain that there was nothing wrong with your conduct, it means that you were already at fault. Where was the fault? It lay in your continuing self-centeredness and in your failure to examine why others misunderstood you. Something, some of your words or actions must have caused affliction in others, so that they misunderstood you. If none of your words or actions caused affliction in others, how can there be a misunderstanding? What does it mean to cause affliction in others? It means causing them suffering.
 
Everyone must remember: learning Buddhism is easy, but it is truly not that easy to keep the mind firmly under control. Lifetime after lifetime, we have been accustomed to indulging our minds, not keeping them under control. We have relied on our consciousness to be our master. That is why the sutras describe the Six Roots — eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and consciousness — as the ‘six thieves.’ By mistaking the ‘thieves’ as our friends, we have forgotten our true mind. Through the Six Roots of the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and consciousness- we receive everything from the external world. Our reactions to these conditions then give rise to attachment to the self. To satisfy the desires of these Six Roots, we continually commit evils and never stop. What are we cultivating when we practice Buddhism? We are learning to distinguish whether we live our lives continually guided by our true mind or by the Six Roots. The eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and consciousness are merely six instruments that enable our body to communicate with the external and internal worlds; however, they are not our master; our true master is our true mind and the Buddha nature.

When we realize that all the phenomena arising through the Six Roots are governed by the law of causal conditions, we naturally stop caring about the defamation and praise of others. One remains unmoved by the Eight Winds, just as the Buddha taught. Because you understand that whatever our ears hear is śūnyatā (Puja Teachings Index 21). Śūnyatā (Puja Teachings Index 21) does not mean nothing; it means the absence of self-nature. If your mind does not react to it, it remains nothing more than a remark and immediately disappears into the air. But if your mind reacts to it, there comes the mind of attachment, and affliction immediately arises. What is afflicting you:‘Has this person judged me unfairly?,’ ‘I have done such a good job—why hasn’t he praised me?’
 
I have told you many times, from the time I took refuge in His Holiness the Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang until the Great Puja in the Year of the Snake, in that period of more than ten years, His Holiness never once said anything good about me, either in my presence or in front of others. I did a great deal for the lineage; any other Dharma master would have praised me, saying that I am very motivated and devoted, but His Holiness truly never said a word, not even once. This was because my problem was haughty and arrogant. His Holiness could see that I still had many rough edges. Praising me too soon would only have harmed me, so he said nothing at all. It was not until the Great Puja in the Year of the Snake was nearly over that His Holiness publicly praised me for doing many things for the lineage. This was because His Holiness knew that I no longer had arising thoughts.
 
You can therefore imagine what kind of mind you have to learn Buddhism today and what kind of mind you bring to your everyday lives. You all hope to be praised by others; you all think that you have done very well, that you are right, and that what you have done is brilliant. Yet compared with what I have done, your efforts pale into insignificance. Even so, His Holiness truly never praised me before then, because he understood me so thoroughly, just as I understand all of you. Many people hope to hear me say that they have done very well, that they are motivated and devoted, or that they are diligent in practice. But you are still a long way from that! It is far too early for you to expect me to say such things. You still have so many problems that you have not corrected; on what grounds could I praise you? 

Therefore, being praised and told that you are doing well is not necessarily a good thing. Although it has been said that there are the Four Attracting(Puja Teachings Index 22) Dharmas when liberating sentient beings, one of which is pleasant speech. But pleasant speech does not mean saying things that you like to hear or speaking to you with a constant smile. Whenever a practitioner speaks to you, it is out of a caring mind, and with the intention of benefiting you, that is pleasant speech, whether the practitioner scolds you, hits you, or blames you. We often read in the sutras that Shakyamuni Buddha rebuked his disciples, that is, he scolded them. If you, therefore, think that Shakyamuni Buddha lacked compassion (maitrī and karuṇā), you are wrong. If you think that every practitioner must always speak with a smile, you are also wrong.
 
If a practitioner smiles warmly at you, there are two possible reasons. The first is that you have already fulfilled the conditions that the Buddha requires of a practitioner. The second is that the practitioner has no fate with you. What does having no fate mean? It means that the practitioner does not intend to have you follow him in learning Buddhism; he will therefore smile pleasantly. Because he does not want to create any ill will between you, he simply smiles and says, ‘Come again when you have time,’ and bids you farewell. That farewell will truly mean farewell, because you will not meet again. People are very strange; however, you like others to smile at you, but when someone looks stern, you dislike it and think that the person has falsely accused or misjudged you. It is precisely because of this habitual tendency that thoughts of anger so often arise within us and that we so often refuse to accept guidance from those above us, whether in the workplace or along the path of learning Buddhism. Therefore, everyone should remember that our lives in this world involve only four things: collecting debts, repaying debts, repaying kindness, and taking revenge. As Buddhists, we should neither take revenge nor collect debts. It is better to resolve enmity than to create it.

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Updated on August 27, 2026