Chapter 4. Lojong Advice from the Great Masters
4. Lojong Advice from the Great Masters
Choje Gotsangpa’s Lojong Advice
Video 4: Experience Your Problem on Behalf of All Sentient Beings
(duration: 5 minutes)
(You can read the transcript of the video below. Alternatively, you can read the same transcript alongside the video by clicking here to download it or view it in a separate window.)
When you read the life story of Choje Gotsangpa,[1] a Kagyu lama and yogi, you see that he purposely chose to bear hardships to practice Dharma, due to which he almost died a few times. For example, several times he was attacked by lice in his meditation box and made charity of his body to the lice. But there are many other stories about him that I can’t remember. He didn’t like to start monasteries, centers, or anything of that kind for groups; instead he rejected them because they are objects of attachment. Looking at them in this way, he renounced them and lived alone and, even though he could have become rich, he purposely choose to bear hardships to practice Dharma. So comparing how he practiced Dharma to how I practice Dharma, I can’t say everybody here is like me, but my Dharma practice is just a joke. It’s just between my lips.
When you have a problem, such as depression, it’s very important to remember what I said. Otherwise when you are depressed you never think of bodhichitta, you never practice bodhichitta, and you think only of going to see an outside psychologist or doctor, like common worldly people do. So at that time, when you are depressed, you must remember what Choje Gotsangpa said:
By my experiencing this sickness, may all sentient beings, the numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, numberless human beings, numberless asura beings, and numberless sura beings, be free from all sicknesses and spirit harm. May they be free from all the negative karmas and all the defilements from where they came. By my experiencing this, may they all achieve the dharmakaya, enlightenment.
Remember this, whatever problem you have, so that you use your problem, depression or whatever it is, by experiencing it on behalf of all sentient beings. You experience it for the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, asuras, and suras, wow, wow, wow, for every sentient being. Like that, while you are experiencing it, you make it most beneficial and most worthwhile for the numberless sentient beings. You understand? If you are intelligent, do like that. Do it whether you are intelligent or not! Sorry, I’m joking! That is Choje Gotsangpa’s advice.