Chapter 4. Lojong Advice from the Great Masters

Kharag Gomchung’s Lojong Advice

[Kharag Gomchung^[1] said:]

If somebody praises you, it develops your attachment.
If somebody criticizes you, it shows you your mistakes.

The advantage when somebody criticizes you is that it shows you your mistakes, so it [helps you] destroy your mistakes. In other words, when you come to recognize your mistakes because other people brought your mistakes [to your attention], or because they complained to you, you start to see your mistakes and because of that, the advantage of that is, you can eliminate them. Like that, generally speaking, your life can become better and, of course, in Dharma, you can develop your mind to enlightenment.

Also if you become wealthy and rich, it can develop your pride and attachment very much. I’ve seen that extremely rich billionaires and millionaires often have so much attachment [to their money] that it is difficult for them to make charity. On the other hand, when there is fundraising for a project that needs a lot of financial help, it is normally the people who are poor, who don’t have much wealth, that make more charity, that do more of the giving. Those who are billionaires or zillionaires have so much attachment that even when they give, they tend to give less. That’s what I’ve heard and seen happen.

If you are wealthy, don’t be happy.
If you are poor, be happy.

That is one way of doing thought transformation so that pride and attachment don’t arise if you are wealthy. But another way is that if you become wealthy, you can make it worthwhile by making charity. And if you are a Buddhist, by that I mean you go for refuge to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, you can collect unbelievable merit, or good luck, by building temples, statues, and stupas, [by printing] scriptures, by making offerings, and so forth. You can also make charity to sentient beings, to those who are homeless, those who lack food, and those who are sick. There are so many suffering sentient beings, even just human beings, in the world, so, if you are wealthy, you can make charity to numberless beings. In this way you can use your wealth to make your life beneficial for sentient beings.

On the other hand, if you aren’t wealthy, you don’t have to worry about protecting your wealth, you don’t have to do all the activities needed to protect your wealth, and you don’t have to create negative karma to do that, so you have much peace.

This is one example, but it shows that you can make both having and not having wealth beneficial for sentient beings. That’s one way to think.

Bad conditions are your virtuous friend.

Whenever you experience an adverse or bad condition, see it as a virtuous friend. This is because just like a virtuous friend explains karma—that from negative karma comes the result suffering and that from good karma comes the result happiness—so too do bad conditions or problems explain to you that you created negative karma in the past. By seeing that, it energizes you to abandon negative karma and to create good karma, the cause of happiness and success.

In addition, you can use your problems not only to understand that they came from your own negative karma, but to help you to do the particular lojong, as I said before, that uses obstacles, especially those to Dharma practice, in the path to enlightenment. By doing that, something you usually dislike becomes something that you like and need. So in this particular lojong you use problems to achieve your own enlightenment and to help other sentient beings achieve enlightenment. In this way, a problem, or a bad condition, becomes like a virtuous friend who explains karma to you, but it also makes you practice the special lojong.

Obstacles persuade you to engage in virtue.

In this way, experiencing obstacles becomes positive. Because of the obstacles you have, as I mentioned before, you do the special lojong that utilizes them in the path to enlightenment, for sentient beings to achieve enlightenment. Since you utilize them for that, they persuade you to virtue.

Suffering is a broom that sweeps negative karma away.

Like you use a broom to clean the dust and garbage from your room or house, your suffering—your sickness, such as cancer or diabetes, or whatever problem you have, such as relationship problems or depression—becomes positive because it has the benefit of cleaning away your suffering. Because experiencing suffering purifies your past negative karma, the cause of suffering, your depression, sickness, and so forth are good. So because suffering cleans away your past negative karma:

Don’t look at suffering as a mistake.

Kharag Gomchung, a Kadampa geshe, advised that your experiencing suffering now, any problem, depression, or cancer, or a relationship problem, makes past negative karma, the cause of that suffering, finish and so there won’t be any suffering, but only happiness, in the future. Just like there is only one sun in this universe but, due to its shining, all the animals, even insects, and all the human beings can enjoy themselves, you will have much happiness from life to life and then you will go to enlightenment. Therefore, rejoice in the suffering that you have, whether it is cancer, a headache, a toothache, depression, or a relationship problem, by seeing the benefits of experiencing what is happening to you. Then, there is great happiness.