Birthday of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara

Tomorrow 11 March 2012 corresponding to the 19th day of the Second Lunar Month is the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (Kuan Yin Pu Sa).

During this day, beings from the other continents will be waiting to receive the merits generated by us in order to go into the better realms and to seek for reborn for a better.

In this case, let us all gather today and tomorrow's auspicious days to carry out various good deeds for the benefit for all beings by participating and sponsoring for liberation of animals, sutra and mantra chanting, make your wish, lighting your candles and oil lamps, offering of flowers and fruits.

After these activities, do remember to past your merits gained from the good deeds that you had done for the day for the betterment of all beings around you. Remember, it is never short of merits if you recite to past them to others. In fact you will definitely gain even more when you share and past your merits around.

Om Mane Padme Hung! Om Mane Padme Hung! Om Mane Padme Hung! Om Mane Padme Hung!Om Mane Padme Hung! Om Mane Padme Hung!

Deliverance from Suffering

There is much Dukkha (Sufferings) in the world which is our own doing, we can certainly eradicate it. We can also assuage a lot of Dukkha which is other people's doing.

To a world in the grip of Dukkha, the Blessed One has brought the message of deliverance. The Buddha truly stated, "Just one thing do I teach, suffering and deliverance from suffering". In another immortal saying the Buddha had declared "Bikkhus, as the great ocean has put one taste, the taste of deliverance (Vimuthi)".

Let us therefore reverently and in full faith listen carefully to His teachings and follow Him steadfastly. For we have His assurance and more than that we hardly need. "I have found the hidden way to truth and trodden it. The truth is here before my eyes for it is very part of me. I have proclaimed to all men how it may be found. Let those who have grown weary of illusion follow in the self-same way".

Making a humble beginning and self-naughting

We have to make a beginning, howsoever humble, with this great truth which is very hard to understand and harder still to live with.

We have to understand and grasp the truth that all waters of the ocean are one water and one body of the water, so it is with this universal teeming life - there can be no single separate unit or body of life in it.

And as with the sea whose waters are in constant motion and through that motion have many waves and ripples on its surface, so it is with this life, it has the appearance of innumerable self existences on its surface.

Seeing therefore so far as our small power would permit us, let us all grow a little nearer to that peace which comes to those who begin to live selflessly, who cease to be tossed with the waves of their own desire.

We can hardly change the world for better, we can scarcely increase the fund of human happiness unless we cease to live for self. A man''s life in its lower reaches has been lived, whatever justification did exist in working for self in those dark valleys through which we had groped, it has now ceased to be valid.

A stage has now been reached when isolated existence is not possible for an individual or even for a group of men. The barriers that separated us from one another have ceased to exist and we have to either live to the truth of a unified life or we perish as phantoms of a dead past and our life ceases to be happy.

Work for Dual Harmony

We have to take note that conditions of peace and stability in this world can only be maintained when the inner spirit and being of man is also at peace. It is therefore of most importance that we work for inner peace in our own life and the life of our people.

Outward conditions, however, do also react on the inner condition of mind. Few can develop an inner peace of mind and heart when the world round them is in a state of turmoil. All the Arahants and Bodhisativas left India when it was laid waste by invading hordes of barbarians from the northwest.

This lesson therefore has to be taken to heart that the effort to establish conditions of peace and happiness both in ourselves, as also in the world surrounding us has to be simultaneous. The Lord has rejected the peace that the Ashramas of Alara Kalama and Udraka Ramputta had offered Him, the Buddha ventured further to obtain true insight and when this had been won, He overcame the temptation to lead a solitary life of peace and bliss and instead He turned to the world to establish conditions of peace in it.

In the nutshell therefore the true significance of the truth of Anitya (Impermanence) is that this universe of ours is in a constant flux. It is always in the process of becoming and we have the inherent faculties in us in a most surprising degree to change ourselves and the universe around us for the better.

Undaunted therefore by the great cosmic forces which are still largely out of control, undismayed disasters which may overtake us and the misfortunes that may befall us, we must continue to persevere and work for a better and happier world and a nobler and more selfless existence. The Blessed One has truly said about the asvas, "some banes must be overcome by restraints. Some need be conquered by practice and care others by patient endurance. Some can be vanquished by avoidance - others still by suppression while others by mental exercise".

We have a clear presentment of truth in this passage and we need to conform to the advice tendered.

Inner Changes and Peace

The same story is repeated in the field of medicine, art, in industry, science and in the higher and more subtle spheres which effect our well being, ie spiritual, moral social, political and economic. The very core of our being has also vastly changed. A man may yet be selfish and cruel in many ways, yet in most ways he is different from the primitive man in whom he has his beginnings.

Previously one whim of a blood-thirsty tyrant send thousands of men to their doom. Armies at his sole command and on his personal orders laid waste large tracts of thickly populated lands. Now it is no more the whim and caprice of a despot, though occasionally, one such does still rise amongst us and is able to sway us but in a greater measure, it is now the unbridled greed of armed nations who have not fully appreciate the beauties and happiness of a peaceful way of existence that causes war.

The fight for peace

The fight for peace, however goes on. Every challenge to the growing stability of humanity is met with a counter-offensive. The danger to humanity is great. Our peril is mortal but collective security of humanity, complete abandonment of war as an instrument for settling international disputes, does not anymore remain the utopian dream of a few idealists.

The human conscience has now been aroused and the entire world is now with the peacemakers. Whatever peril we may run and harm that we may do to ourselves through ignorance, the final triumph will be with those who work for peace.

Maintain Composure

We are living in a world in which cosmic changes on a vast scale also take place. The cosmic forces that are at work are powerful and still incomprehensible.

Our progress therefore sometimes appears to be illusory, momentary and insignificant, when we see a lifetime's good work coming to naught, when disasters overtake us, when achievements of many generations get destroyed, sometimes in seconds, we get lost, we lose our balance and feel dismayed, we lose heart and give up the battle as lost.

We have to, however, persevere, we need to have stout heart, maintain composure and continue our good work.

Vast changes wrought by man

Humanity would not have made any progress if it had not tried to create conditions of comparative safety, stability, peace and plenty of over-changing world which is always in a state of flux.

We were subject to the vagaries of weather, but gradually we provided ourselves with better and better shelters which have given us protection from scorching heat of the sun, wet rain and cold winds of the winter months. Gradually these shelters once only hovels, have been improved and made ever more beautiful. They are now provided with insulation and are being made proof against lightning, fire, rust, blast and earthquake.

In the beginning, we depended on the bounty of mother earth to provide us with food. We, however, gradually developed their art of cultivation and grain storage. We tamed over a thousand plants and made them grow to our liking.

We were first limited by the condition of the soil and the quantity of rain from the sky but not resting content with these limitations we discovered ways and means of replenishing the fertility of mother earth and developed various means of irrigation.

Our crops came to be afflicted by pests. We have now developed insecticides and pest-resistant varieties of crops.

Anitya, the field of opportunity

It is in this contexts that we have to grasp the truth of Anitya (Impermanence). The world in which we live, move and have our being is in a state of constant flux. It is always under process of a change.

There is naught in it which is changeless. We have to take note of this central fact and avail ourselves of the opportunity that is ours in so shaping the scheme of things in this ever changing world that the change may prove not only to our good and happiness but also promote the good and happiness of others.

If a change was impossible in the condition of our existence, our lot would have been worse than that of animals. We would be living in this world like prisoners with no will and no chance of improvement that would have been open to us.

Fortunately, however, we live in a world which changes and we have been endowed with faculties through which we can bring about rapid and far reaching changes in around us and ourselves as well. The opportunities and possibilities for a change are in fact limitless, far beyond even the most extravagant dreams of the boldest of our thinkers.

All changes for the better are for ultimate good, the values that they create are eternal and abiding. It is really difficult to gauge and correctly assess the extent of the changes that have been wrought in this world of ours, through man's efforts and man's will to affect changes. The changes that are in the offing are even more daring.

The Utilitarian's Argument

The utilitarians will naturally enquire about the fate that would overtake the domestic animals when they get relieved from some of the difficult tasks which at present, are imposed onto them. The only correct and bold answer to this query would be that firstly nature has its own methods to adjusts its balances.

Further, sufficient scientific knowledge is now available through which the population of the domestic animals can be planned in such a way that it does not outstrip their actual requirements. Lastly, that with his advanced scientific knowledge man is now in a position to share his plenty with domestic animals and be content with only taking light work from them.

Humanitarian work

We have no hesitation in expressing the view that the use of machinery in replace of animal power, for tasks which are difficult and entail hard work and it is the bounden duty of every sincere Buddhist to make increasing use of machinery for such tasks.

The use of machinery is also a progressive effort in the emancipation of man and for providing him with leisure for higher pursuits. The cooperative commonwealth cannot be established unless an era of plenty is ushered and the era of plenty without the use of machinery is an idle dream and a mirage, say whatever we may to the contrary.

We can, however always opt for ways and means and a policy of graduation can always followed, if after a careful survey, we feel convinced that the switch over from manual to animal labour and then to machine in certain industries, need to be gradual, in the larger interest of a particular nation. There can be no objection also to reserve certain industries for the field of cottage industries, if the same can be run with almost equal efficiency and economy wit the assistance of small equipment.

The problem of industrialization in backward nations, which have a teeming population and which have so far subsisted on a predominantly agricultural economy is really difficult and we have need to be careful in handling such challenges.

Our Cruelties Towards Animals

The Buddha's approach to the use of domestic animals for hard toil is also very clear from description that has come down to us in our texts of His inner reactions, when he saw the poor creatures groaning under the yoke that man has placed on them for his own benefit.

For long has man treated the domestic animal purely as an object of utility. These animals yield to man the maximum benefit in hard toil, in milk and wool as well as eggs, etc, but when this service has been rendered, they are without compunction offered on the sacrificial altars or killed to provide man with meat, hide, bones and sinews.

With the dawn of the machine age, man has entered into a new heritage. He easily can if he is progressive, wise, intelligent and truly humanitarian, make use of machinery where manual labour or animal power is being utilized. He can relieve the animals from unremitting hard toil and use them only for light work.

The sight of the oxen, that are yoked for breaking land, during summer heat, panting for breath, prodded with sharp goads, receiving beating with kicks, fists and whip as well as abused foully, all through their period of toil, by a no less harassed peasant is not at all an edifying sight, for a truly sensitive man.

The same pitiable lot is of the lone bullock, who is yoked blindfold to an oil ghanny. It cannot but arouse deep compassion in the heart of a kind inclined man.

Is it now necessary?

For long have we continued these cruel practices but the time has now come when man has to ask himself whether with his greater scientific knowledge is it at all necessary for man's existence that the domestic animals should be put to its present unremitting hard toil when without much difficulty all this toil can easily be transferred to machinery.

There is however no harm, if the domestic animals are used for lighter jobs as it will keep them fit and give them joy of living.

Visit to Fo Guang Shan in Taiwan

We made a brief visit to the Fo Guang Shan in Taiwan on November 2011 last year via a tour group. A very big monastery and it is like a city by itself with everything whatever a city needs are available.

During our visit, we managed to catch a glimpse on some major locations which we came across. Time is rushing and it is also raining heavily there, therefore our movement were limited to only certain areas of interests.

The Lessons of a Gay Festival

Another incident of the Lord Buddha's early youth clearly indicates that He had sincerely wished and desired that as humanity progresses on its upward part, it should relieve the domestic animals, from the present grinding burden of the hard physical toil that has been imposed on them by mankind for its own benefit.

It is narrated that when the Blessed One was growing into a youth, He was taken by the king to witness the royal ploughing festival in which the king and his ministers and nobles participated with the common man in ploughing the green fields amidst great rejoicing.

The Buddha was still too young to actively participate in this colourful event and was therefore left in the care of some attendants under the shade of a rose apple tree.

This was perhaps the Buddha's first opportunity at that time to witness a vast congregation of His people who were busy in their toil and grim struggle for existence. The opportunity also came at a time when He was fast growing into wisdom. He was gripped with the spectacle of colour, noise and movement but His quick mind and keen penetrating insight soon discovered that much avoidable pain, sorrow, suffering and cruelty lay hidden beneath the apparent gaiety and colour of a popular festival.

He discovered that the struggle for existence for mankind and specially those that who were poor, backward and weak, in a competitive social order, was as cruel and selfish as it was in the animal kingdom. He also noticed that domestic animals carried much of the burden of man's own toil on their back. In fact these creatures were actually being ground under this burden.

His kind heart sympathized with the down-trodden serf and the labourer and He pitied the lot of the kine which carried the cruel yoke on their shoulders and toiled without respite for the benefit of man.

The Teachings on Ahimsa

Ahimsa means non-harmfulness, which represents the first precept.

The following sutra gives a clear exposition of the Buddha's views:-

"Creatures without feet have my love and likewise those that have two feet and those that have four feet I love, and those too have many feet".

A true and sincere Buddhist therefore cannot but cultivate boundless love and compassion for all creatures. Any other attitude is incompatible with the meditation of Maitri which all Buddhist need to cultivate.

A Buddhist therefore cannot offer an animal for sacrifice, he cannot kill one for sport or for meat. Nor can he take meat diet, even though it has been offered to him as a gift as this would indirectly encourage the act of killing.

He also cannot participate in war, for that is even a greater sin or crime. The Buddha's teaching on this point, a few of which are reproduced here, admit of no doubt or compromise on this most important issue: "Thou shall not kill, nor shall ye injure".

The adherent of the teaching does not kill or cause to be killed of any living thing, neither does he approve of killing in others. He refuses to hurt or harm any creature whatsoever, those that are strong as well as those that are weak.

Whoso belongs to the Order of the Buddha being a member thereof, will avoid taking the life of any creature, were it only an ant or a worm. It is abundantly clear from the Buddha's teachings that he exhorted humanity to recognize its kinship as an elder brother to lover animals. Nothing could be more emphatic than the following:

"As I am so are these. As these are so am I. Thus identifying himself with others the wise man neither kills nor causes to be killed".

Way Without Extremes

It is not that the Buddha dislikes the idea of us living a happy life by telling us not to enjoy ourselves in sensual pleasures. On contrary, he himself led the happiest of live in nekkhamma sukha (happiness in renunciation).

He only advises us to abandon kama sukha, to abandon the desire for and attachment to desirable objects, not the things themselves. Remember that for 29 years as a layman, he had lived very luxuriously. But had he remained a prince, he would never have realized the Dhamma.

Being completely free from all attachment, the Buddha himself was always in a state of freedom. Seeing a desirable or undesirable object, he had neither attachment nor aversion. Yet, he could appreciate beauty as beauty. A deity Pancasikha once sang and played the harp beautifully for the Buddha. He praised the deity but he did not ask to listen more of it.

All indulgence in one's sensual desires can only end in bad result and is thus not beneficial. At the same time the Buddha realized that the other extreme in the austere practice of self-torture was futile. after six years of trying it out for himself, he could not even walk, only mental strength was left at the end. He began having doubts.

Thinking there must be another more correct way for enlightenment, he then changed to anapanassati. Within two weeks ending on the full moon day of Wesak, he attained enlightenment

It is the Buddha's systematic way of teaching to first point out of harmful, then the beneficial: the former being more important due to the harm it causes. First what not to do and next what should be done. In this way, the two extremes of self-indulgence and self torture are dealth wi first before he introduces his method of the Middle Path.

This begins of course with right seeing in contrast to the usual deluded way of looking at things. How do we get the means of this right seeing as a start? By learning and listening to the Dhamma and by meditation.

The later by itself isn't enough. Without learning we wouldn't know the way, like travelling in unknown territory without a road map.

However, right vision needs the help of other factors - the seven others of the Noble Eightfold Path. One is right thought. Wrong thought would only lead to wrong understanding. And to have right thought, we need to have morality. If not, in breaking the precepts, we can only have evil thoughts.

So, we need right speech, right action together with right livelihood. If these three factors aren't right, all thoughts would be wrong. For right seeing too, we need right mindfulness to see things as they really are because they are mutually related.

At the same time, to be mindful, we need right effort to keep the mind from being scattered, thus attaining right concentration. Thus all are necessary and mutually linked.

Study and practice are indispensable to remove two problematic roots of ignorance (avijja) and craving (tanha).

As avijja conceals truth, that is its nature, that is where tanha is strong and flourishes. As we practice to realize the nature of sense objects, finding their faults through mindfulness (samma sati) meditation, the link between feeling and the resultant craving can be cut.

Thus, through mindfulness we can lose our attachment. In removing our craving for desirable objects, we are much like a couple who after their divorce are no longer attached to each other.

Therefore, through practice reinforced by learning the Dhamma, we can lead a peaceful life, be detached from any object, and be rid of worries. That is the purpose of Dhamma practice.

Truth About Dukkha

Impermanence is a keynote in the Buddha's teachings. Down to the smallest dust speck, nothing is permanent. If it was't so, the Buddha had said, then there is nothing to practice for. Everything is conditioned, due to cause and condition joining together to create an effect, different combinations of different conditions giving rise to different effects.

In many of His suttas, He tell us to reflect on our condition: Subject to parents who have died or will die one day, how could we ourselves then be permanent?? We therefore cannot progress any further in right understanding without first understanding the first of the Four Noble Truth: The Truth of suffering.

The Buddha never used words casually. In this case His choice of the word dukkha had a purpose to show the cause of life. Here it means not so much the suffering of aches and pains but "du" (to be disgusting) + "kkha" (nothing, empty): that is what we assume to be doesn't exist. What we take to be a person, as self-existing, permanent entity, is actually only mind-and-matter.

What we had tought to be an "I" are only mental states and material qualities acting together to produce energy so that we think, talk and act. We are only phenomena and energy in the guise of a compact living being we think ourselves to be. For instance, we think we are sitting in a chair reading, apparently solid and still, yet our mental and material processes are running and ceasing all the time, like a river current flowing non-stop.

What arises and falls constantly as a conditioned thing or samkhara = sam (joining together) + khara (work) can only be reliable. It is disturbing and unsatisfactory because what we wish for cannot be realized.

Seeing things in this way, seeing thing as they really are, can we remain satisfied anymore?? Right vision may not be a cause for enjoyment, yet it leads to cessation of suffering, once we penetrate the truth of suffering to clear away all doubt and wrong views about the Dhamma for good.

Everyone likes happiness and dislikes unhappiness. It is a bad situation to search for something - especially if it is just a feeling that is only momentary. If we want to have more of this feeling of happiness, this can lead to more craving. Unhappiness too leads ro craving, if we want more to be rid of our unhappiness. What is the cause of problems and dissatisfaction in our life? It is the desire or attachment that brings them about. Without cause, no attachment can arise.

Craving and ignorance of the Dhamma are the two roots of cyclic existence. They firmly root and fortify our tree of unwholesomeness and mental defilement. and it all begins with feeling. People exclaim "Oh, how delightful, I am so happy", on seeing a nice and desirable object and that certainly leads to craving.

Craving has the aspect of enjoyment or taking delight in. All tanhas are alike in this respect. That is its nature, like heat is the nature of fire. So wherever it appears, tanha enjoys here, there anywhere. IT joins mind and its object together like two sheets of paper with tanha glue sticking over us.

So, if we see something desirable, our mind starts wanting to see it again and again. This attachment like glue or a cord binds us together with the object. Even people who take on awesome, dangerous task (like climbing the Mount Everest for an example) - when they could easily stay in comfort and safety at home - are led by tanha.

Three forms of tanha can be distinguished:

• sensual pleasure given our five senses thus craving for nice sight, sound, smell, taste and touching,
• craving to be reborn and so to always remain in the cycle of rebirth. Those with this usually hold the view of eternalism,
• craving to end life in the belief of annihilation.

What can be done with desire and craving giving rise to dukkha? If there is dukkha, the Buddha said, there must certainly be its end as all conditioned thing cease at Nibbana.

It is like us wanting to drive somewhere, we first need to know how to drive. We need not actually need to know about the car's mechanism and how it runs. In the same way, if we want to end suffering, we must first know at least how to walk to the path as taught by the Buddha.

Path to Freedom - Right Vision

Problems in life start when we are born. Otherwise, if we had not been born, would we be subjected to aging, sickness and death? Instead of seeing life's unsatisfactorily, many of us see its problems as something good, even desirable. Many people and even monks during the Buddha's time saw no fault in enjoying sensual pleasures as much as possible.

Such indulgence in one's desires is very easy to practice, even animals can have their enjoyment too. By choosing to ignore such problems, they only look to fulfill their happiness. But their apparent happiness is just an illusory, a cover for a host of unpleasantness such as worry, anxiety, boredom, jealousy, anger, grief and depression that permeate their daily life and relationships around them. This way like a millipede walking around and round along the hoop, we will not be able to find an end to life's problem in the cycle of rebirth, which is never ending.

Ignorance is the problem that is the starting point of the problem of existence itself. For those of us who realize problems arising as problems, some are deluded enough to search for external solutions i.e. praying, propitiating gods and deities, or consulting astrologers. That is why right understanding is crucial as a start, otherwise, we would not be able to further uncovering what the Buddha had taught us.

Right Vision is the first factor to understanding the Noble Truth of Suffering as taught by the Buddha. It is the keynote of seeing things as they really are - there really are big problems confronting us - like the impermanence, loss and decay, as well as dying.

For instance, in walking along a road we have to use our eyes to see where to go, which part to tread on. This is different from using the eye of knowledge, which does not depend on our opinions and biases, likes or dislikes, but rather what is right according to the Dhamma - law of Nature which is self-existent, not the property of anyone nor any one religion, being neither religious belief nor prayer.

We always see it wrongly and that is why we can't arrive at the right solution to the problems of existence which the Buddha had found for Himself in search for the end to suffering, as encapsulated in the Four Noble Truths. Indeed the Buddha Himself at one point after His enlightenment thought it would be a waste of time to teach anybody.

In the first place, we hold such a strong illusion and view which are hard to remove - of ourselves as a permanent entity. Equally hard to remove is our attachment and clinging to this being we identify as "I", "Myself" and "Mine" since from birth. So much that it blinds us to the Buddha's truth of suffering: seeing what is impermanent as permanent, although everything and even our body is changing from one moment to another.

Whoever maintains this wrong view cannot be call a true Buddhist. And until we can call ourselves as one, we have to practice to see things as they really are.

Actually, We Are All Innocent, at Heart!

Let us go back to the teaching of Dependent Origination. The first link on the chain is ignorance. This is not a culpable ignorance. For example, the driver who pleads that he did not know he wasn't supposed to drive through a red light. He ought to have known it. But if a child sets fire to a house, it would be hard for the court to convict him for an arson. Perhaps a better word is nescience, simply "not knowing".

Nescience is the state of not knowing that we all begin life with. What does the fetus or the new born child know? The development of that knowing is the flourishing of our pure awareness and intuitive intelligence. These are the 2 qualities of the enlightened mind, the Buddha within, which develops both gradually and in quantum leaps.

An obvious stage when we enter into a different level of awareness, a different way of relating to the world, is that passed by most 7 year-old kids. Although the child steadily grows in understanding, all of a sudden at 7, there are questions about Father Christmas coming down to a chimney. Imagination is a reality test. What is more as told in the myth of the Garden of Eden, we eat off the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Morality enters our lives.

Another stage is the introduction of sexual relationships in adolescence. A well known one is the mid-life crisis that can turn our world upside down. Each time there can be a sea of change in the way we experience ourselves, the world and ourselves in the world.

The Buddha's teaching is concerned to continue this process of transforming our understanding of ourselves and of ourselves in this world. That means, we need to go back to the root of the problem, from where it began. This, he identified as a mistake that the intuitive awareness makes at the very outset. It believes it is what it experiences. Eventually, this turns out to be the body and the psyche, our emotional and thought life. This is our essential delusion. We believe ourselves to be this psycho-physical organism.

Through the process of insight meditation, this psycho-physical organism is objectified in the same way that a new born child begins to learn that there is a world beyond itself. As the body and psyche are experienced not as part of a self but simply as a psycho-physiological process, the intuitive awareness comes to realize it is itself not that very same body or personality.

The belief of the intuitive awareness that it is the body and personality is the essential delusion. This leads into a dualism of relationship with the world. It experiences the world either as a heavenly real, or a pit of hell, though most of the time, somewhere in between. To feel safe, it needs to collect things. The more it has, the safer it feels, whether it be riches, fame, power or access to any pleasure. This is greed in it widest meaning of accumulation. Unfortunately, every hoard has to be defended against loss, whether through nature or predator. Defense mechanism are developed and when this fail, escape mechanisms. Hence, the fight-flight syndrome - which is called the aversion.

Although there are social norms of acquisition and protection of property, the fear of loss lies underneath our apparent safety. Hence, the huge insurance industry. Worse still that neurotic need we have to feel safe in a world that at the end of the day offers sickness, growing old and there comes death, can lead us to venal behaviour and even into criminality.

This growing intuitive awareness at some point comprehends that but for this mistake and an unblame worthy mistake it is for it did not know any better - it would never have done any harm. It sees clearly that it is therefore, at root, innocent.

Yet, paradoxically, it cannot divest itself of the responsibility of putting right that which, because of its delusion, it has done wrong. For it is responsible even tough not blame worthy. It cannot escape consequences of past unskillful actions, both within the body and heart mind and in the world.

That is why intuitive awareness can now forgo the need to be forgiven by another for it recognizes its own purity and of course, other do not need our forgiveness to achieve their purity of heart.

When We Can't Forgive Someone and Ourselves

This is another of those points that we need to look at. First, we need to distinguish between can't when it means I am unable and can't when it means won't. Parents know when their child means won't rather than can't - such as when they can't sleep because they want to stay up.

If they are honest with ourselves and if we have come to truly understand that the hurt inside us is created by us, then it is never a case of can't but always a case of won't forgive.

We then need to change the internal dialogue and open up a chink of possibility: "Maybe I can forgive......"

What is happening when we can't forgive ourselves? For most of us, this is the hardest thing to do. On a television programme about the "bag people", a late middle aged woman was interviewed. She had taken to the streets and began compulsive collection of rubbish, mainly papers.

When asked why, she replied wistfully that she had been involved in the death of a child. First, we must distinguish conscience from the "judge". Conscience is that simple ability to know what is right from wrong. It is a wisdom based on the knowledge of what causes harm.

The judge within us is that part of the self that hates and condemns the self, that wishes to punish it. So, it is with the self as judge that we must deal.

This is where the understanding of Dependent Origination can be so helpful. The aversion that arises towards ourselves because we do harm is concretized into a voice that condemns us. It is being able to listen to the voice and not to believe it that undermines its power over us.

Once we can distance ourselves from the voice, we can feel the underlying aversion towards ourselves the better. Then we need to remind ourselves that this also is just another mental state, arising and passing away which "I" don't have to own.

In this way, we stop indulging self-hatred and in time it will to die away.

Birthday of Amitabha Buddha

Tomorrow 11 December 2011 is the 17th day of the Eleventh Lunar Month is the Birthday of Amitabha Buddha.

Amitabha Buddha is the Buddha of Infinite Light. One of his great vows was to establish a Pure Land known as Sukhavati, the Western Paradise. One who is able to call on Amitabha's name with "an undivided mind" will be reborn there, and never have to endure rebirths in the cyclic suffering of samsara.

The Maha Twin Lotus Ponds, the siddhi (fruition) of the True Buddha School Dharma, are an extension of the Western Paradise.

Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss

This is the Buddha Land of Amitabha Buddha. In Amitabha Sutra, there is full description about this Pure Land. This is the world of utmost joy without suffering. With the spiritual power of Amitabha Buddha, all beings in this world will understand Buddhism easily and practise diligently, and attain enlightenment eventually.

Therefore by reciting Amitabha Buddha's name, Buddhist followers hope that they will be born in this Pure Land after their lives on earth.

Praise To Amitabha Buddha

Amitabha Buddha's body is the colour gold.
The splendour of his brilliant light is beyond mind.
The light of his brows illuminates a hundred worlds.
His eyes are pure brilliant light, limitless like the oceans.
In Amitabha's realm of infinite light, all beings are transformed
And Enlightened into countless Bodhisattvas and Buddhas.
His Forty Eight Vows ensure our liberation
In Nine Lotus Stages we reach the ultimate shore of Enlightenment.
Homage to the Buddha of the Pure Land,
Compassionate Amitabha Buddha.

NAMO AMITABHA BUDDHA!
NAMO AMITABHA BUDDHA!
NAMO AMITABHA BUDDHA!

Animal Liberation with Master Hai Tao

By Lama Zopa Rinpoche
1st December 2011

Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave this teaching on animal liberation at Shakyamuni Center, Taichung, Taiwan on March 4, 2007. Transcribed by Thubten Munsel and edited by Ven. Ailsa Cameron.

Master Hai Tao first gave a 35-minute Dharma talk in Chinese. This was followed by a group recitation of manis until Rinpoche began his talk.

Good morning to everyone. I would also like to offer my respect and greetings to Master Hai Tao and to everyone else, my brothers and sisters.

I think that the activities that Master Hai Tao has been doing in this world up to now, liberating many millions of animals, are really incomparable holy deeds. There’s no one else in this world who could do this. His incomparable holy deeds are of incredible benefit to the most precious, kind sentient beings, the animals. Liberating animals is one of the best means to bring peace in this world, not only peace to the animals but also peace to the human beings, with thousands of human beings engaging every time in this incredible, virtuous activity of saving the lives of others, of those who are suffering.

In Singapore, the students of Amitabha Buddhist Centre have been liberating animals for the last quite a number of years. Up to now, they have liberated more than 60 or 70 million animals, [it is now well over 100 million] I think. People who have cancer or some other sickness, even those who are far away in the West, send their names and a donation to Amitabha Buddhist Centre. In the West there is not much opportunity to do this practice; it’s not commonly done. There have been quite a number of people who recovered from cancer by participating in liberating animals. When you create good karma by helping others to have long life, the natural karmic result is that it causes you to have a long life. There’s no doubt about this. Even people with cancer and other life-threatening cancers have recovered in this way.

This practice creates incredible merit, or good karma. It’s one of the sources of good luck. It says in Sutra Requested by [Lodro] Gyatso, “Even if they explained for eons, all the numberless past, present and future buddhas could never finish explaining the benefits of generating bodhicitta and compassion for others, saving the lives of others and practicing Dharma.”

Saving the lives of others is one way to practice compassion for others. So, Master Hai Tao has been unbelievably kind in giving all of you this opportunity, and we are unbelievably fortunate to have been able to engage in generating compassion for others and saving their lives, especially together as a group, which has more power.

Lama Atisha was the great pandit, the great holy being, who brought Buddhadharma to Tibet and made the Buddhism in Tibet pure. The Buddha taught 84,000 teachings, remedies for the 84,000 delusions. At one time in Tibet, there was a problem with misunderstanding of Buddhism, with people who were practicing tantra thinking that they couldn’t practice sutra and those who were practicing sutra thinking that they couldn’t practice tantra. People saw tantra and sutra as separate, like hot and cold. They didn’t think that one person could practice the entire teaching of Buddha.

So, the Dharma King of Tibet, Lha Lama Yeshe Ö sent many offerings of gold and invited Lama Atisha from India to Tibet to give teachings and eliminate the misunderstandings. At that time Lama Atisha didn’t come. Lha Lama Yeshe Ö then again went to look for gold to make offering to Lama Atisha and invite him to Tibet.

The irreligious king of one area put the Dharma King, Lha Lama Yeshe Ö, in prison. Lha Lama Yeshe Ö’s nephew, Jangchub Ö, then went to see the irreligious king and offered him all the gold the Dharma king had found. When the gold was piled up, it reached the level of the king’s neck, but the irreligious king then said, “Still I need gold the size of the king’s head.”

When his nephew went to the prison and told the king this, the king said, “Don’t give him even one handful of gold. You must send all this gold to India. Offer it to Lama Atisha and invite Lama Atisha to spread Dharma in Tibet and make the teaching pure.”

Ngatso Lotsawa, a translator, want to India, to Nalanda, with all the gold offerings to invite Lama Atisha to Tibet. At that time there were no roads, nothing. For many months they had to go by foot through the forests and over the mountains. It took a long time.

The Dharma King, Lha Lama Yeshe Ö, sent a message to his nephew, saying, “I will give up my life to spread Dharma to the sentient beings in Tibet. Pass this message to Lama Atisha, ‘May I be able to meet you in my future lives.’” The king then passed away in prison.

The translator Ngatso Lotsawa finally reached Nalanda, the great monastic university in India, where there were many hundreds of great pandit scholars, highly attained beings. Chandrakirti, Shantideva and many other great scholars and highly attained beings had studied at Nalanda.

The translator finally met Lama Atisha and explained all the difficulties the king had experienced in going to look for gold to make offering to Lama Atisha and how the king had passed away in prison. He also explained the misunderstanding about the teachings in Tibet, how people thought that if one practiced sutra one couldn’t practice tantra and that if one practiced tantra one couldn’t practice sutra.

Lama Atisha listened to everything and said that he understood the situation. He then checked with Tara (who is like this Kuan Yin), the embodiment of all the buddhas’ holy actions. Lama Atisha always checked with Tara before he made any important decision. He asked Tara, “If I go to Tibet, will it be beneficial or not?”

Tara said, “You will be highly beneficial in Tibet, but your life will be seven years shorter.”

Lama Atisha then said, “I don’t care about that. Even if my life becomes shorter, if it’s beneficial, I will go to Tibet.”

Lama Atisha was very much needed by Nalanda University and generally by the people in India. He was like the crown jewel of the great scholars of Nalanda. If the abbot of Nalanda had known what was happening, he wouldn’t have let Lama Atisha go. Lama Atisha was very skillful. He showed the aspect of going on pilgrimage in Nepal, then went through Nepal into Tibet.

When Lama Atisha reached Tibet, the nephew of the king came to receive him and requested him, “Since we Tibetans are very ignorant, please give us the teachings on refuge and the karma.” He didn’t ask for high teachings such as tantric teachings or teachings on emptiness or for initiations. His asking for the fundamental teachings on karma and refuge made Lama Atisha very happy.

Because of all the misunderstandings, Lama Atisha then wrote Lamp of the Path to Enlightenment. The 84,000 teachings of Dharma taught by Buddha include the Lesser Vehicle, or Hinayana, teachings, the path to achieve liberation for the self; the Paramitayana, or Mahayana sutra, teachings; and the Mahayana tantric teachings. Lama Atisha integrated all these teachings into this lam-rim, the stages of the path to enlightenment. In a few pages and making it simple, Lama Atisha arranged all the teachings as one person’s graduated practice to achieve enlightenment. Among all the different teachings that Buddha taught, nothing was contradictory to one person’s graduated practice to achieve enlightenment.

The term lam-rim, or stages of the path to enlightenment, happened after Lama Atisha wrote Lamp of the Path to Enlightenment. The lam-rim, which is a very condensed teaching, is like the Bible.

After Lama Atisha wrote this text, all the doubts and misunderstandings were completely eliminated, and the teaching in Tibet was made very pure. In Tibet and in other countries, so many beings then learned and practiced it and actualized the path. By actualizing bodhicitta, so many beings became bodhisattvas, and so many beings became enlightened, up to now. This text made it so easy to know how to go about enlightenment. By learning Lamp of the Path to Enlightenment, you learn the heart of the entire Buddhadharma.

Lama Atisha had 157 gurus, but his root guru was Lama Serlingpa. The Kadampa tradition started from Lama Atisha; his followers are called Kadampa geshes. There are three groups of Kadampa geshes: the Lamrimpa, the Man-ngag-pa and the Zhung-pa-wa. The Lamrimpa are the Kadampa geshes who achieved enlightenment by studying the essential teachings of Buddha, the steps of the path to enlightenment. The Kadampa geshes who achieved enlightenment by studying and putting into practice the teachings orally taught by their masters are called the Man-ngag-pa. The group of Kadampa geshes who achieved enlightenment by studying the extensive scriptures are called the Zhung-pa-wa.

So, the Kadampa geshes, the followers of Lama Atisha, say in the teachings that there’s a difference between praying alone in your room and praying with a group of people. Doing prayers together with a group has so much more power. Whether it’s with 100 or 1,000 people, praying with a group has so much power.

Here today and at all the other times, since many people come together to save the lives of others, your good karma is so much more powerful. It’s unbelievably powerful. So, it is also by the kindness of Master Hai Tao that so many sentient beings, including us, have the incredible opportunity to engage in this inconceivable good karma.

Saving the lives of others is one of the incredible holy deeds of a bodhisattva, and this practice is done not just from time to time but all the time. This gives many thousands and thousands of people the opportunity to engage in this virtuous action that has inconceivable benefits, as mentioned in the Sutra Requested by [Lodro] Gyatso.

Now here I would like to mention something about the importance of this practice. We are liberating thousands of fish, chickens and other creatures. Now, for every one of us here, every single one of these creatures is the source of all our past, present and future happiness. All the happiness we have experienced numberless times in the past, during our beginningless samsara, has been received by their kindness. It is the same with all our present happiness and comfort, even the comfort we feel when cool air passes over us when we are hot or the comfort of a pleasant dream. We receive all our present happiness by the kindness of all these sentient beings. And we will receive all our future happiness by their kindness. So, they are the most precious, most kind beings.

On top of all the happiness of samsara and all the future happiness, we receive the ultimate happiness of liberation from samsara by the kindness of all these creatures that we’re liberating today. By this, these sentient beings now become even more kind, more precious, to us.

On top of that, we achieve enlightenment, or great liberation, the state of completion of all the qualities of cessation and of completion of all realizations by the kindness of each and every single one of these sentient beings. For us, they are now even more precious and unbelievably kind.

I need to explain the logic behind how we receive every single happiness—all our past, present and future happiness; liberation; and enlightenment—by their kindness.

All your happiness comes from your virtuous action, your virtuous thought. Every single happiness, whether temporary happiness or the ultimate happiness of enlightenment, comes from your mind, from your virtuous thought and virtuous action. So, your virtuous thought or virtuous action is the action of buddha. There are two actions of a buddha: one is within us sentient beings and the other is possessed by the buddhas themselves.

Now, one’s own good karma, one’s own virtuous thought or action, came from Buddha. Since this is Buddha’s action, it came from Buddha. Buddha came from bodhisattva; bodhisattva came from bodhicitta; bodhicitta came from great compassion; and great compassion is generated in dependence upon the existence of obscured, suffering sentient beings. So, great compassion is generated in dependence upon the kindness of each and every single one of the numberless obscured, suffering sentient beings. Great compassion is generated in dependence upon each and every single obscured, suffering sentient being.

Therefore, you can now see that every one of us receives all the past happiness we have experienced during beginningless rebirths, all our present happiness and all our future happiness, including the ultimate happiness of liberation from samsara and full enlightenment, by the kindness of each and every single obscured, suffering sentient being.

Therefore, every one of us here receives all our past, present and future happiness up to enlightenment, including every realization of the path, by the kindness of each and every single one of these creatures. We have received everything from each chicken, each fish or each of the other animals. We can now see that they are the most precious, most kind ones in our life; they are the root of our happiness.

I would like everyone to now meditate a little bit on what I’ve just described. You have received all your numberless past happiness during beginningless samsaric rebirths from all the sentient beings. Therefore, it came from these sentient beings that we’re liberating. All your present happiness is received by their kindness. And all your future samsaric happiness is received by their kindness. On top of that, the ultimate happiness of liberation from samsara, which you’ll achieve in the future, depends on their kindness; you have to receive it by their kindness. The great liberation, or enlightenment, that we will attain also comes from them, by their kindness.

So, we will meditate on this, reflecting on how they’re so precious and so kind, for just a minute.

[There is a long pause for meditation.]

We will now extend this kindness of others to all sentient beings in the same way. We receive all our past, present and future happiness from all sentient beings: from all the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, asuras, suras and intermediate state beings. We also receive liberation from samsara and full enlightenment by their kindness. So, everyone is so precious.

Include the person whom you hate or who hates, criticizes, harms or is angry with you. Especially include them. Remember that person in your heart, and especially think, “From this person I have received all my numberless past happiness and all my present happiness, and I will receive all my future happiness from this person. I will receive the ultimate, everlasting happiness of liberation from samsara by this person’s kindness, as well as the peerless happiness of enlightenment. So, this person is the most precious, most kind one in my life.”

Here, you have a totally positive view of this person in your life. Before, you had a negative view. You put a negative label on this person, and you looked at them as negative. To you they had a negative appearance. You were relating just to what this person did to you now in this life: “This person is angry with me,” “This person treated me badly,” “This person disrespected me” or “This person criticized me.” You related to the present situation, to this life.

Your mind then interpreted the situation as negative, as bad, because what the person does harms your attachment or your ego, your self-cherishing thought. You think it’s bad that this person is angry with you, criticizes you or treats you badly because you’re a friend of attachment, you’re a friend of ego, or self-cherishing thought. While you’re a friend of attachment and self-cherishing, you see this person being angry with, disrespecting or criticizing you as bad because it hurts your attachment, it hurts your self-cherishing. Because you’re not against them but friends with them, it’s like you’ve joined a party that thinks other groups are bad. Here you do the same thing. Since you yourself are a friend of attachment and self-cherishing thought, because what the person does hurts your attachment and self-cherishing thought, you then interpret that as bad and put a negative label on it. It then appears to you to be bad, and you then see it as bad. You see that person as your enemy.

So, that’s according to the view of attachment and self-cherishing thought. It’s not like that if you’re a friend of bodhicitta, the thought cherishing other sentient beings or if you’re a friend of compassion or if you’re a friend of contentment, or renunciation, with is the opposite to attachment. These pure minds wouldn’t label, “This is negative.” From their point of view, this person is not an enemy. As there’s no negative label, you wouldn’t see this person as bad. Also, in the view of the wisdom seeing emptiness, you don’t see that person as an enemy, as bad.

So, in the view of your positive minds you don’t see this person as bad, as your enemy. It is only in the view of attachment and self-cherishing thought that you would see this person is bad. It depends on what the person is now doing: if the person is helping you, you see them as good; if the person is criticizing you or angry with you, you see them as bad, especially while you are following attachment and self-cherishing thought.

Now here there are skies of reasons for seeing this person in a positive way. “I have received all my past and present happiness from this person, and I will receive all my future samsaric happiness from this person. On top of that, and even more important and precious, I will receive liberation from samsara from this person. And even more precious, I will receive full enlightenment this person.”

Since the kindness of this person is as vast as the sky, you now see them as only most positive, most pure.

Next I would like to request that you do this meditation of discovering the kindness of others, of how they are most precious and most kind, in relation not only to these creatures here today, but to all the people you meet in your daily life. Feel this with your family at home and with the people in your office or in the street. When you’re in a restaurant, feel the depthless kindness of all the people in the restaurant. Think, “I receive all my happiness of the three times by their kindness.” Feel the same way with the people, animals, such as cats, dogs and birds, and insects that you see in the road. See everybody as the most precious, most kind one in your life, and think, “I receive all my happiness from them.” In this way feel the kindness of all sentient beings in your daily life. Using the reasons I explained before, think especially of the kindness of the person you call your enemy.

I think this will bring so much peace and happiness in your life, and your heart will be open to everybody, to your family, to the people in your office. Wherever you are, east or west, your heart will be open to everybody, to human beings and non-human beings—even to snakes and mosquitoes and other insects. Everybody, including insects, will become your family. As you feel with your family, you will feel everybody is very close to you, and everybody will also feel that you’re very close to them. Here you now extend that feeling to the rest of the sentient beings, so that everybody becomes part of one big family. There is then unbelievable peace and happiness. When you feel that they’re close to your heart, they will also feel that you are close to them. There’s no gap between you and them; you’re all one family. You include all the people that live on this earth in one big family, as His Holiness the Dalai Lama often talks about.

In this way, in your everyday life, day and night your mind will be very happy.

Now, for you, everyone is most precious and most kind. In regard to kindness, sentient beings are kinder than Buddha, kinder than Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Sentient beings are more precious not in regard to qualities, as Buddha has the highest qualities, but in regard to kindness. Why? Because in regard to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, Buddha came from sentient beings. As I already explained before, Buddha came from bodhisattva; bodhisattva came from bodhicitta; bodhicitta came from great compassion; and great compassion is generated in dependence upon each and every single obscured, suffering sentient being. It’s very clear that Buddha came from each and every single sentient being. So, Dharma came from Buddha, who came from sentient beings; and Sangha came from Buddha, which means it also came from sentient beings. We take refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha every day. As Mahayana practitioners, before we do any practice, we begin with taking refuge and generating bodhicitta. Since this Buddha, Dharma and Sangha came from sentient beings, sentient beings are kinder.

The Kadampa geshes explain that ordinary people in the world regard Buddha, Dharma and Sangha as more precious than sentient beings, but that as Dharma practitioners we should regard sentient beings as more precious than Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Ordinary people in the world also cherish the I more than others, but Dharma practitioners must cherish others more than the self. Ordinary people in the world seek the happiness of this life rather than the happiness of future lives; they think the happiness of this life is more important. But Dharma practitioners should seek the happiness of future lives, seeing the happiness of future lives as more important than this life’s happiness. So, the Kadampa geshes gave this most effective advice, and this is what they practiced.

Therefore, there is no way we can harm sentient beings. It is impossible to get angry with them; it is impossible to criticize them; it is impossible to harm them in any way. There is no way we can do anything to harm them. We’re incredibly lucky if we’re able to offer sentient beings even some small pleasure, some small comfort. It’s so precious. Being able to serve sentient beings, even one sentient being, in some small way is something that makes our life the most happy.

A bodhisattva feels about sentient beings the way a mother feels about her beloved child. She cherishes her child more than her life. She gives the best of everything to her child. If somebody criticizes her child, she gets very hurt. If somebody praises her child with a few sweet words, it makes her unbelievably happy.

A bodhisattva cherishes sentient beings most, doing everything for sentient beings. Therefore, this mosquito or this person who is angry with you is most cherished by a bodhisattva. A bodhisattva does everything, including attaining the path to enlightenment, for this sentient being.

Since there are numberless bodhisattvas who cherish this mosquito or this person, a small harm to this mosquito or this person harms the bodhisattvas. And if you’re able to give some small comfort, some small happiness, to this insect or this person, that’s what makes the bodhisattvas happiest.

Now, it is the same with the buddhas. What a buddha cherishes most is sentient beings. A buddha achieves enlightenment only for the sake of sentient beings. Therefore, even a small harm to sentient beings harms the buddhas. And bringing even a small pleasure or comfort to sentient beings is the best offering to the numberless buddhas. This is what we have to remember every day. Therefore, saving the lives of others becomes an unbelievable service to them. Besides benefiting sentient beings, this is the best offering to the numberless bodhisattvas, the numberless buddhas, to all the holy beings.

So, thank you very much.

I have brought a stupa tsa-tsa made by Lama Tsongkhapa as his daily practice. Here is also a tsa-tsa of Namgyalma, the long-life deity, made by Lama Atisha with his own hands. There are also relics of Nagarjuna and Buddha, given by His Holiness. I will put them here for circumambulation.

Again I would like to thank Master Hai Tao very much from the bottom of my heart for the skies of benefit he brings sentient beings.

Understanding Forgiveness

Forgiveness is a change of heart,

a radical transformation of our relationship

towards people whom we have harmed,

towards people whom have harmed us and

towards ourselves, away from hatred and revenge;

guilt and shame; self-hatred and self-punishing.

To forgive is to stop justifying and indulging the emotions of hurt, anger, guilt, shame associated with the incident which evoked pain. When we have forgiven fully, we remember the incident and feel only compassion for ourselves and the other party for all the suffering and pain evoked and expressed in the incident.

To forgive is not to brush an incident aside and forget it. Pushing it out of mind is a suppressive measure and the grudge works underground and sabotages our lives in ways of which we are unaware. For instance, it may be that we have been hurt by an unfaithful partner. If we fail to work through hurt towards forgiveness, that hurt stays within us and prevents us from forming a new relationship out of fear of further hurt. It turns us into cowards.

To forgive is not to excuse. Often when we forgive someone we try to find an excuse for them. In our liberal society, we rightly point out that the unsocial behaviour of some youths is due to poor parenting, but still the youth must come of age and start to take responsibility for their actions. To accept mitigating circumstances may make it easier for us to forgive, but if excusing them is not genuine, but simply the way of avoiding trouble and demanding justice, then it will not dissolve the hurt we feel. Again, it makes cowards of us.

To forgive is not to condone. Just because we can forgive in our hearts the person who has us wrong, it does not mean we cannot ask for just compensation. To receive reparation should not affect the quality of our forgiveness, but what it does is to allow us to trust that person again. And in making the offering, the wrongdoer regains not only your respect, but their own self-respect. Similarly, if we have done wrong, then making such an offering can restore our own self-respect and respect in the eyes of the other.

Furthermore, if we confuse forgiving with condoning, we can feel that when we forgive someone, we are letting them off. This is often because we wish to punish the person. But punishment is not the same as justice. There is just recompense for any harm or damage done, but punishment suggest retribution and the nasty gratification of vengeance fulfilled.

There is also always the possibility of vendettas. A Chinese saying suggests that those who seek revenge should prepare two graves. The rationale underpinning punishment is that the suffering imposed will be such as to make the wrongdoer think twice before doing such thing again.

Therefore, punishment is not concerned with recompense or justice. It is concerned with frightening the wrongdoer. Hence, there is no punishment that fits the crime, only the punishing pain that will stop the wrongdoing. So, the suffering inflicted must be more than the crime is worth.

That is why punishments such as cutting off a hand for stealing actually work. The crime simply isn't worth the risk. The question then is, are we prepared to inflict such suffering on an individual not as justice but as deterrent for the sake of an orderly society?

In the United States, the family of victims are allowed in some states to be present at the criminal's execution. Their sense of justice is not fulfilled which illustrates the problem with fear and hatred, they simply cannot be assuaged by revenge. A system of justice based on punishment will do nothing to alleviate our own hurt.

So to forgive is rather to transform our attitude from hurt and revenge towards harmlessness and compassion. Once this is our normal response to those who harm us, paradoxically, it takes away the need for us to forgive them. We can train ourselves that with the hurt, forgiveness arises spontaneously, even to the point no hurt is felt.

This is when the last vestiges of "me" have disappeared. For when that sense of "self" has gone, who is there to hurt?

Consider the story of a parrot seized by a bird of prey. The bird drops the parrot. Those around ask the parrot what it was like. It replies, "Just one bag of bones picking up another bag of bones".

Our training can take us towards the end of forgiveness.

Visit to Karma Norbuling Buddhist Centre in Bukit Mertajam

With Khedup Rinpoche, Khenpo Rinpoche, my mum and brother

Khenpo Rinpoche, my mum and my brother

With Khenpo Rinpoche, my dad and mum

Khenpo Rinpoche with me

Today, my family and I had made a courtesy visit to Karma Norbuling Buddhist Centre (KNBC) which is situated at Jalan Rozhan, Alma, Bukit Mertajam.

We were greeted by Venerable Lama Khedup Rinpoche (KNBC resident master) and visiting Khenpo Menlha Rinpoche who is from Dolpo Buddha Service Centre, Jorpati-Kathmandu, Nepal.

During our visit we exchange views, current Buddhist issues and opinions with both Rinpoches. Khenpo Menlha Rinpoche is due to leave soon for Penang and Sabah.

We wish to express our heartfelt thanks and gratefulness to both Khedup Rinpoche and Khenpo Rinpoche for their hospitality and lessons.