Well, we did talk here based on really one verse of Chandrakirti’s:
GANG TSE RANG WANG JUG CHING THÜN NE PA
GAL TE DI DAG DZIN PA MI GYUR NA
YANG SAR LHUNG WAI ZHEN WANG JUG GYUR WA
DE LE CHE NE GANG GI LONG WAR GYUR
If, when living in good conditions and acting with freedom,
We do not act to hold ourself back,
Once we have fallen into the abyss and lost our freedom,
How shall we raise ourself from there in the future?
While you have freedom, and you have all facilities, if you don’t do whatever you are supposed to do, then if you fall into the lower realms, who is going to help you? No one is going to be able to help.
That was the basic verse. And then what are we supposed to do?
Chandrakirti also said:
GANG CHIR TSE NYI GYAL WAI LO TOK PHÜN TSHOK DI
SA BÖN DRANG NI PEL LA CHUN DRA YUN RING DU
LONG CHÖ NE LA MIN PA TA BU DÖ JUR WA
DE CHIR DAG GI THOG MAR NYING JE TÖ PAR GYI
Because for this bountiful harvest of the Conquerors
Compassion itself is like the seed, like water for growth,
And like ripening remaining for long enjoyment,
At the beginning I praise compassion.
Compassion itself, alone, is important at the beginning, important in the middle and important at the end, even during the fruit time. When you have become a Buddha, and if that Buddha doesn’t have compassion, then Buddha will not bother with anybody else. So compassion itself is the most important thing, that’s why, ‘tse nyi’ – compassion itself alone. But when you talk about compassion or love, it is something you cannot go with alone. Compassion alone is not going to work, compassion with dharma base. There are so many people, if you look among ourselves, who have great compassion and they do care, but they don’t know what to do. Many of them will turn their energy more onto charity work. I don’t mean that’s bad. It’s great. Many will turn their energy towards saving the environment and many will turn their energy towards doing something very specific.
This is great, we do need it. But as a human being, such as ourselves, with this great mind, and this great attitude, and this great opportunity, and this great possibility, we should be able to do a little better than that, a little more than that. This is the world today, where there are so many great spiritual masters who have appeared. This is the world where Buddha has appeared and taught and left the message. This is the world where Jesus came and left his message. This is the world where so many spiritual leaders have come, whoever they were. This is the only place where they went, and this is the only place where they left their impact and we are the beneficiaries.
With all these benefits that we have of those messages and the kindness shown by those great leaders, we should be able to do a little better than what we have been doing. We have the opportunity, we have the capability, we have everything. Within our own freedom and facilities, that’s what it is.
–Gelek Rimpoche
