Advice When Criticized

Advice When Criticized

Date Posted:
August 2009

Rinpoche made the following comments on what to do when you are criticized.

One of our resident teachers did fundraising for his students in a monastery in south India, to build a house for them. However, the other monks in the monastery complained to our resident geshe, saying that he raised funds but the monastery didn’t get them. So there were a lot of complaints about that interpretation of that belief. So I advised him, this is the time to use the eight verses of thought transformation. A monk at one monastery criticized a geshe, so the geshe went to the monastery and made a tea offering. While they were having the tea he stood up during the puja and thanked all the monks for criticizing him.

Before he went, I mentioned to the geshe the fifth stanza: When somebody, out of jealousy, with bad thoughts to harm you, criticizes or blames you, for something you didn’t do, offer the victory to others and take the loss on yourself. I said that this is what the Kadampa geshes used to practice, and if possible you should do this. If you cannot do it this way, you should practice patience toward the monk who complained, who blamed you, and who wrote letters. You should explain to the monastery’s community of monks and clarify what happened, and what you didn’t do.