What I wanted to mention to the centers was to make sure you don’t rejoice. It’s very heavy negative karma. When we hear the name of the Taliban, or whoever, if there is dislike or hatred toward them, then of course when you hear that they have been killed or destroyed, naturally you will rejoice or feel happy. Then when you rejoice, for example, when you hear that one thousand people were killed or hurt, you feel happy—and then you receive the same heavy karma of having killed 1,000 people. You are sitting on a meditation cushion, you hear the information, and then simply by rejoicing or just feeling happy, it’s the same heavy karma as having killed 1,000 human beings yourself, even though you are not in the war. You didn’t actually bomb or shoot them, you didn’t do anything, but you get the same heavy negative karma as that person who actually killed 1,000 people.
I thought I would mention that, as Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo explained in Liberation in the Palm of your Hand, there is great danger when you hear news and immediately feel happy and rejoice. If you have dislike or hatred toward the people involved, then this brings a very heavy outcome. If you didn’t feel hatred toward them, I don’t think you would rejoice.
People who remember the lam-rim in their daily life, who remember about karma and what is said in Liberation in the Palm of your Hand and the other lam-rim teachings and who practice this don’t need to be told these things. But for others, who heard the lam-rim but maybe don’t remember it in daily life, it might be useful to just remind those students.
When I heard the first time about the destruction in Afghanistan, when a few places were destroyed, I was not careful. The news didn’t say “people” or “killing,” it said some places were destroyed. I was not careful with my mind and not watching it, so I felt something kind of good, then immediately I remembered what I felt. After that I was more careful. So, be careful not to rejoice when you hear the news.
Of course, if one meditates like this, your view changes. But when you don’t meditate and when your mind is not in this state, holding those sentient beings as precious, with compassion, then you see them as undesirable.
