Everything Comes from the Mind

Everything Comes from the Mind

Date of Advice:
September 2018
Date Posted:
October 2020

Rinpoche sent this advice about mind training (lojong) to a family whose son was injured after falling out of a window.

Artwork by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

My very dear one,
It appears bad luck, but actually you are extremely lucky that you did not die and didn’t break anything. That is very surprising.

The reality of what happened is that it is a good thing. Why? Because it is the result of negative karma which is now being purified. It is negative karma that caused this and if we don’t purify our past negative karma, then the problems go on and on, from life to life. Any problems that we have, we can think like this.

As the great Kadampa Geshe Khamlungpa, an ancient meditator, said:

This present experience of suffering
(You can relate this to whatever you are experiencing)
Finishes my past negative karma.
This is the advantage and in the future there will be great happiness.
Therefore, rejoice in this suffering.

Then in the future our life will be like the sun shining in the world. From the sun shining, everyone enjoys that—all the people and animals enjoy it, and the plants grow.

By experiencing the problem now with a good heart for others, for the numberless sentient beings to achieve all the happiness up to enlightenment. If we experience the problem with bodhicitta, then we will attain the peerless happiness, enlightenment.

If we are able to see the benefits of our problems, then we can use any situation on the path up to enlightenment. For example, even if we get a snake bite, we can cut the skin and take the venom out.

This water is blessed with many mantras. It is to benefit not only the body but also the mind, which is where our problems come from.

In reality everything comes from the mind. Samsara and nirvana come from the mind; hell comes from the mind and enlightenment comes from the mind; our everyday happiness and problems come from our mind. All our problems, which are due to the wrong way of thinking, come from the mind. Happiness, which means the correct way of thinking, also comes from our mind. Therefore, we can stop all our life problems.

So you can see that you have happiness in your hands. Therefore, you have total freedom and if you change your thoughts, your way of thinking, that solves all your problems.

I would like to send you a Chenrezig thangka—Chenrezig is the Buddha of Compassion—so you can look at the thangka and visualize Chenrezig looking at you with a loving mind. Chenrezig is sending you beams of white nectar that illuminate you and totally heal you, so all your negative karma collected since beginningless rebirths is purified. Then think that you are totally healed. Chenrezig absorbs into you and you receive all the qualities, so you can be of benefit to all sentient beings.

With many, many prayers ...