My most dear, most precious treasure of Vajrayogini, Geshe Loden Rinpoche, and then my most dear, all the Vajrayogini brothers and sisters, everybody who is in the Vajrayogini mandala,

So Geshe Loden explained everyone got this very precious virus.

I want to mention what Kadampa Geshe Khamlungpa said:

[By experiencing] this present little suffering,
It finishes the past heavy negative karmas,
And in the future there will be happiness.
Therefore rejoice, be happy that you are experiencing this suffering.

Therefore, you received the virus, so be happy—happy, not hippie, happy. Hippie already [happened] years ago. I am bringing back hippie life now.

The benefits are incredible. By experiencing this [sickness] now, it finishes so many heavy negative karmas from so many past lives. Wow. Can you imagine, from beginningless rebirth, so many heavy negative karmas, it makes to finish them, so that is the benefit.

Otherwise, you have to be in the lower realms, and for eons and eons you have to suffer in the cold hells, in the hot hells, in all those major and secondary hells. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow! Can you imagine?

This experience, this virus, it makes to finish all the past heavy negative karma, and what happens in the future is that you will be like the sun shining in the world. Everybody in the whole world, people and animals, enjoy the sun rising. Then there will be so much happiness and from life-to-life you will go to enlightenment.

There are many other benefits from experiencing suffering. There are many other benefits, but I’ll just mention this much.

The other most important thing you have to know is that bad and good are not outside; it is up to your mind. Whatever happens in your life, bad or good, is up to your mind. It’s like the TV channel—when you change the channel, there is fighting, or there are people having a party, people singing, dancing, trying to show they are enjoying, thinking it is real pleasure. Then there’s fighting, or people are crying, wow, wow, wow, wow; [fighting in] more wars. Whether it’s bad or good, it is up to the mind, how we think, how the mind uses the virus. So it is like that.

So any suffering we have, relationship problems or anything else, we can use that. Like the quotation I mentioned above. Then it is positive, then having the problem is positive; it is so good.

Of course, by cherishing I, having attachment, then we suffer—wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow—we suffer, suffer, suffer. It’s like that.

I want to mention one thing: the self-cherishing thought has been harming us. We have been following the self-cherishing thought, we’re under the control of self-cherishing from beginningless lives, not just from this birth, not from this morning, not from birth, but from beginningless rebirths. So, we’ve been harming ourselves, cheating ourselves, harming ourselves from beginningless rebirths, and we’ve been suffering from beginningless rebirths in samsara.

Then again we will suffer without end; without practicing bodhicitta, but by following the self-cherishing thought, we will suffer and we will experience the suffering in samsara without end, so that’s the problem.

Not only that, we see ourselves as so precious, wow, but it is so harmful [to think like that.] So now we [should] think of others, the numberless sentient beings, the numberless hell beings, who are so precious, like us—the numberless hungry ghosts who are so precious, like us, the numberless animals who are so precious, like us, like the ants, the mosquitoes, the numberless animals, who are so precious, like us, and the numberless human beings who are so precious, like us. Then the numberless suras, asuras and intermediate state beings who are so precious, like us. Wow.

We’re under the control of the self-cherishing thought, because of not practicing with bodhicitta, and we have harmed all the sentient beings from the six realms. All the sentient beings have been harmed, and they have been suffering in samsara from beginningless rebirths, so this has already happened.

So then, if we don’t practice bodhicitta, if we don’t actualize bodhicitta, if we don’t meet Dharma, wow, wow, wow, then not only do we suffer in samsara without end, but we cause the sentient beings to suffer. We harm all the numberless sentient beings, then they suffer without end. They suffer in samsara without end, again. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.

Even if we cause just one sentient being to suffer like this, it is incredible, wow, how bad the self-cherishing thought is, how harmful it is, how it is our worst enemy. Wow, wow, wow, wow.

Sentient beings are numberless, therefore the virus is not harming us, it is helping us, because the virus is destroying our self-cherishing thought. The virus is harming our self-cherishing thought, that’s what we have to know, what we must recognize.

By destroying the self-cherishing thought, it is possible to have bodhicitta and that causes us to achieve enlightenment, and then we can finish all the obscurations, the mistakes, and complete all the qualities. After that, we can liberate the numberless sentient beings from samsara. Wow, wow, wow, wow.

And then after that, we can bring them to enlightenment. That all comes from us achieving enlightenment; all that comes from bodhicitta, wow!

So we have to look at it that way, thinking that the virus is helping us, then it becomes most precious, like a treasure, most precious, like a wish-granting jewel, like treasure, so very precious.

In Tibetan we have 424 diseases, and then 360 spirit possessions and 84,000 interferers.
So there’s no question about this virus. All those things which are kind of harmful, everything is transformed if we think in this way, then everything is supportive for us to achieve enlightenment, and there are no obstacles in our life. 

Therefore, the virus is so supportive for us to achieve enlightenment by destroying the self-cherishing thought. It is like that.

Therefore, we have no obstacles in the life. All the obstacles that we have in our life, the obstacles to practicing Dharma, all become the path to enlightenment. So there’s no obstacles in the life.

This is how to enjoy the sufferings or obstacles. That is lojong, the key lojong. It is a very, very, very important lojong point. So try as much as possible; try as much as possible.

There are mantras to recite, but you should try this, lojong. We need to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings, so we utilize the obstacles on the path to enlightenment.

So, do lojong as much as possible, because our mind is not well-trained in lojong. Those who have trained well in lojong, their mind is so happy, however much suffering there is. The more suffering, their mind is more happy, blissed that.

Since many of us are beginners, we must try as much as possible to develop this.

Then recite the Vajra Armor mantra. Geshe Loden will know this and it is online. Also recite Black Manjushri mantra.

Thank you very much! See you soon.

With much love and prayers ...