Problem With Others

Problem With Others

Date Posted:
August 2006

A student wrote to Rinpoche about some difficult situations he had been encountering in his office and how people hadn’t reacted well when he had voiced his concerns.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche near Ajanta caves, India, November 2008. Photo: Ven. Roger Kunsang.

My dear one,
Just because you might have some problem with others, it doesn’t mean you always need to express it. Sometimes, it is more skillful not to express it, otherwise, you might get in a fight with others and this is not so helpful. When you are practicing bodhicitta, sometimes you do have problems, but you don’t express them. You try to practice. You try to do what is most beneficial for the happiness of others, not for yourself.

Western psychology is all about one’s own happiness, doing what makes oneself happy; that is the main thing. So, if there is something you need to express, you do it. But Buddhism is completely the opposite. It is not about one’s own happiness, it is about the happiness of others. By practicing this way, thinking about the happiness of others, working for the happiness of others, you achieve two things: the happiness of enlightenment and temporal happiness—happiness in the future and happiness now. When you are working for your own happiness, you do not get either. You do not get happiness in the future, and you are not happy now. When you work for the happiness of others, are concerned about the happiness of others, you get both.