Seeking happiness, we create negative karma

Looking for happiness by following the thought of the eight worldly dharmas not only fails to bring us the happiness we want, it usually also leads to our creating more negative karma.

We might be sleeping comfortably when suddenly our sleep is disturbed by a mosquito. All we want is peace and comfort and this little bug is doing its best to destroy all that, so of course we’re annoyed. And yet, all we’re getting is one tiny nip from one little mosquito. Generally speaking, it’s nothing dangerous, nothing that can cause any serious disease. The mosquito takes one tiny drop of blood from our body. But seeing that mosquito’s body filled with our own blood, we’re enraged. When we move, it bites us in another place. We try to catch it but we can’t. Then, finally, after hours of this mosquito buzzing around and biting us and evading our attempts to catch it, we find it. We really want to kill that bug. For sure! We find it, crush it and are very happy, incredibly happy. Now we have peace. And so we’ve done a nonvirtuous action with great joy. It becomes a very powerful karma. But of course we don’t see it that way.

Our job should be the source of our worldly happiness but for most of us it not only fails to bring us that happiness, it also brings suffering to many other beings as well. We probably don’t think we’re a negative person but neither does a butcher, whose job is to slaughter sentient beings. While honestly thinking that he’s just taking care of his and his family’s immediate needs, he’s creating powerful negative karma that will cause him incredible suffering in future. This is a double negative action that brings suffering to himself and others.

Like the butcher, we do negative things to get what we want and not only fail to achieve the happiness we seek but also create the cause for future suffering. The things we do to avoid poverty and hunger, the results of previous negative karma, create more negative karma. In other words, we create negative karma to stop negative karma—an impossible thing. This is nobody’s fault, but by trying to end our suffering in this unskillful way, suffering perpetuates suffering, endlessly.

Expecting from the depths of their heart to achieve happiness, people all over the world cheat, lie, steal and even kill. Because of his dissatisfied mind, somebody who actually has enough to live on still feels that he doesn’t have enough and that the only way to be happy is to rob a bank. Then, by stealing what belongs to others, he creates negative karma, causing difficulties for himself and many others. He risks getting caught, shot, killed, thrown into prison and tortured. He might have murdered somebody to get that person’s property, the police might have captured him and the judge might have sentenced him, but it’s actually the evil thought of the eight worldly dharmas that has landed him in prison. The notoriety and hatred that his acts bring him all started because he wanted to be happy. His ignorance led him to crime. Our ignorance might not lead us that far but it still demands that we create lots of negative karma.

Acts of terrorism, kidnapping and hijacking are terrible and bring not one single atom of benefit to anybody, either the criminal or the victim, but it’s completely the thought of the worldly dharmas that forces people to act like this.

Following the thought of the eight worldly dharmas, a person who kills others has no peace. He himself is always in danger of being killed by his victim’s relatives or friends. He receives a bad reputation and has to go into exile, to flee his country to avoid getting thrown into prison. That’s his life. And the suffering he’ll experience in future lives is truly terrible. It’s as if he has purposely made himself a path straight to the lower realms. All this is caused by the evil thought attached to the comfort of this life.

This is happening nowadays even in India. People see kidnappings in the West on television and learn from them; they learn how to be skillful and clever at harming other sentient beings. How terrible it is to kidnap another person, then make a phone call to the poor parents: “If you don’t give me a million dollars, I’m going to kill your daughter.” The family have to accept that their daughter is in the hands of other people and in danger of being killed, so of course they say they will pay. But when the kidnappers get the money, they still kill the daughter. Even if she’s not killed, what happens? The parents can’t repay the money and then have to work hard for the rest of their lives but can never repay the debt.

It’s often the case that the rich have gained their great wealth through negative actions such as lying, cheating and stealing, but even though they might have every possible comfort, what kind of life is it really and what happens when they die? There’s no real peace at all.

We can easily see this if we look at very rich people in the West. They’re unable to relax. A poor family has much more time than the rich do. They’re always busy, they have many worries and there’s always the possibility that their business will fail and they’ll lose everything they’ve worked for. They’re never sure that the economy won’t collapse or that their competitors won’t develop something better.

Clinging to worldly pleasures, we discriminate against others based on whether they help or harm us and this is the cause of all disharmony and fighting between individuals and even countries. This person gives me what I want, so he is good; this person stops me from getting what I want, so she is bad. This is the main way we judge people. It has nothing to do with their qualities and everything to do with the fulfillment of our selfish desires.

If we check, we’ll find that we discriminate like this all the time. These people are good, those people are bad; this country is good, that country is bad. Our discrimination is not based on concern for the other person’s happiness but on concern for only our own, so it’s very selfish. Discriminating like this, we wish our enemies harm. We don’t want to be criticized or abused ourselves, but for our enemies it’s the opposite. We want them to meet all four undesirable objects as much as possible.

Our potential is wasted

It took us an enormous amount of energy to create the causes for this perfect human existence yet the thought of the eight worldly dharmas makes all that effort meaningless. Furthermore, by wasting this present life we waste all our future lives and destroy the possibility of receiving better rebirths and the many things that we can achieve with them, especially the ultimate happiness of liberation and enlightenment.

One way we squander our incredible potential is by using all our energy in confused, unskillful ways simply to get rid of mundane hardships. For instance, it’s natural to wash when we get up in the morning. Nobody wants to smell, but what kind of mind do we wash with? With the thought of the eight worldly dharmas. We don’t have any higher, special reason to wash or way of washing.

Then, when we have tea—all of a sudden a desire for tea arises—that, too, has no special reason, no pure motivation. We just drink, unconsciously, with attachment, with the thought of the eight worldly dharmas. It’s the same with breakfast or going for a walk—again there’s no pure motivation there at all. Then, our whole day is spent working: during that time we’re incredibly busy but without any real understanding of whether our actions are positive or negative.

Probably our motivation is to earn money to get what we want for the comfort of this life and to not be fired. There’s no pure motivation, nothing to do with Dharma practice, nothing to do with benefiting other sentient beings. Our mind is concerned with only one thing—me. All the time, the great big me. If we truthfully check up from the depths of our heart, this is why we work.

And while we’re working all kinds of negative thoughts arise: hatred, jealousy, attachment and the rest. We gossip with a jealous mind or anger, with the thought of the eight worldly dharmas. Then, at lunch time, we eat with attachment to worldly pleasure, with the thought of the eight worldly dharmas. We go shopping with the eight worldly dharmas, buying things with attachment for the great big me, seeking only the comfort of this life.

In the evening we throw a party, but again there’s no virtuous reason for doing so; we’re partying with the thought of the eight worldly dharmas. Maybe we hope to get presents from the people we invite, but the presents are for our enjoyment, not for our enlightenment.

Maybe we’re looking for praise or a good reputation. But whether we do that or go to a movie, watch television or phone our friends, everything we do is the same trip, working for the thought of the eight worldly dharmas.

And when we finally go to bed we’re still out of control, too tired to think of anything virtuous. Again there’s no pure motivation, just unconsciously, “I’m tired,” just seeking comfort of this life, and so with attachment, we go to bed. And then become like a dead person.

Here we’re just looking at a normal day’s activities when nothing terrible has happened. It doesn’t include anything done that hurts another being, like killing, hunting or fighting. Even these very normal everyday actions are done with the thought of the eight worldly dharmas. Slaves to attachment, we do nothing that brings beneficial results or happiness and many of our actions destroy the very happiness they’re designed to get.

We think that there’s no time to practice Dharma. “I have to do this, I have to do that, and after that, I have to do this and that, this and that,” all very clearly controlled by the thought of the eight worldly dharmas. Not counting our job, we have time for all these other things, for watching television and so forth, but somehow there’s no time for meditation. We can see very clearly that this is a creation of our own mind, the thought of the eight worldly dharmas not wanting to bear the difficulties of meditation.

There are so many things that seem harmless but are in fact doing us great harm because they waste our life. When one of the previous Ganden Tripas came to the United States he discovered television. He was amazed at what a waste of time it was and advised Western students never to watch TV.

I do watch television—and it is a great waste of time—but we can watch television from a lamrim perspective. Looking at the programs, we can see how the nature of samsara traps us. The actors in the programs show us; they have parties, get killed, are tortured, cheat each other, make wars—whatever they do, it’s all suffering.

Dawa Dragpa

Once in Tibet there was a servant for a rich family. During the years he worked for them he received a monthly wage of one plate of barley. Each month he saved some of the barley and then, finally, one year, he had saved a big sack of barley. He took this sack back to his home and hung it from the ceiling by a rope. As he was lying on his bed feeling very happy at having all this barley he thought, “Now I’m rich, incredibly rich, with this big sack of barley. What should I do?” He made plans. He thought he should get married and have a child and wondered what he should call that child.

As he was thinking, the moon came out, sending moonbeams through the window onto the floor. Suddenly, looking at the moonlight, the name for the child came to him. “Fantastic! I shall name my child after the moon! Famous Moon (Dawa Dragpa).” After so much thinking, the name seemed perfect and he couldn’t contain his joy. He jumped up, grabbed a stick and started dancing around the room, swinging the stick over his head. The stick struck the bag of barley and it dropped down on his head, killing him instantly.

So, after working for so many years, he didn’t have the chance to enjoy his barley—not even one plate—or to get married and have a child. And this was all the fault of his uncontrolled mind. He was attached to the barley and the sense that he was rich, attached to his future plans and attached to his future child and its beautiful name. Unable to control the thought of the eight worldly dharmas, he killed himself unnecessarily. He was killed by the thought of the eight worldly dharmas. If we don’t control our mind, this can easily happen to us as well.

Harming others with our own needs

The misery of a relationship based on selfishness

Thogme Zangpo said,

Always quarreling and fighting with leaders, teachers, friends, relatives, unable to bear suffering, bad reputation and being without enjoyments. The evil thought alone causes a person to do this uncontrollably.

Even though we might have studied psychology extensively and feel we’re an expert, as long as we don’t recognize the thought of the eight worldly dharmas, there’s no way to recognize the main source of our relationship problems and therefore no way to work to solve them. In fact, attacking them unskillfully will only make them worse.

We see in newspapers and on television how all the time people in relationships have so many incredible problems: fighting, quarrelling, being unfaithful, breaking up, killing each other. If we look for the source of these problems we will see that they all stem from the thought of the eight worldly dharmas.

I once read in a newspaper about an old man in Greece who married twenty times, always changing from one young girl to another. The article said he wanted to take another wife, this time a young girl in prison. In the East, there are fewer problems like this because many marriages are arranged. Right from the start the parents check the whole of their child’s life with lamas or astrologers in order for there to be harmony.

We create many problems for ourselves in our quest for friends. For instance, we move to a new country and feel very lonely. We don’t know anyone; we don’t have any friends. After a while we get to know some people and feel happy for a while, but before long we begin to dislike them. They no longer live up to our expectations and we don’t get on with them any more. We complain that they’re no good, that they have such bad personalities and so forth. Expecting supportive relationships, when they don’t work out we get angry and friends become enemies. In addition to the lack of peace from the very beginning, the suffering has now doubled.

Relationship problems go on and on as long as we keep the thought of the worldly dharmas in our heart. Basing relationships on my needs alone, seeing them through our own selfishness, of course our partners can never give us what we want. We’re so obsessed by our own problems that we can’t eat, can’t work, can’t sleep. We even develop physical problems such as back and chest pains. When we lose our object of desire—our friend doesn’t love us any more and leaves us or something else happens—if we can’t do anything to control the situation, such as kill the person who has interfered with our desire, we go crazy or have a nervous breakdown. Desire doesn’t give our mind space for anything but the thought of suicide. We take refuge in an overdose of sleeping pills, a rope with which to hang ourselves, the roof of a tall building or a high bridge from which we can throw ourselves, such as the famous Golden Gate or Sydney Harbour bridges.

There was a Swiss student who spoke and taught Tibetan and was translating texts and receiving teachings from Geshe Rabten Rinpoche, my first teacher and one of Lama Yeshe’s teachers as well. One day his wife left him and, unable to bear the pain and anger, he hung himself in his house. That’s how he ended his life. He couldn’t stand the desire for his object of his attachment being frustrated. If he hadn’t been so attached to his wife, her leaving him wouldn’t have seemed such a tragedy. Nobody else came there to hang him; he hung himself. Actually, the thought of the eight worldly dharmas hung him. The real problem in his life was not his wife but his own mind. He didn’t practice the antidote to attachment. He didn’t let go of attachment. He didn’t give it up. His attachment was so strong that it tortured him, bringing him so much pain that he committed suicide.

I once met a man in Singapore who told me he had a huge problem and wasn’t sure whether he’d be alive the next day. His wife had left him and taken up with somebody else. She told him that she was going to be coming back to their house to pick up some things and he was planning to kill her there. He told me that he was going to the temple to tell the Buddha he was going to take her with him, meaning he was going to kill her first and then himself. Anyway, he kept on telling me that he wasn’t sure whether or not he’d be alive the next day.

I tried to explain to him that this was the complete opposite of what the Buddha had taught, but I haven’t met him since so I don’t know what happened. Maybe he’s in another realm by now; maybe they both are. I’m not sure. It’s incredible how somebody we’re totally attached to, somebody we can’t bear to be separated from, can become an object to kill. Attachment brings one problem after another, on and on.

Jealousy between married couples is common. This is the most familiar theme of novels, and many films on television and in the cinema are about jealousy and infidelity. This is really funny, because the people who watch these movies are involved in such real-life situations themselves. They themselves are living in a movie but when they watch the on-screen version they have no idea how much like their own life that movie is and they watch it, as if they’re not involved in the kind of life it portrays, as if they’ve transcended that life. The world is full of such people but they never check up the root of the problem.

Perhaps a man is married but he’s not satisfied with his wife so he starts seeing somebody else. He thinks that his new relationship is better, that this woman is more beautiful, the pleasure more intense. Whatever the thought of the eight worldly dharmas tells him to do, he does, uncontrollably. But maybe after a while the new person no longer satisfies him, so he starts another relationship, then another, like this all the time, because of the dissatisfaction caused by attachment. He creates much confusion in his life—with himself, his wife and the other women.

He’s like a bee buzzing around in a field of flowers, flying from flower to flower, taking a little pollen from one, then moving on to the next and then the next and the next, never able to settle anywhere, always causing confusion for himself and others. And if he’s like this then he’s also worried that his wife might be the same; that she might be unfaithful too and run off with somebody else. So his life is full of worry that he will lose what he has. This also comes from the thought of the worldly eight dharmas.

His strong attachment causes him to be very fearful whenever his wife goes out, even for a short time, perhaps just for one or two hours. He stays home worrying that she will be seduced by another man. If she goes away for a few days’ holiday without him, he’s out of his mind with worry. He can’t stand it; he can’t wait for her return. He can’t relax. If she doesn’t come back as scheduled he starts calling all their friends, “Where is she? Where is she?” He keeps everybody busy. His mind is so nervous; his whole body is so nervous.

Maybe she does have an affair that she has to keep a secret, like the Vajrayana teachings. But one day he hears from a friend, “Oh yes, I saw your wife with another man, blah, blah, blah. Your wife was drinking at this party, blah, blah, blah,” all these things. He gets furious waiting for her to return, his face extremely red. He’s unable to do any work; he just paces about wringing his hands. And when she comes back, there’s a huge argument. All the families in the other flats, downstairs, upstairs, can hear. What’s happening? What movie is being shown in that house? The other families finally get so fed up with this couple who are always screaming and fighting that they move to another place where there’s more peace.

The couple keep fighting and it gets worse and worse. He says something, she says something, they pull each other’s hair, they beat each other up. Maybe they end up killing each other or maybe she escapes. She goes to the wardrobe, grabs her clothes, throws them into a suitcase and leaves, slamming the door loudly behind her.

Then he hears she’s flown to Chicago or Hawaii with another man. He can’t stand it; his body shakes violently. In his view this other guy is now the most evil being in the world. He wants to kill him, blow him up, make him completely non-existent. If he had the power, he’d do this. He’s so upset he can’t eat. Even though there’s plenty of food in the kitchen—even if somebody cooks a meal and brings it to him—he has no appetite. His mind is full of worry, completely concentrated on that enemy and his wife.

He can’t sleep at all; he tosses and turns in bed the whole night. He spends the entire night meditating single-pointedly on those two objects, his wife and her boyfriend. He’s so upset he can’t relax at all. Then he decides he has to fly to where they are. No matter how much it costs, he’s going to get a ticket and go there right away. So now he’s completely concentrated on that problem.

After arriving, he goes around and around, around and around, checking everywhere, searching anxiously, completely spaced out. Everybody can see from his face the problem he has. When he finds his wife and her boyfriend, he creates a huge scene and finishes up shooting the boyfriend. Or perhaps before he can kill his rival he himself gets killed. Then it’s finished. All that worry, all that effort was completely unsuccessful.

Like this, relationships involve a huge amount of suffering. A man goes to a psychiatrist because his wife has left him and all the psychiatrist can tell him to do is to go find another woman, another object of desire. But even if he manages to acquire another wife or girlfriend, he might stay with her for some time, but because of his fickle mind, it doesn’t last. Things change again, he gets another divorce, and many more problems arise—his children are taken away from him and so forth.

From his wife’s side, his jealousy makes her so crazy that her need for kindness drives her to look for somebody else who might provide it. All her fear and worry, too, is caused by attachment. Maybe she gets pregnant—even if she’s on the pill, it can still happen without choice or control. Then there’s incredibly more worry in her mind. Abortions are very expensive and she has no money, so what to do? She can’t tell her husband or her parents because they’ll be furious and kick her out, and the guy who made her pregnant won’t help either. So she has to steal the money for an abortion.

For people like this, all these problems—with children, wives, husbands, boyfriends, girlfriends—arise over and over again. Even if a person is over sixty, he still hasn’t finished working and has to start his life over again. The second round. All these problems are caused by the thought of the eight worldly dharmas, attachment to the pleasure of this life.

Even couples who stay together can be tortured by fears that their spouse will be unfaithful. Their relationship is full of suspicion, jealousy and rivalry. The husband feels his wife is forever hurting his pride; the wife feels that he doesn’t have a good enough job or that their status in society isn’t high enough.

Perhaps they want to build a house, but they have different ideas about what they want. Each wants to do things according to his or her own idea, so even if the house gets built it doesn’t suit either one. Because the need to have their own way is rooted in both their minds, neither listens to the other’s ideas and they both get really angry. And pride arises because they feel their own ideas are better than the other’s, and then many other negative minds arise. We can easily see how confused life becomes when it’s ruled by the thought of the eight worldly dharmas.

Maybe it’s nothing so big. The husband and wife just fight and argue, day after day, over anything, even breakfast. She wants muesli, he wants bread; he says muesli makes him sick, she says bread makes her sick. In fact, they’re both sick. Whatever they end up having, neither is happy and they spend breakfast arguing with each other. Maybe they even end up fighting physically. That can happen. Many times insignificant incidents build up into major arguments and big fights. To us it might seem insignificant but to the couple it’s a really big thing. But it’s like children fighting. Children know very little and are only concerned with getting what they want, so they often fight over small things.

Even when the wife gets him his bread, he’s not happy; he’s still confused and sick with attachment. Getting the bread might solve the problem of not having bread but it doesn’t solve the problem of attachment. In the same way, because the wife wants muesli, she thinks he’s being selfish wanting bread. She’s following her own desire, her own attachment. During their whole life that problem is never solved, and so life passes. They continue to experience the problems of attachment and then they die. And whatever rebirths they take, the problems caused by attachment continue.

Imagining what would happen if, for instance, instead of insisting on bread the husband just accepted the muesli, thinking, “I think my desire is important but really, her desire is just as important as mine.” Simply by renouncing the thought that his desire is more important that his wife’s, by not following his attachment, the problem is solved. He feels happy and doesn’t upset his wife. It’s just a matter of changing the way of thinking, a matter of conception.

By the husband’s accepting what his wife offers, neither of them creates negative karma by getting angry. Both are at peace and relaxed; both are happy. This is scientific experience, not some religious superstition that we’re asked to believe. This is the way the mind works; it’s simple psychology.

When we’re attached to somebody, even if that person is suffering we don’t have the space to feel real compassion for them. When we’re overwhelmed by our own needs we can never generate compassion and bodhicitta, the heart-felt wish to achieve enlightenment for the sake of other sentient beings. But if we can lessen our attachment to temporal pleasures, there will be less confusion in our relationships. With more peace and more satisfaction, we can bring more peace and satisfaction to our partner and our friends.

Society’s problems come from the eight worldly dharmas

Disharmony in relationships doesn’t just happen between two individuals; whole groups of people fight—families, gangs, communities, even countries—all because of the evil thought of the eight worldly dharmas. The main stories in newspapers are always about disputes, whether they’re between political parties, companies or countries. Most of the images television news brings us are of fighting, murders and wars. All the hostility of this world comes from the need to get what we want and the willingness to harm others to get it.

For instance, a university, which should be a place of wisdom, can be a hotbed of rivalry and pettiness, caused by pride, anger and all the other negative minds. A student might be consumed with jealousy and hatred for those with more knowledge. She thinks that all the other students have more knowledge, a greater reputation and more friends than she does. She can’t stand how they seem to enjoy wonderful reputations and warm friendships while she’s left out, so she plans how to harm them, maybe even kill them. She doesn’t want them to exist. Even though they might have done nothing wrong, she picks fights with them. She tries to undermine them and destroy their reputation so she can gain favor with the teachers and get the position that is rightfully theirs. But nothing brings her satisfaction.

Even lecturers have many problems. They dislike each other and are consumed with rivalry. One who has more ambition gets promoted and the others become jealous of him; another has great knowledge and is renowned in the community but is hated by the others, who feel insecure because they could lose their jobs. All these negative minds—jealousy, pride, fear, suffering—come from the thought of the eight worldly dharmas seeking only the happiness of this life.

Every country on earth is full of problems. There are disputes between workers and bosses, demonstrators and police, and riots so big that the government needs to call in the army to put them down.

As soon as somebody gets into power he’s the target of abuse. Whether he does his job well or badly, others blame him for all the problems of the country and do everything possible to give him a bad reputation and bring him down. In the West this often goes on in parliament or in the media, but in other counties it can be far nastier. A person is voted into office to lead a country and gets the name “president” and the power, but it also brings enemies who plot to overthrow him, even if it means harming his family or worse. But even killing him doesn’t bring them peace. It doesn’t destroy their jealousy or their wish to have the power and possessions of others. It just becomes the cause of more problems, such as the relatives of the dead leader plotting revenge on them. Or if they do get power for themselves, then they in turn are killed by somebody else wanting their power. This is common; we hear about this sort of thing all the time.

When two countries fight, their leaders invariably say it is to bring happiness to their own people, but war can never become a pure action and bring happiness to other living beings. Despite what they say, in the depths of their heart the leaders are doing it for their own reputation and power. They want to have a big name; they want to have power over people; they want to be rich. They are not really concerned with the welfare of the people of their own country and definitely not concerned with that of the people of the country they’re fighting.

One person, like Hitler or Mao, can create incredibly heavy negative karma by destroying whole countries and killing millions and millions of people. And not just human beings but numberless other sentient beings as well.

Where does all this greed and desire for power come from? For us, it’s quite difficult to see the whole situation. We’re really only aware of the physical manifestations—the results—of the greed and hatred; we don’t recognize the root problem. We are all capable of being jealous of what others have and equally capable of reasoning that we have more right to it than they do and entitled to harm them to get it.

There are so many people in the world whose life is engaged in harming others, without caring, without thinking of this as a negative action. Thieves take others’ possessions without even a thought of how it harms the owners. Mercenaries kill other people thoughtlessly. No matter how much danger there is, they just don’t care. They think only of reputation and money. This is ridiculous and tragic, because such people are using their incredible human potential in such meaningless and senseless ways. They think that possessions are more important than life.

There are also many other people who don’t actively try to harm others but nonetheless cause much pain and suffering by doing meaningless and dangerous actions, such as climbing mountains or going on expeditions. Just to get a thrill or for their own reputation, they risk their own lives and those of the people who guide them. I’m not criticizing them. I’m just talking about how many of us lead our lives, because usually we’re not conscious. All these problems are due to the thought of the eight worldly dharmas.

Whether capitalist or socialist, all societies have many problems. The aim of a capitalist society is to make this life comfortable and free of material troubles, such as poverty and starvation, by increasing wealth and developing technologies. This is the ethos of such a society, from the poorest worker to the richest industrialist. Material comfort and leisure, freedom from sickness and poverty—the capitalist seeks nothing higher than this.

Socialists, on the other hand, say that they’re concerned for the wellbeing of others. They say that everybody needs material things equally for there to be peace. But no matter how much they use the term “equality” and ideologically seem to be concerned with other beings, they are still controlled by attachment to comfort. If we look at both systems, capitalism and socialism, at a deeper level, we can see that both sides are just trying to make life more materially comfortable, for the individual or for society. Both aim solely for comfort for this life alone. I find it quite strange that they fight each other when their goal is exactly the same.

Even if they were to resolve their differences there would still be no real peace because the source of the problem is within the mind, not in the distribution of wealth. As long as the evil thought of the eight worldly dharmas exists in people’s minds there can be no peace, no matter what the system of government.

The thought of the eight worldly dharmas obliges us to waste our life, to create negative karma; it makes our life empty. The biggest countries in the world, with the biggest buildings, the greatest wealth, the most people, still fight each other; there is still much disharmony. This is true of any group—couples, companies, governments—ruled by self-interest.

Dying with a needy mind

The great guru Padmasambhava said,

The meditator who does not realize that his mind is a liar takes the wrong path at the time of death.

He saw that unless we clearly understand the role that the thought of the eight worldly dharmas plays in creating all suffering, we will suffer terribly when we die. Although at the time of death meditators are supposed to be free to take whatever path they choose, unless they’ve destroyed the thought of the eight worldly dharmas they actually go on the wrong path. Despite the profundity of the subject they might be practicing—Highest Yoga Tantra, controlling the nadis or achieving magical powers, such as the ability to fly—they are really only on the road to more suffering.

Death from its own side is not difficult or scary. Our own mind, the desire clinging to this life, is what makes it so fearful. This is the cause of our continuous reincarnation, of our always being chained to samsara—again and again, again and again. It’s as if we have a huge block of fiercely burning wood chained to our back, where the fire is the suffering of samsara and the chain tying it to us is our craving for continued existence.

Because of clinging to this life, our mind doesn’t want to separate from any aspect of it—our body, possessions, properties, friends, relatives, parents or anything else. So although dying is a natural process, we make it almost impossible to experience death peacefully. Prevented from practicing Dharma and purifying past negative karma by constantly being distracted by the things of this life, we continually create countless causes for rebirth in the lower realms and make our death extremely difficult. We have great fear at the time of death.

Meditation

Meditating on the eight worldly dharmas past and present

A very useful meditation to do before going to bed and falling asleep is to check up on each action you did during the day to see how many were done with pure motivation and how many with the thought of the eight worldly dharmas. Check every action done from morning to night: talking to others, drinking, eating, working, playing, watching television. Ask yourself, “Did I do anything at all with a pure motivation, the mind not expecting the comfort of this life?” Check up, check up. If you find a positive action done with this pure motivation, with the mind renouncing this life, it is very worthwhile to rejoice.

Investigate the problems you experienced today. If you had an issue with somebody, look to see if it was caused by thought of eight worldly dharmas, if the mind attached to worldly happiness was at the root of it.

Then try to remember what happened yesterday. If you experienced some confusion, some problem or unhappiness, check to see if it was caused by the thought of the eight worldly dharmas. Then go back to the beginning of this year and look at all the problems you’ve had, then those of the year before and so forth, like this. Go back as far as you can, remembering all the past problems you can, checking back to their source to see if they came from the thought of the eight worldly dharmas.

Check how the thought of the eight worldly dharmas blocks the practice of Dharma. Check how it disturbs your practice of morality, the cause of the body of the happy transmigratory being. Whatever positive action you try to do—meditating, making offerings to holy objects, making charity, helping others—this evil thought arises and disturbs you, preventing that action from becoming the cause of happiness. Thoroughly investigate to see whether or not this is so.

If you’re aware, if you keep your mind focused on your inner thought processes, you can recognize clearly how unhappiness, loneliness, lack of peace, depression, aggression and all the other negative minds are caused by this attachment. Study your mind as if it were a book: read and study it.

Then you’ll understand. That you don’t understand this now is not because nobody has explained it to you; it’s simply because you’ve never meditated in this way before.

This is not just dry doctrine, some kind of abstract philosophy that doesn’t relate to real life. It’s not something you’re asked to believe that has no basis in fact. These teachings are real; what they explain is really true.

After you’ve checked like this you’ll recognize the real enemy, the thought of the eight worldly dharmas, and it will be a lot easier for you not to follow that enemy. Then, when that enemy tells you something pleasing, shows you something tempting, you’ll be able to recognize it and think, “This is the evil thought of the eight worldly dharmas telling me to do this.” Understanding its shortcomings, you’ll naturally not want to follow it any more and will naturally gain much more control over your life. Your life will become more stable and you’ll finally start to experience real satisfaction.