Dharma in the Heart
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches that real happiness comes from patience and compassion for others, and that educating children in this way is important for creating peace in the world. Rinpoche gave this teaching at the Gendun Drubpa FPMT Center in Martigny, Switzerland, November 2018. The teaching excerpt is lightly edited by Gordon McDougall.
Visit FPMT’s Rinpoche Available Now (RAN) for more teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s 2018 Europe tour, with videos, audio recordings and transcripts from centers in Spain, Germany and Switzerland.
Even if you don´t believe in reincarnation and karma, even if you are listening for the first time, if you practice patience, because with patience there is no anger from your side, that brings so much happiness in your life, in your family, in your community, in the country, in the world. With patience, you can bring so much happiness and peace in the world.
I heard the First World War happened because of one person. It actually started with one person. When somebody has so much influence and power, this can happen. The First World War and even the Second World War can happen. But if you practice patience, something like that can’t happen, even though the other person doesn’t practice patience. Practicing patience brings so much happiness to the other person that they no longer think of harming others.
This is so important. This is something children need to learn. It needs to be taught in school. Even in primary school, they need to learn how to practice patience. They need that education. How much peace there will be in the future in this world depends on the kind of education the children get now. Whether the future will be full of wars where people are killing each other or full of peace depends especially on today’s children. We will soon be dead, so whether there is peace in this world depends on them; it depends on the education they get now.
If you have a sangpo [virtuous] education, if you have a positive, pure education, you naturally no longer harm others or yourself. You no longer make your life black, nonvirtuous, causing you confusion and suffering and causing others to suffer. With a negative education, you bring so much suffering to your family, to your community, to your country and to the world. So much depends on having a good education and developing a good heart.
Even if you don't believe in reincarnation and karma, you need compassion and loving kindness for others, not only for people but even for the insects, for the ants. It is easy to see that nobody wants suffering, not even ants. Nobody wants suffering; everybody wants happiness. Therefore, if you are concerned about your own happiness, the most important thing is to not harm others. Don’t harm others because that’s the fundamental cause of your own suffering.
When you harm others, the result is that others harm you. For instance, if you get angry and abuse somebody, you immediately hear others saying bad words about you, abusing you. By saying those bad words, you have created the target for others to shoot their arrow of anger at. So much of life is like that.
Therefore, if you want happiness for yourself, don’t harm others. With your body, speech and mind, don’t harm others. If you want happiness, you need to bring others happiness, cause them to have happiness, and then others will benefit you. They will help you, bringing you happiness. From the karma of helping others, you cause them happiness and you receive the result of happiness yourself. From that karma, the result will be your own happiness, happiness caused by the others you have benefited.
Benefiting others is the correct way to create your own happiness. That is the correct way. You really need to understand this and because of that to be aware of your actions, ensuring they are always beneficial and not harmful.
This is something people need to learn in school. We all need this education so we will always be aware of our actions and always ensure they are beneficial. The best life you can have is to live your life for others. Living your life for others means trying to free others from suffering, trying to bring them all the different levels of happiness, right up to enlightenment.
Of course, that depends on your education. You might think that education is merely acquiring an intellectual understanding, but it is much more than that. The best education is the realizations you gain in your heart. The best is your experience. Intellectual understanding will help, Dharma knowledge will help, but the best education is your experience. It is the Dharma in your heart.
Without the Dharma in your heart, you could live for a thousand years, a million years, and all you would ever be concerned about would be “my happiness.” “When can I be happy? When can I be free from suffering?” Walking in the street, your face is very pinched, always frowning, only ever concerned about the problems that overwhelm you night and day.
But on that same street, at that same moment, that can all change when you stop only worrying over your own happiness alone and start to care about others. If you think that you are not here for yourself but to serve others, immediately your life changes. The problems you have been holding for so many years disappear, like a bubble bursting. By dedicating your life to others, there is happiness, immediately!
Then, then you feel everybody is in your heart close to you and you are close to them. There is no wall between you. Then, by seeing you as kind, everybody will naturally be happy. Because you are kind to them, they are kind to you. It is like that. Whether you are living with your family or living alone outside, you are happy and you cause other people to become happy. Like that, you bring happiness to the world.
What I am trying to say is that if you practice patience and kindness, you naturally have great satisfaction. You need to practice satisfaction. Without satisfaction, there are many problems and a lot of suffering in your life.