I did not vote. The ultimate result of practice, to me, is Madhyamaka. It means no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no form, no conception, no emptiness of emptiness, etc. To practise for a reason, that is to say if you have some reasons behind your practice, then your practice always comes with conditions, even if you have a noble reason such as "enlightenment". Conditional practice will sooner or later get yourself into obstacles.
I was surprised that a few people practise to be a spiritual gurus. Actually, this is a very hard job, if I were you, I wouldn't practise for that reason, unless you have developed full compassion and full wisdom. You need to have the responsibility and the ability of taking others to enlightenment, if you don't have that kind of qualities, then you will be responsible for their destinies to even the lower realms. This is too heavy a responsibility. So I admire the courage of those who are practising to become spiritual gurus.
To start with, you can have positive reasons for practising such as to become a better person, to be happy, to live a more meaningful life, but this should not be the ultimate goal. Because for example, if I don't know what is enlightenment, if I don't really know the qualities of enlightenment, such as whether enlightenment is a destination or has some kinds of substances that we can even hope or wish for, then how can I aim for enlightenment? Practising to achieve enlightenment sounds like a fashionable and popular answer that would be accepted by almost everyone. It sounds logical too, even the texts say that we practise to be enligthened for the sake of all sentient beings. I am not saying that this is wrong, but you must first understand what is enlightenment. It is the ultimate state of Madhayamaka, that means you cannot express it, describe it or label it. That's all I can say.
It's a little sad to see that there are only 6 people who are practising to make gurus happy. We poor guys may not have that much of chance to have people make us happy. Ha ha! In fact that is a good thing, gurus should be making everyone happy, not the other way round that gurus should be made happy by people. That shows guru's true responsibility.
There is only one person who chose to practise in order to fill up free time, I thought they would rather play badminton, skiing or going out with their friends to have fun. This is quite surprising, that's also not bad. I would agree to that too, to practise in order to fill up free time is also a very good thing to do, based on that, there is a potential to develop this attitude into something else also.
By the way, I was informed about the forthcoming 1st Drukpa Asia meeting, to be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I hope to be informed about some interesting development from this meeting with my representatives from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam discussing together, and then see what happens. I am sure I will be receiving some news in this 1 to 2 days, about agenda and purpose and also who will be attending. If I may give my opinion, I think it would be nice if Jampal becomes our first Drukpa Asia chairman for 2 to 3 years, then another person from another country take over for 2 to 3 years. It would be quite fun, I hope.
