The Gyalwang Drukpa

First of all, there are so many people I want to thank, so many beings I want to send my gratitude to, especially to Zangmola and her two sons, Liam and Wee, who have been a great help for all of us. If you have joined us during the First ADC, you would understand what I'm saying. Now, both Liam and Wee are helping me with the design of the Hemis Monastic Institute. These two young boys are really like golden children sent by Tara to help us fulfill our wish in benefit of others. It's very difficult to make young people understand the need to engage themselves in some sort of spiritual endeavours, either through formal practices or through participating in volunteer work. Liam and Wee are either in Kathmandu or in Ladakh and sometimes in Sikkim, to give up their mundane activities and come to these remote places to offer their skills is quite difficult but they are doing it with great joy. I want to thank them both from the depth of my heart, on behalf of myself and my community. Liam and Wee are very positive and very patient and do not have any attachment and any propensity to practise the 8 demonic dharmas, they help wholeheartedly, without any egoistic intention, such as wanting to be famous or wanting to be known. Everytime I meet them, they always tell me that they are worried about me thanking them in the public. This is a very rare quality in most beings. I think, the way Zangmola brought them up was a very commendable way, therefore like their mother, they bring great joy to those around them. We should not be jealous about people having such positive qualities, in fact the way we should do is to rejoice in their beneficial work and to learn from them.

I could not believe until today that even I can be excited that much, because of excitement together with appreciation, I want to thank Liam, Wee and their mother and their entire family for dedicating their energy and resources to help me and our lineage fulfill our dreams. Besides them, I also want to thank all the sponsors and volunteers who have helped us fulfill many different and difficult projects. This is something I always remind myself, whether these sponsors or volunteers are still around with us or not, I am never going to give them up or to forget them ever in all my prayers for their well-being and happiness. Some of them have left us as they have found their happiness elsewhere, I am very happy for them because our wishes for them to be happy are fulfilled. We should never force people to stay with us. Sometimes, I feel that every relationship is like a marriage, if it lasts, this is fantastic, but if it doesn't, we should be appreciative that we have met and made the connection to benefit others. I am expressing this completely from my heart, whether you believe it or not. What I am sad about is that when people leave us with some sort of misunderstanding, they bring with them a lot of anger and sadness, with this kind of negative emotions, they regret whatever good deeds they have done when they were with us, this becomes a cause of suffering. Therefore, I always feel that letting go and rejoicing are very difficult practices for many of us.

I feel very encouraged when I meet people like Zangmola who is always positive. Unlike Westerners and we Himalayan people, most Asians who are very pampered, going to Ladakh and Tibet for a leisure holiday can be a great suffering, but I am very fortunate in a way that almost all of my Asian friends and students are trying their best to enjoy all the journeys and all the challenging trips with me. At least I have not heard them complain, maybe they are just being kind. For example, during the Pad Yatra, Zangmola was very happy, despite going through all the expected suffering, such as breathing difficulties, diarhea and suffering of many things. She kept herself so happy that everyone became encouraged and we are all missing her now and her laughter. I am not praising her here to make her happy, but I am telling you the truth. She was really the source of happiness for everyone, especially my people, everyone was so happy because of her. My nuns and monks call her "Ama Zangmo", which is true, because she is like our mother, giving us medicine when we are sick, encouraging us when we are not feeling so good and always smiling. Because of her attitude, she is a fortunate person. Being a big sponsor and an active volunteer, Zangmola could have asked for VVVIP treatment everywhere and of course we are more than happy to give her any of this treatment, and she could have controlled everyone because of her contribution, but until now, not a single moment I felt that she was helping to get VVVIP attention nor was she trying to manipulate my community. So the relationship becomes very easy and it is also very beneficial for her spiritual practice, because there is no contamination of the 8 demonic dharmas.

I just want to take a bit of time talking about this, because I think it is very important for those of us who really want to be genuine spiritual practitioners to understand and to avoid the 8 demonic dharmas. Pleasure and pain, this means that you only want happiness and you don't want unhappiness. Loss and gain, this means that you only wish to get what you want and to avoid what you don't want. Fame and disgrace, this means that you only want to be famous and you don't want to be unknown. Praise and blame, this means that you only want to be praised and you don't want to be blamed. So you set up so many different categories and territories and you end up locking yourself up. You are not free any more. If you are a spiritual practitioner, you should try your best to be free from this. Be happy, don't complain, we are all very fortunate to be here in this world, alive and having the opportunity to make ourselves better humans. I get headaches when I meet people who complain endlessly. For me, people who talk a lot should dedicate more time to recite mantra, this will make more sense out of their talking energy.