Somehow whenever we talk about "enlightenment", it's very easy and convenient for us to think that it means "retirement". In fact, I am sorry to say that it's not. Enlightenment means "strength", which means that you have developed perfect strength so that you are able to benefit others. Most people feel that being enlightened means that they will become almost like a statue, sitting there, doing nothing and spacing out. I used to call this "potato" or "vegetable". Well, if you think that way, then you are not talking about being enlightened, you are talking about something similar to mundane retirement, which is very boring and very tiring to even think about.
"Enlightenment" means "perfect strength", which is the final result of "perfect understanding" or development of perfect wisdom, perfect love and perfect compassion. Becoming a Buddha or attaining enlightenment means that you have become a "Perfect Being" who possesses Perfect Strength. How are you able to develop "Perfect Strength"? It's only through helping others without any selfish inclination and motivation that this Perfect Strength can be developed. After you have developed the strength, you have to use it to help others so that they will also be able to develop this strength and more beings are able to receive help. The most important thing is that you should never have the expectation that enlightenment is like a spiritual retirement or spiritual gain as well, or that you will become a free person with no job to do. Perfect Freedom is there because you are no longer suffering, due to your perfect understanding as a result of perfect wisdom and perfect compassion. There is nothing to gain and nothing to lose, just you yourself being stronger, that's it. In order to help others effectively, you need to develop strength, otherwise when you talk about helping others, you may end up creating more suffering to them as a result of a lack of understanding or a lack of strength. So different levels of enlightenment give you different levels of strength, and through Live to Love you can slowly develop this strength.
As I have been saying many times, compassion is understanding and love is action. We can sit in the caves, hide in retreats and spend hours meditating and doing Ngondro and all sorts of formal practices, which is supposed to help in developing our understanding or giving us some knowledge about our experiences within ourselves and in our mind. But if we do not put this sort of understanding and knowledge into action or transform this into activities, then all that we have learned and practised are only empty talks, there are no practical or experiential understanding. Live to Love will help all of us to put our knowledge and understanding into practical actions. We have to go out and help, so that we will also be able to know how much strength we have. At the same time, we will also develop the strength. In order to develop the strength, we have to exercise, such as in the case of body building, you need to lift things, if you don't move, forget about builidng the body.
I have great wish for the Live To Love Charitable Foundation to be able to help many beings for very long term. I want to thank everyone who is helping or will be contributing with their support, their effort, their energy and their financial sponsorships, in the cause of helping the Live to Love projects. From the depth of my heart, I want to thank all of you for fulfilling my dreams in benefit of all the beings.
As promised, here are some photos of the Live to Love party on Friday evening:
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
It was also very heart warming for me to see all the central governing committee of Drukpa Asia coming together in Hong Kong. This is their 2nd meeting and the meeting went on very nicely and harmoniously with a lot of fruitful results. I look forward to see what they can do to help the lineage and the beings, under the guidance of Jampal and his team.
