Happy Losar

Happy Losar (Tibetan New Year) to everyone! Rinpoche's Losar message is available here. He reflects that although being dharma practitioners will not make us less vulnerable to the kinds of crisis and turbulence we have seen over the past year, it nevertheless brings us something very important:

There is a big difference between ordinary people, those who have no connection to the dharma, and us. Of course, there’s no difference between them and us as far as being victims of cause and condition and karma, but there’s a valuable and important difference. That is, we have a path. We have Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. We have our masters and we have our path. And that will make the difference.

If we lose this aspect of Dharma, then really our life is meaningless. It’s just like a plant. Some plants grow in the morning, and they will die towards the afternoon and then that’s it. That’s the end. If we lose values such as morality, ethics, love and compassion, values such as bodhicitta, then our life really has no meaning.

So for my New Year’s message, I ask you to remember that we have something. We have a path. We have Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, and that makes our life so special. And this is something to remember.