9 years, 9 months and 24 days since the day of arrest
Metropolitan Detention Center Brooklyn, New York
 |
| Dudjom Rinpoche (1904–1987). Photo by Shambala. |
Dudjom
Rinpoche always used to say that a person needs three qualities.
The first,
he said, is sampa zangpo – a good heart.
The second
is tenpo – to be stable and reliable. One of our greatest problems is that we
lack stability. However much we want to be stable and reliable, everything is
so impermanent that things are always in a state of flux. Then, if our mind is
not strong, we can be swept away by circumstances and changes. When everything
is so impermanent, we become unreliable. For example, a string of beads has a
thread running through all the beads, keeping them together. What we need is a
thread too – of sanity and stability. Because when you have a thread, even
though each bead is separate, they hang together...
The third
quality Dudjom Rinpoche spoke of is lhopo – to be spacious, at ease with
ourselves. If we are at ease with ourselves, we are at ease with others... When
we are well with ourselves, then whatever happens, it really doesn't matter,
because we have equilibrium and stability. We don't feel any lack of
confidence. If not, we're always on edge, waiting to see how someone reacts to
us, what people say to us or think about us. Our confidence hangs on what
people tell us about how we are, how we look, how we behave. When we are really
in touch with ourselves, we know ourselves beyond what others may tell us.
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