A Gift of Dharma for 4.13.10
by Danny Fisher
Photo by E.G. Chow of the Sakyamuni Dharma Centre.
Today’s quote comes from His Eminence Kensur Kyabje Lati Rinpoche (1922-2010), who died just yesterday (as I reported earlier). Lati Rinpoche was the Abbot Emeritus of Gaden Shartse Monastery in Mundgod, South India, and served as Spiritual Advisor to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama–a position he held from 1964 until his death. This is the quote–from our friend Don Farber’s book Portraits of Tibetan Buddhist Masters, pg. 144:
Renunciation is actually simply the willingness to escape the sufferings of cyclic existence. In our ordinary life we tend to see mundane happiness as something admirable and desirable, something worth striving for. But all this relative happiness of the mundane world is connected with various pains and problems. When we really understand that mundane happiness is nothing more than a different presentation of suffering, then we can generate a sense of willingness to renounce that. We begin to feel fed up with mundane enjoyments. If we nurture this kind of mind, there will come a time when such thoughts will come instinctively, without effort. That is renunciation–the willingness to achieve liberation from the cycle of suffering existence. Without the thought of renunciation, we will never be able to do serious and real dharma practice. We will not be able to generate great compassion, and without great compassion we will not be able to generate bodhicitta, and without bodhicitta we cannot become enlightened.
Dear Mr Fisher,
I am happy that you like the photo I took so much, that you are using it on your Blog. We would have had no objection to you using it in your writing about Lati Rinpoche. It would have been nice if you could at least gave both myself and my centre Sakyamuni Dharma Centre a mention when you decided to use this photo i shot during Rinpoche’s visit.
thank you.
Apologies. I’m still learning “netiquette.” Your name is on the image, and clicking it takes the reader to your flickr stream. But I will add your name and the center in a caption. Thank you–it’s a beautiful photo.
Dear Mr Fisher,
Grateful for your reply. Like I wrote earlier, I am happy that you like the photo. Many of us do Dharma work for free, the only reward we get is little acknowledgement we received from others. So I hv always encouraged friends, if and when we used materials of others, we should share d joy & fruits of labour by taking note of their effort.
Thank you for your kindness in acknowledging my ctr. I am really happy I like the photo.
Rgds,
EG CHEW
sorry for typo.
I meant ” I am really happy that [you] like the photo…”
May you be well and happy!!