15 points
Dear friends,
This was sent to a dharma student of mine. But when I read it through, I thought it might benefit more people. These 15 points I wrote for someone doing Dharma work, but it applies just as easily for secular work. Of course all the points I wrote are generalizations, but see which one might be useful. Remember when you do work well, it shows your respect others and you respect yourself.
Tsem Rinpoche
When you do your assignments well it shows:
- You respect the person assigning you.
- You have integrity.
- You want to be part of the team.
- You will perform well in the team.
- You have realized your ‘mistakes’ of the past. Whether you have reformed or not is not the issue, the issue is you just get the work done. Without monitoring or prompting from others.
- You do not wish to be left behind. You are talented and should not be ‘left’ behind. You can contribute so much. Be with the team.
- You respect those that are working with you and will be perhaps working with you.
- Work assigned to you, you will play your part and it will not have to be monitored by others hence not burdening them.
- You take dharma work of any sorts seriously. You are not selective in dharma work. Dharma work is dharma. All dharma benefits so no point to be selective. Just do it and smile.
- You are determined to win. To make it. To be different. To not disppoint so many anymore. Not disappoint yourself.
- To use your talents to benefit others. Do your best in any work. Rise to the top. Make yourself proud. Make the real friends who still in contact with you proud of you. They want you to succeed. They want you to win. The friends you made in the dharma are your real friends. They want you to make it. For sure. That’s why they stay in contact with you. How compassionate of them. How fortunate you are to have them. Treasure them.
- To develop qualities of reliability so others respect you. You deserve respect. You earn the respect and it will be forthcoming. Get that respect and acceptance you yearn so much for.
- You will be accepted as a good person that produces good work. And all your likes, ‘strange’ habits, ‘strange’ hobbies (hehe) is fine. It’s part of your part and parcel.
- You are not perfect (no one is) but you give everyone confidence that you will do the best you can. And you are really a great writer and thinker. I wish to develop that. I want you to be happy and successful in dharma.
- You keep your promises to others. You keep your samaya to your lama.
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I think no matter what we do, we need to have The right attitude in order to be succeed. Being able to join and serve a dharma organisation is some kind of blessings. Not everyone has the fortunate to do so. Since this is your choice to serve the dharma, why not doing it whole heartedly.
In life, to be able to receive dharma is rare. Treasure it instead of abusing it. Life is short, you may not have many chances like this.
These 15 points are great reminder for us who are working into secular world. In my opinion,I totally agreed with these points that Rinpoche had pointed out. All these points are about us practice to transform, which included our habits, behaviour, attitudes, motivation and our attentiveness in career. Most importantly, we must understand that we need to do any task or assignments with full of positive energy and mind. Also,when there’s a obstacle to finish task or assignments , we need to think how to settle it,not how it happens. I believe in positive energy and mind which leads to better performance in any task and assignments.
Take every assignment seriously. Let’s not matter whether we like it or not. No matter what happens in life, taking control of your mind is always a choice. Like what Datuk May mentioned, “Fake it till you make it.”
Working in dharma organization, respect and be humble with people who you working with. The most important is to develop qualities of reliability so others respect you. In this way, your spirituality will grown together over period of time. You deserve respect with taking more responbility in your work. You earn the respect and it will be forthcoming. Get that respect and acceptance you yearn so much for.
This powerful 15 points can cause you to additional winning and happier in life after we applied and committed to that for the remainder of our life, otherwise it’ll simply become information. If you’re feeling uncomfortable when reading this article shown that you are aware of your current situation and what got to do is follow the 15 points and this can set you free from unhappiness.
Everyone of us are capable & talented in different fields. For instance, in sports, some people can run short distance with high speed, some people can run long distance with moderate speed, some people can jump high, some people can jump far & more.
If we put efforts to learn & to accomplish one thing, be consistent & never give up with it, definitely we will always gain positive results, this is the law of cause & effects.
With integrity, people will respect you. That’s the rule of life. If we don’t see people respecting us, most probably it was due to us ourselves who are not creating the cause for respect to come by. If we are to do our work well, without being lazy and sincere towards keeping performance to our level best and without having people to keep reminding us, we find ourselves to be useful and felt like being apart of the team. This is where we will feel our value and being an integral part of the team. This is when we will get respect, even from our own self. Thank you for the great points which looks simple and not rocket science but very useful to people especially for those who work in Dharma.
This is a good reminder to myself and everyone no matter whether it is circular or Dharma work. We should do our work with our best ability and not be selective in the tasks given.
These are the very good points that reminded all of us, who are working not only in Dharma but even in secular work. Yes, many of us, especially those working in secular world, work to support our life. But apart of a lot of money we get from our work, of less money we get from our work, work as a team is very important. In working life, we don’t just work because of work and living, we need to accept and to be accepted by people working with us. Then only we can do our work well and stay long in the job. Love what we do, and do what we love, there are totally two different thing that worth for us to contemplate.
The 15 points are good reminder for people like us who are working too concentrated into secular world. My opinion is how we think when we were been assigned with tasks. Either job scope is within or out of our range, we do it not because to showing off but it’s a responsibility and also test of our abilities and attitude. If we can’t reached, we can ask others for help or advice. At least, we are trying our best and not throwing our responsibilities on others to do for us.
I totally agreed with these points that Rinpoche had pointed out. All these points are about us practice to transform, which included our habits, behaviour, attitudes, motivation and our attentiveness.
This is a beneficial article to reread, share and discuss not only among all who work and volunteer in any dharma organisation but also in secular organisations.
Tonight (2/7/2019) at Kechara Forest Retreat, in our weekly blog discussions, we read through and talked about these points. The general consensus is:
To do the best in the work/task assigned to us even if we do not like it because we get paid.
Whether within the Dharma or the commercial work place, these 15 points as taught by Rinpoche are very important to learn and practise. The best is for us to remember these 15 points and master them.
The people and space around us will be so much better off and do not need to deal with the “ups and downs” of our beings. If no time is wasted to keep us on track, then a lot more can be done to benefit and enhance our being and our work. In the Dharma work place a lot more can be done to benefit others.
I absolutely love the 15 reasons stated here. It’s a very good reminder whenever one slack and need motivation. It’s not only applicable for work or Dharma but in many aspects of our daily life. Responsibilities are not just at work. Our family and friends should also be treated equally. And with those reasons, we should always push ourselves to be helpful for others instead of just thinking selfishly. Respect need to be earned not given. Always do our best in whatever is tasked onto us and benefit others.
Very good 15 points that Rinpoche listed out. Will try my best to practice these 15 points all the way in my Dharma practice. I really admire and respect the person with these 15 points. All the best to his/her future undertakings. Thank you Rinpoche for sharing these 15 good points for our dharma practice ????
Very good 15 points that Rinpoche listed out. Will try my best to practice these 15 points all the way in my Dharma practice. I really admire and respect the person with these 16 points. All the best to him/her. Thank you Rinpoche for sharing these 15 good points in our dharma practice ????
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing the 15 valuable points for us to practise well in Dharma. No one is born perfect with Dharma practice but through the right effort and determination to study, contemplate and practise the Dharma consistently, everyone can show progress in our mind transformation from negative to positive state that can bring out the kindness, compassion and care for others from our inside out. Particularly, point no. 9 which describes about not being selective in Dharma work has left a deep mark in my mind. If we are selective in Dharma work, it means we tend to protect our own interest and comfort zone that shows the selfishness in us evidently. By not choosing any Dharma work which we like or do not like, we can help to lessen the burden of the working team and become flexible to complete all the tasks quicker and smoother, and eventually can spread the Dharma to others faster too.
May all the 15 points in this article can reach to more people who are new in Dharma and help them to succeed in their Dharma practice.
Thank you Rinpoche with folded hands,
kin hoe
Straight, honest and real advice on how to work and achieve success.
All the points seem like points that are very easy to follow, but when we really do so, it would be much harder then we think so. It is the perception and discipline that we have to keep up with that makes these points difficult. Also because of our negative karma that stops us, sometimes we will not be able to fully follow the pointers, but if we believe and trust in our lama, we will definitely be able to do so.
[…] 15 points […]
This 15 points are the qualities and values that everyone should follow. We are not perfect and have our own habits and behavior, but that’s not the excuse we cannot do our work well.It is our laziness that make us not perform. Integrity, taking responsibility and doing our work well will gain us respect.
Thank you, Rinpoche, for this teachings which are so relevant and true.
I like the point when Rinpoche said “You take dharma work of any sorts seriously. You are not selective in dharma work. Dharma work is dharma. All dharma benefits so no point to be selective. Just do it and smile.”
This is so true, since I choose dharma work over secular work and purpose is to benefits others, there is no way to be selective and JUST DO IT with smile !
Respect is essential when we are working with many people and in a big organisation and trust and respect comes hand in hand most of the time. So if respect exists so much more work gets done and easier to work with them.
Thank Rinpoche for this Kechara Memo 🙂 , I really do find I learn much much more about myself, people and how to do work much better in Kechara and we get feedback and guidance as to how to do better when faced with changing conditions.
Thank you Rinpoche for giving us such a great teaching. These 15 points will serve as the guiding lines for me to check my mind everyday. All these points shows that by doing my assignments well is not about ourselves any more. It is about others. It is about the hope and expection others have in me to accomplish the assignment. It is about the kindness I have toward the people I work with (my team) or the people who will be benefited if i ahve done my assignments well. The more excuses or judgements we put up such as I do not like the assignment, I have no time, I do not like the person I work with, I got kids to take care of, I got husband and in laws to serve and the list go on and on. The excuses that i put up are in fact our own responsibilities or i shall call it as our life assignments which needed to be carry out everyday. Hence, these 15 points are valid too. We could gain respect from our in laws, husband even our kids, our colleagues, our staffs and our friends. This is dharma too.
Thank you Rinpoche, this 15 pointers are very important when working in a team and applicable to any work, not just dharma work. Will forward this to my workmates and boss =)
Thank you Rinpoche for these very useful 15 points for us to self check in doing dharma as well as secular work.
If we can be mindful of all the points effortlessly, we would have given some happiness to all those that work with us.
I can’t help thinking how nice it would have been if only I could at least make people that I come across in dharma and secular work lighter and happier.
Once we change our perspective from working just for the sake of getting the job done or to pay our monthly bills and material means, Dharma work becomes a wonderful platform to develop ourselves in terms of qualities we have and don’t have. The care that we put into our work is a spiritual practice to lessen our selfishness. Through Dharma work, we learn to respect, develop integrity & reliability and so on. To me, doing any work done well is compassion by being responsible. There is many more one can gain from doing good work with this in mind.
For example, when we can accept any jobs regardless how humiliating it may seem, we learn to be humble. When we stop being selective with our work, we learn to stop being selective of who we like and don’t like. We learn acceptance. We should keep this in mind daily and that is how you can see a person starts to change over time by doing work for this reason. Work becomes a spiritual practice – it’s called dharma work.
These 15 pointers are excellent to be applied by everyone regardless doing dharma or secular work. This will be one of the blog topics for Kechara Paradise staff to read in preparation for their next blog quiz.
When we do any work with good motivation, the result will be positive. Good begets good. It is only logical.
Thank you Rinpoche for useful 15 pointers. At first it seems like there is a lot we need to be mindful. However, when I reflected upon them with eyes closed but mind open, my heart feels good with each point because they are all very agreeable and accords with my own experience whenever I get my motivation, efforts and goals right- which is to max my potential and to not compromise on any efforts which benefit others whether acting alone or as a team.
The nature between Dharma work and wordly job outside there is slightly different.
In corporate world, we are forced to compete with the colleagues and working damn hard to reach the KPI. We are forced to perform well and nobody cares what you feel at all.
Im glad that i could work for Dharma now. My 2 months in corporate world made me realised that what i want in my life is to give not take from others. And this is a pretty good guideline for all the Dharma workers. Working for Dharma doesn’t mean that we could work ‘freely’ and layback. We should need work smart,harder and with integrity, not for money sake, but is to serve the Dharma and all sentient beings. I love this guideline, thank you Rinpoche!
I think a lot of us just want to “get things done”. But to get it done, is it our best or simply just to get it done. We might put in a lot of effort but it might all turned out wrong. Perhaps it has a lot to do how much we actually value our work. We take such good care of ourselves, making sure we are being treated well simply because that we care. If we apply the same care to our work, and sincere. We will produce better work.
Thank you Rinpoche for the points. It was well written and explained in manner that everyone can understand easily. I like all the points especially point 15… I will always do my best in whatever is assigned to me…I will not give up nor forsake my Lama…
This is good advice which can even be applied to the secular world. I was going to pick my favourite point then found that they are all good! If we perform well, people will trust, accept and respect us. Rinpoche has always stressed the importance of keeping our promises. Keeping good samaya with Rinpoche is key to receiving attainments in future.
I love this. I sneakily took this when I first saw it in an email Rinpoche had sent out and forwarded it on to some people that I work with. they are points that make total sense, not just in a Dharma environment, but in any environment, whether in work or even in our social interactions. A lot of it, I think, comes down to having integrity, taking ownership and responsibility for what we do and honoring our words.
Rinpoche said something very simple to us a few days ago which is related to this post: he explained that if we don’t fulfil what we’re supposed to do (no matter what it is, how secular/ easy / difficult/ worldly or Dharmic), and can comfortably just go home to sleep or whatever, it shows clearly just how selfish we are, because it means that someone else will have to give up their sleep and work extra hard to cover what we didn’t do. Any decent person shouldn’t want to create more burden or pain for another person, would they? No, I didn’t think so – so have some balls and do what you’re meant to do already!
Sometimes we focus on getting people accept our likes and dislikes or our strange character , does not realize that real acceptance by people comes from your qualities such as integrity and when we have all that, all of a sudden, your weird character become not so overt anymore and sometimes even accepted well by yourself and others.
many times when things gone wrong, we tend to push the blame out to others, but never realize that its our fault, when I read the 15 points, in my mine was keep thinking yes I know, this is commonsense what, etc. But when think deeper, actually how many of the above 15 points that I have fulfill? It is shame to said that, but, seems like there is still a long way for me to go, this 15 points will be a good daily sadhana for me.
Thank you Rinpoche for this message, yes, this not only suitable for one but it is suitable for many people, especially me.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing these 15 points with us. They are so relevant and true. They have been and still are continue to be my guiding principles in my daily work be it secular or dharmic till to-date. It helps alot!
Thank you Rinpoche for your deep concern in sharing these 15 invaluable points with us for doing Dharma work in our center. The most important thing, like all gurus said, is to have a good motivation and a good heart to benefit sentient beings in whatever we do as buddhists. Especially, when doing dharma work, we should not have a self-cherishing thought, anger and attachment. Working for the Dharma center is primarily helping to spread the Dharma, inspire and empower people from all walks of life to work and live on a spiritual and harmonious basis to benefit others. Youe 15 zero-defect points certainly make a wonderful and useful guide to help us towards doing dharma work skilfully with much wisdom to nuture,serve and bring people to Dharma practices. Thank you once again Rinpoche, for your care and compassion.
I Love all the 15 points it is very reasonable and it must be in any work and not Dharma work. I strongly feel that one should be fully committed and determination to stay committed may it be Dharma work is any course of work. We must put our hearts and minds to it. I cant wait to be there. I will come in soon. I find this 15point is extremely useful to me as a reminder. They all come timely for me. Thank you Rinpoche you seemed to touch every topic I have in my heart always at the right time. I believe nothing happens by coincidence but when I tend to worry and then I do my prayers everything seems to fall together. thank you very much I shall print this and have it paste in my dairy and read through it every day say my pledge before I start my work each. This is simple wonderful. Wonderful wonderful wonderful. Thank you _/\_
By doing our assignment well these are the 15 points that we gain.
These 15 points show me real dharma practitioners values and qualities.
We deliver our work well show our commitment and care to benefit more people.
That’s is what we want to achieve, to serve all sentient being.
In secular world, if we want to be successful and respectful all the 15 points is applicable too.
Is not about just how you want to do it but is how well you want to deliver it.
Thank you Rinpoche for the teaching.
Thank you guru for always remind us especially myself be always alert and handling issues skillfully.
Yes just do with a SMILE, thus definitely will bring PEACE to the surrounding people.
This is a good points as short motivation. Ya, keep the good job, mean we are compassion towards people around us, working with us. Thanks Guru for the sharing. I will share to my friends too.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing all these 15 points. It is easy to read and understand the points but when we want to practice it, we let our laziness and ego win. I saved it on my phone to read it again and again. There are many more teaching Rinpoche had taught before (like the teaching in “Peace” book), reading them back helps me to understand how much I’ve been holding on and let my untamed mind to win. Thank you Rinpoche and please rest well.
Thank you for these points this clearly shows the compassionate heart of this student and respect for others, whether in dharma or secular life it is great advice for having harmonious relationships with others.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing these points. It all lies in our hands whether we want to be good or bad. We have to train ourselves to be mindful and alert, this is not easy but once we are mindful, we will be able to do our works well and work as a team to achieve good results.
All those 15 points seems like very easy to understand but when you want to take action to do, It is not easy. After finished reading the 15 points, I know I need to make a change. To me this is very precious gift which Rinpoche give to me and all of us for Chinese New Year:)Like an alarm clock, always :ling…ling…”when I a bit go off, hehe!