A powerful speech on Failing
Dear Blog friends,
I came across this speech by J.K Rowling (author of Harry Potter) and was amazed. There’ s much wisdom, Dharma, insight and very beneficial advice if we embrace it. Reading it has helped me today. I will read it again and again from time to time. I really like it. I wanted to post this because I wanted all my friends to read the wisdom it contains. It is not in any context except coming from a person who has championed against the many vicissitudes of life. It reaffirms my belief that struggles and harshness makes a person win eventually. Difficulties shape a person’s strength they didn’t know they had sometimes. Vicissitudes in the end becomes the best teacher and embrace it. I didn’t say enjoy it, but embrace, learn, and don’t get swallowed up by it, but move on. Moving on is learning. Avoiding difficulties puts you back into mental complacency and claustrophobic states that only gets bigger with time.
What Ms. Rowling said is not dry or boring or academic. It is so full of wisdom. But to read and be inspired for the day is not enough. To read and shed a tear or say wow the lights came on in my mind is not the purpose of this post. The purpose is to help you ‘liberate’ you from you I sincerely hope. To help you overcome your fears to move on. Fear never really goes away, but why hold onto old fears? Old fears when overcome make you stronger to challenge bigger and more worthy fears that needs to be conquered for success. Yes for success. Who does not want to succeed. Why do some people become mentally unstable? Perhaps fear of not succeeding or not achieving what they set out to do? Maybe. I can only hypothesize. Some even opt out to disappear and go away? Why? They are not running away because of you, but because of the glint of their potential you show them but they are afraid of this potential. Why afraid, because they know there will be failures before the rainbow, and they don’t focus on the rainbow.
I decided to do a reading on tape and post it here. I sincerely from the bottom of my heart wish to share this with all of you. I am not a fan of Harry Potter (sorry). I did not enjoy the movies much. I did not read the book, nor intend to. But I admire and respect the author. You see just because I do not particularly favour her work does not mean it is not excellent, which it is. Her work is excellent. Ms Rowling is excellent. Her fortitude to do what she dreams after decades of struggles and humiliation rings terribly loud in my head. I respect her so much for doing what she wanted to do against what society says she has to do. She didn’t fight society, her parents or her poverty. She didn’t enjoy her poverty. But she saw the worth in it. She saw who she is today is what she embraced of herself in the past. Embracing the past should not be future tense. Embracing yourself means to do what you need to do no matter what the struggles are. What the difficulties you have to endure. Just do it.
Tsem Rinpoche
Text of J.K. Rowling’s speech
‘The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination’
This is Ms. Rowling’s entire speech.
source: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2008/06/text-of-j-k-rowling-speech/
Text as delivered.
President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates.
The first thing I would like to say is ‘thank you.’ Not only has Harvard given me an extraordinary honour, but the weeks of fear and nausea I have endured at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight. A win-win situation! Now all I have to do is take deep breaths, squint at the red banners and convince myself that I am at the world’s largest Gryffindor reunion.
Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility; or so I thought until I cast my mind back to my own graduation. The commencement speaker that day was the distinguished British philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock. Reflecting on her speech has helped me enormously in writing this one, because it turns out that I can’t remember a single word she said. This liberating discovery enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertently influence you to abandon promising careers in business, the law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard.
You see? If all you remember in years to come is the ‘gay wizard’ joke, I’ve come out ahead of Baroness Mary Warnock. Achievable goals: the first step to self improvement.
Actually, I have wracked my mind and heart for what I ought to say to you today. I have asked myself what I wish I had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons I have learned in the 21 years that have expired between that day and this.
I have come up with two answers. On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to talk to you about the benefits of failure. And as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called ‘real life’, I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination.
These may seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but please bear with me.
Looking back at the 21-year-old that I was at graduation, is a slightly uncomfortable experience for the 42-year-old that she has become. Half my lifetime ago, I was striking an uneasy balance between the ambition I had for myself, and what those closest to me expected of me.
I was convinced that the only thing I wanted to do, ever, was to write novels. However, my parents, both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing personal quirk that would never pay a mortgage, or secure a pension. I know that the irony strikes with the force of a cartoon anvil, now.
So they hoped that I would take a vocational degree; I wanted to study English Literature. A compromise was reached that in retrospect satisfied nobody, and I went up to study Modern Languages. Hardly had my parents’ car rounded the corner at the end of the road than I ditched German and scuttled off down the Classics corridor.
I cannot remember telling my parents that I was studying Classics; they might well have found out for the first time on graduation day. Of all the subjects on this planet, I think they would have been hard put to name one less useful than Greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom.
I would like to make it clear, in parenthesis, that I do not blame my parents for their point of view. There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you. What is more, I cannot criticise my parents for hoping that I would never experience poverty. They had been poor themselves, and I have since been poor, and I quite agree with them that it is not an ennobling experience. Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression; it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticised only by fools.
What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure.
At your age, in spite of a distinct lack of motivation at university, where I had spent far too long in the coffee bar writing stories, and far too little time at lectures, I had a knack for passing examinations, and that, for years, had been the measure of success in my life and that of my peers.
I am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young, gifted and well-educated, you have never known hardship or heartbreak. Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the Fates, and I do not for a moment suppose that everyone here has enjoyed an existence of unruffled privilege and contentment.
However, the fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggests that you are not very well-acquainted with failure. You might be driven by a fear of failure quite as much as a desire for success. Indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average person’s idea of success, so high have you already flown.
Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it. So I think it fair to say that by any conventional measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless. The fears that my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.
Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun. That period of my life was a dark one, and I had no idea that there was going to be what the press has since represented as a kind of fairy tale resolution. I had no idea then how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality.
So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.
Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above the price of rubies.
The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more than any qualification I ever earned.
So given a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two. Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone’s total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.
Now you might think that I chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of the part it played in rebuilding my life, but that is not wholly so. Though I personally will defend the value of bedtime stories to my last gasp, I have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense. Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared.
One of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded Harry Potter, though it informed much of what I subsequently wrote in those books. This revelation came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs. Though I was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours, I paid the rent in my early 20s by working at the African research department at Amnesty International’s headquarters in London.
There in my little office I read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by men and women who were risking imprisonment to inform the outside world of what was happening to them. I saw photographs of those who had disappeared without trace, sent to Amnesty by their desperate families and friends. I read the testimony of torture victims and saw pictures of their injuries. I opened handwritten, eye-witness accounts of summary trials and executions, of kidnappings and rapes.
Many of my co-workers were ex-political prisoners, people who had been displaced from their homes, or fled into exile, because they had the temerity to speak against their governments. Visitors to our offices included those who had come to give information, or to try and find out what had happened to those they had left behind.
I shall never forget the African torture victim, a young man no older than I was at the time, who had become mentally ill after all he had endured in his homeland. He trembled uncontrollably as he spoke into a video camera about the brutality inflicted upon him. He was a foot taller than I was, and seemed as fragile as a child. I was given the job of escorting him back to the Underground Station afterwards, and this man whose life had been shattered by cruelty took my hand with exquisite courtesy, and wished me future happiness.
And as long as I live I shall remember walking along an empty corridor and suddenly hearing, from behind a closed door, a scream of pain and horror such as I have never heard since. The door opened, and the researcher poked out her head and told me to run and make a hot drink for the young man sitting with her. She had just had to give him the news that in retaliation for his own outspokenness against his country’s regime, his mother had been seized and executed.
Every day of my working week in my early 20s I was reminded how incredibly fortunate I was, to live in a country with a democratically elected government, where legal representation and a public trial were the rights of everyone.
Every day, I saw more evidence about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans, to gain or maintain power. I began to have nightmares, literal nightmares, about some of the things I saw, heard, and read.
And yet I also learned more about human goodness at Amnesty International than I had ever known before.
Amnesty mobilises thousands of people who have never been tortured or imprisoned for their beliefs to act on behalf of those who have. The power of human empathy, leading to collective action, saves lives, and frees prisoners. Ordinary people, whose personal well-being and security are assured, join together in huge numbers to save people they do not know, and will never meet. My small participation in that process was one of the most humbling and inspiring experiences of my life.
Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people’s places.
Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral. One might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise.
And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are. They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know.
I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except that I do not think they have any fewer nightmares than I do. Choosing to live in narrow spaces leads to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors. I think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters. They are often more afraid.
What is more, those who choose not to empathise enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.
One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.
That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives. It expresses, in part, our inescapable connection with the outside world, the fact that we touch other people’s lives simply by existing.
But how much more are you, Harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch other people’s lives? Your intelligence, your capacity for hard work, the education you have earned and received, give you unique status, and unique responsibilities. Even your nationality sets you apart. The great majority of you belong to the world’s only remaining superpower. The way you vote, the way you live, the way you protest, the pressure you bring to bear on your government, has an impact way beyond your borders. That is your privilege, and your burden.
If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped change. We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.
I am nearly finished. I have one last hope for you, which is something that I already had at 21. The friends with whom I sat on graduation day have been my friends for life. They are my children’s godparents, the people to whom I’ve been able to turn in times of trouble, people who have been kind enough not to sue me when I took their names for Death Eaters. At our graduation we were bound by enormous affection, by our shared experience of a time that could never come again, and, of course, by the knowledge that we held certain photographic evidence that would be exceptionally valuable if any of us ran for Prime Minister.
So today, I wish you nothing better than similar friendships. And tomorrow, I hope that even if you remember not a single word of mine, you remember those of Seneca, another of those old Romans I met when I fled down the Classics corridor, in retreat from career ladders, in search of ancient wisdom:
As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.
I wish you all very good lives.
Thank-you very much.
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JK Rowling is an amazing and inspiring woman. Before she became a famous author, she had experienced all kind of hardships and failure in her life. She doesn’t see failure negatively, but she sees failure as an opportunity to grow stronger and to become better.
Her speech to the graduates is very motivating and inspiring. She said honesty is very important, we have to be truthful to ourselves then only we are able to really do the right thing than spending time and energy to pretend to be someone we are not. In life, there bound to be failures, it is unavoidable. Failure is nothing to be shameful of, but we can’t be defeated by failure, we have to learn from the lesson and be successful.
All successful people have failed many times in their lives but they never give up or become depressed. They are motivated by failures and they constantly look for ways to succeed. They may feel discouraged sometimes but they don’t let this feeling drag them down. They rebounce very quickly. Successful people like JK Rowling is a good example for us to be inspired by.
We all have our past experience be it good or bad that affect our thought and action. From this blog I learned that be whatever experience we had but what important is how we deal with a positive mind. Negative experience doesn’t mean we have to react in a negative way. It should teach us how to deal with it. In fact negative experience should fuel us to work positively and hold on with our dream and move on.
Failing is part of life and it should be taken in a positive way to improve situation.
I ready like JK Rowling speech, especially her determination and courage move me a lot. Having great suscess in her work, experiencing countless of failure and never give up. and the end the winner will be herself. In life nothing come easy and without failure. When we experience failure, we can learn more knowledge to overcome many challenge in our life. Never give up so easy whatever we do. If we countinue trying ,one day will receive good news.Just like JK Rowling story inspire many people around us.
We are born in samsara and there for sure will be a failure. Some people born in a wealthy family, to them, maybe they don’t face any failure in their life before. However, there are failures in life. Be it big or small. We must learn in every failure we made so that we won’t repeat the same mistake in order to achieve higher. Some people doesn’t have the merit to stay on. I am grateful that i met Dharma. I faced failure before, it’s rather a big one. It’s Dharma that helps me stand up again and walked out of it. It’s Dharma that helps me to calm my mind.
Rinpoche sharing helps a lots, Rinpoche pick the important points and explaining and keep emphasis them help me to understand deeply the whole speech JK Rowling , compare with i watch myself the speech may not give me so strong impact. Thank you Rinpoche. None of us like failure and JK Rowling had give us a very perfect way to look at it, she said “It is impossible to live without failing at something unless you live so cautiously, you might as well not have lived at all– in which case, you fail by default.” and failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. Such a powerful statement that will keep us has courage to face our failure and keep up our life.
Well share by Tsem Rinpoche & Rowling.
There is nothing to lose if we I try harder & never give yp!
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The fact that she lay it clearly saying she actually learnt the way to success through reflecting on her failings. She realised failings actually made her a better person and one has to fail in order to be able to be faster. Powerful sharing.
Many successful and powerful people have their stories to tell of how they had struggled, rejected, failed, endured humiliation, suffered; yet they plowed on, bounced back, did not give up and finally succeeded. J.K. Rowling is one of them. These people are an inspiration and sharing their stories helps to remind me of such. Like everyone else, I have to try it, fail, learn and repeat with better result. Experiences make us wiser.
It’s inspiring story of JK Rowling of her success. I do agree behind any success lay a lot of hardships and failure. We learned thru mistakes and experiences. Nothing comes easy in life, we need to work hard in order to exchange with a meal. Determination, courage and not giving up spirit were part of main source of the progress. Without such thought, nothing will ever work.
I really like her speech a lot. It is so true!Without failure, how can one learn, try harder, persevere and succeed. Although it can be hard for most people to go through failure, but I find most of it a great way to learn from mistakes. It’s are great ways to gauge how far we can go and push ourselves.
She gave very good advice that can suit not only the graduates but to all that read the article. It is especially good for those who rely a lot on books and not know the ‘real’ world or those who always have it easy. Falling and learning to stand up with courage and move forward without giving up is always one of the best ways to learn and also inspire those around us.
This is a good and inspiring article from JK Rowling. Her life story teaches us that failure is not the end of the road but if we know how to embrace and overcome that failure then we will rise up to become successful one day. With failure we will gain experience and become wiser not torepeat that failure again.
It is awesome to read of JK Rowling’s speech on failing. From reading her thoughts it is no surprise that she is such a successful writer.
To give a speech on failing at the commencement of Harvard is really something out of the box, because Harvard is a world class Ivy league institution which produces graduates who have become world leaders.
It is JK Rowling’s ability to embrace failing and not be engulfed by it that impacted me the most. She did not like poverty nor failings but she does not let it bring her down but rather to understand and to move forward. Her acknowledgment that living is not an easy task is also very inspiration.
Another thing which inspires me is how having worked with the disadvantaged people during her tenure at Amnesty International, she says that that it is not necessary to have to experience the same difficulties but to be one with the difficulties and be of help.
Not only does JK Rowling think out of the box she can also emerge out of self to be of assistance to others. Amazing and inspiration woman.
What JK Rowling said was very true “failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.” failures help us to examine ourselves about what work that we are most passionate about and what really matters in our lives at the end of the day and focus our remaining energy on that. Failures also help us to realise our inner strength and what we we can take because often time, when you are at the lowest cycle of your life, you have no choice but to tolerate certain things and grow from the experience.
It is not the case where we don’t know that failure is a reality of life, and to a certain extent accepts that failure can actually help us grow. We understand intellectually that the greatest achievers — past and present — also routinely experienced colossal failures. Yet, many still find it hard to accept failure. If fact, personally hate to fail and at times fear or dread it.
Reading this article, it reminded me that the difference between those who successfully overcome and the average person is that they didn’t give up and viewed failure as a critical enabler of their success. Just from the following paragraph, “Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above the price of rubies” it shows that she turned her failure into a motivator to move forward instead of allowing herself to dwell on the pain/shame associated with failure. Logical, considering that the faster you take a positive step forward, the quicker you can leave those unpleasant and debilitating thoughts behind. Interestingly, her perspective when it comes to failure is laden with more positive associations rather than the common negative connotations associated with regards to failure.
Another inspiring paragraph “Failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life”. She did not let her stumbles in life to continue to define her and separated her failure from her identity. Many of us make the mistake of re-playing the mistake (and wreaking our self-esteem and confidence whilst we are at it) that we lose sight of the fact that failing in this particular task is a totally different issue and doesn’t mean you are a failure. She also used her failure to discover what was really important to her which fuelled her journey moving forward.
Another good take away is her quoting Greek author Plutarch: “What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality”. Essentially we all have what it takes to make an impact and by our mere existence we are making impact at varying degree. The pertinent question is what impact are we making (positive or negative)? At the end of the day, are we living our lives meaningfully?
I like these enriching and enlightening talks very much. Both talks by Rinpoche and J.K.Rowling is extremely articulately put and profound. I enjoy surfing Graduation day speeches of esteemed universities and J.K.Rowling’s is definitely up there. She gave real advice to the Harvard graduates on what life often conjures up. Then the amazing synopsis and commentary by Rinpoche was very helpful to me and I am sure to many others too. I watch the teaching often. I thank Rinpoche for always going the extra mile by researching for good materials such as Miss Rowling’s and making the blog more amazing.
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you so much for sharing J.K. Rowling’s speech on failing. She speaks with so much wisdom and she learned that through failure, strength can be found. Her speech is very empowering. She is so wise and humble at only 40 years old and she has done so much for so many people. Thanks for sharing this.
Love,
Sean
Dear Rinpoche,
As what I understand is, failure can break us or make us. Failure is an experience to learn about ourselves, as Ms. Rowling said, “failure meant a stripping away of the inessential.” By experiencing failure, we tends to learn and realized what we are in bare, without any higher or lower expectation of ourselves. Failure enable us to train up our flexibility and adaptability of changes. If one can be flexible to be bent and not broken, one might be able to succeed in life. Stubbornness kills success and opportunities. Failure can very quickly sharpen our ability and skill in order to survive. Human’s survival instinct is very strong, never underestimate oneself nor look down upon ourselves to do things. Just let go and do, failure is a training ground and not a lifetime thing, after going through the failure phase, we can have a better tomorrow.
Thank you for sharing. Namtse!
Much love,
Carmen Lin
Thank you for sharing this speech from J.K Rowling with us Rinpoche, she is truly wonderful and this is a great speech. It really inspired me to do more for myself and others and to want to be successful in life. I admire J.K Rowling, she was one of my favourite writers when i was younger 🙂
The work J.K. Rowling has achieved is amazing coming from all the hardship and failures she has faced in life, coming out on top of all that she has been through is so beautiful.
It is true what she says “it is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.”. I believe a person who has suffered many failures and yet came out on top are the real survivors. A person who has always been successful and the first time meets failure usually affects them more. A person who has met many failures is experienced, knows how to appreciate the situation of success and the things that they have in times of failure.
I also agree with her statement “I would like to make it clear, in parenthesis, that I do not blame my parents for their point of view. There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you.”. I have met many youths that blame their parents for their position, I myself is embarrassed to say that at one point of time I have made that blame too. But I realized that the problem didn’t lie with my parents, but more rather it lied within myself. I got tired of playing the blame game and took it what they had always taught me growing up that was, to take responsibility for myself. Always reminding me that they weren’t always going to be around forever, and that I was already at the age that I should take responsibility for myself. And yes they were right. They still support me, still push me, still scold me, and most importantly still teach me consistently without fail.
I really liked what she said “Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected…” I feel that I understand what she says, by the failures I have experienced has been a learning experience for me. I feel take your failures should be a learning experience to not repeat that mistake again. That failure should help to push ourselves to succeed, to use it as a motivation to have a change of attitude to not get stricken down by it. I used to always put myself down by the constant failures in my life and just dwell in them, but the more i learnt from dharma, the more i learnt from my parents, just dwelling in them would not change anything, it would not benefit anything or anyone and that it would only make things worse. I soon got tired of myself just dwelling on my failures but rather use them to improve myself to succeed.
“Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it.” Many of us are driven to believe what is right and what is normal from society. Following everyone thinking that that is right. But I feel that that has only taught us to not be ourselves, to not use our brains, not use our imaginations but just be mindless followers. I feel many of us has to burst out of that bubble, not to say that you go against society and your parents, but be liberated by being yourself and doing what you think is right than just be doing what is ‘normal’ for society. If everyone had not burst out of this illusion, there wouldn’t have been great discoveries made, inventions, stories, etc.
I really enjoyed reading this article, this speech J.K. Rowling had spoke to harvard graduates. It only brings me a better idea of what failure brings. It reminds me not to give up on my aspirations and to accept failure. J.K. Rowling has been through a lot and I congratulate her on her success and hope she does not change who she is with her success and wealth. Thank you for sharing this speech Rinpoche, I really enjoyed the teaching from it.
J.K. Rowling’s speech certainly needs reading from time to time and over and over again to be able to grasp and benefit from a full understanding of the whole speech on many aspects and level. Like Rinpoche said, Miss Rowling is indeed an excellent person, well respected by many, with a good insight, and much wisdom, whereby her interesting speech will certainly be a beneficial advice for many to embrace, learn and share. As admitted by her, failure has taught many things about herself that she could have learned no other way! Through it, she now realised she has more discipline than she expected, and also surprised to find out that she had have friends whose value was truly above the price of rubies. That’s certainly certainly dharmic, isn’t it. Thank you so much Rinpoche,for sharing, it is indeed extremely enlightening.
Dearest Rinpoche,
As a huge fan of the Harry Potter series, I am truly amazed that the woman behind the book is just as mind blowing as her books. Am glad that you shared her speech here as I would not known. I particularly like what she said in her closing ~ As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.
It’s a really good reminder for me to make my life even more meaningful by doing more things that matters like Dharma.
With folded hands.
True rinpoche, this speech have really help me to go forward in everything and also dharma.
J K Rollings live in Edinburgh the town I stay and that always a good reminder of YES I CAN
Thank you Rinpoche and the team for all the efforts. Thank you for the blue highlighted lines that we can read and get the essence of it immediately.
Nobody likes the word “FAILURE” . Nobody can avoid failure too. It sounded bad but it’s not. It’s something very precious that we all should experience it in different levels, different time, different environment and different age. I must say my children do not have a strong foundation in our lives. Failure from time to time is actually good for them. Being their parent setting a good example is very important. A good example for them to buck up when they failed and some encouragement but not too much for them will be good. I love what J.K. Rowling said:
“Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuild my life”
7 years later, my two kids have grown up and stepped into the real world. I am glad i didn’t became the parents that telling them what to do for their lives. They both chose what they want to proceed. I know it’s not easy. Well, i do hope they would experience all the difficulties or failures now, so that they can learn to be strong and humble.
For me, I have wasted my life for a long time, doing what everybody is doing and pretending to be happy with. Yes, we are pretending. I would say, plastic! nothing is real. You do not know what’s behind it. Yet we are trying very hard to convince ourselves to go on with it. Please do not forget that we do have a choice. The choice is in our hands.
Miss J.K. Rowling mentioned that we are so comfortably hiding and refuse to know what’s is going on out there. We ignore what we do not feel comfortable with. Ignore does not mean it does not exist nor it will go away. A very good example, H.E. Tsem Rinpoche said, we just want to enjoy the food that beautifully and perfectly present in front of us but refuse to know, how much suffering of this living being need to bear. It’s life being taken, just for that particular meal. You chose not to imagine the facts behind it… Because you scare.
Working in Kechara Soup Kitchen, an NGO that serving hot meals to the poor, has changed my perception of people’s lives. The journey opened my eyes to their world. Not only that, it opened my heart to imagine the sufferings that they live with everyday which is out of i can imagine.
We have to step forward. We got to help each other. We cannot live a life by just pretending everything is perfect and wonderful. That life is not real. One day it will be gone due to the karma we have.
i hate life!!!!!!!
I couldn’t help not noticing your negative reaction towards this post. Perhaps life had really been hard on you and that’s why JK Rowling’s speech. She’s not denying that life’s difficult but it is actually outlining the benefits of taking a on a different attitude and approach that would make it easier and perhaps, we would lift ourselves out of this rut. Well, that’s just me talking.
This is precisely why I love Buddhism because this ‘religion/way of life’ has great wisdom to lift us above our mundane problems and see a bigger picture in life. Sometimes, it’s really important to see that life is not just about our problems and how difficult and unavoidable they are. I am not sure if you will see this but if you do, would appreciate what you think of what I have said.
Hello there, simply turned into aware of your blog thru Google, and found that it is really informative. I?m gonna watch out for brussels. I will appreciate if you continue this in future. A lot of other folks will be benefited from your writing. Cheers!
“I love Tsem Tulku Rinpoche’s teachings. I just watched your teaching about J.K. Rowling’s Great Speech. It is wonderful and powerful and honest teaching. I wish everyone will have the luck and karma to watch it completely. 🙂 I am now in Toronto. I wish I’ll be able to visit you or invite you to Toronto someday! Prostration to Tsem Tulku Rinpoche! I love bloody truths. Strip away our masks, let us stand alone naked and cruelly disclosed of all hidden sneaky egoistic tricks! Thank you gratefully Tsem Tulku Rinpoche.” ~ from Ogyen Tso posted on Facebook
I just read Rinpoche’s words and JK Rowling’s speech.
Both are inspiring and moving.
However, while I do agree with JK Rowling’s words on the power of imagining yourself into the lives of those who do not have our privileges, I believe it’s immensely more powerful for each and everyone of us who has this ability to imagine to physically put ourselves into the reality of those whose lives could never been as privileged. Meaning, actually going to see how the less fortunate live and actively using that imagination to think of ways to contribute to less fortunate lives. Hearing is good, seeing is believing but doing binds you spiritually.
The better our fortune in our current life, the greater the responsibility in making a difference for society. No matter how “tough” we think our current circumstances are, there’s always someone out there who’s physically suffering more than we are but through survival, be it by planning or via instinct, could be psychologically and emotionally stronger than we could ever be.
However, charity starts indeed at home. In order to help others, first we must help ourselves.
Conquering our own fears and recognising that even the presence of our fears serve the purpose of helping us to regain our freedom to move on. For fear is an easy but poor excuse that we tend to hold on to so we won’t be faced with a definitive outcome. The usual “what if” scenario which is popular among the Worriers…
Most of us are too focused on our fears that we forget some simple facts: if we focus too much on our fears, we will forget to look at the possibilities which are free of the fear; and that besides the fear, there are other goodness surrounding us for us to discover and cherish.
Fear blinds us while belief and hope liberate us.
I’ve personally made the mistake of listening to my fears and giving them much more importance than they deserved. And in so doing, neglected the possibility to build on a love and hope that would eventually and naturally have removed all the fears I was feeling.
But I now see that each mistake I make is a lesson on how to improve. Mistakes are lessons that are viewed as oversights but are really there for us to discover ourselves and to learn from an experience and ultimately become a better person.
But to recognise that, very often the mistake must first be made in order for us to feel the pain of loss and realise that goodness was within reach.
Are mistakes a necessary evil, even if they could potentially hurt ourselves and those we love?
If we don’t learn from them, then no, they are just evil. But if we recognise the value of our mistakes and use the learning to improve, perhaps mistakes aren’t so bad afterall. They may be painful but they do serve a purpose.
Nevertheless, whether we make mistakes or not, the lesson is in facing your fears, recognising them only as indicators and not obstacles and not letting these “indicators” distract you from what’s most important to you.
It’s the same with failures, hardships and suffering. Like fears, they serve the purpose of making us stronger.
Having only a penny to live on may be tough but it teaches us modesty. Where there’s a will, even a penny could be a fortune.
Knowing there’s pain in our hearts shouldn’t point our focus on the pain. Rather, we should rejoice in the fact that we are capable of feeling. In other words, look out for the positive side of each situation and rejoice in it!
There’re always 2 sides to a coin. It’s about choosing wisely. It’s about knowing that even if you chose wrong, there is a reason for that wrong choice. The reason may not be obvious to us immediately or even at all, but it’s there. It’s up to us to find it and embrace it. I may have to pay the price for having recently made a really bad mistake in my life but the prize is in finding me.
Life is a gift, no matter how tough or privileged. It’s what we make of the gift that counts.
Rinpoche, thanks for sharing these beautiful messages.
Sean
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing such a blast of a speech! I am still recollecting myself from the awe from Ms. Rowling’s words of wisdom.
It is powerful to read the clear illustrations on the benefits we can gain from experiencing failure. Failure is certainly a deep fear that haunts every individual. However, if we put into practice the honest advice Ms Rowling so generously shared in her speech, we will learn to develop the habit to embrace fear and grow as a person as well as begin the journey towards success. After all, it has been said that great success often arises from the experience of failure; Like the phoenix that rises from its ash.
Such a good speech by J.K Rowling. So good that if I don’t share is a crime. To deny that we have not failed even once in our life is to deny that we have not lived this life.
Thank you Rinpoche for posting such a great speech from J.K Rowling, she is not only a great author of the famous Harry Potter, but this speech show the other side of her which many may not see, because we only see what is in front of us, which is JK Rowling is a fantastic author of Harry Potter, but we did not see what is behind or her past which makes her the person who she is now.
It is from her experience of poverty, failure that makes her stronger who greet each day with an even more positive mindset, and what a great role model she is to many. with a determination and coupled with the imagination, which she fully utilize to her greatest advantage, she rise from failure, and stand even stronger on ground and propels herself towards achieving success, and not let the hardship that she endures in her early life an obstacle or a stumbling block to achieve success.
it is wonderful to see JK Rowling setting an example which has no boundaries for every one of us to emulate, never let failure bring us down and lose hope, but failing becomes an experience to climb up even stronger and face it with a positive mind and attitude. The likes of Thomas Edison, who failed thousand of times before he eventually invented the light bulb is a wonderful example, it is not how many time we fail, but its how many time we learn from the failure and learn from the mistake, and to reinvent and continue with the journey, which ultimately success is surely within reach, and benefit could be seen not to one self, but benefit many others.
If we can take failure as an experience for us as something which we can learn from, and understand why we fail, and using the power of the mind- Imagination, utilize it to stand up from the failure and change the motivation that this failure is not the end, but the start of a journey that i can share with others, so they also would not follow the same path, or even able to assist others when they fail. it will propel us to a higher ground of liberation from suffering, and becomes a role model for others to follow.
I thank you Rinpoche for this wonderful posting on JK Rowling speech on failure. I hope this post will benefit many and learn from. with folded hands.
Rinpoche,
Thank you so much for this dharma talk. It inspired me greatly and I want to link it to as many friends as possible. It’s something everyone can relate to. The feeling of “failure” is such an important topic to address. I have been feeling it strongly recently so this was extremely helpful. IMO it’s something we hear about in dharma, just like letting go or impermanence, that sometimes (at least for me) we might forget about or it slips through the cracks. It not only needs a constant reminder, like rereading this speech or re-watching this video, but is an ongoing process of learning. Thank you Seng Piow for editing the video.
Over the years, I have lived my life on the basis that failing is not an option, that I cannot fail, and in order not to fail, I must have a degree, a proper job, work hard and climb the ladder to be promoted to higher positions, and that happiness would come along the way if I follow this formula of life. If I were to feel stressful, very often I’m advised to cherrish myself to indulge in satisfaction and happiness obtain through material objects, which I don’t agree.
I have lived by this set of rules since I graduated from University and I worked like a bull with no sense of directions for the past 8 years. I’m not happy. I don’t feel secured. In fact I feel even more insecured. I feel suffocated. Because I am more afraid to fail in my life due to the expectations of what others have in me, including my own parents.
I began to rebel against my own ambition of climbing the ladder as I find no purpose in doing so. No doubt I need money in order to survive and to support my parents but I don’t find happiness or joy by climbing up the ladders to make more money in order to pleasure myself. Yes, I can donate the extra money that I make but more often than not I am reluctant to donate them because of the efforts I have put into and the sacrifice that I have made in getting the money in the first place.
Perhaps I need to allow myself to fail in order to rediscover myself. To allow myself to fail does not equate to allowing myself to be sloppy, to be lazy, or to take advantange of others in order to lessen my burden and responsibilities, but to leave my comfort zone and in search of true happiness. But, at this point, I still can’t let myself go.
Thank you Rinpoche for posting this very inspiring speech of JK Rowling, a speech embedded with innumerable pearls of wisdom. Thank you for giving a ‘commentary’ on it which is itself a Dharma teaching, full of gems of Dharma wisdom.
Indeed, coming just before the First Lamrim Retreat of this year and the all-important MBR event,this whole recording is very significant. As you have shown so clearly and with such great insight in your commentary and explanation, Rowling’s speech expounds the Lamrim in modern terms and contemporary language.Coming from a wordsmith and a ‘magician with words’ like Rowling, this speech cannot fail but make a mark on everyone who listens to it.
I would like to just focus on one of the many threads of wise thoughts propounded here. THrough Rinpoche’s commentary, I have come to understand the power of the imagination(according to Rowling) in empowering us with the capacity for empathy and compassion for those who need our empathy and compassion – this includes suffering impoverished beings, beings who have had their rights to life, liberty and happiness taken away from them.With imagination, we can experience their suffering and pain to that level where we can’t bear it anymore and must do something to alleviate it. That’s when true compassion is born. When, as Rinpoche points out, we can extend this power of empathy to all beings of the six realms of Samsara, bodhicitta is born.
Thank you Rinpoche for empowering us to take charge of our lives with this post.I will need to read and listen many times and let layer and layer of profound meaning seep into my mind-stream and become inseparable from the way I perceive myself and my relationship with the world.
Dear Rinpoche and SP,
Thank you very much for such beneficial blog that took so much hard work and time to benefit so many. I am sure that in every blog it is done the same way therefore we appreciate and THANK YOU sincerely with folded hands!
I have failed in many ways but I always believe and know that things will always be better! Every time I fail, I just start over again and it will never let me down. At times, I tried to run away and ignore but I know it’s there waiting until I face it. It is Rinpoche’s teachings that made me realize so much that what I have done is/was wrong and remind myself every time when that happens to be back on track again!
Thank you very much Rinpoche for all the things that Rinpoche have and will do to benefit so many more including myself.
Thank you Rinpoche. Right now I am trying to turn my life of utter failure into something positive. I think the MOST IMPORTANT thing to come out of my failure is to have come across your teachings. When I came across your teachings I was living in a homeless shelter in Alameda California. And you sent me the coffee table book, the first edition and the Tsong Khapa calendar. It meant so much to me because I felt so much that someone cared about me. Thank you Rinpoche.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this inspirational article.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this speech,
I thought I won’t understand much as my English is poor, but this is very very inspiring although I didn’t understand 100%.
Failure is the best lesson in the world if we know how to turn around from the typical thoughts. And the “imagination theory” really blow my mind.
Thank you Ms.Rowling, Rinpoche and SP for the messages, it’s really powerful.
I m looking forward for the Chinese translation and doing the subtitles, it’s so beneficial and inspiring.
Sorry for the “rendering” problems, I truely understand how it feels and I really would like know is there any solution for this. Will find it out with Chris.
I feel like It’s time for an honest look at myself… again. Everytime I fail I just get back up again more determined.
From all my own personal sufferings and failures I have been made much stronger than all my success. Small triumphs mean much more to me after so much failure. Large triumphs mean more to me than a person who has never suffered much difficulty. Objectively it is the same triumph, but subjectively I know it means more to me because I have to overcome more to achieve the same result.
I am like the person who is happy with the ‘failure’ of earning 10 million instead of 20 million. I am not like the person who feels like a failure because their expectations were set in stone of how it should be.
I’ve got to stop running away from the truth…
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you for posting JK Rowling’s speech and for Rinpoche’s care in spending so much time sharing your views with us. We are so grateful to be able to listen to Rinpoche. It is such a powerful speech (and talk) that need to be read over and over again, to appreciate it. I have saved it on my laptop and also wish to share it with my friends if I may. With folded hands: judy
Dear Judy, I am going to read over her speech from time to time again also. She speaks like a wisdom Tara. TR
Wow! The speech by JK Rowling was very inspiring, what’s more, Rinpoche has expanded on her speech into an excellent Dharma talk! So much has been published about her earlier days that one cannot help but marvel at the huge success she has right now is truly the results of her perseverance and hard work. There is a lot to take in from this 2 hours of video, but I particularly like when JK Rowling said this : “I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was…” A lot of us spend much of our time trying to be what others want us to become simply because we want to be accepted by our parents or peers but that may not necessarily make us happy. Each of us are gifted in our own way, and we must recognize that beauty that lies within us and make use of that gift to benefit others. Pretending to be someone else will not take us far. Sometimes our background and experience in life, good or bad, will inspire others or comfort them when they most needed it. Personally, I liked what Rinpoche said about finding that ‘green room’ as I have to work on telling myself that I can live in that ‘green room’ and say ‘what’s the big deal?’
Dear Rinpoche,
I’m one of those who has failed miserably in life and facing the darkest moments of my life (just like Ms. Rowling..left with nothing in life). To me that light at the end of the tunnel is neither reality, nor even a glimmer of hope. Rowling’s experience, to me, is true to life for me except that I do not have an old typewriter, nor a big idea….nor imaginative except an unstable mental state…and all those other excuses you alluded to.
Your reading of her speech and your added thoughts is loaded with many useful advice/tools for those who are experiencing utter failure. If only there were a book of magic formula – step by step in practical terms – to get out of the hole we’re in, wouldn’t that be more directly beneficial who are less able to take in the profanity of her wisdom?
Or do we have to accept the fact that in this world there will always be those like Ms. Rowling who can help themselves out of failure and those who will will never stand a chance to recover because they just don’t know how in their mind state (no-hopers)? I’m asking as one who sees himself as belonging to those who are too weak to help themselves.
I think it’s going to take a lot more than just watching this video to help one learn from failure and make life better. Thank you for staying up all night in putting this video for the benefit of us all.
Dear ST,
There is a “book of magic formula – step by step in practical terms – to get out of the hole we’re in”. It’s called the Lamrim, or “Liberation in the palm of your hand”, which is in everything Tsem Rinpoche teaches.
We do not need to leave it to chance. By you coming to this blog already shows that you have a karmic affinity with Buddhism which is the guiding light to get out of suffering. It is Buddha’s 4 noble truths http://blog.tsemtulku.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/uncategorized/magic-4.html. If people truly wish to stop the cycle of suffering, they can choose to learn and practice Dharma as taught by Lord Buddha which is guaranteed to take one out of suffering. Yes it will take a lot more than just watching this video but Tsem Rinpoche has very kindly provided a treasury of teachings on this blog and the youtube which can begin to set the foundation for a happier future.
Wishing you well.
I have read JK Rowling’s speech twice and I could read it again and again…. it is almost like she is speaking to me….
I reckon everyone one of us have gone through some trials and tribulations in life, some are bigger and some are smaller; some got out of it quicker and some got out of it slower….
Whatever it might be the case, I believe everyone of us possesses the power to affect others’ lives, be it a big way or a small way. No doubt that JK Rowling’s story is very inspiring and empowering as she has gone from rock bottom to sky high, and turned once considered a failure into a sparkling success.
I see alot of great examples in Kechara too, many hard working liaisons, staff or volunteers have helped turned other people’s lives around, be it a big way or a small way…..
And it is through this spirit, that we all keep evolving, to be a better mankind…
Thank you Rinpoche and SP for spending so many hours in preparing this blog for everyone here,including myself to be inspired to do what JK Rowling has achieved.
And many of those who go thru these trying times (failure) often suffer in silence not knowing which way to turn for help. Seeking refuge in Rinpoche, the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha is a blessing if they come by the opportunity but the help that people in the Kechara community like yourself is rendering to these people is just as effective in bringing about a positive change in their lives. Keep it up Margaret and there will be many more J Rowling stories to tell!
thank you Dear Rinpoche,this is so true,and very close to my heart!!
Such a powerfull speech. When I look at my life I feel numb. At age 47 I still don’t know what I want to do with my life. I envy people like her who know from an early age what they want to do and do it. She knew what her gift or talent was and poured her heart into it. I am still searching for what gift or talent I have to offer the world. My wish to anyone graduating and starting out on their life is to know what you like to do; and find a way to make a living doing it.
Thank you Rinpoche, for the wonderful video. I’m so sorry Rinpoche and SP had to endure so much difficulty just to get the video available for all of us. It made me wish i had a little knowledge on increasing video editing efficiency to pass it on.
I’ve watched the video and read JK Rowling’s speech above, and thought, well that’s the most beneficial 2 hours i’ve spent today. A lesson on life is always great to listen to.
Listening to the commentary has helped me to understand myself a little bit better, where my previous actions/behavior have stem out from etc; and it will without doubt help me in the future, for there are many things coming my way and i hope through reflecting on this, i’ll be able to tackle the situations i’m thrown in with a more ethical approach.
I have not fully understand(?) the commentary and i will have to watch the video again just like how Rinpoche advised. But if there was anything at all that i’ve learned from it, it would be that neither success nor failure is ever final.
Thank You Very Much Rinpoche.
Dear Rinpoche
Thank you so much for sharing Ms Rawlings’ inspirational speech on failure and the power of imagination. Thank you for taking the time and care to explain indepth the true meaning of her speech. In fact, it’s so powerful that I will use this video to share with others and for myself to listen and to read it over and over again as guidance in daily lives. Rinpoche manage to convey deep and difficult message into something easy for all to understand. Who, what, when and how we want to be or achieve is all in our own hands.
Regards…mayy
Dar May, Yes do use the video to share with others. Anyone may use it. TR
In an instant, all our failures can become foundations of, if not success, then the basis upon which we live lives that are beneficial to others. Or we can get stuck in our failures and be in denial.
In the same instant, that little light and the end of the tunnel stops becoming a mere wish (which makes us complacent), or an on-coming train (which makes us phobic of more failures)but an incumbent reality. It that moment when we decide it is a potential, we start moving towards it again. All these time, we were hoping that it would move towards us instead, as we were gripped by fear. So we stayed still.
It depends on whether we see our life’s experiences and the many mistakes as waste material or raw material. They are the same but it is how we see them.
This video is a precious gift of wisdom, which i would not have had the attainment to acquire on my own.
Rinpoche,
This is tremendous – I shall have to read this over and over again because as you know, I am the queen of fear of failure. How silly it is that we can imagine such tremendous disasters in our minds when we could use that same power of imagination to dream up something wonderful. How silly it is that we believe our own destructive imaginations too, knowing them to be just that – imagination.
Ms Rowling’s reality – the wizards, the death eaters, the monsters – may not seem like a viable one to many of us, but it’s certainly one that has bought the success. There’s plenty a leaf to be taken from her book – she’s shown us how even the most impossible imaginations become the most tremendous successes and realities.
I’ll remember what Rinpoche said to me recently: “why is it that what you tell yourself about being not-good-enough, or being a failure is “true”; but what other people tell you about being successful and good, is NOT true?” Why do we believe the realities we believe and get ourselves stuck?
Thank you Rinpoche.
Thank you for all the efforts, thank you so much 🙂
Dear Jp, Ms Rowling was born in 1965, the same year as me. TR
Dear Rinpoche,
Wow! Ms. Rowling’s speech is so powerful and empowering! It makes so much sense that when we are at situations where we fear the most and we’re still alive, there’s no where else to go but up. As Rinpoche, summed it up perfectly, JUST DO IT!
Ms. Rowling is so wise and humble and she’s only in her early 40s! I will definitely share this post with all my friends. AND remind myself always when my fears creep in, stopping me from achieving my goals. Thank you so much Rinpoche!
Love,
JP
Dear Liaisons, Depts, students, members, treasured friends,
I came across this incredible speech given at Harvard by J.K. Rowling. I gave my thoughts on it. Please watch.
It will help many. She speaks with so much wisdom, understanding & acceptance. Not once do you hear defeat, but quiet strength arising from understanding truth that she experienced in life.
I did a reading of the speech and added my thoughts. I request everyone to take a look. I have learned from her speech & I think you will too if I may.
Tsem Rinpoche
P.s. It took us two hours to tape my commentary on the speech. And it took another 8 hours or more to render (transfer the tape into a format it can be burned onto cd/for youtube). Then finally another two-three hours again to upload onto youtube. So it was like 12 hours to complete this blog post…but got it done. I felt the speech is really helpful hence the time spent on this blog post. You have to read it a few times to fully grasp the meaning on many levels.
Seng Piow stayed up all night working on it. I fell asleep around 4AM and couldn’t wait anymore. I had alot of reading to do yesterday…
within a week or two, we will have the whole thing translated into Chinese, so my commentary will have Chinese subtitles. It is good to see the commentary in English first then read the Chinese later. You can learn from this I am hoping.