Comfort Prisons
Pain and suffering does not necessary lead to failure. It’s just how we want to use it and how we want to move on from it. People who had it easy with money, stable family & support have little reasons to not succeed except going past their comfort zones to do more. Comfort zones might be set up by our mind that does not wish to encounter any pain for others or inconvenience ourselves. But then we might fall behind…going past our comfort zones benefits others and ourselves in the long run. Don’t make our own prisons…
Tsem Rinpoche
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Pain and suffering may not be negative. If we view it positively, it is a process for us to learn and improve our ourselves so we can do better. Therefore set the right mindset and motivation when we face with various challenges.
One of the reasons why we suffer is due to the expectations and projections we have on things that happen to people around us. Most of us only accept what makes sense to us and reject the rest, it’s no one’s fault, without the Dharma, we will not even be able to differentiate what’s right and what’s wrong. Therefore, Dharma is indeed very important especially during this current era.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this short but powerful teaching. This place was where Rinpoche had stayed when he first arrived in Gaden Shartse in fulfillment of his promise to his root Guru -Kyabje Zong Rinpoche -to become a monk. As we can see, this place was no better than a cowshed.Yet, it never troubled Rinpoche at all to stay in this place. He continued to help and benefit others and even helped a fellow monk by fixing his leaking roof and constructing some shelves for him, when he was badly n need of these himself. Thus did he manifest the practice of going beyond his comfort zone to practice real dharma that would ultimately lead to real happiness.
Rinpoche used this ‘opportunity’ to take suffering into the path of his Dharma practice. He did not allow himself to wallow in his comfort zone and react negatively to the pain and suffering. He did not set up his mind to be averse to any pain and suffering. He was able to go beyond that. When we can go beyond our pain and suffering and not let our minds yield to our comfort zone and be imprisoned by it, we can then bring benefit to others and ourselves. Let’s strive to not get stuck in our comfort zones , or we’ll never get out of it.
Going beyond our comfort zone are definitely not going to be easy. We will be afraid and fear does engulf our confidence, yet we shouldn’t let these things keep us put. This reminds me of Rinpoche teachings of “Something Wrong?” https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/something-wrong.html
When we fight ourselves and challenges ourselves to go further we might succeed something big. We might fail a few times, yet we will succeed if we don’t give up to the things that we perceived wrong and limit ourselves to it. Success is based on the attitude, we have to be positive with all the hardships and failures, and keep on try again but remembering the past experiences so that we would not make the same mistakes again. Therefore go beyond the comfort zone and don’t leave any regrets in life.
This is a message to myself as well.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this.
Most of the time we would not want to push ourselves to our limits or moving out of our comfort zones because we think that we are not able to do greater things like that. But in actual fact, we are able to do great things. It is just because of our negativity that caused us to not be able to do some of the things that we want to.
An example would be when we are required to do something and we just procrastinate or do not wish to do it due to our laziness. In this case, our laziness is manifested from our negative karma to stop us from moving forward.
If we all just stay within our comfort zone and not push ourselves to improve, we will forever not achieve what we want to. Instead, we will be bitter and sad because we are only sorry for ourselves, not understanding that the problem lies on ourselves.
Comfort zones are prisons for sure with the only exception being that it is the only prison where we lock ourselves in. When we come to think about it, we spend virtually all our lives avoiding pain and discomfort and all our energies are channeled towards that goal and yet there is no place where we are free from pain and suffering. It is a futile exercise but by the time we realize that we have already boxed ourselves within our perceived limitations.
The practice of the Eight Worldly Concerns trains us to head towards the opposite direction and to experience for ourselves that pain and suffering is only a state of mind generated by our self grasping. As long as we have that mind, life itself is a prison.
This is a brief and yet concise teaching by Rinpoche and I have always liked the picture of Rinpoche in the old shed he used to live in while at Ganden Monastery. You can see Rinpoche reminiscing of his time in the monastery which he treasured and didn’t mind the less than perfect conditions.
It is SO MUCH MORE EASIER for one to stay in comfort zones, we don’t have to feel pains, loses and make our lives difficult. Who would want to step out walking under a big sun when it can be so chilling sitting in our well conditioned room??
Yet, I feel that this world has its own interesting way of arranging things: If we don’t give, we don’t get. If we keep protecting ourselves from pains, one day the pain can come so big that we find it tremendously hard to face it, and by that time, we may hope that we had gone through the sufferings before so that we can be better prepared.
It is always good to be able to do more than what one sees as extra. I feel that it is good to be able to give, because we give ONLY when we have something, and it is better to give than to take.
Thank you Rinpoche. I was reminded of the following passage from Ani Pema Chodron’s “Comfortable with Uncertainty”:
“A teacher once told me that if I wanted lasting happiness the only way to get it was to step out of my cocoon. When I asked her how to bring happiness to others she said, ‘Same instruction.’ This is the reason that I work with the aspiration practices of the four limitless qualities of loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity: the best way to serve ourselves is to love and care for others. These are powerful tools for dissolving the barriers that perpetuate the suffering of all beings.”
Thank u rinpoche.
A lot of times we are the culprit ourselves who limit our own ability and growth. We set out box and keep ourselves in it because we are comfortable. Now that I have said it, it is time to break free!