Question asked by Concerned
Dear Rinpoche and pastors,
I saw Rinpoches youtube video on karma in relation to vows and inside Rinpoche mentioned that if we engage in practices without holding our vows perfectly we may end up harming those we care about and those around us.
I wonder if this is the reason why recently my dad has gotten rather negative in his thought and speech amongst other things like skipping his meals and my brother recently became rather absent minded.
I myself recently have been experiencing a feeling of heat in my eyelids while doing simple breath meditation.
I am willing to persevere through the uncomfortable eyelid sensations. But i am just worried if I am bringing harm to people I care about. And that thought has been making me consider seriously stopping meditation.
Please advice. I do breath meditation and chanting om mani padme hum. But sometimes I still accidentally kill ants or lie to people.
Please advice.
Dear Concerned,
Thank you for your question. In regards to your question related to keeping vows, I do not think what His Eminence the 25th Tsem Rinpoche spoke about resembles what you or your family is going through at the moment. This is because the Buddhist practices, which rely on enlightened beings who operate from ultimate compassion, do not harm others. Since the practices are based on ultimate compassion there can only be benefit from the practices.
What the cause of the harm or difficulties we go through is actually our accumulated negative karma. This is based on our delusions and obscurations to enlightenment. As long as we have these delusions, we will be suffering from the effects of our negative karma. That is why we as Buddhists seek to achieve enlightenment, which is a state free from all delusions and karma.
For more information about vows, you can read here:
Vows: The Roots of All Attainments: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/students-friends/vows-the-roots-of-all-attainments.html
For Those Who Hold Vows: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/for-those-who-hold-vows.html
The holding of vows is a beneficial act, because it stops you from creating negative karma, and therefore not having to suffer from the effects of that karma. When you do not keep your vows well, what happens is that you create negative karma, and allow previous negative karma to open up. This is because it is said that the cause resembles the act. Therefore if you kill someone, you create the potential karma to be killed in the future. But not only that, you also plant the imprint of killing in your mindstream, you are more than likely to engage in the act of killing in future lives. This would obviously add to the suffering that we and others go through.
When we hold our vows well, we are become virtuous people, but when we do not, such as often telling lies, this would obviously hurt both ourselves and those around us in the end. Therefore, although vows are so beneficial, breaking them without the specific intent of breaking them, can be repaired by realising what you have done, and using the four opponent powers to repair the vows. The ability to which you can keep your vows is a gradual process. As you train yourself over time to keep to them stronger, you will be creating less and less negative karma.
In regards to the problems you have written about, these are all due to some form of negative karma ripening. Therefore, if I may, I would like to suggest that you engage in a purification practice such as Vajrasattva (https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/prayers-and-sadhanas/an-important-purification-practice.html) or the 35 Confessional Buddhas (https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/the-35-confessional-buddhas.html). Coupled with this, you can engage in the combined practice of Lama Tsongkhapa and Dorje Shugden (http://www.dorjeshugden.org/practice/diamond-path-a-daily-sadhana-of-dorje-shugden) if you are able to. These practices are all excellent in helping to overcome these sorts of occurrences. I hope this helps. Thank you.