Suffering of Samsara

Given by the 12th Kenting Tai Situpa at Palpung Sherabling, December 2004.
Transcribed by Chang Chin & Changchub Saldon

Teaching Chapter 6 & 7 and Practice Chapter 6 & 7

Suffering of samsara or shortcoming of samsara, that is the fourth contemplation. And before going to the teaching, we have to learn the definition of samsara .

What is samsara?

What is samsara? We are in the middle of samsara; therefore, it is very, it is little difficult to see what is samsara because we are in the middle of it. It is like explaining what is ocean to a jellyfish by another jellyfish. If jellyfish can see something other than the ocean, then it is not a jellyfish anymore. Of course, I am not a jellyfish, you are not jellyfish too. But anyway Samsara means everything that we know, everything that we do, everything that we hear, everything that we see, we are seeing the samsara. Samsara is translated into Tibetan language, samsara is Sanskrit language, so it is translated into some Tibetan as Khor Wa . Khor Wa . Khor Wa means just going in circle. So Samsara means, if I go with a little bit of a sentence in English, you know, short sentence: round and round in samsara's endless circle . You get it? From sorrow to sorrow our mothers go in circle . To help free them to find joy eternal; To help them to find joy eternal, eternal joy, everlasting , eternal, we must use our body, speech and mind to the full, to the full ,complete. So now being say that samsara means from the highest of the sentient being to the lowest of the sentient being, everyone is doing everything that they could just like all of us to avoid suffering and to acquire happiness, everyone. And we do that because I want to be happy, and I don't want to suffer. And my family and my friend, I want them to be happy and I don't want them to suffer. That is what everybody is doing, from the highest of the God, to the lowest of the hell, everybody is doing that. So, this way we will never attain everlasting happiness or joy. And this way we can never be free from suffering forever. We can achieve some satisfaction and some happiness. We can avoid some suffering for some period of time, but nothing everlasting will be achieved by this way. Nobody has achieved, up to today. Therefore, there is no reason to believe anybody will achieve in the future. But everyone is trying, on this little beautiful planet earth, which we call home. More than five thousand million human being working very hard everyday, three hundred and sixty-five days every year, working very hard to achieve this. We build all kind of things to make us happy. We invent all kind of things to make us happy. And we make all kind of things to avoid our suffering. We make all kind of things to protect ourselves from harm; And we do our best with best of our ability of imagination , whatever we can imagine we try to put that into practice and make all kind of things. I give you very simple example. Every family make their home. Every community make their wall. Every country make their border. Then we try to entertain ourselves. First invention was fire to cook food . Then second invention is wheel to go from one place to the other . Third invention is club , club you know, to hit at somebody who is bothering you. And so from that kind of very basic inventions, then now we have all kind of things. For entertainment, we have DVD, and all kind of imaginations . We make into the reality and we watch them . It is very interesting to watch the latest animated expensive films, very interesting. It shows that the limitlessness of the mind. With big budget, and good actors and good clever computer animation specialists, we can make our imagination a reality in this much space. Then we can blow up to that much space, over there. If something is not there, that means that person did not manage to imagine. For communication, we have internet. It is more efficient than telephone . In telephone, it takes a long time; it is like giving a lecture. In the internet, you can just correct your friend's letter and send back and forth, just like that . Before you finish writing the full letter, you already are correcting the beginning. It is like Kung fu . Why? Because you know kung fu, that person punch and again go back and punch again. That is the old way. So samurai sort of kung fu is totally different. From the old ways, old ways. You don't waste any movement; every movement is fully efficient. That is not like cutting the tree with the axe, you know, one action, and then one preparation, and one action. So the internet is like that . Telephone is like old way. You talk, other one listen. Then other one finish, then you talk. Then other one listen. You know. We have achieved so much in samsara. You can be sitting in the desert and eating the tropical fruits fresh. And you are in the middle of the summer, forty-five degrees, and you can be drinking water with ice. Actually you don't have to fly over to see your friend, but you can see your friend and talk to your friend on your mobile phone. They can have a birthday cake for you; only thing is that you cannot blow it. They have to pretend that you are blowing, so you just go on your mobile phone. And then you cannot eat the cake, and they will eat it for you. So this way, we came very far . For health, if we have something in our stomach, they open us up and we don't feel anything and when we wake up, it is gone. Now they can even operate on you without becoming unconscious. So, you have a partition here, a curtain. You will be talking to your friend gossiping. And you can hear all the instruments things. Actually they already open up your stomach, and cut something out and put something back and sewed back. If you are a rich person, you can have a heart made out of plastic inside you. If you are not that rich, then you can have it in a box and carry it here. Like a camara. So there is so much we have. But does that make us happier than before? Does that give us more time ? Does that make us have more contentment ? No, definitely not. Just one example can confirm this. Everyday, how many movies are shown in all of the thousands of theaters all around the world? How many new movies are made every month all over the world? And how many designs of mobile phones are made? And how many new restaurants are open all over the world everyday? We are never satisfied. And how many different cars are there? You know? Every year every company makes a few new models. So it will be like this forever. And everybody will try everything faster, better, more comfortable forever. One day there might be just a suit you put on and then you fly. Definitely. Flying chair, you know, you just sit on your chair and you fly. When they manage to tap into the magnetic energy and gravity , when they are able to manipulate the gravity force, then they will be able to do this, very easy. Of course, right now that is not possible, because we need so much fuel to create energy to move anything from one place to another. And we have to channel the energies from one place to another to do various things. So just think of 747 aero plane that you fly to come here. How many kilometers of wires they have inside ? How many kilometers of wires? How many individual pieces are there? Just for an ordinary press button telephone has more than two hundred individual pieces. Just a press button telephone, more than two hundred individual pieces you have made and put them together to make the telephone. You can reduce these things. So at the end, it will become just one piece. Then after that, you know, they don't want any piece. So you might not have to go to school . They can download the whole thing in your brain. Of course you can. That's not miracle; that's pure physics and pure science. Still we will be not satisfied; still we want more. So this way, samsara has no end. We go in circle. So each one of us are in samsara in our own way. So in our own way, we try to achieve something. And we have many, many things, great priority, main prime priority, secondary priority, you know and then just if in case. So many things in our head. And we all really putting efforts to achieve those things. It is guaranteed that we will die before we achieve, achieve anything fully. We will achieve some part of something; we will not achieve everything of anything. In history there was nobody who had achieved everything of anything. You think of all the great people in the world, all the emperors, all the generals. All of these great people, you know, who we admire. And I also admire and respect them. But they did not achieve everything of anything that they wished to achieve. Some part of what they wished to achieve, and then they died . Floor of the great oceans of the world is littered with sunken ships. And top of every hill on this earth is littered with ruins of castles . Every valley in this world is littered with ruins of villages. If you look close enough, you cannot find any place on this earth where you cannot find a bone . And they all born and they all died without achieving everything of anything that they wished to achieve. So now this way, if we look at ourselves, then we see the samsara, not only out there the big samsara , but the little personal samsara that each one of us have. When we are happy, we are afraid we will become unhappy. When we are unhappy, we try to be happy. And when we are not happy and not unhappy, then we get bored. Actually what do you want? Honestly, what do you want? Do you know what you really want? So, now that is the definition of samsara ~ it is just going in circle.If we are successful in samsara ~ born, grow up, get old, sick, and die, that's very successful, very successful. But most people cannot even manage that. Born, yes; grow up, yes; sick and die. Some even sick for whole life .And s ome not sick but unhappy whole life . Some very happy whole life because something is wrong up here. So that way, the samara has no end and samsara has no destination, and samsara will never end, it will continue. So the essence of samsara is not like that. Essence of samsara is essence of you. Essence of you is limitless. Essence of you is complete. Essence of you is sacred, not secret, sacred. Essence of you is Buddha.

Why we are in samsara

Now, why we are in samsara if our essence is Buddha? Why? I also ask the same question. But the answer I get is me. The answer is me. Because I am me, I am in samsara. But can you not be me? Can you? It is impossible! It is impossible! You always call yourself I! And I , and in Tibetan nga, dak that's more text terminology ~ dak. So now that is why. I is very limited, but my essence is limitless. But I perceive it as I. Nothing can be more limited than I. Can you find something more limited and smaller than I? I, you know? Then he is not I, he is not I, he is not I, that is not I. This is not I. This is not I. You know, so I am so small. So I that makes everything other; Even your father, your mother, your brother, your sister, your husband, your wife, are not I. You love them; you care for them . You really, it is dear things for you, but not I. So you would say, my father, my mo ther, my brother, my sister, my husband, my wife, my son, my daughter, my house, my clothes, my money. You will not say me father or me mother. Even we say, my Buddha; you never said me Buddha, or I Buddha, but you will say, My Buddha. And then you have a beautiful Buddha statue blessed. All you keep it very carefully, you protect it. That's good, we should, until we become the Buddha. When we become the Buddha, then that is irrelevant, because my Buddha and me has no separation at that time. Now you understand what is samsara . So n ow the suffering of samsara and shortcoming of samsara is elaboration of that.

Suffering of samsara

So now it is about the suffering of samsara. Now long as we perceive ourselves as I, then there is definitely first outcome is the attachment. Anything to do with I, I am biased , I have attachment . Everything that is to do with I. I just give you one very, very bold example: I don't want anybody to use my toothbrush. I don't want. With due respect. You are all the same, I think; I think you are all the same except your children or something, you know. And so now, therefore , once you have the attachment, then you will have something that you don't like . When you have something that you like, then naturally you will have something you don't like. So, extreme aspect of that is we call anger. But even if you are not angry, certain things you just don't want to have anything to do with. You are not interested. And then once you have something you like, something you don't like, and once you have these then you will naturally have jealousy. When somebody equal to you, equal to you get what they want more easily than you get what you want, then you get jealous. You don't get jealous to somebody much , much lower than you. Or you don't get jealous to somebody much, much higher than you , your standard. But these days, of course, you know it's very confusing time; so then people don't know who is lower than you , who is higher than you. Everybody is confused, you know. But generally you will have jealousy to the same level. Fore example, Queen Elizabeth of the Great Britain , U.K. , riding in golden chariot and many bodyguards and wearing the diamond crown, you don't get jealous, right? You actually enjoy it, you know, you enjoy watching it. Somebody give five hundred Ruppes to a beggar , you don't get jealous, right? Very hardly that happens, you know, five Ruppes, or ten Ruppes . So you don't get jealous there. You get jealous to the same level. So, when there is jealousy , then pride is the other side of jealousy. Ego pride, the other side of jealousy. When you are better than when you think you get things done and you achieve things much more better and more glorious than those you think are equal to you, then you become proud: I am better. Then when that is there, the stinginess is naturally happen. You don't want to give away so much because you worry that you will lose what you have. You give a little bit, second-hand , extras, leftovers, and things you got fed up with. So that way, everything starts from the I, which we call ignorance. So the foundation of five defilements is I . These five defilements , when we become so influenced by them and so much controlled by them, and if we try to serve our defilement five defilements or six defilements. So when we become servant of them, then we expect that. That is called suffering of samsara. And by following and serving the five defilements or six defilements, it can never be satisfied, impossible. I give you an example. You live in a nice city, like Taipei , which has lots of restaurants with lots of good food. So if you go everyday breakfast in one restaurant, lunch in another restaurant, dinner in another restaurant, you will never be satisfied. You still want to find new restaurants and you taste if you don't decide to say enough. If you say enough, then your mind have so much power, because it is also limitless. Therefore you don't need it.

Three kinds of sufferings

So this suffering of samsara is so much, but Buddha summarized it into three kinds of sufferings. First one is Du jye kye duk ngal. That means even you are really not in pain, even you are not uncomfortable, long as you call yourself I, long as there is the I, then there is suffering beneath. It is like volcano eruption that is about to happen, but no smoke coming out, no steam coming out , no heat underground, but inside there, everything is boiling. So long as I, the ignorance is there, and then there is definitely going to be suffering. So that is Du jye kye duk ngal. So all levels of sentient beings from the highest to the lowest, especially the highest have this. The second aspect of suffering is Gyur wi duk ngal . Gyurwa means change or impermanent, or change. We all have it. We all have it. Every one of you, I am sure. Worry about something, I am sure. Something back home, something about you, something about your friends, something , I am sure. What's happen when back home ? What is going on with my stocks ? All kinds of things. All kinds of things. And then even happiness itself, even the most fortunate comfortable condition itself, it is suffering. You are boss of thirty companies, how much stress will be there? And each company has fifty or hundred employees, then how much stress you will have? And even you are head of one hundred Dharma centers, how much stress is there? Not the same as one hundred companies, but different kind of stress. Sometimes relatively speaking more complicated. Employees, you know you can hire and fire. Disciples you cannot hire and fire. So, it is different kind of stress. So you have to have a different kind of perception. When you have Dharma perception, you can handle it. Stress is not so bad. It becomes an opportunity to learn. Yes. But I am not encouraging you; be as nice as possible, okay? Now this way then, by knowing the suffering of samsara, this aspect which is Gyurwidukngal, which is there in everyone. When you have something you are afraid to lose it; when you don't have something you want to have it, you know. So this way, it is endless. But the text summarizes it very beautifully here.

Summary of suffering of samsara

Now I will go through this, but not exact translation but almost. So this is quite serious. I am not one hundred percent sure all of you can handle this one hundred percent or not, but intellectually you can. Practically some of you are quite deeply rooted in samsara, so you cannot cut those roots so easily. So don't feel bad about it. O.K? Don't feel bad about it. But this, I cannot make it soft, you know; I have to say as it is. But some of you are not one hundred percent ready. Maybe fifteen percent ready, twenty-five perscent ready, maybe ninety percent ready. But slowly, slowly you should wish for it. You should wish for the full of it. But you should accept your shortcomings. So, I will go through it as it is. Maybe your understanding is mature and you are up to it, but you might have some responsibilities that holds you back . That way it is absolutely absolutely okay, but you have to hear this fully. "This samsara", I go through slowly slowly and you translate, " This samsara from the highest to the lowest, it is never separated from suffering. The samsaric place companioning wealth, fame, everything, they all just like the feast of the executionary . " When you are about to be executed, they give you a very nice dinner, it is just like that. "This samsara, one should see it as the pit of fire, and the doorless , windowless prison hole." They call it medieval prison, you know, in the basement . "With this one should arise one's inspiration, aspiration, to be free from samsara, to reach liberation ." Liberation means liberation from the suffering of samsara. "And realization of omniscience" , that means Buddhahood . "One should be fully inspired and aspired for this destination." So I try to be close as possible to the text. O.K. Now, how to go about it? This is very light. This is lots of stories and lots of examples. O.K. So it is written, when forest catches fire, what does all the wild animals do? They do their best to find a way out and run. When the lake is getting frozen, what does all the swans, I meant , but not the swans, all the birds who live in the water. What do you call them? Like ducks or swans, all of them. What do they do? They will fly away. When a sailor by mistake, lands on an island in which all inhabitants are carnivals, eat people, what the sailor will do ? Run, run to your boat, you know. When a person with a small boat crossing a very ferocious river, how will he hold the, What you call? Row. Yah, how did he hold that? That you know the piece of wood which you row. What you call that? Oar. How would he hold the oar? So precious. Same way, same way those who wish to be free from suffering of samsara, one should renounce the samsara like the wild animals will do when the forest is catching fire. Forest is their home. It is their food. It is their nest. Everything is there. But if forest is catching fire and they don't fly away, they will be burnt alive. They will roasted, everything. So the birds that live on the lake, if they don't fly away when lake is frozen, then they will be frozen in it. So, their feathers, their feet, everything will be in ice. And if the sailor does not run away, will become a dinner. If the person in the small boat, if he don't hold on to the.., if he loses the oar, then he will be finished. It would be more clear he would be dead. And one more example, that is a business man, of course this is written long time ago, there i s no aero plane anything. So the trader, business men are the traders they trade, they take a long journey. So trader should prepare all the food, supplies, the pack animals, everything . Trader must prepare everything; otherwise forget about the trading. He wouldn't even get half way through where he buys the thing , you know, and he will be starved to death in the middle of the desert. So if you are trading from Tibet to the Gobi Desert into Russia , you must prepare everything. Otherwise you will be handful of bones in the middle of the Gobi Desert . You cannot make money, you will be finished. So now the same way, we, who try to be free from the suffering of samsara, we try to renounce whatever we can renounce now . You can renounce many, many things. In samsara, there are so many things and you can renounce many of those things. Renounce getting drunk, very easy. If you are not drunk, your mind will be clear; and you live in very good shape. Your face is more beautiful and handsome. Your face will not be like volcanic stones. And you can renounce gambling. You don't have to think of getting other people's money for free . And you don't have to lose your savings for nothing. You can renounce so many things and which can make your worldly life, even worldly life better. You will have more peace, you will have more time, you will have better health; your family will be in more harmony . It is good, yes. So whatever you can't renounce now, you pray, and wish and recognize, first you recognize, and then you pray and wish that you can renounce in the future. And whatever kind of samsaric responsibilities , worldly responsibilities you have, you fulfill them positively. See them and recognize them as a responsibility, not as a game. It is very strange, sometimes, in certain society. They think of children as another race and then parents treat them like a toy, like a pet. It is a responsibility, very big responsibility. What kind of human being your little baby going to become , it is your responsibility. He or she has their karma , of course. Her or his very big karma, you can't do very much. But their small karmas, you can make it big difference. So future of humanity depends on your "guchi guchi". So if you don't make them good, and clear, and capable, and kind and mature, then this world will be terrible place. Because this world will be full of them fifty years from now. They will be fifty years old, and fifty years old is one year younger than me . So prime time for doing things. So this way, you take that also as a responsibility and also as the Dharma. I am not saying that you all should have children . I am not saying that. But many of you already have , I am talking about that. So now this way whatever you cannot renounce right now, you wish that you will be able to renounce them in the future. Nothing wrong with everything, but how we deal with everything that is right or wrong? But unfortunately, we deal with everything with attachment, jealousy, anger, pride, and stinginess. That is wrong. Because it brings suffering to us and suffering to every body , now, later and forever. Nothing wrong with anything . So renounce means, renounce means that way we deal with everything, the negative way of dealing with everything, we renounce that . And we try to deal with everything positively. So this way, the suffering of samsara is a very important subject to know, and then to know how to overcome this. And the oar of the person in a small boat, crossing a very strong river, that oar is the morality, because morality is very important. Moral discipline, precepts, so you hold onto the precepts so precious like an oar, you know. Then you can get across. No moral discipline, then even if you have a very good intention, everything will be a chaos. And merit is absolutely important. Merit. That is like the provision that the long journey will need. Without merit even if you have good intention, you will not succeed. There are so many people who say, "I really like to practice, but I have no time". You know, so what is that? Why is there no time? That is the merit. I like to do Dharma practice, but I have this problem, I have that problem, I have this condition . I have that condition, so I can't. So, why is that? When you wanted to do something wrong, there is all the conditions there. If you want to lie, if you want to steal, all the condition is there. If you want to gossip, if you want to slander , all the condition is there. But when you wanted to do Dharma practice, condition is not there. I am not talking about everybody , but I am talking to those of you who feel that way. So, answer for that is: accumulation of merits . It is that the person is short of merit, not short of understanding, not short of aspiration, but short of merit. There is one thing that can take place of the merit . That is unconditional, unshakable determination. But that sometimes you also have to have merit in order to have that. Very interesting. People ask me to make ¡¥mo', make ¡¥mo', divination. And their question is very funny. They said, "I have a son, should I make him monk or not?" How can I make a divination for that? I don't make divination. I said, "I don't make such divination. If you want to make your son a monk, you make it. I don't make such divination. How can I say, you son shouldn't become a monk? Then the person asked me another strange question , "What happens if he later decides not to be a monk?" I tell them , "That is his decision. So he will make his decision when his time comes". Right now it is your time, so you make your decision. Because you are not allowed to become Bhikshu until you are twenty years old. So if you make him monk, that's what you wish to. You are the father, you are the mother, you think you are doing your best to your child, so make him monk. And when he or she is twenty, then he will decide to become Bhikshu or Bhikshuni or not, and then leave that up to them. So, determination, you know, even the parents sometimes lack determination about their decision for their children. Their decision for their children is same as their decision to themselves. They have to be responsible to their children same as they have to be responsible to themselves. No more, no less. Then when children reach a certain age, they make their decision. Then parents have no responsibility for that. So that way, only determination can over cross the lack of merit. But then that determination also will lack unfortunately if the person does not have the merit to have that determination.

Summary of the four preliminary contemplations

So this way and the suffering of samsara, by learning the suffering of samsara, then the preliminary contemplation is complete. After this session, I completed to teach you the four ordinary preliminary contemplations. The practice schedule which I already have written down, and which will be made available for you upon the completing of our teaching here this time at the end of the month. And when you practice, you have to practice exactly in this order. First, precious human life. Because we have to know what we have, and appreciate the precious human life. Then once we learn about the precious human life, and confirm, then we have to learn about the impermanent of the precious human life. Everything is impermanent including precious human life that we have. So death impermanent is the second contemplation. Then after learning death impermanent , then we have to learn about karma cause and result, because after the impermanent of this life, then what happens? According to the karma, we will have another life . So for that reason, we have to learn about the karma cause and result. And after that, we have to learn about suffering of samsara. Even we accumulate good karma, then still we are in samsara. Therefore, we have to go beyond just accumulating good karma. We have to go beyond that. So, suffering of samsara is what we have to overcome; and we have to go beyond good karma. And we have to go , reach beyond everything that is to do with samsara. So, suffering of samsara is the fourth and last practice. So this order is very, very important . So you have to practice in this order. And another thing about this order is very simple factual reality. Generally it is very difficult for people to appreciate what they have and it is hard to see what we already have; and it is very easy to see what we don't have. So, therefore , precious human life, which we have. So to see that is very important. Then after that, then it is quite natural for us to become very happy about what we have and then forget what will happen next. So for that reason, then impermanent is extremely important thing to know. Then we know we better use what we have efficiently, otherwise we are going to lose it . That is common sense. I have friends and also I have people who I know . They have a very good health, but they don't know that they have a very good health. So they don't take care of their good health . Then they are sick very badly. And only then they know now they have a big problem. Now their lung has to be removed and operated . And their liver has to be transplanted and all that sort of things. Of course, we cannot remove the whole lung but, you know, some part of it. And they smoke , they drink like this. They don't take care. And s o this way when you have, when you learn what you have, then you have to learn how to use it and how to take care of it. So, precious human life, death impermanent. And then about the karma. It is very important to know that karma brought us here and karma will bring us over there in the future. Karma brought us here from yesterday and karma will bring us from here to tomorrow. And this we have to know. Otherwise , then precious human life, death impermanent then stop there , then it doesn't make any sense. We, precious human life makes us very proud; and death impermanent makes us to see it very easy end if there is a problem , and then that's it. So by knowing karma cause , and result, then we would know end of this life is not the end . Because this life is not the beginning, you know. This is not the beginning, this is not the end. So when you shoot an arrow , when you shoot an arrow, it start from here to the target, so until we reach the target, the Buddhahood, every atom that it pass through is one life. And it continues like this. But then going in samsara, the arrow is not an arrow, it is a boomerang . You know boomerang. The Australian use. You know, the native Australian use wood. It is like that so you throw. And it goes like this, like this, like this, like this, like this, and come back. Then you throw again. So, it is not like an arrow, it is like a boomerang. It just goes in circle. So we have to learn about the suffering of samsara after learning the karma cause and result. Of course, I am fascinated by boomerang , it's a very , very clever tool. Anyway, now this way by knowing the suffering of samsara, then your accumulation of merit and accumulation of wisdom becomes truly healthy one. Otherwise, we just become, how do you say, midget of everything that we do. Positive things we do. We do to get something and we are afraid of something. Because of that, we do it. Dharma practice we do because we are afraid of something. And Dharma practice we do because we want to get something and something in samsara. We wanted to be lucky; we wanted to be richer in next life, more healthier in next life. Even we do lots of things in this life. For example, I myself also do certain amount of it. You look at this building, there is a door here and door there, but there's no door here . And I have a door there , not over there. I put the stupa over there instead of over there. Practically entrance should be there, because as people drive down they see the entrance. And they enter the entrance and the stupa would should be facing like this. And, you know, it's more practical. But this is the correct way. You call that Fengshui. In India , we call it "Vastoo". So when I came, I arrived at the middle night about 10:30 to 11 to Sherabling. I could have started that early, earlier one more earlier a day, one more day earlier. I could have stopped somewhere and then got here the next morning. I could stop at night somewhere and got here in the morning. But I have to start that day to come up here, and I have to arrive here that day. That is astrology. Astrology is mathematics. One and one is two. Two and two is four. Right? So then for example, our Maha Mudra teaching here started the day the sun, the day gets longer and night gets shorter. That particular day we start, that exact day. From that day onward, everyday, few seconds, few minutes more, few minutes actually more daylight, few minutes less nights. Sun will be setting further, further and further further down. So now, all of this is dualistic, all of this is worldly, but we follow it. And same thing with everything else. I never go far away without filling the tank of my car with the gasoline. I don't want my car to be stuck in the middle of nowhere. And all the tires have to be checked. So, all of these things are worldly, and we have to do it, but only that much. And people ask me to pray because some of their family member is going through operation . People ask me to pray because they are opening a new shop or a new restaurant. P eople ask me to pray because their children having exams and all kinds of request like that. I do my best. T hat is worldly. So, but if everything becomes just that, then there is nothing for enlightenment. Therefore, Dharma is for this life as well as for next life as well as for enlightenment. Without knowing the suffering of samsara, then you will not know the most important purpose of Dharma ~ the enlightenment. Then Dharma will become only a worldly success tool, tool for worldly success. Nothing wrong. Pray for Buddha for your health, and your fortune, and for the future of your children . All of these nothing wrong. But always it should be attached to it enlightenment for all sentient being. Otherwise it is very funny Dharma. Because it has very little to do with what Buddha's teaching is all about. So this way, the fourth, the suffering of samsara is very important subject to contemplate. Now with these four contemplations, teaching will be completed.

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