Special Vesak Day Message from His Eminence Ling Rinpoche
Today is famously regarded in the Elders’ lineage as the holy anniversary of the Incomparable Lord Buddha’s birth, Enlightenment, and Parinirvana. It is a precious opportunity for us followers of the Buddhist teachings to align all our behaviors over the next twenty-four hours with our Teacher’s instructions and to engage in virtue and abandon negativity through recalling the story of His Eminence’s life and His Eminence’s exalted activities of body, speech, and mind.
Furthermore, this time is an opportunity for us to continue developing our inner mental continuum as a means for taming and controlling our conduct. In fact, it is taught that the ultimate intent and goal of the Buddha’s teachings is to show us that the primary means by which we are to become proper adherents of the teachings, in conjunction with maintaining a vast altruistic motivation, is nothing other than to strive in taming the mind.
In particular, it is now widely recognized that the methods for training the mind, as found in the Buddhist teachings are like an excellent medicine that generates mental happiness and tranquility for all individuals—whether they accept the Dharma or not. We should all, therefore, make efforts to engage in activities that benefit others with a thought of heartfelt compassion. To sustain this unremittingly throughout our day to day lives is, I believe, extremely important.
As His Holiness, the Dalai Lama states in his prayer known as “The Resounding Drum of Truth” (Smon tshig bden pa’i rnga sgra):
For all those who suffer from the misery of poverty, oppression, and torture,
Beset by harm, pestilence, or an imbalance of the elements,
May all their hardships and obstacles, outer and inner, be fully pacified,
And may they revel eternally in the glory of every happiness and bliss.
With sincere prayers that all this will come to pass exactly as is expressed in these words.
Ling Rinpoche
7th May 2020
New Delhi, India
