Blog Post 15: What is the dignified way to Go With The Flow?

"Many Buddhists are attracted to New Age spirituality because they would like to surrender everything to the universe and let the universe decide. But in Buddhism, we are training to make conscious decisions for our own lives."

Dignity is something that is beyond the body. Dignity comes from divinity. To be dignified, we have to be able to release the idea of selfishness.

In cultivating dharma, we must be willing to loosen the grip on our identity. According to Lama Zopa, after practicing the dharma, when we start to feel insecure, that is a sign that the dharma is finally working for us. When we begin to feel unsure of ourselves and afraid, dharma starts to set in, making us realize that everything is impermanent.

New Age spirituality focuses on indulging oneself with oneself and "going with the flow." However, one's focus must always stay on self-awareness. Our spiritual practice aims to show us who we really are and evolve from that state.

When things don't turn out the way we had hoped or expected them to, we must not lose hope. What will bear fruit, make our lives better, and make all of the dharma studies take effect, will be our ability to see the good in all beings with the right motivation to help others.

Many people study the dharma with no merit. So they intellectualize the dharma and yet remain unhappy. The other extreme is when someone has great faith, belief, and devotion, but there is no study, so there is not much understanding of the dharma. In either case, without merit, it is so difficult for results to accrue. Merit accumulation is essential.

Making offerings to the sangha and the Triple Gem is the route to merit. Please do it. Pray, make offerings, and see for yourself. The personality of a person who does these things consistently starts to shift. Watch out for wrong views because things can quickly turn, and we can crash because wrong views can destroy our merit.

If we think we can study the dharma and base it only on the law of cause and effect, we are mistaken.

If we question the point of purification, accumulating merit, reciting the names of the Buddhas, or dedicating, we are indeed missing the flow.

To flow with dignity – with divinity – it is vital to cultivate and to grow merit and pure perception, which is the foundation of tantra. By doing so, there is hope for enlightenment.

Many people can quickly develop a wrong view when they don't get what they want. So let us practice with divine clarity and, in doing so, achieve an inner dignity as a human being and as a bodhisattva.


Dharma Teaching by Singha Rinpoche and edited by Sandeep Nath
20 Dec 2020