Talk During Guru Rinpoche Initiation
Unedited transcript of a talk given by Akong Tulku Rinpoche at the last Initiation he gave at Samye Ling
27 May 2013 – Guru Rinpoche Long Life Initiation
In our 21st Century, people’s mind so sensitive, so active. Through this then there is so many violence, emotional difficulties, physical, new disease comes: every year, a new disease, and what I wish, that I’m not ask you to make any particular commitment in order to receive this teaching, but if it is at all possible, it will be the best time for you to give up your smoke.
Guru Rinpoche written many of his teachings it is said: and when the beginning of the dark age the maras, negative forces, they all put their energy, they want to destroy the peace of liberation, so they create the tobacco so whoever burn the tobacco it’s invocation of the maras. Reduce your peacefulness, reduce the power of the compassion and therefore Guru Rinpoche said that all my disciples, those who believe me, one must stop smoke. It’s not my teachings, it’s Guru Rinpoche’s teaching.
In human world the reason why people only lets smoke is the taxations, how many money the Government can make. That’s the only reason. But now it’s become so seriously and you cannot smoke so many areas. Even China, is the most taxations come on the smoke, on cigarettes selling, but even China is going to be restrictions certain places. Most Chinese people are chain smokers, they cannot stop between the two cigarettes, one before finish, burn another one, but they see how many people die to cancer, smoke create the cancer, how many patients, have to spend our money to the cancer patients. How many people are dying? Lungs, livers, other vital organs. By China itself something like 400,000 people affected by cigarettes every year. And that much affect European countries we all know, but they can’t ban because of the taxation, the income would be so much. People look at income, but if you look at it health-wise, then of course the first thing they’d ban is cigarettes.
Then I think that is why Guru Rinpoche is telling that people should not associate with smokers, but of course our devotion is not strong enough to order to stop. It’s the same as like we try to be vegetarian. When you see so many nowadays, Tibetan has organisation called White Foods, vegetarian. They shows how the animals killed. It’s a video. When you see the video most people will cry, but when you see the meat you forget because it’s a habit which from the childhood and that’s what people giving to the children.
And I think it’s very important, if you want to live long and save life, not to eat meat. It’s Buddhist point of view and it’s health point of view. So many diseases come through the meat, so many disease come through the cigarettes. I’m sure there is many other disease, anything, if we’re over-eating we have disease, if we undereating, undernourishment, we have sickness. That is no doubt. So the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa and the Dalai Lama, both of them, they encouraged to people, if you can, not to eat meat. If you can’t able to stop, then you eat less. If you eat one meat meal a day you try to eat every other day, rather than every day. So if you can’t able to stop then you also do try to reduce them. It’s similar if you can’t able to stop cigarette completely then you try to smoke maybe one cigarette, rather than 10 cigarettes, or 20 or 30 cigarettes. If you smoke 30, maybe you can smoke three. So there is much benefit for your health.
But important also in another way is not to try to smoke in front of many people because if you are the only smoker and other people are with you, then we all have breathing your cigarettes. So help other people be healthy. Help other people, those who do not smoke. You just go yourself somewhere in the corner. If you have to have one cigarette a day or three cigarettes a day, but not to remain that. And within a year, try to cut off completely. Then while you may not able to break completely unless you have a very strong faith and I don’t really know your faith is strong enough to do that.
As happened, people say I’m very good to stop people smoking.
So, two things I would appreciate: eat less meat and to smoke less. And that will be benefiting for you, and since it is benefiting for you, I myself will be very, very happy.