In terms of the teachings and practice, it’s very simple. I’m going back to this idea that I shared yesterday of peace and joy and purpose in life. Universally, we all want peace. We all want joy. We all want to be meaningful in our lives. The wonderful thing about peace, joy and purpose is that you don’t have to go very far away to find them. Just think about that. I’m trying to make it very, very practical here. I think it’s important to make it very practical, because these three things, peace, joy and purpose are connected – they’re absolutely connected. If you see the meaning of these in your everyday life, then you will also be able to see their meaning on higher levels as well – in visions, in sound, in light and in rays, in Sherap Chamma, in the Ma Gyud, and on and on in that way. However, first you have to see their meaning in the most basic places. Let’s consider peace, joy and purpose in that way.

Let’s consider peace. Think about your own peace, your own peace of mind. You all want to have peace in your life, whether intentionally, unintentionally, consciously or unconsciously. However, only in times of struggling or fighting does that fact become crystal clear to you, oh I need to find peace. So right now in this moment, are you aware that you are looking for peace? Someone may answer, oh yes I’m really looking for peace now. Then others might be saying, no my life is quite peaceful, so my level of peace is okay.

Let’s jump to the next quality, joy or happiness. As far as joy or happiness is concerned, I can see clearly that everybody can have some more joy, more happiness in their life, isn’t that right? When you hear that, do you say, what do you mean? I would answer, just look at your face. [laughter] That’s what I mean. We all need more joy.

Lastly, let’s look at purpose. As we get older, we all want to be useful, we want to be helpful. Just simply surviving is not good enough; we want to somehow be impactful in others’ lives – for our children, our family, our friends, our relatives, our community. Fundamentally, deep inside, everyone has the desire or the need to be helpful. However, the degree to which you awaken to that desire within you is a different story for each individual. And then the degree to which you are actually able to manifest that or not is also a different story. Some people are very gifted at that. They are naturally able to do a lot for other people. While others, although they are supposed to be doing something for their close ones, when the moment actually arises, they miss the opportunity.

But, universally we all want peace, and we want joy, and we want to be meaningful in our lives. So stop for a moment and take a look at which of those three you are most wanting to find more of at this particular time in your life. And then the question that I would ask you is, what are you doing for attaining that? Those of you who are searching for peace, I ask, what are you doing to achieve your peace? Those of you who are searching for joy, I ask how are you currently struggling to increase your joy? And for people who are trying to find more purpose, more meaning in life, then I ask you, what are you doing to feel more purposeful in your life?

In one way, the answer is similar for all of these questions. Peace is already there. Peace is the nature of the six lamps that we are talking about in this retreat. Peace is the inherent quality of who we are. It’s there. It’s like saying light – it’s the same thing – it’s always there. According to these teachings, we are that light, that peace.

So what are you doing for peace? Very often it’s a matter of, what you are not doing for peace. Can you see that? In other words, if you are mainly looking for having peace, then the best approach would be to be like the example of the mirror. [Rinpoche picks up the melong (symbolic mirror) sitting on the small table in front of him.] Looking at the reflections arising in this mirror, we simply accept what appears –you’re young, you’re old, you’re struggling, you’re feeling like life is challenging, whatever it is. Just as the mirror effortlessly accepts what arises in it and simply shows clearly what is, without rejecting or grasping, we come to see what is and accept it as, this is what it is.

Whatever is happening in your life, there is so much good reason as to why it is happening in this life. Nothing accidentally happens. Nor is anything created overnight by some secret demons or ghosts that are making some magical plan for your life, and then the next day something happens as a result of that. No, it doesn’t happen like that; often you are the one who is responsible. Or it could be that collectives are also responsible, and those may be generational. Or it could be caused from deep karmic traces, from your parents, your grandparents, your ancestors, your cultural history, or from a lineage.

So if you are wanting to blame someone, there’s actually not one particular person or group to blame, because there are too many involved. Nor can you put the blame on one particular situation, because there are too many situations as well. You cannot even blame one particular period in your life, because the time involved is too long. It’s nothing like that. So, out of all of those myriad conditions, we now come into this moment and this experience of whatever you’re presently going through. You are meant to go through it. It is clearing a process which has gone on for all of these years and possibly generations.

Something is being processed. And so we look at it like that. Something is happening and meant to be happening. And we approach it with the attitude of I should be fully present there and try to make it happen in the best possible way that it can happen. I’m not trying to stop it, rather I am trying to make it a good one. How do you make it a good one? By accepting it, not interfering with it and trying to be open to it, trying to have more awareness in it, trying to guide it whenever it is something that you can guide in the direction of it not becoming too disturbing for yourself and for the people around you who are trying to go through it, too. When you do that fully, then you have peace with that. Because peace is already there. However, your non-acceptance, your non-understanding of why it’s happening and all of the resistance, rejection, denial, ignorance, and even lack of awareness of it – all of those things, are what makes it hard for yourself and others.

But the moment that you understand and get it, then there’s a peace there. And it’s important to recognize that there’s a peace there, and it has appeared not because the situation has changed, rather there’s a peace there because your understanding has changed of that situation. Most of the time, the reason why you don’t have peace, or why it is so difficult to have peace, is because you are trying to change everybody else rather than recognizing that it’s a matter of changing your view. So again, peace is already there.

Now let’s consider those of you who are primarily looking for joy. Some people might not be looking for joy, saying I’m so busy with suffering, so why should I be looking for joy – unless of course it brings more suffering, then I can be interested? [laughter] We know that joy is not complicated. Joy is found in very simple things. For instance, Christopher mentioned the experience he had, while care-giving for his aging mother, when suddenly all of his pain stories dropped away for a moment, and he saw freshly the shining face of his dear mother. Beautiful. To simply pause and look at the face of your mother and see and feel it, recognizing that this woman has suffered, this woman has cared, this woman has given so much, and now this woman who cared for me, is still here with me. How many women are there in the world who would do that for you? Not that many. So when you see that shining face, you don’t need any more than that to be feeling joy; the presence of that simple recognition alone is enough. Somebody’s alive, somebody exists.

And your joy could naturally lead you to doing something fun in that situation, couldn’t it? To play effortlessly – maybe share a cup of coffee, have a glass of wine together. I don’t know- doing whatever it is that’s cherishing, nourishing, and celebrating that connection and that presence with someone. That’s a joy. And what does it require? Nothing. It’s not complicated at all. Joy is very simple. So you look from this place of, I’m alive, I’m breathing, I’m healthy enough, I have enough time, the universe has given me enough; I need to do something meaningful, I need to share joy. Just that simple recognition – it’s a joy. Joy is there.

Now for those of you who are primarily looking for finding more purpose in your lives right now, I ask you, what are you doing to have more of a sense of purpose? In one sense, we are doing a lot of things; we sacrifice; we take care of our families, and it’s not easy. We take care of our children. No matter where they are, we are at least psychologically and emotionally present with them all of the time. We care about our neighbors, our community. Everyone does a lot on that level. So the first step in finding purpose is to see how much you already do. And then, not blame yourself that you don’t do enough; recognize that you already do a lot. And then bring together the peace and the joy and the purpose as you provide those services. The only time that a joy goes away, or a peace goes away, or a sense of purpose goes away, is when the pain identity interferes too deeply with these three processes. Then that pain identity messes them up.

The other day I mentioned my 24-hour a day plan or project that I engage in everyday. To recap, my main project each and every day focuses solely on the goals of: to be happy and playful and to serve during the daytime, and to have a peaceful, restorative and sufficient sleep in the night. That’s seriously the only plan that I have each day. And with that as a good base, then naturally all of the other big fancy projects and plans will come out of a that.

If any day I have not accomplished this 24-hour plan well, then the big project plans won’t arise. That’s because I am not ready to do anything, because I’m tired and therefore not motivated. I cannot see big enough, I don’t have clarity enough, the precision enough, the courage enough to take those actions and make decisions. But if I am able to take care of these 24 hours well within my disciplines, then the rest will flow. Why is that? Because, if one is feeling so much energy, then who’s not going to go ahead and use it for good purposes? If one is feeling so much joy and happiness, then who’s not going to express it? You find that you cannot not express your joy – it just comes out naturally.

And that’s a nice bridge back to the main point here; that it all starts with this idea of accepting and the peacefulness that comes with not trying to change something. Even if you want to change something, the change still has to start with accepting first. You may very well still try and change something, but first you have to accept what is, and then it’s much more likely that the ability to change will come, and it will be a better change as a result of your first accepting what is. But if you don’t accept what it is, then any change that comes out of that disconnection from the truth of what is, the disconnection from the mirror-like wisdom, may bring some sort of temporary happiness for a short time, but it will not last. That seems clear, doesn’t it?