Giving Up Is Not an Option

When you try to help someone and they refuse to listen, it might seem easier to simply let them be. Yet, the Dharma teaches that giving up is not an option. To persevere in helping others, no matter how challenging or discouraging the circumstances, is itself our practice.

For instance, even if you (who are in the retreat centre) still fail to hear or follow what I have been trying to say to you, and I have to repeat myself hundreds or thousands of times, I have to do it. I cannot give up; abandoning you is simply not an option. Doing my utmost to help you is my practice and my path. To fail in this would not only undermine my past efforts but also cause me to break my bodhisattva vows.

Though I have yet to fully embody this myself, as long as we strive and aspire to help others regardless of their response, we align ourselves with the ways of true practitioners or bodhisattvas.

8 December 2024, Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal