Worldly is Worldly – Dharma is Dharma

If you still have a worldly view, you could found a monastery and it would be a worldly act, you could start a dharma centre and it would be a worldly act, you could even teach the dharma and that too would be a worldly act. But if you have a dharma view, all that you will do will be dharma.

If I see that a Tibetan person has a typically Tibetan view, I will think, ‘They are not a dharma person (chopa), they are just a Tibetan.’ And likewise if I see a Westerner or Chinese person with a Western or Chinese mentality, I will not think they are dharma people, I will see them as merely being a Western or Chinese person. Were they to feel that the Tibetan, Western or Chinese ways of thinking are perfectly fine and flawless, they have no need to practise the dharma or rely on a lama.

A dharma person has a dharma mentality, and that has nothing to do with being Tibetan, Western or Chinese; it transcends all such worldly markers of race, ethnicity and gender.