Phurpa Tashi Rinpoche
The other day, a monk told me that he had little time for practicing Dharma. I
said, "As a monastic, there are not many matters that we have to attend to
daily, so why do you say that you have little time for Dharma practice?"
I asked him, "Even if you say that you have many monastic duties at the
monastery or other activities, you should be able to carry out the morning and
evening sessions of practice. What time do you wake up each morning?" "4.30am," was the reply.
That was quite good. At Yarchen, we woke up each morning at around 4am too. Of
course, this cannot be compared to Lama Achuk Rinpoche who woke up each morning
at 2am. I asked him again, "What
are you doing then with this free time?"
He said that he had the habit of scrolling through Douyin (China's version of
Tiktok) each morning, and unknowingly, an hour and a half would have passed by
before he had to start his morning practice at 6am.
I said, "What did you learn through scrolling through these
videos?" He said, "Nothing
much." But he said that when he started to do his practice at 6am, his
neck and body were already aching from the incessant scrolling and
watching. This habit brought him so much
bodily discomforts that I wonder why he did it.
I think this applies to many of you too.
Nothing much is achieved from scrolling endlessly through these videos and so
much time passes by while you are engrossed in it. There are even reports of people who die from
exhaustion due to over-watching these videos. This is an unnecessary habit; we
should reduce our usage of such media.
Many people know that tobacco is a product of the demonic forces because it
harms sentient beings' body and mind. It contains a negative energy that
increases our mental afflictions. The
worst thing about tobacco is that it is not a one-time intake but becomes
increasingly addictive. This is how
demonic forces work — they make you addicted and crave for more. Slowly, your
health goes downhill while your mind is constantly ensnared by desire, anger
and ignorance. Without noticing it, you
gradually join the ranks of the demonic beings yourself (in this or future
lives). This is what the demons wish for.
When Buddhism flourished, the demon king Mara did not stay idle. He gathered
all his retinues and said, “Since Dharma is thriving, we must act.” He asked who among his retinue had the power
to create obstacles and enslave more sentient beings, preventing them from
being liberated.
Mara had many daughters. His eldest
daughter came forth. From her secret organ came a kind of seed that fell to the
ground. Mara asked, "What is the use of this seed?" His daughter
replied, "When this seed is planted anywhere, it will produce a plant with
a smell that attracts people to smoke it. Anyone who makes a connection with
this will eventually become our retinue."
Mara thought this was a good idea. He told his demonic subjects to spread these
seeds on earth. Slowly, tobacco became
prevalent amongst humans. This addiction slowly grows on the person who smokes
it and makes it very hard to quit smoking. Then his health will progressively
be destroyed, his mind would become more perverse and unruly, finally becoming
a demonic subject of Mara.
Nowadays, medical science confirms that tobacco is harmful for humans. But once
a person is addicted, it is hard to quit. If one wishes to quit smoking, you
must first be convinced of its harm. When you wish to change yourself, the
first step must be to understand the benefits of the change. If you do not
develop strong certainty of the necessity for the change in your life, no
matter how someone else advises you, you will lack the determination to change,
even if the habit is easy to change.
This is because your mind lacks the strong certainty that comes from deeper
understanding. The first step,
therefore, is always to develop a strong aversion in your mind towards this
negative habit. Then it becomes easy to give up the bad habit, no matter how
addicted you are. If a doctor told you that you will die of lung disease which
is at a critical stage due to smoking, I believe that it would be quite easy
for you to quit.
In my hometown, I had a habit of doing practice in the morning and told people
not to disturb me until my session was finished. That day, someone died in the
village and their relatives came to request deliverance from me. These two
middle-aged men waited below for me to finish my practice. When it was noon, I
wrapped up my practice and came down.
When I walked out of the yard, I noticed one of the men hastily hiding away his
cigarette butt. Usually, I did not often
leave the yard and the villagers knew that I detested smoking very much, so my
sudden appearance caught him by surprise. I glanced at him and his expression
turned ashen, he looked very frightened.
I returned to the yard and sat there reciting mantra, taking in some
sunlight. These two men did not return home because they still had to request
the deliverance for their relative, so they came in cringing, and I recognised
one of the men to be the smoker outside.
This man was once a monk and had disrobed. He has already reached middle age.
Without saying anything much, I slapped him twice. I said, "Today, you
come here and smoke, what is the meaning of this? Now, there are less and less
people smoking in this region. You are no longer a young man, already in your
middle age, yet you are still indulging in such habits." I slapped him again.
He said, "I will quit from now on." He surrendered his cigarettes and
lighter. I told a monk to throw them away. I warned him, "If I catch you
smoking again, you will see how I deal with you." They had great faith in
me. Otherwise, if we had to fight, of course I would not be able to outfight
him. (Audience laughs.) This man had a deep sense of veneration for me, so I
believed he might actually follow what I told him.
I did not know why this man smoked and he did not dare to explain much seeing
how angry I was. I told him to return
home first and that I would perform the deliverance after I had my lunch. After
he left my place, he bemoaned, "I'm finished. I'm finished. I did not dare
to explain to Tulku because he was so furious.
I think my head would swell."
Later I found out that he had been to Yarchen and took the vow to quit
smoking before Ah Song Tulku Rinpoche. But that night, after taking the oath,
his head and even the rest of his body started swelling. In the end, he could
barely stand. He saw a cigarette butt on the ground, picked it up and sniffed
at it. Even the smell made him feel better.
He went back to Ah Song Tulku and told him about his situation. Ah Song Tulku
said if that was the case it was more important to stay alive and told him to
just smoke one or two sticks a day. This
time round, however, the man did not dare to explain anything to me because I
slapped him thrice upfront. But he
thought that he would swell up that night.
I did not know anything about his situation; I only performed the deliverance.
Seven days later, he came looking for me. When I asked him, he said he had
quitted smoking. He said that in the
past, even just thinking about or seeing a cigarette would trigger strong
cravings; his body would also have all kinds of withdrawal symptoms. "But
this time,” he said, “probably due to your blessings, even though my mother was
worried that my head would swell, seven days have passed without the slightest
sign of withdrawal. I didn’t even crave smoking at all."
I said, "This is not blessing, it is the benefit of three
slaps." (Audience laughed.) This
might be due to the kind of respect he held for me, or he might have felt
ashamed to be smoking even in his middle age. Due to these thoughts, he had the
mental strength to quit smoking.
Tobacco is basically a demonic substance which makes it difficult for you to
quit. Gambling is the same. It involves
a sort of demonic blessing, which causes you to be unable to extricate yourself
from the habit. It causes all kinds of suffering for your body and mind, making
your emotions fluctuate up and down.
Long time indulgence gives rise to sicknesses. Mind will be very
disoriented — that is for sure. Gamblers
have a very non-virtuous mind; they are often in a state of nervousness. These
are all manifestations of demonic influence.
I think Douyin is not very different from these (addictive substances). To see if it is harming you, you can
ask yourself. When you are free and have
nothing to do, is it a habit of yours to reach for your handphone and scroll
through these videos? If yes, it is already an addiction. It is almost as if
you can't live without it. The moment you are free, after you had a meal,
smokers would think of lighting a stick while you will habitually pick up your
phone and scroll. This indicates that you are addicted.
For a practitioner, these are meaningless activities. Yes, social media may be
a tool in our present times. It is very useful to communicating with people
from afar. But if one becomes unduly attached, then the mind is only more
distracted. Adults like to criticize their kids for being undisciplined and
overly using their phones. Actually, adults themselves are undisciplined. What is the use of teaching others when one
is in a worse state?
What influence do these media exert on your mind? Look at your dreams and you will see
impressions of what you watch in the daytime appearing in your dreams. This means that you are creating and
reinforcing these types of habitual tendencies so much that it is becoming a
very deep imprint.
When I was travelling with Lama Achuk Rinpoche, I saw some beautiful sceneries
— just a few of them. I exclaimed at their beauty. Lama Achuk Rinpoche
immediately pointed out, "Don't be attached to these scenes. Don't you have enough of wandering in cyclic
samsara? Why are you creating these new habitual imprints? Don't create these anymore."
Compared to those few scenes I encountered, what you watch on Douyin is
probably infinitely much more and stronger in impact, yet Lama Achuk Rinpoche
already cautioned me on it.
Anyway, you should try to reduce these imprints. I am not telling you to avoid media
altogether and lose touch with the modern world. Of course, you have to keep up
with the times, but some things are really unnecessary whether for liberation
or for worldly knowledge. You don't learn much useful stuff from these videos.
If you are a person with strong desire, the Douyin videos are largely related
to desire. If you are a person with strong anger or ignorance then the videos
that the Douyin algorithm delivers to you are often related to these. In short,
these videos feed our negative habits and afflictions, making them grow. This
habit is not helpful for practitioners at all.
