Never Give Up!

I had a wonderful discussion this afternoon. My son, 15, is starting to see how deceitful, dishonest, and cruel the world really is. Its amazing the rationalization that people will go through to justify their self-serving actions.

There are a couple of things that I wanted to him know:

(1) Yes. People throughout the world are dishonest, deceitful, and cruel. In fact, Patrul Rinpoche said Don’t rely on anybody. Don’t trust anybody. However, Don’t stop trying to do what you can to make the world a better place starting with yourself and your immediate community.

(2) You cannot change the world. Yep! No matter what you do, you cannot expect to change even the thinking of one friend no less the world. However, Don’t stop trying to do what you can to make the world a better place starting with yourself and your immediate community.

(3) Give up any hope that your efforts will do any good. At Best, you can help 20%, the 80% is up to them. They have to do the hard work themselves. You cannot stop, really stop, anyone from doing what they want to do. Someone wants to kill themselves, sorry but if they are set on it, they will do it no matter what you do or say. However, Don’t stop trying to do what you can to make the world a better place starting with yourself and your immediate community.

(4) Focus on your actions not the results. You have 100% control of your actions, your words, and your thinking. You have very little influence on the actions, word, and thinking of others. To the extend that the results depend on anyone else, you are not in control of the results. However, Don’t stop trying to do what you can to make the world a better place starting with yourself and your immediate community.

(4) Never give up on doing good. Never. Even at the sake of your life. Never. Never, Give up!

Many Dharma Blessings,

Geoff