How To Practice Dharma In Difficult Situations

In response to requests from students for advice on how to practice dharma in difficult situations, such as the current global health crisis, Bardor Tulku Rinpoche shared the following guidance on March 12, 2020.

Because our great lineage holders and teachers have offered extensive guidance on what and how to practice, there is not much more I can add. However, if sharing a little about my own approach to practice can benefit others, I will do so.

Whatever practice we engage in, the essence of dharma is love and compassion. For my own daily practice, I start with guru yoga in the morning, followed by yidam practices during the day, and Mahakala in the evening. Through all these practices, I pray to the three jewels—the Buddha, dharma, and sangha—that all obstacles and hindrances for all sentient beings disappear.

Remember that guru yoga and yidam practices are long-term methods to bring benefit to others and oneself. Making a specific sickness the focus of one’s practice—or switching to a different practice to focus on one sickness—doesn’t work too well. When the great Indian pandit Atisha came to Tibet, he explained that where he came from, everyone practiced one yidam as a means to accomplish everything. However, what he saw at that time in Tibet, was people practicing a hundred yidams and accomplishing nothing.

I have found this to be good advice. With genuine love, compassion and devotion, I know that whatever practice I do will be as good as a hundred deities. This is important to remember.

If you have a guru yoga or yidam practice, continue with it. For those without such a practice, Medicine Buddha and Green Tara practice can be helpful. Also, follow the examples of masters like His Holiness the 17th Karmapa and Sakya Trizin, in cultivating bodhicitta. For those who are ill, from your heart, pray that this sickness ends as soon as possible. When thinking of people who are dying or deceased, pray that they have good rebirths in the future. Recall that outbreaks of sickness like this do happen from time to time in this world. Rather than worrying and becoming upset that it is happening, we can cultivate love and compassion for sentient beings in our hearts and minds. This is most important.