“May I see each difficult condition as a precious teacher, and an opportunity for transformation.”
“Instead of seeing all the problems you experience—whether caused by
living beings or by situations and circumstances—as problems, you need
to develop the habit of recognizing them all as beneficial conditions sup-
porting happiness, and in fact being causes for happiness. But you can’t
change your perception all at once. You must begin by trying to recog-
nize small problems as beneficial, then gradually, as you become more
accustomed to this, you can start to recognize larger, more serious prob-
lems as good, even pleasurable, and ultimately necessary for your happi-
ness. You will see everything that disturbs you as essential for achieving
happiness.
But make no mistake: The practice of thought transformation is not
intended to eliminate problems but rather to enable you to use the prob-
lems you experience to train your mind to move step by step along the
path to enlightenment and ultimate happiness. It is not that you will no
longer receive harm from other people, or from circumstances, or from
disease and old age; you will simply not be disturbed by anything that happens…
How do you use problems in support of your Dharma practice, and
your attainment of happiness? You have to train your mind in two ways.
First, you stop the thought of complete aversion to suffering, and second,
you generate the thought of welcoming problems. When you
have accomplished this and actually feel happy rather than unhappy to have
you generate the thought of welcoming problems. When you
have accomplished this and actually feel happy rather than unhappy to have
problems, problems no longer become obstacles to generating the path to
enlightenment within your mind. The fault of seeing only problems
We all come to harm from other beings, from illness, and from other events
and circumstances. As long as our mind is conditioned to identify such
experiences as problems, we will only find more and more people and
conditions disturbing.”
~Lama Zopa
