Contracted AIDS is fortunate?

[DS Star]

"A new student had AIDS and was very depressed. (Lama Zopa) Rinpoche spoke to him with incredible joy saying how fortunate he was as most people think they will live a long time and never practice but he knew he was going to die and had great incentive to make his life meaningful. " ~ Venerable Roger wrote in 1989

This is the most unusual way of looking at this 'unfortunate' occurrence in one's life. Only a highly attained lama like Lama Zopa Rinpoche is able to turn this into a positive event.

So, the point is, in life it is not important how long we live, it is how much we practice and contribute to make our life meaningful. Agree?

[DS Star]

Ironically, we "normal" human beings will only realised the true meaning of life after we have contracted terminal illness like AIDS or cancer i.e. only then we understand the true meaning of impermanence.

Before that, we just focus on less meaningful enjoyments and neglect the more important part of our lives including our health and family.

Least of the list of course is the preparation for our next lives. We never think that we will die and we never bother, yet, where we will be after THIS life.

In a way, what realised teachers like Lama Zopa see is that by us realising this true meaning of life, we will have the opportuniy to practice and thus, it is actually 'fortunate'.

[eyesoftara]

I think this is a teaching the precious human life. To have contracted Aids and meet the Dharma, the person knows that he is dying, the disease strike fear into him and hence he practices diligently. In that case it fortunate.  We can contrast this with rich people who have big egos and think that they are literally immortal. Death is far from their minds and there is not need to the Dharma. In that case they are "Unfortunate". Of course there are exceptions.

We need to take advantage of this precious human life that is rare according to the Dharma to practice the very Dharma that will lead us to liberation. That is honestly even rarer to see in humans of this age.

[Positive Change]

This is indeed interesting as it shows us how our mind and perceptions work. We sometimes take what we deem as bad to be the result of our negative karma but it could well be the fruition of our good karma to create the causes for a "bad" result in order to trigger a good result.

Case in point this student who learnt the fragility of life and being in Dharma as opposed to "wasting" his/her life... Very interesting to view such juxtapositions of our mind and perceptions.

[Tenzin K]

Indeed only the attaint being can able to see things in a wide scope in the spiritual context. To us samsaric people we may say unusual because of our samsaric perception but to the attaint being their perception is to serve others, to benefit others and this is why they keep coming back. For them even were to live for 1 day they will just want to spend their live just for doing dharma and to benefit others regardless of what dieses.

For us we have no idea when we will die but what important is not to wait for it but do dharma as much as we can so when this unpredicted event arises we can go with no regrets.   

[Q]

I think the message that Lama Zopa wanted to send is that, however our karma manifest in our life, whether we get sick, we lost all our wealth etc... we should always continue our Spiritual practice because the difficulty we face now, is nothing compared to what it will be without spirituality. It is through Dharma and applying the methods through wisdom will we eventually be liberated from the suffering of this world.

So, yes, if getting sick will make us think more about practicing spirituality, then that would be our good karma... perhaps there was nothing else that would have moved us to this direction except being sick. After all, we have countless of karmic seeds both good and bad... perhaps through one's fortune, the bad seed was forced into ripening at a time when he/she will then lead a spiritual life due to that situation.

On the other hand, if I hit the jackpot, people may say that is my good karma. But if it takes me closer to dharma and use the money for positive actions, then yes good karma. But if the wealth makes me more attached, more desirous, less spiritual... then the money is the cause of my downfall and obtaining such wealth is due to bad karma.

[ilikeshugden]

This is a very interesting way for one to see how life should work. When you know your life is going to end, you accept it and you would want to improve yourself when you know you have an expiration date. So, normally people would not have this understanding unless they have a terminal illness.

[bambi]

Lama Zopa is such a great master.

Yes, it is unfortunate that the student got AIDS but in order for the student to accept the karma, not to blame but to let him know that this is the time to practice diligently and not waste another minute thinking of what could have been.
But this doesnt mean that we, able and healthy should do the opposite and procrastinate in our practice. We too must not waste time and think that we will have a long healthy life to practice in the future.
With Dharma, nothing can go wrong as it will be the BEST thing for us to bring to our next lives..

[metta girl]

Viewing a bad situation or circumstances at a positive angle will be very beneficial.It will hep a person understand  & gain realization that at this point death can come anytime and how much good deeds one have done or merits collected at.this very short lifetime is important.

[rossoneri]

Very sad to know that this student have contracted the disease but i think it is due to one lifestyle and karma which manifested in this way. When Lama Zopa said he is fortunate is because such Highly Attain master knew that this student of his will only and practice Dharma in whatever time he has left in this lifetime, this is very beneficial to this student. I think the point is, better to practise and learn Dharma everyday even though he might not have much long to live as compare to have a slightly longer life but been wasted in samsaric activity. In Buddhism dying is part of samsara, this is one thing that we cannot escape. Moreover, in Buddhism dying is not the end of life, we believed what we are doing now is much more important, it will influence our next life because of karma which we have created.

[maricisun]

Totally agree. In life it is not important how long we live, it is how we want to live our life.
Life is too short and so we must make full use of our life to be of benefit to others. In this way there will be no regrets when we are gone.

[dondrup]

Every phenomenon is subject to change. Similarly our life.   From the moment that we are born, we age, become sick, finally we die. No one can deny the forces of nature and Karma. The problem with us is that we grasp at every phenomenon as lasting   permanently! With this grasping, we falsely believe that we won't die. With this belief, we won't feel the urgency of doing something meaningful.

Contracting a terminal illness may be  blessing in disguise! Though we have  accepted our fate, we become very worried about the limited time left for us. We have developed a real sense of urgency!

Yes i agree that what matters is how we spent our lives by practising Dharma purely and sincerely and not how long we can live without doing anything meaningful.

[RedLantern]

Contracting a terminal disease will make the person change their lifestyle and start seeing the world in a different way and their previous views and opinions may change drastically.Getting sick can be life-changing for a person.
A person going through a terminal disease become aware of themselves on a much deeper and high level of realization and become more aware of their life experiences and learn from their experiences.They will feel more at one with themselves and everything around them,some will embrace spirituality to do something more meaningful with what's left with their lives.

[cookie]

When our life's good we are using up all our merits and good karma. It's not great to have too good a life which we cannot detach from . But many in a distressed life cannot practice either if they have no wisdom and drowned in their sorrows. Only with wisdom we can practice in these extremes.
This person with Aids was so lucky to have met such a highly attained Teacher as Lama Zopa to receive such a profound teaching of IMPERMANENCE and LOJONG . The journey to death for this sick person will be much more smooth and less painful when he practices these teachings !

[Kim Hyun Jae]

Discovering a deadly illness or disease is like a pre-warning to the patient. Upon discovering that, many questions tend to arise in their head and mind, thinking "how long will they live?" and worry thereafter.

What Lama Zopa said to the patient about "an incentive of making his life more meaningful" was not to chide him. Instead it meant that the patient's karmic obscuration had arisen and that the patient now have dharma with him so he can re-look into his life and take the opportunity to make this life more meaningful, via dharma so he can bring them with him to his next life for the better.