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One time when she was on retreat, she had a big boil handle this situation?” She thought about it, and the
on her cheek which was very painful. During the conclusion she came to was that His Holiness would
break time between her meditation sessions, she was say, “Just be kind.”
taking a walk and encountered our teacher, Lama Zopa
Rinpoche. So she adopted that as her motto: “Just be kind.” And
she thought, “OK, I’m going to be in the hospital for a
Rinpoche said, “How are you?” while. I’m going to meet all sorts of people—the nurses,
technicians, therapists, doctors, janitors, other patients,
She said [in a moaning tone], “Oh! I have this boil…” my family, and others. I’m going to come into contact
with a lot of people, and I’m just going to be kind.” She
And Rinpoche said, “Great! Fantastic! You’re so made up her mind that what she was going to do was to
fortunate!” be kind to whomever she happened to encounter.

This was of course the last thing she wanted to hear. She said once her mind thought like that, she became
She wanted some pity and comfort instead. But peaceful. That’s because she accepted that she was
Rinpoche said, “This is fantastic! All thies negative going to be sick and knew that she had a plan of how
karma that could have ripened in a horrible rebirth that to manage the illness:just be kind. She realized that
lasted eons, you’re now experiencing it just by having a even when she was sick, she could still make her life
boil. How fortunate you are!” meaningful and beneficial for others. She could still give
something to others that would improve the quality of
So whenever we have some kind of physical pain or their life.
illness, if we look at it in this way and able to see it from
this other perspective, then we realize that it’s actually As it turned out, her doctor did more tests and told
not so bad. We can bear it when we think of how it could her that he had given her a misdiagnosed her illness
have ripened in another way that would have brought and that she didn’t have such a bad disease. Of course
much more suffering. We can feel fortunate that this she was relieved to hear that, but she said that going
karma is ripening now and won’t obscure our mind through that situation was a very good experience.
anymore. This is another tool to use when you are sick. It enhanced her refuge in the Three Jewels and gave
her confidence that the thought training techniques
What would His Holiness the Dalai Lama say? for transforming adversity into the path to awakening

There is another story that I love. This happened worked.
several years ago to a friend of mine. She was young,
maybe in her early thirties. She had not been feeling What is a worthwhile life?
well for a while and had gone to the doctor. The doctor When I was living in Singapore in 1987 and 1988,
gave her a frightening prognosis and told her, “This there was a young man in his late twenties who was
does not look good. You’re going to be sick for a long dying from cancer. He asked me to help and I got to
time. You might die.” know him and his sister, who was taking care of him.
One day I visited him and he said, “I’m just a useless
My friend’s instantaneous reaction was of course to person. I can’t even leave my flat.” We were near the
get upset and feel scared and sorry for herself. Then at window, and I said, “Look out that window. All those
one point, when she was lying in bed and feeling awful, people running around—do you think their lives are
she stopped and asked herself, “If the Dalai Lama were worthwhile? They might be busy doing a lot of things
in my position, how would he feel? How would he but does that mean their lives are worthwhile?”