MESSAGE

Happy New Year to everyone! This is 2010, a very special number. Two zero, one zero, and also the Tibetan Iron Tiger year. I wish you all very very happy New Year. Having said that, it is very important for us to start our day or our year with a very special aspiration. We must say to ourselves, "this year I am going to make progress in my life. I want to be a happier, kinder and wiser person than last year."

Of course, all of you are wise people but there is lots of room to be better. We should also remind ourselves that we have been the masters of this planet earth, and sincerely wish to be a genuine, caring, responsible and worthy master. We have to recognize how privileged we are here because when we don't recognize it, then sometimes we just take it for granted. As result we might make mistakes, and some of the mistakes we make come out as problems; problems not only for ourselves, but problems for many in the form of disharmony among people, in the form of disharmony in nature. We like to call these things, "natural disasters" and "conflicts" but actually they are created by us. We are responsible for everything that is happening and so sincerely admitting and recognizing this is the beginning of the remedy.

We can make a difference. With the environment, there are so many problems that each one of us cannot solve everything. But if we each take care of the immediate vicinity in which we dwell, if everyone does that then our world will be a better place. There is nothing that is irreversible; we can turn worse-things into not-too-bad things into good-things. It is in our hands right now. As long as you and I are breathing and walking then everything is not too bad.

We can still improve whether we are Buddhist, or whether we are follower of another religion, or whether we consider ourselves to be a non-believer. We all have one thing in common and that is that none of us likes to suffer and all of us like being happy. This, we all agree, is our common goal, our common interest. So that is what really matters. We should recognize this. Then we should all do our best to make ourselves, our friends, our fellow humans and all the creatures of this planet, happy. May we all be happy. May everyone be free from suffering. We don't only make prayers; we put in a real effort by doing our best, not necessarily an enormous step all at once but practical, manageable steps all the time. In this way we become part and parcel of evolution - not downward evolution but upward evolution. We should definitely decide that we want to be part of that good evolution.

I as a Buddhist wish you all my best and I request Buddha's blessing, so that you will have happy life, happy year, positive year, progressive year, harmonious year and your wisdom will be increased. If you are not happy, then everyone in your family will be affected by it. If one family is not happy then the entire neighborhood will be affected by it, and so on and so forth. So therefore, each one of us must do our best so that we can live harmoniously. If we have harmony within ourselves then we will be happy; if we are happy then that will influence everybody around us. So therefore I wish you all my best, and be happy, be sincere, be compassionate, be in harmony.
Have a very very good year.
HAPPY NEW YEAR
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF YOU!!!

Yours in the Holy Dharma

The Twelfth Kenting Tai Situpa