A Tibetan New Year Teaching by Dzogchen Khenpo Choga Rinpoche
Yesterday was Chinese New Year. Today is Tibetan New Year—Losar.
Our New Year is based on the Kalachakra Tantra, which Buddha Shakyamuni taught when he was 81 years old. This is a vast teaching. The outer Kalachakra describes planets, stars, and the entire universe system with extraordinary precision. More than a thousand years ago in Tibet, we could predict the exact time of lunar and solar eclipses. We could calculate the relationships between planets and their distances from Earth.
Based on this Kalachakra calendar, today marks the beginning of spring—and the beginning of the new year.
So today, we celebrate Buddha Shakyamuni’s New Year.
Why We Celebrate Fifteen Days of Miracles
You need miracles to overcome challenges. You need miracles to overcome others’ jealousy. You need miracles.
But here is what most people don’t understand: everybody already has miracles.
The problem is that we don’t admit them. We don’t acknowledge them. We don’t call them what they are.
The Miracles You Already Have
Speaking different languages is a miracle. Some people speak two or three languages—this is miraculous.
Parents loving children is a miracle. And sometimes children loving parents? That is also a miracle.
There are many miraculous things happening around you right now. You need to recognize them, rejoice in them, and most importantly, be grateful that you have them.
Miracles Are Not Random
Miracles aren’t accidents. They aren’t luck. They aren’t random occurrences.
Miracles are interdependent origination. When causes and conditions meet, something arises. Your virtuous intention is the cause of miracles. Bodhicitta is the cause of great miracles.
All miracles come from your present-moment thinking.
Mind Is the Creator of All Miracles
Consider this: even hell realms are a miracle. Beings there are miraculously born.
Who created hell? Karma. Who created karma? Mind.
Therefore, mind is the creator of all miracles.
Hungry ghosts experience unbearable hunger and thirst—no water, no food—yet they don’t die. Who created that? Karma, which was created by mind. This too is a miracle.
All phenomena are created by karma. Karma is created by mind. This is the greatest miracle—a vast display of mind’s power.
The Tragedy of Not Believing in Mind
Most human beings are rigid and limited in their thinking. Unfortunately, many don’t believe there is mind at all. To them, there is only brain—something small, like yogurt in a container. They see brain as similar to artificial intelligence and don’t distinguish between the two.
This view deeply disrespects human beings by treating us like machines.
At minimum, you should believe there is mind. After you die, you don’t simply finish. Instead, you continue to reincarnate moment to moment.
The Wrong View That Leads to Despair
Many people believe that after death, there is nothing. No future. No hope. No continuation.
This kind of wrong view leads directly to natural disappointment and even suicide. The thought “I have no future—after I die, I become nothing” creates tremendous suffering.
We need to remember that Buddha Shakyamuni defeated these wrong view holders, especially those consumed by jealousy.
How to Deal with Jealous People
Look around you. There are many jealous people in your life.
However, it is not worth going against them. There is no value in arguing with them. You don’t need to participate with them or support them.
Why? Because jealous people’s fundamental wish is this: Your suffering is my happiness. Your success is my suffering.They want you to fail.
This kind of person is very difficult to help.
Protect Your Mind
Therefore, to prevent disaster, you must protect your mind, protect your life, and protect your system.
Buddha Shakyamuni defeated six wrong view holders. Similarly, we have six wrong views inside our own minds: the wrong views of anger, jealousy, greed, pride, ignorance, and doubt.
We need to defeat all these wrong views. And it is very good to defeat them.
The First Miracle Buddha Displayed
Today is the first day of the Miracle Event. On this day, Buddha performed his first miracle.
Generally, a teeth-cleaning twig is very small—about the size of your pinky finger. People chew it and throw it in the trash. It seems completely useless.
But Buddha transformed this useless piece of trash into a giant tree. This tree grew enormous fruit—each piece weighing around fifty kilos. The tree provided shade and nourishment for many beings.
This was Buddha’s surprise attack against the wrong view holders. Until that moment, he had not displayed any miracles publicly.
The Big Bang Is Also a Miracle
Consider this contradiction: Many people believe in the Big Bang theory—that a tiny atom exploded and became everything in the galaxy. They accept this readily.
Yet these same people cannot believe in miracles.
If a small atom can explode and create everything that now exists, why can’t a small twig become a great tree? This is very contradictory thinking.
Why You Don’t Believe in Your Own Miracles
We don’t believe other people have miracles for one simple reason: we think we ourselves don’t have the capacity or power for miracles.
But mind is incredibly powerful.
Once you believe you don’t have miracles, then you don’t have miracles. This belief ultimately kills your potential.
Once you decide you don’t have miracles, they disappear. However, once you decide you have miracles—or will have miracles—then you will have them.
Miracles Are Happening Right Now
Buddha Shakyamuni’s teachings are not stories from the past. They are happening presently.
So many beings are performing miracles. Great masters are doing miracles every day in their daily lives. We need to acknowledge this reality.
This is not superstition or blind faith. Some Buddhist practitioners may have blind faith, and that is a mistake. But Buddha Shakyamuni’s miracle display is not blind faith—it is showing the truth. Those who have good karma can see it.
How Buddha Actually Helps You
Here is something important to understand about miracles and Buddha’s blessings.
Buddha cannot simply come to you at night while you are sleeping, clean all your bad karma, and delete it. You don’t wake up in the morning suddenly enlightened. Even with great miracle powers, Buddha cannot unilaterally remove your negative karma.
Instead, Buddha operates on a matching-fund principle.
The Matching Fund of Practice
When you believe in Buddha, practice the teachings, and do good things every day, Buddha matches your effort with blessings. Almost in proportion to what good things you do, Buddha can help you. If you do nothing, however, that approach doesn’t work.
This is a key difference between Buddhist and non-Buddhist religions. Some traditions promise that their deity can do everything unconditionally. But Buddha clearly stated he cannot work that way.
You have to practice. You need to cultivate the five positive ways of thinking. As you increase positive thinking and decrease negative thinking, Buddha can help you—doubling or tripling your efforts.
Buddha Shakyamuni’s teaching is systematic, scientific, and realistic. We can test it.
A Simple Test
For example, when you smile at others, most likely they smile back at you. But if you show an ugly, angry face to others, they will probably mirror that back too.
This is exactly Buddha’s teaching in action.
Enjoy Life: A Core Buddhist Practice
I always teach that you need to enjoy life. It is very good to decide not to suffer.
Every Buddha and enlightened being does not suffer. Even bodhisattvas and arhats who go to help others don’t suffer, because they don’t have the cause of suffering.
Your Suffering Affects All Beings
Here is something important to understand: if you suffer, that harms all sentient beings. Even without any intention to harm, your suffering becomes a condition for others’ suffering.
Unless your suffering is embraced by virtuous intention, it becomes a condition for universal suffering.
Transform Suffering Through Love
Consider this example: You carry your mother on your shoulder. It may be painful. But because you love your mother, that pain can become a condition for all beings’ happiness.
Or imagine you read texts for all sangha members. Your leg hurts and you cannot stand. But because you dedicate this effort to liberate all beings from suffering, you joyfully accept your knee pain. In this way, you transform that suffering into a condition for all beings’ happiness.
However, if you just suffer and complain without any virtuous embrace, that suffering also becomes a condition for all beings’ suffering.
Therefore, generally speaking, be happy. This benefits yourself and all beings.
Be Grateful: The Antidote to All Suffering
You need to learn to be grateful. In the degenerate age, we become less and less grateful. This is a serious problem.
Contentment is very good, but gratitude is the antidote to all your suffering.
Be grateful you have medicine. Be grateful you have food. Be grateful for everything, especially for receiving teachings. Even hearing the name of Buddha Shakyamuni is cause for deep gratitude.
Look around—you have so many good things. You should not ignore them. If you ignore the good things you have, there is no success.
Ungrateful thinking deletes all your success. It erases the very sense of achievement. Therefore, everything you accomplish deserves your rejoicing and gratitude.
Respect Yourself First, Then Others
Those who do not respect you—don’t waste your time, resources, or energy on them. They are very difficult to help unless you have a great strategy and some miracles.
However, respect itself is so wonderful.
The Right Order of Respect
If you create music, songs, art, or teachings, who should respect that work first? You should. Respect yourself.
Once you respect yourself and then respect others, that is very amazing. That is very beautiful.
But if you don’t respect yourself yet try to respect others, it looks very ugly. People become scared of you. They think you are begging for something or want to steal something.
Most wealthy people react this way: “This person never respects himself—how can he genuinely respect me? What does he want?”
The ideal is to respect yourself as Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Or at least something similar to that.
This Month: 100,000 Times Multiplied
Today is miracle day. Today is new year. Make a good celebration. Drink tea. Eat good food. Pray Buddha Shakyamuni’s mantra.
Recite 3,600 times: Om Muni Muni Maha Munaye Soha.
During this entire month, good and bad karma are multiplied 100,000 times. Therefore, we need to do good things during this time.
We cannot do many big things, but we can do small virtuous things. And we must do them.
Never surrender to obstacles. Never pay attention to harmful people. Don’t follow them. Defend yourself. Focus on your path. Achieve your goal.
Then you will be forever grateful to yourself. You will say: “That choice, that decision—it was a miracle.”
The Most Important Thing in the Universe
Happy New Year. Happy Losar. Happy Miracle Day. Happy 100,000 times increasing virtuous qualities!
Our teachings now have support from movies, images, and articles. Everything is increasing.
But remember: the most important thing in the universe is not AI, not money, not your house.
The most important, unsurpassable thing is mind.
This is why we say Chittamatra—Mind Only.
If you have mind, you have everything. Because within mind, all Result Buddhas permanently reside as Guru Padmasambhava.
Tashi Delek. May your miracles multiply infinitely.
