"Rinpoche gave the following advice after the government of the United States began attacking Afghanistan in the wake of the events of September 11th, 2001.
• "Be sure you don't rejoice in what is happening.
"This involves very heavy negative karma. If we feel dislike or hatred toward the Taliban, or whomever, and we hear that they have been killed or destroyed, then we might automatically rejoice or feel happy.
• "But if we rejoice, for example, when we hear that one thousand people were killed or hurt, we receive the same heavy karma as if we ourselves had killed one thousand people.
"Simply by rejoicing or just feeling happy about this, it's the same heavy karma as having killed one thousand human beings yourself, even though you are not physically taking part in the war. You didn't actually bomb or shoot them, you didn't do anything, but you get the same heavy negative karma as the person who actually killed one thousand people.
"If you dislike or hate these people and then you rejoice in something negative that has happened to them, it brings a very heavy outcome. If you didn't hate them, I don't think you would rejoice in this way.
"The first time I heard about the destruction in Afghanistan, when a few places were destroyed, I was not careful. The news didn't say 'people' or 'killing,' it said some 'places' were destroyed. I was not careful with my mind, not watching it, so I felt something kind of good, then immediately I noticed what I felt. After that I was more aware.
"Be careful not to rejoice when you hear the news. If you meditate like this, your view changes.
• When you don't meditate and don't hold sentient beings as precious, with compassion, then you might see them as undesirable and rejoice in their deaths.
Remember
• Don't rejoice when people are killed.
• If I rejoice when I hear that people were killed or hurt, I receive the same heavy karma as if I had killed the people myself."
