The Karmapa's words

The 17th Karmapa recently attended a long life puja for His Holiness Dalai Lama and received empowerment of White Tara as well as teachings from His Holiness.

Speaking to the audience afterwards, the Karmapa reiterated the point that we need to ask ourselves whether our practice of Dharma is primarily concerned with gaining some ease and comfort in this life. If the main motivation of our practice is to experience some temporary sense of relief or relaxation, or in hopes of gaining a long life or wealth, this is a sign that we have turned the Dharma into another worldly pursuit. In our ordinary lives, we work hard to accumulate material things and surround ourselves with friends and family, but in times of trouble we need to ask ourselves just what resources we have. When problems arise, all the material goods we have expended so much effort in amassing are of no assistance. Quite often, we also find that our friends and family have little to offer either.

What does help in adverse conditions is our Dharma practice, he said. Yet in order for our Dharma practice to serve as a resource to us when we encounter difficult situations in our lives, we need to engage in sincere efforts in our practice. Gyalwang Karmapa urged the audience not to content themselves with having come to a holy place, seen great lamas and received empowerments and words of Dharma from them. Most of us have already seen many high lamas and attended many such events, but collecting such experiences is not the point of Dharma practice. Rather, the point is to allow the teachings to affect real change in our hearts and minds.

Source: http://www.kagyuoffice.org/karmapa.currentactivities.html#EveDeparture