Lama Ole’s answer:
Definitely not. A very important pillar of our work is the Bodhisattva Promise. From the moment you take this promise, when you work against your anger, fewer and fewer unpleasant people will come to you. I promise you this.
The same thing happens when you stop killing mosquitoes. Then fewer and fewer mosquitoes will come and bite you, because they have the karma for a short life and if they don’t get killed by you then they have to go somewhere else. This is how it is when you stop being angry. The angry people will then go somewhere else because they don’t have a connection with you. You won’t see them anymore.
Hannah and I took the Bodhisattva Promise with Karmapa on a full moon in September, 1970. Before that, there were always fights and big quarrels. I don’t know where the angry people have gone; I don’t have anything to do with them anymore. I only meet nice people everywhere. At times there are a few “rumor-mill people,” but they also say less and less.
It’s like this: one moves within certain power-fields or energy-fields. If, for example, one leaves a circle of violence, then one won’t meet those people anymore. If the violence—the disturbing emotions—are removed from oneself, then one doesn’t have anything to do with them anymore.
Hannah and I observed this throughout the five years we were in the Himalayas. For example, we never saw an animal being slaughtered. And slaughtering happens on every street right at the roadside. We have never been to a festival with sacrifices, where entire mountains are soaked in blood. I have never seen this. I’ve seen only the happy goats, and afterwards a few goat cutlets.
By taking this Bodhisattva Promise, a great deal of harshness, negativity, and things that cause pain and suffering will disappear from your life. I can promise you this.