Satisfied Buddhist - Domo Geshe Rinpoche

Buddhist scriptures and commentaries are full of stories about the struggles that great teachers and great meditators underwent to locate and receive teachings from authentic guides. How could the need for guidance be less important for those with lesser karma than  the great saints and who need dharma teachings even more? This is why the teachings and guidance systems are still in place but who  knows for how much longer. We don’t want Buddhism to degenerate into just information, but sadly, that is the way it is heading. ~ Domo Geshe Rinpoche ~~~ "Die buddhistischen Schriften und Kommentare sind angefüllt mit Geschichten über die Kämpfe, die große Lehrer und große Übende durchstanden, um authentische Führer aufzuspüren und Lehren von ihnen zu erhalten. Wie könnte für jene mit geringerem Karma als die großen Heiligen der Bedarf an Führung weniger wichtig sein, wo sie doch Dharmaunterweisungen noch viel nötiger haben? Aus diesem Grunde sind die Lehren und Führungssysteme n...

From the era of the great advice commentaries such as when the 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva were written, it was considered that almost everyone would be poor by their karma. Perhaps they had the poor karma to live where there wasn’t much  money and everyone lived in reduced circumstances or because they had a great deal of obligation. Poverty was common for dharma practitioners; by choosing a life of meditation, one does not have a wealthy lifestyle. Among choices made to have a life of meditation and practice, is deciding to have free time rather than money-making time.  We probably would be pitied as someone who is poor, and so becoming poor is something most folks avoid at any costs. Our fear of poverty is what drives us to work harder. I am not saying that making money is wrong. With children to support, house payments, electric bills, gas and insurance to pay, financial responsibilities are greater than in other places, or the way it was in the old days. However, the...

Now a days many receive authentic transmission but abuse it or throw it away like garbage; ask His Holiness the Dalai Lama what he thinks of that. For shame!  The empowerment done with highest wishes and received with promise to fulfill it  by practicing is often one sided! In that case, it would be better to go to an empowerment with a bag of popcorn to experience the entertainment! The damage done by abuse of initiation living energies will cause the decay and damage the sacred lineages held by Tibetans from the time of Lord Buddha to this present day - faster than any Chinese prison! Further, it damages the future of the student by breaking promises. The bigger battle for the contemporary initiating lama is the struggle to help those students who receive the precious diamond of initiation and introduction to vast awakened benefit living presence and practice rather than those who discard it as a whim! Do you know that you can make buddhas suffer? Due to their compassion,...

excerpt from todays statement by HH the Dalai Lama. What I have been saying all along.  "Emanation before the passing away of the predecessor (ma-dhey tulku) Usually a reincarnation has to be someone’s taking rebirth as a human being after previously passing away. Ordinary sentient beings generally cannot manifest an emanation before death (ma-dhey tulku), but superior Bodhisattvas, who can manifest themselves in hundreds or thousands of bodies simultaneously, can manifest an emanation before death. Within the Tibetan system of recognizing Tulkus there are emanations who belong to the same mind-stream as the predecessor, emanations who are connected to others through the power of karma and prayers, and emanations who come as a result of blessings and appointment. The main purpose of the appearance of a reincarnation is to continue the predecessor’s unfinished work to serve Dharma and beings. In the case of a Lama who is an ordinary being, instead of having a reincar...

Very few have connecting karma to work on solving a problem and produce good results. There are others in the sphere of that activity who act as support for the one, such as the back stage or sound crew for someone like HH the Dalai Lama at the time of teaching. There are those who energetically support the process a nd still others with an inner connection to the action. The latter ones are those who should be praying. The rest of interested people are in various stages of training to become effective prayers, supporters or doers! This is the variety of activities of bodhisattvas! ~Domo Geshe Rinpoche ~~~ ""Nur sehr wenige Menschen besitzen verbindendes Karma, um an der Lösung eines Problems zu arbeiten und gute Ergebnisse zu erzielen. Innerhalb der Aktivitätssphäre gibt es andere, die demjenigen unterstützend beistehen so wie die Backstage oder Sound Crew für jemanden wie SH, den Dalai Lama, wenn er unterrichtet. Es gibt jene, die den Prozess energetisch un...

Even in ordinary life, any valuable activity will be accompanied by conflict. It is nearly a sign of doing the right thing to have detractors. For example: His Holiness the Dalai Lama, a highly commendable person with few (if any) faults, is maligned by millions of people and many others who are taught to hate him. Je Pabongka Rinpoche, who lived an exemplary life was one of the greatest lamas of Tibet, and is quite regularly maligned after being gone about 70 years. Gandhi was killed out of hatred. The previous Panchen Lama was killed. Jesus was killed. Being maligned and insulted seems to be a feature in the lives of many great beings. Those who promoted environmental guardianship were told that they were crazy. Antiwar, ecology and even community currency advocates are still considered fringe lunatics to many. It might even seem that what is worth doing, is also considered worthy of becoming a target for insults or even death. However, complacency will whisper to us that if things ...

Tibet House had been active for about a year when I arrived in New Delhi to work there at the request of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. I had a lot to do. We had few people working so each of us did a lot. That’s interesting, because usually Rinpoches are more ceremonial. That was the very first Tibet House. It was the only Tibet House. When I went back there around 2003, I spoke to the monk in charge of the museum, (which was my earlier special responsibility). Back in the 60’s he was a young Tibetan monk who cleaned the windows and floors, and now he is the in charge. I suppose in 30 years one could learn quite a lot. I sat down with him that day and told him I remembered him, described his earlier job, and shared a number of memories with him. He was surprised, I do not think he comprehended that I was the same Domo Geshe, although, everything I said about him, he absolutely agreed. Perhaps that was because I did not look quite the same as my just previous life! Because ...

"You have only two purposes for arriving here in this world.The first is to learn, understand, and then to sincerely arise true compassion. These are three distinct educational and experiential modules. You might even be reading the teachings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, keeping one of his inspirational books by the side of your bed, thinking, 'My goodness, these are such good ideas. I should try harder to put these into practice!" ~Domo Geshe Rinpoche ~~~ "Es gibt nur zwei Gründe, warum Du auf diese Welt gekommen bist. Der erste ist, um +ber wahres Mitgefühl zu lernen, es zu verstehen und es dann wahrhaft zu erzeugen. Dies sind drei völlig verschiedene Module, was Ausbildung und Erfahrung betrifft. Du könntest vielleicht sogar die Lehren Seiner Heiligkeit des Dalai Lama lesen, eins seiner inspirierenden Bücher auf dem Nachttisch haben und Dir denken: 'Meine Güte, das sind solch ausgezeichnete Ideen. Ich sollte mich mehr anstrengen, sie in die Pra...

Logically, we must experience karma individually to have any effect. Even group karma, as discussed in part five, influences and perpetuates individual karma unless that person is quite strong minded and skillful. For example, Tibetans who left behind all their possessions and fled to India for safety, and lived as strangers in a new land, often had shorter lives, illnesses and stress caused by their unplanned emigration from their homeland. They were cautioned by HH the Dalai Lama and others to avoid anger and distress so that new karma did not harm them in this life and in the future. Many people worldwide are amazed when they hear that His Holiness deliberately does not hold anger against the Chinese. This is part of the reason, he cannot afford to hate when he has the responsibility to hold all living beings as equal worth. You possess an unknown karmic lifespan but there is a certain amount of flexibility in that time you will have here on earth. In other words, lifespan can...

Yesterday there was much discussion about what feelings we wanted to be experiencing. Instead of having the feelings that you want, you have to endure feelings that are something else, not pleasant or not to your liking. However, we note here that the “ something else ” that you receive in place of what you want, is not necessarily the opposite of the pleasant you desire to feel. For example, you could answer that question of not feeling happy without saying or meaning “ I feel unhappy” ”. Just because you are not happy or more specifically, not experiencing the feeling of happiness, does not mean that you are unhappy. Using informal unexamined logic; most people assume that if something is true, its opposite is false. If you are not this, then you are definitely its opposite. It might be the case where you are simply not experiencing happiness, and rather than experiencing unhappiness; you might feel like you are under some kind of anesthetic. In fact, when we talk about feel...