Satisfied Buddhist - Domo Geshe Rinpoche

"Buddhist Mahayana texts describe and link awakening to a very special mind, creating a powerful wish to be free. Because there are tremendous obstacles to achieving this, great opposing remedies must be used. It is somewhat like animal activists opening cages to free lab animals, but most just sit in their cages, the only place they ever knew, because they do not know what freedom is. As intelligent people,we have a natural awakening to wish to be free. It is an anxiety but a good kind that causes us to set out on a journey to still that inner disturbance. Perhaps we wish to experience the energetic rush of white-water rafting, go to Hawaii, or experience what it is like in sacred Machu Piccu to feel free. We want to fix the world around us to free us of this anxiety so we see our problem "out there.” “If only nuclear power plants were closed down, I know the world would be a happy place.” So, they shut as many as they can, and when they close down the last one, will the wor...

Our life force energy is not free to object when we are doing what we think is important. It a way it is more like a suffering animal kept in a cage. Some people will break the law to open the cages of laboratory animals, setting them free by stealth, but many of the animals will not run away but continue to sit in their cages, the only place they ever knew. Like that, we gradually became accustomed to living life in a small way and don't know how to experience the expansive quality of being energetically alive. Not only does the metaphorical cage need to be sprung open for living beings trapped in samsara, but the complacent one inside must be alerted that freedom exists. Once they truly understand that there is more than their limited experience, they will need to develop spiritual courage, anticipation of evolutionary transformation as well as a new form of intelligence. Wanting this freedom is refuge as understood in Tibetan Buddhism" ~Domo Geshe Rinpoche ~~~

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...