Satisfied Buddhist - Domo Geshe Rinpoche

In Tibet, we had some village monks who were the “go to” person for anything that went wrong. A sick child, someone with problems that needed counseling, a student that didn't do well in school, marital problems, illnesses, births, and esp ecially deaths…. these were the work of the local monk. Often, the monk still lived in his family home in a little separate house under humble circumstances, doing prayer and ritual for others. These village monks ministered to the needs of their local people, not just in good times, but especially during hard times. In some ways, village monks were like your neighborhood modern Western healer. The village monk always had an open door to those in trouble and always had words of advice, constantly ready to quote the Buddha. Because they were humble monks with little education and training, usually his knowledge of scripture was not that great, however, he belonged to the village and the village belonged to him. Every village hoped to have one or...

To be elderly is quite an honor as only the old are allowed to do so! ~DGR~~~ In Tibetan monasteries, some of the young monks go to their private teacher’s room early in the morning where an elder monk will give preliminary teachings to a few younger monks. During study times in the great monasteries, they get up at two or three in the morning, and while still half asleep, begin recitations. No, before practi cing recitation by memory, monastic students invoke Manjushri, the Buddha of Wisdom. We have a special way of repeating Manjushri mantra, which (ideally) causes one to come alive in dharma practice but, lacking that, they use it to wake up, perhaps like morning showers do for others. The mantra of Manjushri is Om Ah Ra Pa Sa Na Dhi. After chanting the mantra rather quickly for a while, the student repeats the seed syllable Dhi for as long as they can with a single breath. “Dhi-Dhi-Dhi-Dhi-Dhi-Dhi-Dhi…. . It is difficult to do this for very long unless the mind is a...

One of my students told me a story about a group of Tibetan monks who came to New York City to make a big butter sculpture. Day after day, the monks shaped and assembled a quite impressive display of flowers, different animals, and deities out of colored butters all fastened onto large boards, which then were going to be brought in a tall assembly. It is quite complicated and requires a great deal of experience in order to make a butter sculpture. watch here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJmj4jqQBxQ Every day, many people came to watch the monks making butter sculpture, a very interesting process. Some of the monks had their hands immersed in water with ice cubes for long periods making this sculpture underwater. In addition, they had to keep the room at a very cold temperature, and it was wintertime, otherwise, the butter would melt. People would come to watch them mold and create the designs and ask questions, "Are your hands cold?" This was the important question t...