Satisfied Buddhist - Domo Geshe Rinpoche

We experience the effects of and participate in group karma in many different ways. Because every country has a government that mandates laws such as traffic laws or civil responsibilities, we must conform to the rules or suffer the consequences. In addition, we participate in national or regional reputations for similar likes and dislikes, our shared accent, or being of a rough or gentle nature, simply by being born in a particular place. We are treated as a group rather than as individuals. Group karma might also include being treated well or badly according to our gender, or race, something that we have no control over in our participation. In addition, all humans alive at this particular time experience their world together under the sun and stars of astrological influence or cosmic events. They also suffer calamities and natural disasters as groups without regard to personal collections of virtue and non-virtue that might make them immune to harm as individuals. Tibetans sad...

Both you and I, as well as everyone else, does not want to experience anything bad, isn't that so? We only want to experience the wonderful and positive in life, and we absolutely do not want to suffer. We, as well as all living beings, hold this baseline commonality; none wishes to suffer and seeks happiness and comfort. The nature of the smallest creature has this in common with every living being. However, strangely enough, we are continuously experiencing what we do not want to meet, yet what we desire is not that easy to get, even with effort! If that were not so, for example, I could just go to a Lamborghini car dealership, and say, " I have no money but I want to have that red one over there." They would say, " Of course, our pleasure." It would certainly be a different world if we could have everything we wanted. Since we want happiness more than anything else, we should be able to get it. If a red Lamborghini makes me happy, why shouldn’t I ...

We learn about the positive effects of prayer for both our own needs and to advocate for others. We want the magical events that seem to be outside of ordinary experiences such as an answer to a prayer, synchronicity, or divine appearances in meditation. That would definitely be a kind of amazing and magical happening. Just when life is moving along in a predictable manner, magic strikes! We want it to be that way. We want the surprise of magic in our life! However, within the context of the boring, the predictable and the ordinary, magical events are taking place continuously within your own mind, causing you to perceive the world, yourself and others in ways that are not actually how they exist in reality. As human beings, we perceive the world as though it was real, but it is like a fantasy, a magical display. Events, experiences, as well as the arisal, occurrence, and dissolution of karma are self-constructed magical creations. The magical qualities of our life are the act...

There are many “ baby Buddhism ” explanations of deep principles of Tibetan Buddhism available. The “ accessible ” information stream is very easy and smooth with practically no effort needed on the part of the curious. “ Do good things, and do not do bad things. ” However, I do have confidence in your intelligence. The explanations of karma commensurate with the shift to inner quantum physics realities logically would be more complex than perhaps a small sign on a store shelf telling us, “stealing is bad karma.” You might even think, ‘ Why am I being fed simplistic beginner concepts when I am completely capable of understanding more complex strategies?' However, in the real world, a relationship with a teacher or mentor evolves on both sides. The more you interact with the teacher, and the lama begins to trust and appreciate your ability to understand, the more he or she will, with a professional ease, touch points of perceptual errors that need to change. In that way, we ...

Karma is an important subject, however, everyone is already an authority. Each one of us are equal experts in karma, casually using and disposing karma without taking time off. Everybody knows the meaning of karma as it is used in everyday life: a warning to be good, or else! I have seen a small sign in stores next to their most valuable objects, "Stealing is bad karma.” Even many Christian churches use the word karma like an English word because of common usage. On the other hand, perhaps there is more to this Oriental concept than the common meaning. The word karma is from the Sanskrit, an early classical Indian language. It is still considered a sacred language because of its use in ancient religious philosophy, commentaries and texts of early Buddhism and Hinduism as well as sacred mantras of deities. In Tibet and elsewhere, mantras and sacred verse are still recited in Sanskrit by the empowerment of the holy syllables. In Tibetan, karma is called ley, but means exactly t...

Rinpoche: After meditating and sitting daily for some time, the body might begin to complain of new aches and pains from sitting. Beginning meditators often see meditation as a struggle with the body to hold a posture that seems more like a pretzel than a human should endure. Other meditators try one cushion after another to find comfort, while still others might look for sacred symbols on a Tibetan carpet to help them, perhaps magically, overcome the sense of having a body at all! Maybe the problem is poor posture, so it is good to review the traditional advice for meditation position, adapted to a Western body. Of course, there are flexible and athletic people everywhere, but in general, Western people are raised sitting in chairs with their legs hanging over rather that cross-legged as it is done in the Orient. That means that young bones are formed and feel comfortable in very different styles. Eastern meditation posture is based on what is most comfortable and is not conside...

An amazing factor of the human realm is the perception that private thought is normal. This illusion regarding private thought has interesting ramifications. For example, if people really knew what you thought, if you could not hide your thoughts from them, would you change the way you think? It is likely that we would make more effort to control dysfunctional thinking and increase quality thoughts in order to keep friends and dear ones as dear and friendly. If we were forced to wear our thoughts like a moving banner across the forehead, we would probably try much harder. So, let us practice working on motivation as though other people could tell what we were thinking. I suppose we would start by trying not to have funny thoughts about other people, however, if they are behaving badly, then I personally do not believe that I have an obligation to pretend. This is a damaging kind of practice, knowing that someone is doing something incorrectly or harmful, and yet pretend to yoursel...