Satisfied Buddhist - Domo Geshe Rinpoche

I have been careful about giving initiations because I do not want students to feel overwhelmed by multiple commitments they might be unable to accomplish. However, I myself had many practice commitments that I did daily recitation. In the Tibetan tradition, in the old days, we made many promises to do commitment practices and upheld our commitments, not just by reciting but being involved energetically in the practices. Now, in this busy modern world, many Tibetan Buddhism practitioners receive advanced teachings, and might make commitments they cannot fulfill. Perhaps there are simply not enough hours in their day to do all of the practices that they sincerely promised. From the side of the student, part of the initiation process is to make genuine commitment to accomplish the practice goals. Otherwise, you are taking it as a blessing. More and more people  actually are taking initiations as a blessing but vowing a commitment because of excitement/enthusiasm. There ofte...

Your self-image has been massaged through self-cherishing, and this has caused you to become confused as to how you actually exist. It is based upon false values because, for example, you could be shaken in your body/mind conditioning by simply choosing the wrong garment from your closet and feel awful the whole day! This seem to happen more in women, but I am sure there are many men who are like that too, " Oh, this tie just makes me look fat! " Most feelings of self-consciousness or shyness are related to self-cherishing even though it might appear to be a lack of self-cherishing by the appearance of a kind of false humility. This is not a genuine humility based in equanimity but actually enhances and encourages destructive behavior with little hope of resolving the dilemma by a false dynamic. This is because it mimics spirituality or holiness and is a trick of the self-cherishing mind to avoid losing its power. Whether we arrive from false humility or false sense of o...

Part 3. Perfection is possible and is unrestricted to manifest in any form in any realm. Perfection, in the form of a teacher guiding us to enlightenment is capable of appearing in inner as well as outer forms, reminding us, giving teachings and calling us to our true home when we are lost. However, the actual student and recipient of care is deep interior to the outside person and is more energetic in nature than thinking. What it does understand is energetics far more complex than the human mind can process. If the preparation for change is done correctly, the inner being experiences a correct love dynamic that it cannot understand but is attracted to in its own more sophisticated method and it causes a powerful pleasurable effect in its subtle being. The reason why we experience this activity as bliss in the outer mind is that something is happening in the inner minds that cannot be understood in the way we admire and demand understanding. For almost all meditators, even cl...

Part 2 We want to know and experience true love, a state described earlier as not being able to find it, but maintaining a flow toward a person, an object such as a passion for a hobby, or as a love of buddhist study. In the higher practices, we learn to maintain an intimate relationship with the objects of our buddhist studies; bodhichitta, emptiness or other cultivated attitude we need for transformation. Even in ordinary mature interpersonal relationships, there must be continuity, a steady undercurrent developed and cultivated that comes from a deeper place than the changeable mental functions. Love contains a capacity to maintain a kind of “not knowing” that helps us hold steady in our desire to maintain the emotion by not owning the object of love while still maintaining contact. Without the ability to endure our tendencies of changing our mind, from moment to moment, we would be in love, and then a minute later we would not be in love, and then again in love, and again not ...

Part 1 Experience in mind training such as putting into practice the aphorisms of the seven points made you more capable and qualified to enter into the study of the nature of emptiness. Then the powerful teachings on lack of inherent existence and the wonderful simplicity of the explanation of emptiness can cause a sudden shift inside that is a sign of meaningful changes. The preparation and cogitation accomplished on the deep inquiry and analysis of the twenty emptinesses of Chandrakirti also gives you permission to enter into cultivated inner dynamics described in the treatise and commentary. Long-time, skillful meditators will deliberately enter into the state without foundation three or four times a day in order to prepare their mind for the actual transformation event. For helper beings such as learner bodhisattvas, in their quest for perfection in their own being by being of benefit to others, rest their minds in a careful place away from the confusion of the sense bases of t...

Part 2. Love of our Buddhist practice changes our mental outlook on what is important and what is not important. We might even find special secret delight to see our meditation cushion, our altar objects, or even our mala prayer beads. You should treat this delight respectfully and not have false sophistication or be cynical saying to yourself, " Oh, how silly of me, I am acting like a kid. " Maintain a very careful love relationship with your meditation practice. I do not know, maybe sometimes you could hug your mala. Personally, it delights me inside to express joy of practice in this very clean and innocent manner. A meditator might sometime experience anxiety about their practice objects such as who do I allow to touch them, are they good enough quality or imbuing them with too much solidification. In order to overcome these and other issues regarding our own Buddhist objects, we are trained to understand that even these things we love as part of our practice arise...

Part 1. Our sense of identity is very mixed with our personalities and we take quite a bit of pride in its upkeep and practice. However, if we look more objectively with higher motivation, we can view personality as a set of strategies that we developed to interact with others, our environment and even ourselves without making effort to discover what it is we are using. Buddhism teaches us techniques of how to have a better relationship to self, other or the world without exclusively leaning on strategies of personality. Relying on ego centered interactions with the gross senses is not as healthy as higher dynamics such as understanding the illusory nature of ordinary reality so that we do not exclusively use memory of our own personality strategies that easily become mixed with the dysfunctions. Now we want to see fresh and not just use a collection of habitual strategies, distractions and disorders. In searching for the words and description of the underlying dynamics of personal...