Satisfied Buddhist - Domo Geshe Rinpoche

"There is a subtle essence to everything. When offering food before eating, we do not offering the plate of food itself, but the subtle essence of it. This is offered to the inner process at the heart center and not outside to a statue or universal energies. Recite the offering mantra OM AH HUM, OM AH HUM, OM AH HUM. This is all that is really necessary. There are longer prayers and other practices such as tsok offering at meal time used in Tibetan system that have many nice meanings. However, an important part of the offering is the OM AH HUM. Perhaps it's easier to remember the meaning if we are not reciting a longer verse. So, chanting OM AH HUM, OH AH HUM, OH AH HUM, visualize that the essence goes interior, more energetically. We do not need to visualize beings or colors. Then thinking, "I am going to partake of the gross food with my gross body. However, before I even do that may the actual nature of the food be transformed into its original nature. And may that ori...

"A very real cause of impatience is not experiencing our own view of “how things should be”. An upbringing as an only child might have created additional challenges with impatience? Why? Because they pretty much got their own way. What do you think? Were there special challenges? In normal human development, if not modified by other early training, a point of view arises that expects others to obey. When they do not, there is an energetic arisal of, if we were less cultivated, we would say “anger”. Isn’t that so? If we were slightly more cultivated, we would call it “irritated”, but since we are so very, very cultivated – we are only “impatient”! The important point here, is that my personal view of things perhaps is not how everything should be experienced. Understanding a variety of views will help, whether you are dealing with Hospice, dealing with you own mother, family or dear friends, or whether you are dealing with a problem situation of your own doing. Just because you cre...

In Tibet, almost all art is sacred art, done to exacting specifications and proportions that must be followed. Pure reproduction is applauded, originality is discouraged. Now I have new ways of perceiving art. These are my personal views. Art is fashion. That is true whether the fashion is "reflects me" or is reproducing beautiful scenery. Because everything we experience is only based on perceptions within an illusory realm, beings are blown this way and that by society permissions and whimsies. Our perceptions become trained by experiences that further solidify attitudes and perceptions, capturing us perfectly to samsara. Perhaps most art is fashion, a shallow display of what culture trains us to be and to see. Art is inspiration. That is true when wisdom holds the senses of the observer to transmit valuable understanding. It captivates us when the inner eye becomes fascinated with something displayed that uplifts us to a new energy source within our own minds. It reconnec...

"The great opportunity to learn in this wonderful, simple world that we live in has become contaminated in many different ways regarding relationships. There are so many who feel they have been hurt by others. Perhaps even you have given your love, and now lost confidence in yourself, even your own ability to love yourself. Now you have to watch yourself because you made a mistake. This love, which was shared so specially as an extension of your own self love, given in order to have it returned in an amplified form, was used to hurt. Well, watch out everybody because now someone has been hurt, true?! This is very sad. I do not think that Tibetan lamas teaching about the destruction of self cherishing really understand how this dynamic works in western society, or how people can be so generous, open and so loving and then turn around and flip into mean-spirited people. This is not in our system in Tibet! I cannot say that everything Tibetan is holy, careful and wonderful, but in th...

" Advice to the monastics... All I am saying is that I really do not want the White Conch monastics to work outside jobs. It does not mean this week or next week or next month. You think it could not possibly be so, but I promise you it can be so, but to make it work, we all have to pull together, mainly in food costs, fuel costs, electricity, etc. We do not have to live fancy. We should not live fancy. It is not good for us and makes us weak and incapable. Instead, this is how they did it when ordained monastics lived in caves or lived in monasteries; they were not expected to have comfort. They were expected to be there to learn how to be strong. Too elegant or too luxurious makes you weak. It also makes you feel that everything has to be perfect around you, otherwise you cannot function and be really you, and that is not true. This does not mean that you do not have any possessions at all. In India, at my before monastery, many monks' tiny rooms looked like some kind of a s...

"Spirituality feels good because it is nice to be away from the bruised ordinary mind, almost like a vacation. The awareness that produced an outer alert state is withdrawn, not completely, but withdrawn into a lighter form of yourself. It is still one of your own inner minds, such as the unconscious, but withdrawal makes you feel different, better, and relieved from outer worries. You are you, but not you at the same time, thoughts are different, more simplified and pleasant in the healthy individual. In spirituality mode, thinking is not done with the ordinary mind, but moved into a more interior place within the mind. Now there is a whole new way of talking to ourselves but we are not talking to our self about the same subjects. There is still something inside that needs to be discarded, but at least we are looking at a different valuation, and it is a bit of rest. Now we are having more spiritual thoughts, about love, compassion as well as often seeing the deeper meanings of ...

"If we cannot feel the "magic" of love from others, if it is not as much magic as we show them or if it is on again off again magic that they are displaying, then we might feel wounded in a place that is hard to explain, very hard to touch, and very hard to heal. So, we close our heart door, and think, 'people in this world do not appreciate what I have to offer!' Without the opportunity to display our love, it begins to putrefy. This love "magic" turns to blame, or we might have blame waiting just behind this offer of love that we want to give them, just waiting for them to say no. With one hand we offer them freely an opportunity to get to know us deeply, and on the other hand, if they do not return the correct signals, we are going to pound them energetically. How complex we make this! However, these unhappy dynamics are not possible to learn, (or even unlearn) unless we live in a world that is illusory and changeable. We can change the focus of our ...