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Showing posts from September 16, 2012

Becoming an Elder, Transmission of Tsongkapa and other Buddhist musings....

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In traditional cultures, people in their middle years are already making preparations for their elder years. They do this by working hard to develop venerable qualities while diminishing harmful qualities to become capable of disseminating  tribal wisdom to others that are fragile or in the earlier stages of life. Preparation must happen prior to the need because soon they will be responsible; they must become the elders. However, there's a vast difference between becoming an elder and getting older. In Buddhist culture, this is also the way that the serious practitioners cultivate and train themselves to become guides in contrast to those who are simply Buddhist practitioners who are older. ~ Domo Geshe Rinpoche ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ „In traditionellen Kulturen bereiten sich die Menschen bereits in ihren mittleren Lebensjahren auf das Alter vor. Sie tun dies, indem sie hart daran arbeiten, verehrungswürdige Qualitäten zu entwickeln und gleichzeitig schädliche Qualitäten abzubau

Pain, Enduring Suffering, White Conch and other Buddhist musings....

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There are many people in this world living with physical or mental pain. Perhaps even you are someone enduring everyday life with extreme pain. There are also many who cannot have a normal life because of intermittent or steady physical o r mental discomfort. Actually, if we look at the entire spectrum of pain from severe to mild and occasional, I think that just about covers everyone in the whole world. As we are one of those people, not only do we have pain, but we also experience how we feel about our pain! However, engaging in our own opinion about our pain is what makes it truly painful. Physical pain is an indicator that something is wrong. Beyond that, once we have identified the warning that something amiss, we need to identify the cause. Then we don’t require the experience of pain anymore. When continuously dwelling in the experience of pain, we don’t get the benefit of actually being able to do something about it. Becoming engrossed in the sensation of pain only adds to