Satisfied Buddhist - Domo Geshe Rinpoche

The concept of refuge in Eastern culture and spirituality directly conflicts with an ingrained Western concept of supremacy of the individuality. It means that many who wish to experience authentic Buddhism will have a crucial issue even before beginning serious practice. Perhaps it is more valuable to discuss that, rather than how wonderful refuge is, as though I was trying to sell you a used car. There are problems arising from an excessive sense of individuality. Have you ever observed the dynamics between parents and their babies of perhaps only four to five months in a store? The parents often expect even a three month old to learn how to make choices. For example, holding two teddy bears, they might say, “Which one do you like sweetie, this one, or that one? Do you want a red one or a blue one? Which one would make you more happy?” Showing this one and that one, the child must make their own choice. In one way, this is very much indicative of your cult...

As a result of being forced to make many choices too early, children can become over stimulated and learn positive associations with feelings of separation from their family before it is safe enough for them to be on their own. A sign of completion of this, is when the young person no longer wishes to have anything to do with their family, because their choices take them into further separation. As an adult, choices you might have already made during your own childhood might mean that you have deliberately cultivated more differences than similarities with others choices. Individuality becomes the goal rather than being an expression of unique qualities. Major problems encountered later, could be a lack of trust of others, unresolved issues of security or aggressively held personal views. Buddhism needs new methods to help overcome these disabling suffering attitudes so prevalent in Western modern culture. ~Domo Geshe Rinpoche ~~~~ ""Kinder, die gezwungen werden, zu viele Ent...

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 ...