Satisfied Buddhist - Domo Geshe Rinpoche

Yesterday there was much discussion about what feelings we wanted to be experiencing. Instead of having the feelings that you want, you have to endure feelings that are something else, not pleasant or not to your liking. However, we note here that the “ something else ” that you receive in place of what you want, is not necessarily the opposite of the pleasant you desire to feel. For example, you could answer that question of not feeling happy without saying or meaning “ I feel unhappy” ”. Just because you are not happy or more specifically, not experiencing the feeling of happiness, does not mean that you are unhappy. Using informal unexamined logic; most people assume that if something is true, its opposite is false. If you are not this, then you are definitely its opposite. It might be the case where you are simply not experiencing happiness, and rather than experiencing unhappiness; you might feel like you are under some kind of anesthetic. In fact, when we talk about feel...

Part 5 in a series. In the small town of Sebastopol in northern California, there is a little farmer's market each Sunday. Next to the market is a small town square with a beautiful fountain and sometimes music and dancers. One Sunday I was there sitting on a bench observing people and enjoying. Soon, several little girls about three or four years old arrived with their nanny ; each child dressed in a fairy ballerina costume . Their costumes of different colors had little wings and were a bit torn and worn out. Perhaps a couple of them wore their costume every day, just for fun. One of the little girls, in her little tattered fairy costume, decided to get into the fountain. Climbing in, she marched around in a circle in the fountain, laughing and splashing as much water as she could! Soon the other girls joined her in the fountain. It looked like so much fun. My pleasure in seeing children laughing and marching, marching around in the fountain really made me feel happy! Ma...

Part 4 of a series The darkness of obstacles clumps energy together gathering like a dirty snowball and clouds you. That is why the delusions are called obscurations because they obscure the lightness of your natural being. The unhappy mind has a darkness to it, a sickly darkness. To reduce the obscuration of anger begins to clear twisted energy held like a tight fist inside. As it clears, the clarity of natural mind begins to shine. This is not yet enlightened mind; this is a correct human mind and its energy life. The natural state of that mind is happiness. As this darkness begins to lighten, the mental states associated with the stress caused by the density also dissipates and we feel encouraged by that. By feeling better, we want to reduce the dysfunctions even more. At a certain level of clarity by reducing clenched energy further, we see that old strategies were not as good as we thought. Actually, you already knew that anger was not as good a strategy as you thought it...

Part 2 In truth, being happy does not depend upon having successes or having our needs met in the way we want them to be met. Sometimes people do get the thing they want, but not done in the manner they wanted it to be done, so then it becomes unhappiness. Getting a raise happiness, getting a new car happiness, or getting the final tin soldier in your antique collection set happiness, are not the criteria of happiness. It is so interesting that this is still such an integral part of everyday philosophy because these ideas do not exist in the scriptures or even in the teachings of Christianity as happiness. However, it is like a teeter-totter. Over here, you have reasonable values regarding happiness and suffering by the great minds and philosophers from the Buddha to Socrates to Wittgenstein. Over here, you have a five hundred pound gorilla demanding that you obey society norms by seeking happiness through accepted common values. Our perceptions of what is and what is not happi...