Satisfied Buddhist - Domo Geshe Rinpoche

Most Buddhist practitioners go for refuge to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha at the beginning of their meditation, upon rising and often just before bedtime. The mind is ripe and tidy at that time, nearly holy, and refuge is reasonable and pleasant. Now do it more skillfully; take refuge when you are angry, sad, grasping, hungry, jealous, worried or overstimulated. These are called secondary minds, arising and falling away as moods or stimulated by outside influences. More than the "holy you", these aspects of you need to take refuge and become tamed. This is how we conquer the worst parts of ourselves easily. We bind them to refuge vows! ~ Domo Geshe Rinpoche~~~ ""Die meisten praktizierenden Buddhisten nehmen zu Beginn ihrer Meditation, beim Aufstehen und oft auch kurz vor dem Einschlafen Zuflucht zum Buddha, Dharma und Sangha. Zu diesen Zeiten ist der Geist bereit und aufgeräumt und beinahe heilig und die Zufluchtnahme ist vernünftig und angenehm. Nun sei dabei kun...

For those who have ever received twenty-four hour Mahayana ordination vows I should tell the real agenda behind these Mahayana purification vows. The grand agenda is to tame your mind. This is not like taming a domesticated animal, like training puppies not to pee on the fancy living room carpet. Not like that kind of a taming, although I am feeling that in the process of gaining enlightenment for many meditators might feel that the enlightenment process should be like the untamed wild West. They want a sense of excitement, anticipation and infinite possibilities in an untamed rush toward the awakened state. An untamed mind is like a horseman whose stirrup straps slipped. I saw this in a movie – the rider is sliding underneath the horse, the horse is on top and the rider is on the underbelly of the horse just barely hanging on; his head is almost in the dirt. The reins are just flying in the wind and the horse goes anywhere it chooses. This kind of feeling comes more like the un...