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Precious Gems from Domo Geshe Rinpoche
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During her September visit to New Mexico, Rinpoche was interviewed by
Carly Newfeld for Goddess radio, which aired Thanksgiving weekend.
We have a copy of the recording. Listen to this delightful and powerful interview, which is linked from the White Conch home page.
In preparation for this, we changed the main web page and added some
linked audio and video teachings by Rinpoche. Listen and become
re-inspired by the dharma!
Click on links to order the teachings extracted in Precious Gems.
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Dec 2, 2007
As
you become more skillful in your meditation, you will have times as
though the outer world doesn't hold as much excitement for you as it
did before. Your sense of grasping toward objects isn't as much fun as
it used to be. This gripping, almost orgasmic excitement that used to
be associated with [your idea of] feeling alive, holds no interest for
you.
Your awareness is now much
more interested in inner objects. These inner objects are being
introduced to you through authentic inner practice, which means that
you are preparing for another stage of development in your actual
being. This is generally why meditators try to simplify their life -
because it's not so interesting. It's not so interesting to have to be
involved in all of this flurry of (outer) things.
Among those inner objects, there is a very, very important inner
object. What do you think that inner object is, that meditators become
totally excited about?
Student: Inner guru.
Rinpoche: Inner guru, yes. (But) I have another object in mind. All sentient beings.
All living beings. They're not out there. They're in here (pointing to
heart center)! All sentient beings are there with you, and that is an
inner object which is cultivated. Once you discover that inner object,
it's like, Oh my gosh! There is a feeling almost like if you've ever
held a small white kitten. Oh, so dear! And so requiring gentleness.
There is part of you which begins to nurture. Truly, you learn how to
nurture all sentient beings inside you. This has a powerful
transformative effect. It is very different from how ordinary beings
see what makes them happy. I've never told it this way before.
Domo Geshe Rinpoche
Sep 29, 2007 Identity, Change and Being Alive, CD and MP3
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Dec 12, 2007
People
describe feeling shut down. It's as though there was
something that was open (you remember what it was like when you were
open) and then something happened. You search for the date, and the time,
and the situation, and the person, and everything else that was involved
that caused you to feel not alive.
I'm looking at it from a different viewpoint. We are not talking here
tonight about Buddhism, per se. We're talking about dynamics that are
preventing you from feeling alive enough to pursue Buddhism, to pursue spiritual practices. Our hidden agenda here is to get you in a place where you can actually begin an active process of meditation life.
Now,
these experiences of not feeling alive could be temporary. For the
benefit of those who are doing meditation practice, this can happen in
practitioners. For those of you who might be listening, there is a
heightened alive which happens when someone is in a highly evolved
practice, doing careful meditation practice, and they are moving into
a tremendous place of heightened sense of alive. I'm going to call it
double alive. This is one type of feeling alive.
You
(also) need an alive feeling in order to read signals in ordinary
life. If you are not (feeling a clear) connection with your own inner
process, you cannot understand the incoming sensory data. Sometimes you
can't even feel. Your ordinary senses may be reduced. There are far
more senses involved in ordinary human activity than just the five
senses. That means that when you walk into a room, you need to have a
method to feel that you are there. In some people, this sense is so
strong that they walk into a room and they just are fascinated with the
energy. Who experiences that? I know many of you do; you become very
tuned in to what's going on in that room. If that (sense) was taken away from
you, you would lie down on the floor and would not want to get up. You
would feel you were deprived of your eyesight.
This
is a kind of feeling alive; this is ordinary life. You expect to have
this :aliveness) from your inner process interacting with the world. (It
feels like what would happen if) I walked into the grocery store and
there was my best friend (who) I haven't seen in five years. I felt a whoosh of love. I felt their whoosh of love come toward me, (and) you haven't even got to the good hugging parts yet! You want to feel alive!
Domo Geshe Rinpoche
May 8, 2007 Feeling Alive Again, CD and MP3
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Dec 21, 2007
Whatever
is appearing to you in the outer world and in your inner environment is
comprised of deceptive appearances slathered onto its actual essence
nature of perfection. Someone had the question, Is the confusion I had
in understanding that teaching, is it okay if I just let that go as a
confusion and understanding that its basis is perfection? The answer
is, no! You are
expected to make effort to understand intellectually, so that you can
become better facilitators (of your inner process), as well as being
able to deal with others, and to deal with issues regarding compassion.
You are expected to not
see your distress and confusion as okay. That would put the explanation
in an ordinary sphere, and it is not in an ordinary sphere.
Form
is illusory. Enlightened beings know that, and you don't know that. And
so if you would please begin to adjust your thinking towards that
important concept, it will help you deal with the confusion regarding
deceptive appearances in the world. We don't use the remedy and cure as
an example of confusion.
Human
beings who attain enlightenment become learners. They have much to
learn, and what they want to do is enter into enlightened society and
have a career as a bodhisattva learner. And that is very good.
Whatever
is arising for you is in the nature of deceptive appearance and don't
take it so seriously! If you look at these deceptive appearances with a
certain amount of wonderment, Oh my goodness, it seems so real!, or a
certain amount of amusement, Isn't that just the strangest thing! How
could these things become so confused? And I have a part of me that
believes it is real, when I know, in fact, it is not real. Be like
this. We are not expecting you to become scholars of Buddhist
philosophy in order to accomplish mind training. Don't
make it more complicated than it is. Basically it is saying, Don't take
it so seriously because it is deceptive. If it is deceptive, how shall
we look at it? We go on to the four actions to use (to understand this.)
Domo Geshe Rinpoche
Aug 2, 2007 Seven Point Mind Training MP3 or CD
Part 3: Applying the Five Forces
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Dec 27, 2007A prayer for those on the path
May
all living beings, who are perfection itself and do not know it, find the
best of paths and preparation for entry into that understanding.
May all who prepare carefully toward that understanding make the great wish to be of profound benefit to all living beings.
May all who aspire to be of benefit find the best of training.
May all who find the training finish and integrate it with profound wisdom without taking personal gain.
May those accomplished beings trained and ripe in wisdom be allowed to work for the benefit of living beings.
May living beings listen carefully.
May
all living beings, who are perfection itself and do not know it, find the
best of paths and preparation for entry into that understanding.
By the 9th Domo Geshe Rinpoche, Dec 24, 2007
Dec 31, 2007 Prayers for World Peace, a Special invitation:
New Year's Day
is fast approaching, and as White Conch prepares to go into winter
retreat, we recall that one year ago we were on pilgrimage in India,
the land of Lord Buddha Shakyamuni's enlightenment and teaching. In the
ancient city of Varanasi, looking down on the Ganges River, we gathered
at 11:30 pm on Dec 31, 2006 and joined in Prayers for World Peace
as the New Year rolled across India. Thus began what will undoubtedly
become a White Conch tradition. As many are celebrating the New Year
with festivities, dancing, eating and drinking, we gather to pray
together for peace. A copy of White Conch's Prayers for World Peace document can be found on our web site. |
May there be a rain of dharma!
PO Box 14372
West Allis, Wisconsin 53214
262-370-5974
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