Another Life? (Now?)

Recently I listened to a presentation on a relatively new internet based place to live called Second Life (secondlife.com). So what is all of this about? I got on the site earlier today to see what it was all about.

After creating a name and making a few choices you are given the opportunity to join in the internet world for free. As I understand it, you can set up businesses, buy and sell real estate, interact with others, and even sell products.

Before you are allowed to sign on, you are given information on the six violations, which can get you banned from this world. They are intolerance (of others based on race, religion, gender, etc), harassment , assault, disclosure (or namely the lack thereof), indecency, and disturbing the peace (my favorite). It kind of like the basic rules of this world.

I sometimes like to refer to our lives as one big 3-D interactive video game. It looks like we are getting closer and closer to creating such through the internet. Sure there are limitations. One must use an external computer and a keyboard to do things. The projections are presented on my computer screen and is a far cry away from truly wrapping completely around me.

I did not spend enough time on there to fully understand what was going on. However, I did search ‘places.’ I typed in “Buddhism” and found some amazing sites. There is a wonderful Medicine Buddha monastery and a Green Tara retreat center. One can enter the facilities, sit on cushions, capture thangka paintings for future viewing, and get teachings on some of the deities. The most wonderful part is that the creators offer everything for free. There is no charge on anything at the sites. Truly Buddhists!

Combine this entry into a retreat center with the possibility of obtaining recorded and even live teachings…..we end up up a virtual Buddhist retreat. Not too sure what to think about all of this….

I originally entered the Second Life site prepared to comment negatively about living on the internet. I ended up finding meaningful locations and considering the benefits in the future in transmitting the Buddha-Dharma.

It would actually be easy to speak negatively on this alternate “world.” I now realize that just like this life, we can choose beneficial sites and work or go hang out in the darkest and evil places we can imagine.

It is all in our hands – or actually our thinking.

Many Dharma Blessings,

Geoff

Looking Within

Recently I have been listening to the teachings of a number of Western Vajrayana Trainied Buddhist. There is something to be said about those who have grown up within my world and can bring the Buddha-Dharma to me in ways that connect with my world.

There are simply cultural and societal issues which Western teachers can bridge. I look forward to the day when the Buddha-Dharma has some fully realized teachers from Western roots.

There are definitely cultural differences which make it difficult for Asian masters to relate to a Western audience. I think that the great Masters are 100% accurate when it comes to one on one interaction. When they get into group environments, the cultural differences do affect their ability to relate to the group.

One of the big differences in our worlds is the natural focus of our attention. We in the West are more outer directed. When we start talking about disturbing emotions, we immediately start thinking about people around us. When teachers talk about result karma, we immediately think about others. We start thinking about some poor unfortunate child somewhere.

While this is far from my most eloquent writing, I felt that it needed to be stated as fast as I could write it:

We need to stop thinking about how the teaching apply to others. We need to seei how the teachings relate to us. How they relate to you!

The teachings of Buddha and all great masters are communicated for us to apply to ourselves.

If I could tell one thing about us Westerners to the great Buddhist Masters coming from Tibet, I would tell then to watch out for those questions from us that are directed about others. Turn the question around and focus on the person asking the question. If they are unwilling to look at themselves (ourselves), then the teacher should not even bother to answer the question. Why? Because as soon as we are outer directed, we have completely missed the point.

Even when it comes to others suffering, we are still only able to deal with our response and our actions to others. How the other person feels, is not for us to determine. From a Buddhist View, they are a Bodhisattva who has manifested in pain only to provide us an opportunity to respond with love and compassion. It is not for us to decide why. We only need to decide how to respond to the suffering we see….and act compassionately.

Many Dharma Blessings,

Geoff

When Bad Things Happen to Good People

One of the most common issues that comes up during discussions of karma – cause and effect (or cause and result) is how can seemingly good people suffer such negative consequences. Likewise, we could be asking why success and fortune come to someone who is seemingly such a “bad person.”

Mind you, when it really comes down to it, there is no one that is 100% bad. Even the most vicious people had someone who loved them, had someone that they helped and did good. But this is the subject of this talk. It is just important to mentioned this so that we do not get confused and think that I am saying that there is anyone who is a bad person. There are people who tend to do really terrible things. But the Buddhist View is that they are not a bad person. They are a person who is trapped with misunderstanding and confusion as to how to gain happiness and avoid suffering.

I recently have been studying a new book released on the preliminary practice (Ngondro) of the Dudjom Lingpa New Treasure. The commentary composed by Dungse Thinley Norbu Rinpoche is entitled “A Cascading Waterfall of Nectar.” As part of the Ngondro, there is the standard contemplation on the four foundations of Buddhist practice: Precious Human Birth, Impermanence, Karma, and Nature of Suffering.

In speaking on Karma, Rinpoche writes:
“From a lack of understanding about the order of cause and result, some may wonder why there are those who make the effort to abandon negativity in this life and accumulate virtue but still experience suffering. Then there are those who have no faith or confidence in the karma of cause and result [presumably doing bad things], yet who are happy and successful in this life. Because of this, if one thinks that the karma of cause and result is therefore untrue, this is a sign of not knowing the order of cause and result, owing to the strength of non-believing nihilist habit. Some people who abandon negativity and accumulate virtue but still suffer in this life are cleansing the suffering from previous lives. This is said by sublime beings to be a sign that in the future they will no longer need to experience this suffering. Then there are those who are fearlessly accruing negativity in this life and yet experience very positive happy phenomena. This is exhaustible virtue, which is the result of small virtuous causes accumulated in previous lives. Once the result of virtue is used up, they again must follow whatever negative causes they have created from previous lives.”

Rinpoche continues by reminding us that the seeds planted through our actions, words, thoughts in this life may not ripen in this lifetime. They will surely be experienced in future lifetimes. This goes for both negative karma and positive karma. We are reminded that once the seeds are planted, the result will occur sometime in the future when the conditions are right.

Buddhist teachings do have methods for Purifying karmic seeds before they come forth. The purification process as I have been explained is discussed in “Purifying our Negative Actions, Words, and Thinking.”

This has all been said before, I am only restating what my teachers have said much better than me. However, here is something that I think might help us in dealing with understanding karma: As we contemplate the karma of cause and result, it is best that we look primarily to ourselves. It is very easy to redirect our attention to some hypothetical child somewhere in the world. However, when it really comes down to it, I really do not know about their life.

It is not for me to figure out their karma or try to reconcile apparent injustices of another person’s life…especially a hypothetical child somewhere in the world. If someone is suffering and there is something that I can do to help, then I can offer help, assistance, love and compassion.

The focus of Buddhist training is to train our mind. To study, contemplate and meditate within our lives. Situations that arise for us are the opportunities to practice what we have been taught. Others who are suffering are opportunities to offer help and assistance with love and compassion.

Through training and practice, I can become a more loving and compassionate person. These positive qualities are then applied to assist all sentient beings.

If we can look at each situation that arises a opportunity to do good, as Khenpo Choga Rinpoche often says and approach negative circumstances with love and compassion, we can truly improve the lives of all sentient beings as well as assure fruitful results for us as well.

Many Dharma Blessings,

Geoff

Life is Impermanent

“Some infants still crawling meet with death. Some youths meet with death. For some, death comes when they are old, frail, and decrepit. Others may not even have the opportunity to take medicine….There are many conditions for death. The power of life is comparative weak, like a butter lamp in a windstorm. Even today at this very moment, death can happen suddenly. By this time tomorrow, you could already be reborn as an animal with horns or with a beak. The time of death is extremely uncertain as well as the future of your rebirth.” From “Words of My Perfect Teacher” by Paltrul Rinpoche.

Wow! That one really hit me! I try to be aware that life is impermanent and that we do not know when death may come. I try to understand that our mind continues. I try to contemplate that I will (most likely) be reborn in future lives. However, it all seems quite foreign and strange.

I may die even at this moment. Before my body is even laid to rest, before distant friends and relatives are even made aware of my death, before others read these words; I may already be reborn in another life. I could already have been born a baby animal living in some far away field. I might be cold, hungry, scared, and confused. I will have lost the opportunity to train in the Dharma.

Then again, with training and practice, tomorrow at this time, I could be traveling on to a pure land or heavenly realm with great Bodhisattva by my side….

Many Dharma Blessings,

Geoff