Reflections on how to live a meaningful life inspired by "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying" by Sogyal Rinpoche and teachings from other Buddhist masters
Posted in Contemplation, Freedom, Karma, Turning Suffering and Happiness into Enlightenment, zz Sogyal Rinpoche on Jul 22nd, 2011
My brother’s Au pair had a cold when I visited a few days ago. A day later I had one, too! Sigh! A vivid reminder, how we human beings share our happiness and suffering in this life with each other. Granted, having ice cream and hot chocolate for desert surely didn’t strengthen my immune system. [...]
Posted in Eight samsaric dharmas, Freedom, Meditation on May 5th, 2011
In my last two posts What is true happiness? and Do we need to give up the sense pleasures to find true happiness?, I wrote that in the Buddhist teachings looking for happiness outside is talked about in terms of the eight samsaric dharmas. They are hope for pleasure, gain, praise and fame and fear [...]
Posted in Freedom, The Nature of Mind, zz Sogyal Rinpoche on Aug 18th, 2010
Many Buddhist teachings begin with the statement that all beings want to be happy, but that unfortunately they are looking for happiness outside and fail to understand that true happiness can only be found inside. The goal of Buddhist practice is to find a deeper happiness which is based on inner peace and contentment. This [...]
Posted in Freedom, zz Geshe Langri Thangpa, zz Shantideva on Mar 1st, 2010
Now that I decided to move on to a new topic, karma, my mind seems to not want to let go of reflecting on destructive emotions. I decided I better give my mind some space and let it do what it wants, … at least for a little while. Yesterday I reflected on anger and [...]
Posted in Freedom, zz Mingyur Rinpoche on Feb 24th, 2010
Here are some more quotes on the relating to the topic of freedom, happiness and destructive emotions from another one of my favorite books, The Joy of Living by Mingyur Rinpoche: “When the mind is realized, that is the buddha. — The Wisdom of the Passing Moment Sutra (translated by Elizabeth M. Callahan) You are [...]
Posted in Freedom, zz Tsoknyi Rinpoche on Feb 22nd, 2010
In my last post I reflected on how to embody the transcendent truth of my being. To embody this truth does not mean to reject the relative aspect of my daily life in favor of a mysterious ultimate truth. It is about following a middle way, neither completed preoccupied with the day to day preoccupations [...]
Posted in 03 Blessing of the speech, 04 Invoking the lama, 09 Refuge, 10 Bodhichitta, Freedom, zz Patrul Rinpoche, zz Sogyal Rinpoche on Feb 20th, 2010
My last post had a quote by Rumi which said “there is one thing in this world which must never be forgotten.” For me this immediately brought up the question, “So what is this one thing?” Often questions like this pop into my head right in the morning. It usually takes me a while to [...]
Posted in Freedom, zz Sogyal Rinpoche on Feb 18th, 2010
In my last post I wrote about how this life is a special opportunity to become free of the grip of negative emotions and that it would be a pity to let this opportunity go to waste. In The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, Sogyal Rinpoche writes about this point: “In the Sufi Master [...]
Posted in Freedom, zz Shantideva, zz Sogyal Rinpoche on Feb 16th, 2010
In the last few days I have been continuing to reflect on negative emotions. What does it really mean that negative emotions take my freedom? How do they manage to do this? I have been asking these same questions for a while now, but I find it helpful to reflect on them again and again [...]
Posted in Freedom, zz Shantideva, zz Sogyal Rinpoche on Feb 14th, 2010
Sorry! Today’s reflection is once AGAIN—I am sure you guessed it— ‘negative emotions!’ You are probably tired of hearing about this again. I fully understand. It’s never been my favorite topic and, for the most part, I successfully ignored it all my dharma life and focussed instead on other aspects of teachings. Of course, I [...]
Posted in Freedom, zz HH Dalai Lama, zz Khunu Rinpoche on Feb 12th, 2010
The last couple of posts explored how our negative emotions manage to control us. This brings up the question of how can we actually apply this understanding to put an end their tyranny? The first step, I believe, is to truly accept how harmful negative emotions are. This is not easy! I have heard many [...]
Posted in Freedom, zz HH Dalai Lama, zz Shantideva on Feb 10th, 2010
Yesterday I found an excellent and brief explanation of the destructive nature of negative emotions in the book The World of Tibetan Buddhism by the 14th Dalai Lama. He writes: “To aid us in considering the destructive nature of the delusions and the undesirablity of their effects, I will quote from the Bodhicharyavatara. In the [...]
Posted in 08 Samsara, Freedom, zz Shantideva on Feb 8th, 2010
The Buddhist teachings explain that we are not free because we are controlled by our negative emotions. For example, in the reflection on the suffering nature of samsara, which is part of brief version of the Four Thoughts from the Ngöndro practice, it says: “Driven by anger, desire, and ignorance, gods, men, animals, hungry ghosts [...]
Posted in Bodhicitta, Freedom, zz Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, zz Shantideva on Feb 6th, 2010
My teachers have emphasized that it is much more useful to focus on understanding how ignorance works than to get lost in speculation about how it could have arisen in the first place. In his latest book, Uncommon Happiness, Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche gives a wonderful explanation of how ignorance works: “With the support of the [...]
Buddha taught that ignorance is what imprisons us. The Tibetan word for ignorance is ‘marigpa,’ sometimes translated as ‘not seeing,’ whereas ‘rigpa’ means ‘seeing’ or ‘pure awareness’. As I mentioned in one my last posts, the only difference between a Buddha and a sentient beings is this: Buddhas are able to see the world as [...]
Posted in Freedom, zz Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche on Feb 3rd, 2010
The topics of freedom, happiness, and ignorance are turning out to be a fertile ground for my daily reflection. I usually make a post on this blog every other day. On the days in-between, I try to post a quote on Twitter. The maximum number of characters for a Twitter post is 140. It’s a [...]
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