A Successful Life
A Successful Life |
- A Successful Life
- Dalai Lama arrives in Ladakh on 20-day visit
- From The Under 35 Project: “Getting in touch with unconditional love”
- Former Tibetan monk becomes successful real estate developer
| Posted: 21 Jul 2012 08:00 AM PDT It is all very well to talk about taking life as it comes and living one day at a time but life isn't that simple. Or so it certainly seems. In this one day there is a need, for me right now, to make arrangements for future days. I'm currently organizing my schedule for the next two or three months - on the road again! At least I'll remain within Britain. Some days are filled with forward planning and some filled with living out those plans. Driving here, driving there. Navigating. Preparing mentally and practically. Yet other days meander like a slow moving river, seemingly aimless yet going somewhere obviously. There is a saying from Zen Master Dogen, I think, which goes every day is a good day. Are any of the described days NOT good days? What goes towards a GOOD day? In this post a chap is pondering on having a successful life and then contrasts that with what an ideal day might comprise of. He concludes thus:
One of the very many blessing of my life is the constant call to return. To return to what's before me. Sometimes caught in the midst of activities over long however that internal bell just can't be ignored. The inner prompting to stop, redirect, move on, eat a meal, sit. There is a structure, or template, that most have to the day, if only the fact of getting up, eating meals, retiring to bed again. However the drive to complete a project, to finalise arrangements, to finish the garment one is knitting etc. can so often drown out the sound of the internal bell calling us to the next thing. I remind myself that there is no rush to the projected finish line. And even death, so often thought of as the ultimate end, is not that. Just another step, just passing through a flapping door...onwards. Not something one can plan for, nor wish for, nor be afraid of either. Read More @ Source
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| Dalai Lama arrives in Ladakh on 20-day visit Posted: 20 Jul 2012 12:00 PM PDT
Teachings in Padum, Zanskar (Ladakh), J&K, India from July 29 to 31: His Holiness will be giving a three-day teaching on Gyalsey Thokmay Sangpo's 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva (gyalsey laklen sodunma) and Geshe Langri Thangpa's Eight Verses on Training the Mind (lojong tsik gyema) as well as confer an Avalokiteshvera Initiation (chenresig wang). The teaching date of July 29 is tentative. Talk to Ladakh Youth in Leh, Ladakh, J&K, India on July 27: His Holiness will give a general talk to students from various schools of Ladakh in the morning at the main grounds of Lamdon School, Leh. Teachings in Leh (Ladakh), J&K, India from August 4 to 7: His Holiness will be giving a four-day teaching on Tsongkhapa's The Three Principal Paths (lamtso namsum) and Atisha's Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment (jangchup lamdron) at Shewatsel Grounds in Leh. He will also confer an Avalokiteshvera Initiation (thukje chenpo jigten wangchuk wang).  Read More @ Source 
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| From The Under 35 Project: “Getting in touch with unconditional love” Posted: 20 Jul 2012 11:00 AM PDT
Here's the latest from The Under 35 Project, by Robert de Boer. Why do I practice the teachings of the Buddha? Frankly speaking, I don't feel like I have much of a choice. I want to be happy, live a meaningful life and be of as much service to others as I possibly can. Couple this basic life aspiration with the circumstance of meeting a great spiritual path, in my case Tibetan Buddhism, and an authentic master and it's kind of a done deal. For me, the spiritual path is not a luxury or a hobby, but a basic necessity for living a good life. Since late puberty I've had the sneaking suspicion that most of the suffering in my life was due to my own mind. If I want to be happy, there is no other way than working to transform my mind and heart. Because the fact is although I greatly admire compassion and all of that, most of the time I'm too scared of suffering to really sacrifice anything. When I dare to look deeply at my motivation for most of the things I do in life, it always boils down to "me, me, me." There is so much personal baggage obstructing the genuine aspiration to progress on the spiritual path and serve others. Speaking of personal baggage, I thought I might display some of mine and my adventures with trying to let it go… I would say that one of the heaviest pieces of baggage I've been carrying around all over the place is the basic assumption that I'm not good enough. Time and again I've noticed myself taking up a particular spiritual practice or setting a goal in self-improvement with the hidden condition "When I achieve that, then I'll be good enough." So many times I've fallen for that one! Even feeling "When I manage to fix this stupid 'I'm not good enough' then I'll finally accept myself as I am!" Although insight is crucial, it unfortunately doesn't instantly dissolve this kind of habit of thinking ingrained over many years. On the Vajrayana (Tibetan Buddhist) path, confident trust in your own fundamental goodness is crucial and the very foundation of the path. Having received so many teachings on this subject, it's amazing to see how this neurotic core assumption about myself has managed to survive almost unperturbed. In this respect I would like to share how difficult it is to really let the spiritual teachings touch these kind of most fundamental aspects of the mind and heart. The most gross level of resistance has been pride and critical judgments along the lines of "This kind of stuff is so beginners' level; I should be doing advanced compassion practices for the benefit of all sentient beings!" I've had periods when I was so angry with myself and beating myself up about not living up to my overly ambitious meditation schedule. But then I started to reflect on the negative qualities of anger and really examining if beating myself up was actually helping me to shape up or it was only making me feel shitty. This way I developed the confidence that there was nothing good about beating myself up and I should kick the habit. Then whenever those kind of feelings came up, I regarded them as a fish seeing a fisherman's hook and tried not to bite. Gradually these kind of moods become less and less frequent. Having signed a treaty of emotional nonviolence with myself, the next thing in store for me was disappointment. If I can't beat myself up anymore, at least I can still feel so bad about myself it just makes me want to give up altogether. My teacher has said that feeling like the worst spiritual practitioner in the world is just a cop-out, so you can give up and comfortably stay stuck in your habits. This, of course, was first used as ammunition for my self-criticism, but now I can appreciate the wisdom of it and it encourages me to keep trying to progress on the path. It has taken me years to find the courage to accept where I am on the path and what my weak points are. It's so alluring to just spend time refining my strong points and ignore my weaknesses, especially because of my low self-esteem issue. Intellectually I believe that all beings have Buddha nature but in terms of myself, the belief that I'm not good enough has more emotional power and has the upper hand, especially when I'm moody. I have developed a lot of faith in fundamental goodness as displayed by the great masters and a lot of respect, gratitude and love for my own spiritual teacher. But this has not translated all that much into having trust in my own fundamental goodness and love and appreciation for myself. Occasionally I muster the courage to practice putting myself in others shoes or imagine taking upon the suffering of others and giving them my happiness. But when I do, it confronts me with my usual self-centeredness and this has usually been so painful for my self-esteem (wanting to be a good Buddhist), that for several months I would be too scared to try it again. I'm going into all this detail because having it clearly in mind is like making a diagnosis, and it strengthens the resolve to apply the correct remedy. What I've found the most useful for healing this part of me is the practice of loving-kindness. Especially directing loving-kindness towards myself. It is a practice of goodwill and kind attitude, supported by repeating wishes like "May I be happy, May I be well." In addition to these traditional phrases I've come up with some that are more powerful for me, like "May my heart be filled with love," "May I enjoy the complete benefit of the spiritual path." Trying to argue with my core belief, giving reasons that I am actually already good enough has not helped as much as this loving-kindness practice, because this works on the emotional level. Loving-kindness practice brings a sense of appreciation and love for myself and on that basis, having trust in my fundamental goodness is so much more natural. Through this practice, the trust in fundamental goodness can develop the emotional upper hand. As a Vajrayana practitioner I have a mala to count mantras. But instead, lately I've been using it to count positive thoughts. I try do one round on my mala, a hundred positive thoughts of kindness and appreciation towards myself everyday. When I feel inspired, I do another round for the people around me and the whole world. When I give myself love like this, it heals the lack of love and instead of needing more from outside (like from my girlfriend or my spiritual teacher), I have some left over to share! Through loving myself, there's more space in my heart for others. This is a crucial point to reflect on because even now, I still have a nagging feeling that spending time to do loving-kindness for myself is a selfish indulgence. But the wonderful thing about loving-kindness practice is that when such judgments come up, you can just hold them with understanding and love! Practicing loving-kindness for oneself is not something that is given much attention in the traditional Tibetan Buddhist teachings. The loving-kindness is immediately directed to a gradually widening circle of others. This has made it hard for me to acknowledge that I need to do it for myself first. But the fact is that not loving ourselves and low self-esteem are the kind of cultural neurosis that we have in the West, probably more than in the East. So whether we like it or not, we have to deal with it. Fortunately there are many modern Buddhist masters teaching in the West that realize this. In this respect I would like to offer my heartfelt gratitude especially to Sogyal Rinpoche, Tsoknyi Rinpoche and Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. For the purpose of this article I've been reflecting on what I've experienced and learned that could be of benefit to share with you. But what actually happened is that this article has become a great reminder for myself and motivation to continue the process of getting in touch with unconditional love and fundamental goodness. Finally, to support my main point of learning to accept and love yourself, I would like to conclude with the words of the Buddha: "One who truly loves him or herself, will never harm another."
To see the rest of our Under 35 Project posts, click here. And to learn how you can get involved, visit the project's website. Next month's theme is being alone and being together. Read More @ Source
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| Former Tibetan monk becomes successful real estate developer Posted: 20 Jul 2012 10:00 AM PDT
After a while in Seattle, it became apparent to Dargey that his blossoming new lifestyle and monastic vows may be at odds with each other and, after consultation with his mother and teachers in Tibet, he gave up his vows and eventually married. Eager to move on from his sales job, Dargey decided to go in to real estate, buying the Everett Public Market in Everett, WA, which he turned in to a suite of offices, along with also a popular restaurant and health food co-op, and later renovating a former government building into a market. During the recession, he developed his first new building, Potala Village Everett, which is named after Potala Palace in Tibet and has 108 apartment units (an auspicious number in Buddhist). His next projects include a large apartment block, a hotel, a community kitchen and an indoor farmers' market. Dargey, meanwhile, keeps a very Buddhist outlook about his investments. "I look at it a little differently than ordinary real-estate investors will do," he says. "If tomorrow I have no money and I have to go on the street, I have no problem. That's one of the teachings I've been taught. You can't lose those." Read More @ Source
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