Compassion - I want all sentient beings to free from suffering and negative thinking.
Love - I want all sentient beings to have happiness and positive thinking.
Joy - I want all sentient beings to never be separated from the sublime joy, beyond delusion and illusion
Equanimity - I want all sentient being to live in equanimity, beyond fear and hope.

Most of us practicitioners know this prayer or a variation of it. It is commonly called the Bodhicitta Prayer bringing forth the Four Immeasurable powers of love, compassion, joy, and equanimity.

As my teachers have taught me, they are called the Four Immeasurables because they are inexhaustible within our thinking. Namely, when one holds these wishes in our thinking, our capability to generate them grows exponentially. There is an inexhaustible well of good and positive wishes that can grow to ultimately fill every thinking moment. This is way of a Bodhisattva.

I just came across a discussion that reminded me of the Four Immeasurables as antidotes to negative thinking/emotions. So here they are:

Desire/Attachment – the antidote to wanting something, to wanting to hold on to something, can be Love. Whatever is the object of our desire and attachment, we offer to all sentient beings with the wish they all sentient beings can be happy.

Anger/Hatred – the antidote to wanting to avoid something or pushing something away from us can be Compassion. Whatever is unpleasant and anger provoking we take on for all sentient beings with the wish that they be free from suffering.

Jealousy/Envy – The antidote to feeling envious of others success and good fortune can be wish for Joy. Whatever good fortune others have, we wish that their happiness remain unending and continue. We rejoice in all sentient beings good fortune and happiness.

Pride – the antidote to feeling superior and prideful compared to others is equanimity. We see that all sentient beings have the Awakened Nature naturally present within their hearts and their entire being. We regard all sentient beings as naturally Buddhas within and serve all with love, compassion, and wish for joy with no exception.

Many Dharma Blessings,

Geoff

I just had a conversation with some friends who just finished watching the movie “The Pursuit of Happiness.” They loved the movie and told me to see it.

Then I remembered, Oh yeah I saw this movie. (I am trying to forget that I sat through it.)
In case you have not seen it, do not bother. The pursuit of Happiness is 2 hours of suffering and 5 minutes of “happiness” - at least what the movie wants you to think as happiness.

And what is this happiness? It is the character becoming a stock broker. He has sacrificed his wife, his child, his life, and in return he becomes a stock broker so that he can make lots of money (and buy a sports car someday) In fact his decision to become a stock broker comes after he decides he wants to drive a sports car. You think this is happiness?

The fact that this movie is so popular; the fact that I was told to go see this movie by a number of people: It scares me. Some of these people including the ones I spoke to tonight think of them as Buddhist. I think that they do not understand the teachings of Buddhism. Sacrificing family and friends, lying to people so that you can become a stockbroker and make lots of money is not the path to happiness.

If you think that it is, I welcome your input as to why you think this. Oh, and by the way. I would be really interested in hearing about any factual or scientific findings to support your opinion.

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

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

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