Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
Cause and Effect: Examining Circumstances
DaltheJigsaw
Mountain View Veteran
The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso on Ngondro, given at Kunzang Palyul Choling:
There is not one single sentient being who wishes to suffer. That is very obvious. Even scary animals, ghosts, and evil spirits don’t really mean to harm anybody. They are in search of some kind of happiness. They are looking for some kind of peace. An evil spirit or consciousness wanders here and there and creates some kind of problem for someone. Then that person becomes possessed by the evil spirit and there are lots of disturbances, all due to the search for happiness, but without knowing what the actual cause of happiness is. How can one really have actual happiness? How can one really have a peaceful life? How can one have a happier life? One has to understand the actual cause. Due to ignorance, all sentient beings do not know that. Each and every sentient being wishes for happiness, but not knowing the cause of happiness, all kinds of karma, actions, thoughts, and afflicted mind, arise and worldly things are done which result in problems and suffering.
I think that Americans really don’t like to hear about suffering in the teachings. You like to hear only about having a happy and prosperous life, about enjoyment. You are always trying to find some kind of modern technology, some different way of doing things, because you are really trying to find happiness. Maybe if I climb a mountain, I can enjoy life more. Or no, maybe I’ll go bungee jumping! That may be more enjoyable and will bring some happiness. In that way, everybody is trying each and every thing just to experience happiness, just to experience some kind of peaceful mind. There are so many religions, so many masters, so many yogis who have appeared. When a Hindu teacher comes, then everybody goes there and listens to the yogi teaching about prana, some kind of breathing, some kind of meditation, because they think, “If I go to this teacher, maybe I can get some kind of solution so that I can be happier. Maybe I can have some kind of path. Maybe I can really get something so that I can maintain a happier life.”
http://www.tibetanbuddhistaltar.org/2011/08/cause-and-effect-examining-circumstances/
There is not one single sentient being who wishes to suffer. That is very obvious. Even scary animals, ghosts, and evil spirits don’t really mean to harm anybody. They are in search of some kind of happiness. They are looking for some kind of peace. An evil spirit or consciousness wanders here and there and creates some kind of problem for someone. Then that person becomes possessed by the evil spirit and there are lots of disturbances, all due to the search for happiness, but without knowing what the actual cause of happiness is. How can one really have actual happiness? How can one really have a peaceful life? How can one have a happier life? One has to understand the actual cause. Due to ignorance, all sentient beings do not know that. Each and every sentient being wishes for happiness, but not knowing the cause of happiness, all kinds of karma, actions, thoughts, and afflicted mind, arise and worldly things are done which result in problems and suffering.
I think that Americans really don’t like to hear about suffering in the teachings. You like to hear only about having a happy and prosperous life, about enjoyment. You are always trying to find some kind of modern technology, some different way of doing things, because you are really trying to find happiness. Maybe if I climb a mountain, I can enjoy life more. Or no, maybe I’ll go bungee jumping! That may be more enjoyable and will bring some happiness. In that way, everybody is trying each and every thing just to experience happiness, just to experience some kind of peaceful mind. There are so many religions, so many masters, so many yogis who have appeared. When a Hindu teacher comes, then everybody goes there and listens to the yogi teaching about prana, some kind of breathing, some kind of meditation, because they think, “If I go to this teacher, maybe I can get some kind of solution so that I can be happier. Maybe I can have some kind of path. Maybe I can really get something so that I can maintain a happier life.”
http://www.tibetanbuddhistaltar.org/2011/08/cause-and-effect-examining-circumstances/
0