Dear friends,
I came across this wonderful quote and decided to give a short explanation on it. I hope it brings some clarity to our minds at a much needed time and daily. We all get confused or like to use the confusion to bow out of something really good for us and end up with tons of regrets. Let's not do that. Listen to the video and have another view. I wish you the best!
Tsem Rinpoche
"Most people feel cosy enough in samsara. They do not really have the genuine aspiration to go beyond samsara; they just want samsara to be a little bit better.
The underlying motivation to go beyond samsara is very rare, even for people who go to Dharma centres.
There are many people who learn to meditate and so forth, but with the underlying motive that they hope to make themselves feel better.
And if it ends up making them feel worse, instead of realizing that this may be a good sign, they think there is something wrong with Dharma.
We are always looking to make ourselves comfortable in the prison house. We might think that if we get the cell wall painted a pretty shade of pale green, and put in a few pictures, it won't be a prison any more."
~Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo
---------------------------
TRANSCRIPT
So, when you’re feeling bad about Dharma work, Dharma volunteering, Dharma commitment to time, Dharma commitments… when you’re feeling bad, contrary to thinking that the Dharma is making you feel bad, your guru is making you feel guilty, or the Dharma community is negative, it is a good sign.
It is a good sign that your wisdom, clear mind is arising. Instead of running away, go full force; do more Dharma, engage in more Dharma, practice more Dharma, do more Dharma work, take on more responsibilities, because you’re going in the right direction. Because that process is the natural, correct process of our mind becoming better.
Every single day, I do a little bit of social media, in order to express thoughts, and passages, and realisations, and understandings, and other things I’ve read about the Dharma. I tweet and I social media, on Facebook on different subjects, blog on different subjects. But of course, my favourite and my passion has always been the Dharma.
I guess the passion for Dharma arises from knowing that there is no escape from Samsara, there is no pleasure in Samsara, and everything that’s really in Samsara may be made out to look like it’s really nice, but in the end it brings some kind of unhappiness and suffering.
The peaks that we experience in Samsara, the happiness peaks for whatever you want to call it for lack of a better name, the happiness peaks that we experience in Samsara comes from a very high price we have to pay.
And eventually the peaks become lesser and nil as we become older because what we experience when we’re younger, it won’t be possible when we’re older.
Anyway, when I was going through my Facebook wall today, I came across a profound, deep, and extremely thought-provoking, evocative speech, or write up, by Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo.
As you know, Jetsunma is a very advanced and a great nun who has meditated in solitary retreat for more than a decade. If my memory serves me right, 12 years. And then she proceeded to work for women’s opportunities in Dharma, building her own nunnery, and at the same time travelling the world and expounding the holy teachings of our Lord Buddha.
This I find very profound, and it can only arise from someone who has attained something in their mind, a level in meditation that doesn’t reverse, doesn’t go backwards. Let me read it to you, let me give you a short explanation.
The first line what she said is that most people feel cosy enough in Samsara, they do not really have the genuine aspirations to go beyond Samsara, they just want Samsara to be a little bit better.
So many people actually just want to make their situation better. For some more money, a bigger house, a cooler room, more clothes, better food, and that’s what the general aspiration of the general public is. It’s more of to be more comfortable.
And the second thing that she says here is that the underlying motivation for people who go beyond Samsara is very rare, even for people who go to Dharma centres.
And there are people who genuinely think that, “Wow, you know, Samsara is a really difficult place: it has no end, it is an endless cycle, it promotes and deludes. It promotes a lot of suffering and it deludes us into further suffering and that I want to do something better. I’m going to look for the Dharma, I’m going to look for a teacher, and perhaps I need to go to a Dharma centre.” That type of thinking is extremely rare, even among people who go to Dharma centres.
Most people who go to Dharma centres are actually looking for a quick fix; some are looking...
To read the rest of the transcript, click here www.tsemrinpoche.com/?p=195896
******************
For a complete listing of Tsemtulku KZfaq Videos
www.tsemrinpoche.com/you-tube...