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Soygal Rinpoche
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13-06-2006 12:35am#1
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There's a lot of angry ghosts in poker. And demons too! I'm thinking of retiring from it actually, concentrating on hill walking. But there's not too much harm to be done to others in cheap entry tournaments. apart from all the lying, conartistry and decieving....
send me a pm if u need any very expensive books cheaply as I get a discount for importing them. buddhist related that is! not poker! i don't want to be held responsible for sliding you down that hill!0 -
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DinoBot wrote:Anyone go last night ?
I went, found the talk a bit unstructured. Dont know if thats typical with buddhist talks or not. Anyone else think so ?
Hi Dinobot,
I went along and thankfully I didn't answer your question last night when I was drunk, as i usually do on boards, but made myself wait until today so I could genuinely do so with a clear, less dumb head.
I'm only beginning to return to buddhism after 10 years when I threw my self in at the deep end, had no teachers, only the written word, and lost myself in it's different levels and approaches. This time I'm taking it in baby steps and with proper help.
Anyhoo, to answer your question, yes, it was intentionally unstructured and Soygal Rinpoche said it would be at the beginning. In fact because it only started at a quarter to nine he knew that he could only speak for two hours and limited himself to a very tiny aspect of the huge range of subjects he could have spoken on.
To those who weren't there, what did he speak about, as honestly as I can recall it, began with a few basic questions and I may be wrong in my answers so please be generous in your patience:
What is the meaning of life?
The meaning of life is to be happy.
(edit: he may have said 'why are we here' but i understood it to mean the above)
What is happiness?
There are two kinds of happiness. There is the outwardly happiness that one enjoys through the pleasure of the senses. This happiness is fleeting.
There is the inwardly happiness of taming the mind and in doing so becoming more and more aware of the nature of this thing we call life, death and all the bits and bobs in between.
How does one tame the mind.
through meditation.
How does one meditate.
There are different ways. One can focus on an object, on the breath, or simply on letting it pass by, 'it' being thoughts, emotions, all the silly stuff that makes up our conscious bits and bobs. I loved his metaphor of meditating as like riding a bicycle, about how one takes ages as a beginner to find your balance but once, after much practice, one can jump straight on and off you go!
I am less than a beginner. I haven't even begun. So when he paused on occassion and simply showed how to meditate, how to sit, to let go, to find the balance of not holding, the hairs went up on the back of my head. This is not just clearing one's head, as I like to do in the Wicklow hills, this is disciplined practice. Yet it is that too, no more 'pushed', no more 'effortful'.
I went along to see the man who wrote the book that introduced me to a different way of thinking about what may happen after you die, what may happen after these 80 years of living in this body are over and where you may end up (i.e. coming right back here to write this and wonder again, I'm laughing as I write this btw because I'm aware of how little i know and therefore how crazy it is for me to be writing about something about which I am an acknowledged complete blank slate on).What may be reality.
Soygal Rinpoche did not speak, as far as I can remember, on Bardos and other realities, on karma, on reincarnation, on prayer, on dying, on different states of being (i.e. ghosts, gods, demons) on illusion, on many different areas that so much has been written on that it would take many lifetimes to go through (fortunately, or unfortunately, time is something we all have plenty of
)
He simply spoke on a couple of simple questions. Why are we here?
to be happy. How do we become happy? By letting go of all the thoughts and actions that make us unhappy and by learning (and personally I recommend finding a teacher to do this which I shall personnally be doing in the coming month) to meditate. Do I have to drop out of life and all my business plans and family plans and other plans to meditate and study? Absolutely not. Buddhism is here to make your life easier not more difficult. To make you smile and to help you find happiness. Ultimately for no other reason. To make you happy.
And yet one's view changes, one's priorities change, one's life changes. baby steps, always. don't upset yourself.
I am only beginning to begin. I show the enthusiasm and the ignorance of the beginner. Already I begin to question a way of life that makes me money but that concerns me ( this is personal but I'm trying to be honest).
Did going to this 2 hour talk change my life. I think so. I brought along a friend of mine who is highly intelliegent (of genius iq possibly) who hates organised religion and who thinks the concept of an afterlife is bunk. And he was shaken. In a positive, giggling, kind of way. That there is no much for him to study. Outwardly, the science of it. But it made him (and me) nervous. Inwardly, to meditate, to let go of one's ego, one's self image that can be so strong and powerful and full of nonsense.
A couple of other things about the talk. And I'm grateful that I can write down these thoughts and hope I'm not taking up too much of your time.
He spoke of anger in the mind as like a fart in a small room! A fart! When we take (or I take) our anger so seriously! To compare it to farting! And when the mind is aware, through the letting go of meditation, that anger is like a fart in the open landscape. If there is no one there to smell it then it is no longer anger! It is just an emotion that is itself an illusion of the mind. It is of course real, like a fart in a small room. And yet. What kind of room is your mind? A hovel of self blame. A palace for the ego? Or the wall-less Wicklow hills of an egocentric fool who, just occassionally and too rarely, sees what a fool he really is!
What did I get out of this talk?
I'm going to try to be as honest as I can be.
I need to begin. And I haven't begun. And I'm 34. But i suspect, whether I like it or not, that I may have countless millennia, to begin. To start to get it right, to go WAY of course. To begin again.
But I'm very nervous. because I know I have to change the way I live and I make plenty of money the way I live. money to pay many bills, to go to talks in DCU, to buy expensive books and cds and petrol to get to the Wicklow hills....
So, baby steps. I started this off saying that I know nothing about buddhism. And that's not false modesty or pretentious egotism masking as anything. I actually do not meditate nor practice nor make any effort. All i do is read and occassionaly listen. So if anyone who has read this has any directions, advice, books, societies, suggestions for me please feel free to pm me. If it is too personal a question or too difficult for me to answer at this road then be patient with me.
I enjoy and admire the folks who post here but I cannot offer too much because I'm aware of how little i know. I can offer questions if that's any good!?
Soygal Rinpoche's non-attack on Catholicism or other religions knocked me for six. I know this already to be true, that buddhism isn't looking to take over the world and isn't aggressive in defending itself to criticism. Which makes me ask. why? I have to find out if the answer is really the one i think it might be.
he said at the end, while laughing, as he often did, 'remember to remember to remember'. This was about what he said in the talk. How does one do this? by practicising. Sor first I pick up his book. And my next step. well, fingers crossed I have the guts to take it. And i know what it is and if i take it i'll let you know.
thanks for reading and i wish you all the bees knees!
Des0 -
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The blind leading the blind!
The last thing you need is my help on this subject!
I'm going to contact www.rigpa.ie
and then probably chicken out....
gl man,
D.0 -
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Hi Everyone,
My daily five minutes of alloted computertime... I enjoyed finding all the postings here.
Doc - I am happy to read your postings. You remind me of Osho's vision of Zorba the Buddha.
He said in Zorba the Greek - something is missing, and in Buddha, also something is missing. He wanted his disciples to be a mix of Zorba and Buddha. Full of life, dancing, celebration, singing but full of meditation, kindness, love, awareness, also.
In case of road rage for example, next time, swear with all your heart, with the worst words you know, really get into it, but watch!!! Be a conscious witness to yourself - you'll die laughing!
Morning moodiness - try to be ten times as pouty, watch and see what happens.
How come you think you have to give up your money to follow the buddhist way? How do you make your money? Who is going to benefit from you either giving up your money or you not making any more money? Will you end up relying on other peoples' money? Do you have family or are you free to join a sangha? What is it that makes you nervous? The Ego is nervous - it is good - but you need to be aware of what is going on. Not just within yourself but also in the motivations in the people around you advising you on the new path.
The advice "remember to remember to remember" is very good, but it does not mean to remember the talk you went to. Enlightenment is a sudden moment of realization of eternal truth, a remembering. You are already were you are trying to go. The beginning is the end, as you will find out. Be aware that you are still looking on the outside, a new religion. This is ok and good if it is where your intuition takes you, AND you need to look deep, deep inside yourself. Close you eyes and look! Make a lot of time for this. It does not necessarily exclude your dayjob.
"The meaning of life is happiness" - not a good way to say it. Who needs meaning? "You" do. The "You", which is Ego. Without "You", or any thought of "I", Life is enough, in and of itself. What is the "meaning" of a rose? A sunset?
Some day you will also come to know the difference between Life and Existence. Life may end, Existence, and our dance within it, never.
Life IS happiness. To be alive is enough.
Call your mother! Even if she isn't alive any more you can still thank her, since she still exists. How to thank your mother? Tell her about something very beautiful you have seen, how much you enjoyed it, let her know you are happy. Already! Now. Right NOW, NOW, NOW - how can you be unhappy?:D 0 -
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