Appunti di viaggio

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17 pensieri su “Appunti di viaggio

  1. “Signore dammi la forza di cambiare le cose che posso modificare e la pazienza di accettare quelle che non posso cambiare e la saggezza per distinguere la differenza tra le une e le altre.” “Dammi Signore, un anima che abbia occhi per la bellezza e la purezza, che non si lasci impaurire dal peccato e che sappia raddrizzare le situazioni. Dammi un anima che non conosca noie, fastidi, mormorazioni, sospiri, lamenti. Non permettere che mi preoccupi eccessivamente di quella cosa invadente che chiamo ‘io’. Dammi il dono di saper ridere di una facezia, di saper cavare qualche gioia dalla vita e anche di farne partecipi gli altri. Signore dammi il dono dell’umorismo.” (Tommaso Moro Preghiere della Torre)

  2. Praticate gentilezza a casaccio e atti di bellezza privi di senso.
    E’ una gelida giornata invernale a San Francisco. Una donna in una Honda rossa, con i regali di Natale accatastati sul sedile posteriore, arriva al casello del pedaggio per il ponte sulla baia. “Pago per me e per le sei auto dietro di me” dice con un sorriso, consegnando sette biglietti per pendolari.
    Uno dopo l’altro, i sei automobilisti arrivano al casello, dollari in mano, per sentirsi dire: “una signora lì davanti ha già pagato il biglietto per lei. Buona giornata.”
    Dicono non si possa sorridere senza rallegrarsi un po’. Allo stesso modo non si può compiere una gentilezza a casaccio senza sentirsi come se i propri guai fossero stati alleviati. E non si può essere destinatari di tali gentilezze senza provare uno choc, un sobbalzo piacevole.
    Se voi foste stati fra quelli automobilisti che si trovavano il biglietto pagato, chissà cosa sareste stati ispirati a fare per qualcun altro più tardi. La gentilezza può generare gentilezza tanto quanto la violenza genera violenza.
    Come tutte le rivoluzioni, la bontà da guerriglia comincia lentamente, con un unico atto.
    Che sia il vostro!

  3. There are no permanent hateful states (Tai Situ Rinpoche)

    Westerners often seem to have a problem with self-worth. Many people say they hate themselves, or don’t like themselves. They are sure they are no good. This is probably because they don’t understand the fact of buddha nature. Understanding buddha nature is the best means of overcoming this low self-esteem, but in addition to that is the practice of emptiness. From the emptiness point of view, the person who is hated, the self, is not there. And even if disagreeable traits are there, because of emptiness it is always possible to improve. There are no permanent hateful states. Emptiness is, in a way, like the Philosopher’s Stone that Western alchemists once searched for. It is there, but not there; it is the essence of everything; it is the question and the answer to all questions. That is emptiness. (The Twelfth Tai Situpa, “Awakening the Sleeping Buddha”, p. 105)

  4. Onde di pensieri mosse dal soffio del vento,
    emozioni rinascono come fenice
    da ceneri non ancora sopite.
    Improvvisa la bellezza di essere presenti
    in un solo istante

  5. Do Your Best In Every Moment ~ Tai Situ Rinpoche http://bit.ly/1hv60sh Unless you are a yogi like Milarepa you should definitely plan and prepare as if you are going to live another 50 or 70 years or whatever; you should plan that way. But in you, you really should know that that might not be the case. And not only that, we should not only think of our impermanence, but also everything else. Any kind of situation, you name it, everything is impermanent. That way it is about everything. So how do we handle this? I say take a deep breath and take it easy. The most important thing is to do your best with every moment of your life. Be good, sincere, kind, honest and hard working. If you are meditating, meditate well, if you are doing something, do it well. Do your best in every moment. That is how to take care of the understanding of impermanence. If you just sit there and worry that you might die in the next hour, that’s not the best use of the understanding of impermanence. Make the best out of your lives, even if you are going to die in the next hour you will not have any regret if you have done your best. That is how to handle it. Tai Situ Rinpoche from the book “Essential Teachings of Gampopa” http://amzn.to/14Uz9aE

  6. Do Not Worry Too Much About Your life. Enjoy It. Just Do Not Be Too Indulgent ~ Tai Situ Rinpoche ~ We shouldn’t get carried away. We shouldn’t get lost when things happen to us. Getting lost in good things is as bad as getting lost in bad things. We should not get lost in anything. We should always be aware and mindful. We should always follow the path no matter whether we are taking baby steps, elephant steps or kangaroo steps. Kangaroo steps are pretty big. Elephants cannot jump because their knees bend backward not forward, but Kangaroos can. Anyway, whether our steps are big or small we will get there. Our destiny is nothing more and nothing less than our potential, and our ultimate potential is no less and no more than Prince Siddhartha’s. Whatever he was able to attain, we will attain. Do not worry too much about your life. Enjoy it. Just do not be too indulgent. Practice diligence but do not let your practice become a burden for you. That is not very good karma. You may find yourself thinking, “Oh no, I have to do my practice. I have to do this hard work. I don’t like it but I have taken vows so I have to do it.” This is very negative. Do not let it happen. Instead practice comfortably, happily, joyfully with honor and gratitude. It may be bad karma for me to speak like this but if it helps you to understand more clearly then that is okay. (12th Kenting Tai Situpa, “Ground, Path & Fruition”, pp. 247-248) Photo by Brian Carr

  7. You Are Buddha In The Making ~ Tai Situ Rinpoche http://bit.ly/1dSpPWC I remind you that each one of you, all sentient beings, ultimately, right now, are in essence perfect, they are Buddha. The only thing is that they don’t realize this. They are not pretending to not realize, they sincerely and truly do not realize this, including me…. This way I thought to remind you about the same thing that helps me very much, by reminding myself. And I remind myself all the time, “You are not just Tai Situ, you are Buddha in the making. You are an unenlightened Buddha, a primordial Buddha. You are not as bad as you might think, but also you are not as good as you should be, very far from being as good as you should be.” So this helps me very much. This does not give me much chance to have any so-called depression, so-called stress, so-called pride or, so-called disappointment. When somebody does something terrible, I don’t like it, but then deep inside I think, why not? Because the person does not know he or she is a Buddha, then why not? When somebody does something wonderful I’m very happy. I’m very delighted. But deep inside I think, why not? He is a Buddha, she is a Buddha, so why not? This way it really benefits me personally, tremendously, and all the credit goes to my great masters because everything is because of them. So I am very happy to share this with you. Tai Situ Rinpoche source: “Nectar of Dharma: The Sacred Advice”. Vol. Two, pp.

  8. Discorso che George Saunders, autore e professore, ha tenuto ai laureandi della Syracuse University del 2013, sotto potete leggere il testo in italiano, tradotto da Anna Bissanti per minima&moralia

    di George Saunders

    Nel corso degli anni si è andata affermando una tradizione per questo tipo di discorsi, che potremmo sintetizzare come segue: un vecchio noioso e antiquato, con i migliori anni ormai alle spalle, che nel corso della sua vita ha commesso una serie di errori madornali (che sarei io), dà consigli dal profondo del cuore a un gruppo di giovani brillanti e pieni di energie che hanno davanti a sé i loro anni migliori (che sareste voi). E io intendo rispettare questa tradizione.

    Ebbene, una delle cose più utili che si può fare con una persona anziana – oltre a prendere soldi in prestito o chiederle di eseguire uno dei “balli” dei suoi tempi, così da poterla osservare facendosi due risate – è chiederle: “Ripensando al passato, di che cosa ti rammarichi?”. E lei te lo dice. In qualche caso, come ben sapete, te lo dice anche se non glielo chiedi. In qualche altro caso ancora te lo dice perfino quando hai specificatamente chiesto che non te lo dica.

    Bene: di che cosa mi rammarico? Di essere stato povero, di quando in quando? Non proprio. Di aver fatto mestieri tremendi, come “estrarre le articolazioni” in un mattatoio? (Che non vi venga assolutamente in mente di chiedermi che cosa ciò comporta.) No. Non mi rammarico di ciò. Di essermi tuffato senza nulla addosso in un fiume di Sumatra, un po’ alticcio, e di aver guardato in alto, e di aver visto qualcosa come trecento scimmie sedute su una tubatura intente a cagare di sotto, nel fiume, proprio quello nel quale stavo nuotando io, con la bocca spalancata e tutto nudo? E di essermi ammalato in seguito a ciò, e di essere stato male per i sette mesi successivi? Non proprio. Mi rammarico forse di aver fatto qualche sporadica figuraccia? Come quella volta che giocando a hockey di fronte a una gran folla – in mezzo alla quale c’era una ragazza che mi piaceva davvero tanto – caddi a terra emettendo un bizzarro suono stridulo, e non so come riuscii a segnare nella porta della mia squadra e al tempo stesso a scaraventare il bastone in mezzo alla folla e a colpire proprio quella ragazza? No. Non mi rammarico neppure di questo.

    In verità mi rammarico di un’altra cosa: in seconda media nella nostra classe arrivò una ragazzina nuova. Nel rispetto della privacy, diciamo che il nome col quale ci fu presentata fu “Ellen”. Ellen era piccola, timida. Indossava occhiali blu dalla montatura a occhi di gatto, del tipo che all’epoca portavano soltanto le signore anziane. Quando era nervosa, in pratica quasi sempre, aveva l’abitudine di mettersi una ciocca di capelli in bocca e di masticarla.
    Insomma, arrivò nella nostra scuola e nel nostro quartiere, e per lo più fu del tutto ignorata, in qualche caso presa in giro (“Sono saporiti i tuoi capelli?” e altre battute del genere). Mi rendevo conto che questo la feriva. Ricordo ancora come appariva dopo una villania di questo tipo: teneva gli occhi bassi, se ne stava un po’ ripiegata, come se avesse ricevuto un calcio nello stomaco, come se essendole appena stato ricordato il posto che occupava cercasse, per quanto possibile, di scomparire. Dopo un po’ scivolava via, con la ciocca di capelli ancora in bocca. A casa, dopo la scuola, immaginavo che sua mamma le chiedesse cose del tipo: “Come è andata oggi, tesoro?”. E lei rispondesse: “Oh, bene”. E sua madre forse le chiedeva anche: “Hai stretto amicizie?”, e lei rispondesse: “Sicuro, molte”.
    Talvolta la vedevo bighellonare tutta sola nel giardino anteriore di casa sua, come se fosse timorosa di uscirne. E poi… Poi traslocarono. Ecco tutto. Nessuna tragedia. Nessuna grande presa in giro finale. Un giorno era lì, il giorno dopo era sparita. Fine della storia.

    Ebbene, perché mai mi rammarico di ciò? Perché a distanza di quarant’anni ripenso ancora a quell’episodio? Rispetto alla maggior parte degli altri ragazzini, in realtà, io mi ero comportato abbastanza gentilmente con lei. Non le ho mai detto niente di sgradevole. Anzi, in qualche caso l’ho addirittura difesa (un po’). Eppure… Mi dispiace.
    Ecco, questa è una cosa vera che adesso so di sicuro, anche se si tratta di qualcosa di un po’ trito e non so con esattezza che farne: ciò che rimpiango di più nella mia vita è aver mancato di essere gentile. Mi riferisco a quei momenti in cui davanti a me c’era un altro essere umano, addolorato, e io ho reagito… assennatamente. In modo riservato. Bonario.

    Oppure, se vogliamo vedere le cose dall’altra parte, potremmo chiederci: chi ricordi con maggior affetto nel corso della tua vita? Con la più innegabile sensazione di cordialità? Quelli che sono stati maggiormente gentili nei tuoi confronti, scommetto.

    Sarà forse un po’ semplicistico, e sicuramente difficile da mettere in pratica, ma direi che come obiettivo nella vostra vita fareste bene a “cercare di essere più gentili”.

    Ed eccoci alla domanda da un milione di dollari: qual è il nostro problema? Perché non siamo più gentili?

    Questo è quanto penso io in proposito:
    Ciascuno di noi viene al mondo con una serie di malintesi innati che quasi certamente hanno un’origine darwiniana. Mi riferisco a: 1) noi siamo il centro dell’universo (in altri termini, la nostra storia personale è la storia più importante e interessante al mondo. Anzi, in realtà è l’unica storia che conti); 2) noi siamo qualcosa di diverso e distinto dall’universo (sì, certo ci siamo noi e poi, laggiù, c’è tutto il resto, cani e altalene e lo Stato del Nebraska e le nuvole basse e, sì, è vero, anche tanta altra gente); e 3) noi siamo eterni (la morte esiste, sì, certo, ma riguarda te, non me).

    Ebbene, noi non crediamo veramente a queste cose – a livello intellettuale non siamo certo così ingenui – ma ci crediamo a livello viscerale, e viviamo in modo conforme a ciò che crediamo, al punto che queste cose fanno sì che noi riteniamo prioritarie le nostre esigenze rispetto a quelle altrui, anche se ciò che vogliamo davvero, nel profondo dei nostri cuori, è essere meno egoisti, più consapevoli di quello che sta accadendo nel momento presente, più aperti, più amorevoli.

    Ed eccoci alla seconda domanda da un milione di dollari: come possiamo riuscire a fare una cosa del genere? Come possiamo diventare più premurosi, più aperti, meno egoisti, più presenti, meno deludenti e così via?
    Già, bella domanda…
    Purtroppo, mi restano soltanto tre minuti ancora…

    Lasciate dunque che vi dica questo: il modo c’è. Voi già lo sapete, del resto, poiché nella vostra vita avete conosciuto periodi di Grande Gentilezza e periodi di Poca Gentilezza, e già sapete che cosa vi ha spinti verso i primi e lontano dai secondi. Una buona istruzione serve. Immergersi in un’opera d’arte serve. Pregare serve. Meditare serve. Una chiacchierata schietta con un caro amico serve. Sentirsi parte di una tradizione spirituale serve. Riconoscere che ci sono state innumerevoli persone davvero intelligenti prima di noi che si sono poste queste stesse domande e ci hanno lasciato le loro risposte serve.

    Il fatto è che si finisce con lo scoprire che essere gentili è difficile. Perché essere gentili all’inizio è essere tutti arcobaleni e cucciolotti, ma poi si espande, fino a includere… beh, proprio tutto.
    Una cosa gioca a nostro favore: parte di questo diventare più gentili capita naturalmente, con l’età. Può trattarsi di una semplice questione di logoramento: a mano a mano che invecchiamo impariamo ad accorgerci di quanto sia inutile essere egoisti. Di quanto sia illogico, davvero. Iniziamo ad amare il prossimo e così facendo riceviamo una sorta di contrordine in merito alla nostra centralità. La vita reale ci prende a calci nel sedere, e la gente accorre in nostra difesa e in nostro aiuto, e così impariamo che non siamo separati dagli altri, né vogliamo esserlo. Vediamo le persone a noi vicine e a noi care indebolirsi, e poco alla volta ci convinciamo che forse anche noi un giorno saremo più deboli (un giorno, tra tanto tempo). La maggior parte delle persone, quando invecchia, diventa meno egoista e più amorevole. Penso che sia proprio vero. Il grande poeta di Syracuse Hayden Carruth quasi al termine della sua vita in una poesia scrisse di sentirsi “per lo più amore, ormai”.

    Ed eccovi la mia previsione, il mio augurio di tutto cuore per voi: a mano a mano che invecchierete, il vostro Io diminuirà e crescerete nell’amore. L’IO sarà sostituito poco alla volta dall’AMORE. Se avrete figli, quello sarà un momento di enorme rimpicciolimento della vostra centralità. A quel punto non vi interesserà più ciò che accadrà a voi, purché siano loro a beneficiarne. Questo è uno dei motivi per i quali i vostri genitori oggi sono così orgogliosi e felici. Uno dei loro sogni più caramente accarezzatisi è trasformato in realtà: voi avete portato a compimento qualcosa di difficile e di tangibile che vi ha fatto crescere come persone e vi renderà la vita migliore, da adesso in poi, per sempre.

    Congratulazioni, a proposito!

    Da giovani siamo impazienti, come è giusto che sia, di scoprire se possediamo tutto ciò che ci serve. Ce la faremo? Riusciremo a costruirci una vita degna di questo nome? Ma voi – in particolare voi, di questa generazione – forse avrete notato un certa qualità ciclica in questa ambizione. Andate bene al liceo nella speranza di riuscire a entrare in una buona università, così da andare bene all’università nella speranza di riuscire a ottenere un buon posto di lavoro, così da poter svolgere bene il vostro lavoro nella speranza di riuscire a…

    E tutto ciò è sicuramente ok. Se dobbiamo diventare più gentili, questo processo include il fatto di prenderci sul serio, in qualità di persone che agiscono, che portano a termine le cose, che sognano. Sì, dobbiamo fare proprio questo: essere il meglio di ciò che possiamo essere.

    Tuttavia, il successo è inaffidabile. “Avere successo”, a prescindere da ciò che può voler dire per voi, è difficile, e la necessità di farlo sempre si rinnova di continuo (il successo è come una montagna che continua a innalzarsi nel momento stesso in cui la scaliamo), ed esiste il pericolo molto concreto che per “avere successo” sia necessaria la vita intera, mentre le grandi domande restano senza risposta.
    Ed eccovi dunque un consiglio veloce, per congedarmi al termine di questo discorso: dato che secondo la mia opinione la vostra vita sarà un viaggio che vi porterà ad essere più gentili e più amorevoli, sbrigatevi. Fate presto. Iniziate subito. In ciascuno di noi c’è un equivoco di fondo, un vero malessere in verità. Si tratta dell’egoismo. Ma la cura esiste. Siate quindi gentili e proattivi e addirittura in un certo senso i pazienti di voi stessi – cercate le medicine più efficaci contro l’egoismo, cercatele con tutte le vostre energie, per tutto il resto della vostra vita.

    Fate tutte le altre cose, quelle ambiziose – viaggiare, diventare ricchi, acquistare fama, essere innovativi, essere leader, innamorarsi, fare fortuna e perderla, nuotare nudi nei fiumi in mezzo alla giungla (dopo aver controllato che non ci siano in giro scimmie che cagano) – ma qualsiasi cosa farete, nella misura del possibile eccedete in gentilezza. Fate ciò che vi può indirizzare verso le risposte a quelle grandi domande, cercando di tenervi alla larga dalle cose che possono sminuirvi e rendervi banali. Quella luminosa parte di voi che esiste al di là della vostra personalità – la vostra anima, se credete – è tanto luminosa e brillante quanto nessun’altra. Luminosa come quella di Shakespeare, luminosa come quella di Gandhi, luminosa come quella di Madre Teresa. Sbarazzatevi di tutto ciò che vi può tenere lontani da quella luminosità nascosta. Credete nella sua esistenza, cercate di conoscerla meglio, coltivatela, condividetene incessantemente i frutti.

    E un giorno, tra 80 anni, quando voi ne avrete 100 e io 134, quando saremo tutti così gentili e premurosi da risultare quasi insopportabili, scrivetemi due righe. Fatemi sapere come è stata la vostra vita. Spero tanto che mi scriviate: è stata meravigliosa.
    Congratulazioni, laureati del 2013.
    Vi auguro tanta felicità, tutta la fortuna del mondo e un’estate splendida.”

    © George Saunders, 2013 – Tutti i diritti riservati

    Fonte: http://www.minimaetmoralia.it/wp/il-discorso-di-george-saunders-agli-studenti/

  9. Pema Chodron
    A BRIEF PRACTICE FOR GROUNDING
    “First, come into the present. Flash on what’s happening with you right now. Be fully aware of your body, its energetic quality. Be aware of your thoughts and emotions.

    Next, feel your heart, literally placing your hand on your chest if you find that helpful. This is a way of accepting yourself just as you are in that moment, a way of saying, “This is my experience right now, and it’s okay.”

    Then go into the next moment without any agenda.”
    (From her book Living Beautifully With Uncertainty and Change)

  10. Most people suffer from being afraid of themselves, afraid of not being able to liberate the thought or emotion that is about to arise. At the moment the thought arises, they single it out as no good. You often hear that negative emotions are bad, but you don’t know how to let them go. All these negative traits have been in you. But you can’t not be how you are, so what do you do? For the unrealized person, there is only one solution: be depressed about it. All spiritual systems say negative thoughts are bad. You cannot find any that say negative thoughts are good. Really, are there any? Maybe some of them say that you should express them, let them out, but that is still because they know that negative thoughts are not good, that if you did not let them out you would just keep them festering inside. It is merely a different way of phrasing the same depressing information. The main point is to be free of negative thought and emotion. The method of getting rid of these differ, of course. There are oceans of books written about how to do so, from both spiritual and psychological points of view. We all understand that attachment, aggression, closed-mindedness, and all the other selfish emotions make problems for people. There is a broad agreement that negative emotional states are difficult, painful, and bad because they cause problems for ourselves and for others. Everybody is in agreement about that. But how to be free, for real? That is not a settled matter. There is a lack of clarity about how to be truly free. No matter how much it is explained or discussed or thought about, the problem remains largely unsolved. Honestly, there is only one solution: set your buttocks down on the meditation cushion and train in how to be free. As far as I am concerned, that is the only way. Tsoknyi Rinpoche

  11. Many thanks to Joe Taylor for posting this precious teaching Talk by Choje Akong tulku Rinpoche, Zimbabwe 2006 Please dont think I’m going to give a talk; this will be more like a cosy family discussion. I like to be a normal human being, not like somebody who has the full knowledge of everything….. that is the wrong kind of position. So anything you pick up from me, you may be able to pick up more usefully elsewhere. Otherwise if you have very high expectation of me, , I may not be able to fullfill them, and even when I say something usefull you will not notice those particular words. The three subjects people have asked me to talk about are my life, healing and how to deal with difficulties. So I would like to talk about how how I deal with these three things, because I have experienced all three. I was born in Tibet in 1940 and grew up in a monestary in order to be in charge of that monestary. Nowadays this is known as being a Tulku or reincarnate Lama. I’m meant to be one of them. When I was three years old I was recognised or chosen and had to go to the monestary in order to be enthroned. Then I went back home for three years, and when I was six I went back to the monestary for my education. So from the age of six I was like an orphan because I grew up in the monestary. You dont see your parents and are brought up by the monks in order to learn how to run the spiritual side of the monestary, also how to take care of the welfare of the monestary, and how to receive or give teachings for your community. There is much to learn from morning untill night, seven days a week. And the responsibility is not just spiritual. Each monestary has its own territory and the welfare of the whole community. My responsibility was therefore not only to my monestary but also for the welfare of the whole community. My responsibility was to whoever wanted to receive instructions, to whoever had spiritual, family or land problems: any problems big or small, about health, sickness or death. The Tulku has the responsibility and makes the final decision. You make decisions about the monasteries, you make decisions about families, you even make decisions about the shopping! Tibetan shopping is only done once a year and takes about three months because it’s not about money but the exchange of goods between nomadic people and agricultural people. So you have to decide when they should go and which area they should go to. You have a lot of responsibility and every family thinks that you know all the answers. So they will come to you if they are sick or if somebody is dying, asking you to make sure they are born into a better life. Its quite a hard life; the life of a Tulku is not very easy. The Tulku’s education starts at six in the morning and finishes roughly at about nine o’clock in the evening. Thats our way of educating: not for five days, not for six days but seven days a week. So from six to fourteen years old for most of the time I studied, and for 40 years my duty has been to make decisions about peoples lives. My job is to try to make sure I dont make mistakes, by learning things properly. Im sure that I have made mistakes, but not intentionally. I have done the best I can. Then when I was fifteen I went to universities and then from eighteen or nineteen I travelled around different parts of Tibet to receive teachings from well known teachers. When I was eighteen or nineteen all Tibetans had to decide whether to stay or go so we decided to leave in 1959. The population of Tibet was six million, and one million Tibetans left and went to India. Out of the one million that left between 1959 and 1960, 80,000 people reached India. Our journey took ten months. I can only tell the story of my group. In the beginning there were 300 people in our group and we travelled with horses and mules for four months. Then the Chinese took over Lhasa, the capital of Tibet and as I came from eastern part of Tibet this means that the borders into Tibet were closed. So we had to cross from near Burma into India and there is no way we could get horses or mules across so we tried to escape by walking, and that took six months. Our group started as 300 people but only 13 reached India after six months. So that was our group – the number that were able to get through. Now our group the 13 that survived had very good teachers. Every one of us remembered loving kindness and compassion, tolerance, forgiveness and not taking revenge. So when you ask me about healing, I found that those teachings gave me the power of mind to survive, because if we had not received those teachings I dont think any of us would have lived. But not only that……When we had nothing to eat, many people died. We had to eat everything we could. When things run out, there is a decision to make. Shall we kill anything that is edible? Shall we eat somebody who dies first? Those are the questions and those are the decisions that we had to make. I dont think anybody minded eating each other if the person was dead. But people said we should kill animals like rabbits for example, because we were going to die of starvation. Then the question arises: whose life should be lived , yours or the rabbits? Why do you have the right to kill the rabbit in order for you to survive? So my decision was (and I do eat meat, dont think I’m a very compassionate person, I do eat rabbit meat nowdays) , but when it was a matter of survival , I made the decision that we would not kill the rabbits. If we are meant to die we have to die. I do not see the difference between you and somebody else. But if one sees somebody else dead of course they would eat there bodies, but not in our group because the people that were dead in the snow, frozen. Some people when they couldnt walk any more, gave the food to us and said ” you leave now because in a matter of a few hours I am going to die anyway , so you go” They made there own decision. So I feel that my teachers gave us the strength to be able to make the right decisions. Now I very much appreciate my whole experience of escape, and how much suffering we all went through. This was the best training of my life, because when I was in Tibet I didn’t really know what being poor meant, I didn’t really know what a familys suffering meant. Of course I hadn’t had that kind of sufferring , as I myself had never been starving. Therefore I expected everyone to be the same as me. But when I expereinced all this, when I was close to death from starvation, I made the promise and decision that if I am still alive somehow by a mirical, if I am not dead today or tommorow, I will not sit on a throne and teach, and have many servants, but I will become the servant of all sufferring people. I will feed and educate them. This is my commitment. I made my promise at that time. And luckily our group managed to live. Then in a refugee camp in India we ate strange food for the first time, things that do not exist in Tibet and which nobody knew how to cook: onions, potatoes and tomatoes. All the vegetables were rotten and everyday between 30 to 40 people died due to tapeworms and roundworms. We stayed in India for three years and the exile government gave us jobs according to our education and qualifications. Most people were sent to work on the roads. All the Tulkus were sent for further education to learn the English language, but I myself did not have the chance to go to school. They put me in charge of managing the school and I was there for three years. From there I went to England because a friend of ours came from England and said it was a good place to go, so we went. Somebody sponsored us for the first year, but then the sponsorship money ran out so I had to look for a job. I had only two choices a factory or a hospital. So I decided to work in a hospital. I got a job as a porter and thats the first time in my life I had a physical job. I had to push patients around the hospital, and I didn’t speak much English at that time. I had never done a job like this and the nurses in the hospital thought I was quite a lazy person because I didn’t know how to push patients on the trolley. That gave me the most sufferring , mental sufferring of my life because although I had experienced pain and suffering through losing everything as a refugee, actually when your in that state you dont expect to be a very happy person. But when you work in a hospital, then you start remembering what you did, your job in Tibet: you sat on a throne, you gave orders to people, but in the hospital you have to take peoples orders. Also the porter department taught you all the nasty things: you have keep to a particular time, and if you work too hard they will say “stop go slowly” because we all had to keep the same time. ” I took 5 minutes, you must take 5 minutes You are not allowed to be back in 3 minutes” So many rules and conditions. And for the first time I worked at manual labour, which in Tibet is something that would never happen for Lamas and Tulkus, not even in your imagination. So my mind tortured me for three years. But then during that time I was able to turn myself to the teachings I had received from my teachings I had recieved from my teachers and I began accepting with tolerance, having paitence accepting whatever comes. Then you look at everything as beautifull and good, and you never look at things as ugly or bad. So I survived because of my teachers and the advice they had given. I healed myself through my teachers. I saw many good people in England but I also saw many difficult people. We stayed in a lodging, bed and breakfast, and at that time a porters income was very little, and after you paid the rent and something to eat, there was nothing left. Even the food had to be very limited. For two years in Oxford my friend and I could only afford to eat a piece of bread and a breast of lamb, because breast of lamb is something they throw away for the dogs. So you can buy five pence of breast of lamb, and you boil that and you put it on the bread in the morning: one in the daytime and one in the evening. Thats how I survived for three years. And another thing, the person we were renting the room from, the owner of that room, was a very old lady about 90, but there was a person who pretended that he was the caretaker. He threatened us with a knife, quite a long knife, trying to increase the rent every week and saying “if you dont pay, then this is what we are going to do” So sometimes we had a very hard life because we didn’t actually know what we should pay, and if we paid everything then we had nothing to eat. But this was also a very valuable lesson for us. My teacher told me you cannot change the world. If you dont like the world being full of stones, you can try and cover the world with a carpet, but that is not possible. You can walk if you find decent shoes. So you give up the idea of covering the whole world with a carpet, and instead you cover your feet so you can walk wherever you want. So that is what I think about the political problems in your country (Zimbabwe): you need good shoes. I have found that the foundation of healing is loving kindness and compassion, and meditation is the best medicine. Now scientists have found that if you meditate every day on a regular basis , the happinesss part of your brain grows. That is what the scientists have found in the last few years, and we all listen to science and we dont listen to anyoe else. So if science is saying that is the awnser , then we are happy. So what science is saying is to practice meditation regularly and you will develop happiness. More people will be happier and fewer people will lose there jobs through sickness, headaches and problems caused by an uncomfortable life. You are losing so many days in your company, but once people start meditation they are able to go to there jobs, and there is less sickness. So maybe that’s a solution for you on the healing side. So I hope I have covered the three things, my life story, how to deal with difficulties and the idea of healing. The healing idea is that you must have loving kindness and limitless compassion and maybe that should be the basis. There is so much mental suffering. People have too many comforts, and when I had too many comforts I always had the feeling there must be something better than this. I was looking for something better than this. I was looking for something better. When I went through the sufferring which I had, it was the best education I ever had in my life. Now I am happy, much happier than when I was on a throne. If somebody gives me food I am happy. If people dont give me food I am still quite . If somebody beats me up I’m still happy . I’m very stable, except when the Scottish dont give me whiskey then I’m very unhappy. And thank you very much to all of you for coming, and I think thats all. Posted by Joe Taylor https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100005199399641&fref=ts

  12. Shinay Meditation ~ Tai Situ Rinpoche There are four sentences that [the 3rd] Gyalwa Karmapa writes about shinay. He says: “Let the waves of subtle and coarse thoughts subside into/ their own place/ And the waters of mind, without movement come/ spontaneously to rest,/ Free from the contaminations of discursiveness and sloth,/ May I establish a still ocean of shamata/” He gives the example of mind as an ocean, and a stable calm ocean as a calm mind. So it tells us, very clearly, that the biggest obstacle to shinay is thoughts. Thoughts are caused by emotions, and they are caused by defilements, of course, and vice versa. Now, he did not say that we should stop thinking, but he said subside: the waives subside in the ocean. That’s very important. Lots of the time, people think that when you meditate, especially in shinay meditation, you should not be thinking. That is very strange, actually, because everybody has thoughts, but when you say “I should stop thinking” then that thought, which you create purposely, has to be stronger than the thought that is already there naturally. So you are not overcoming thought, you are actually creating more thoughts. How to remedy this is very simple: don’t try to recollect the past; don’t try to generate thoughts of the future; just let things come and let things go. Everything is perfect as it is, if we don’t do anything. So if we just sit there quietly, and decide not to have anything to do with planning and all of these things for this one hour of our meditation, then, first there will be lots of thoughts, but if we don’t do anything then it will be less and less, and we will have a quite calm state of mind. Of course, we will not have a totally thoughtless mind. A thoughtless mind is impossible. If we have a thoughtless mind we will not even notice it. So if anybody says “I have a thoughtless mind” then that is already a thought […] So noticing, itself, is a thought. (The 12th Khentin Tai Situpa Pema Dhonyo Nyinche, “Mahamudra Teachings”, pp. 46-47) Photo: Palpung Sherabling Web Centre, 12 Sept 2008

  13. Being Focused on Our Goals ~ Tai Situ Rinpoche

    So as a meditator, as a practitioner, somehow, even if you have a family, even if you have a job, even if you have a business, and even if you have lots of plans for your life, that is alright, you are not a hundred percent yogi, but you are a yogi in the making, so stop and minimize anything that will make you get lost and wander. That way your time and energy, everything will be efficient and will be focused towards your goal, your samsaric goal as well as your dharma goal – your dharma goal and samsaric goal should be complementary. Your samsaric goal cannot be one way and your dharma goal another way; they can be a support to each other. If you want to be in samsara and try to practice dharma, then slowly, maybe in this life, you can be a yogi, but if not, then the next life. Anyway, this way you really will achieve something in this life, as far as your dharma practice is concerned.

    (Chamgon Kenting Tai Situpa, “The Dorje Chang Thungma”, p. 53)

  14. I should emphasize that for beginners, becoming a good person is more important than faith in the Three Jewels. It is more important to become a fundamentally good and decent person than to cultivate one’s faith in the sources of refuge. This is one of the implications of the often-repeated statement: “The preliminaries are more profound than the main practice.”

    In any case, we need to establish a stable foundation for all subsequent spiritual development. Without this stable foundation, with an unstable foundation or even worse, no foundation at all, it is impossible for any authentic development to really occur. So therefore, I think this is important.

    (From: “Having the Great Perfection Is Not Sufficient, People Also Need To Be Greatly Perfect”. Session One of His Holiness the Karmapa’s Teaching at KTD, July 18, 2011; Translator: Lama Yeshe Gyamtso; Transcriber: Megan Johnston)

  15. Ogni mattina dovremmo riaffermare la giusta motivazione di fare il bene e di non causare danno a nessuno. Lungo tutta la giornata sosteniamo questo nella mente, sia che stiamo lavorando, studiando o rilassandoci, sia che siamo da soli o con altri. In ogni momento rinnoviamo questa motivazione in ogni cosa facciamo, diciamo o pensiamo. Vivere con il benessere degli altri nella mente porta valore e dignità anche al più semplice dei compiti.
    Da: ” Domare la Tigre. Insegnamenti per migliorare la vita quotidiana” Pag. 54 Akong Tulku Rinpoche

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