Attaining Lasting Satisfaction – Part 1

ATTAINING LASTING SATISFACTION – PART 1

In this series, you will be listening to eight lightly edited audio recordings of teachings given by Gelek Rimpoche as part of an ongoing series in 2003 at Renaissance Unity, an inclusive spiritual community in Warren, Michigan.

Addressing a public audience over eight sessions, Gelek Rimpoche explores a range of topics with their titles and descriptions listed below. Please note that the audio sessions follow the descriptions.

1. Mind over Matter
Gelek Rimpoche introduces using mantras along with Tibetan Buddhist spiritual practice and recounts how he learned about spirituality as a child in the monastery in pre-1959 Tibet.

2. Human Nature
While our mind is sometimes clouded by negative emotions such as hatred, fear, and obsession, its basic nature is pure and capable of delivering full enlightenment. In this session, Gelek Rimpoche inspires us to enthusiastically make the best use of our life with gradual and steady development onthe spiritual path.

3. Anger and Patience
Anger is the real weapon of mass destruction that gives rise to terrorism, war and destructive behavior. Anger is an addiction — a fire that destroys our peace of mind, consumes our virtue and blinds us so that we cannot act rationally.

In this session, Gelek Rimpoche helps us to recognize our anger as the first step towards ending it, thereby allowing us to apply the antidote of patience and to cultivate compassion for ourself and others.

4. Reincarnation – Fact or Fiction
As a child in the monastery, Gelek Rimpoche struggled with reincarnation, even though he was identified as a “reincarnated lama” himself. In this session, Rimpoche examines anecdotal and spiritual evidence for the continuity of mind, past, present and future.

5. Looking at Life through the Wide Angle Lens of Karma
Gelek Rimpoche discusses karma, a widely known term that is widely misunderstood, by way of karma’s four characteristics: it is definite, multiplies easily, we will not meet with uncreated causes, and results will not occur without cause. Rimpoche reminds us of how we can take charge of our future, creating positive karmic causes and mitigating negative karmic causes.

6. Fear and Fearlessness
Gelek Rimpoche presents how negative emotions such as pride, ignorance, anger, jealousy and greed all stem from the same root – fear, and that fear destroys our peace of mind. He also tells us that peace of mind can be restored through recognition of our precious life and the help of White Tara, enlightened protectress who liberates us from all fear through the practice of wisdom.

7. Dealing with Depression
Depression can have a close relationship with lack of self-appreciation and inability to move on from painful ruminations. Gelek Rimpoche shares how concentrated and analytical meditation can help re-train these patterns in order to move towards a more confident and objective experience, while also noting his views on other means to help individuals (such as medication).

8. Impermanence: Denial of the Passing Moment
Our culture is rapt by entertainment that distracts us into denial of the fragility of life and the certainty of death. In this session, Gelek Rimpoche explains that while impermanence is represented by illness, aging and death, its flip side is that it also can offers us the freedom to bring about positive change.