White Buffalo Calf Woman Podcast Transcripts

The god realm is the opposite to the hell realm that we looked at last week. This realm is the most difficult to take rebirth in, whereas hell is the easiest. That is because we have a tendency to be self grasping and do negative actions to benefit ourselves, rather than doing things to benefit others. Society today glorifies selfish, greedy people and ways of living, which exacerbates these tendencies and makes it impossible to take rebirth in a god realm. We need a massive amount of positive karma to be able to be born in a higher realm. This means we have to spend most of, if not all of our time benefiting others, instead of always trying to fulfill our own desires. We need to engage in virtuous actions such as giving, having patience, wishing others to be happy and so forth. The more time we spend helping others the better our chances of being born in the god realm in the future will be. There are three levels of the god realm, which are desire, form and formless. Desire lev...

There seems to be some strange trend that people refuse to believe a place like hell exists. Some people think this is a fear based teaching devised by unscrupulous religions. Some are therefore in denial about it, wanting to keep their heads in the clouds and pretending that life is perfectly happy and nothing ever goes wrong. Strange way to think, because they are usually devastated when anything really bad happens in their life, betrayed by their pollyannish thinking. I am not teaching these things to try to put fear into you, rather I am teaching these because I love you and do not want you to suffer. A hell realm would be the worst rebirth filled with suffering with no relief, that you could take. I want to help prevent you from ever going there, again. Yes, again. The idea that you have one life, and at the end of it you either go to heaven or hell and spend eternity there is wrong. First of all eternity is forever, so that is impossible because you have this life now and you...

We have been learning about the different realms within Samsara and in the last podcast we learned about the dangers of the animal realm and why we don't want to take rebirth there. Today we are going to learn about the hungry ghost realm. This realm is considered to be even lower than the animal realm because it is fraught with even more suffering. The hungry ghost realm is seen as the second lowest floor within the prison of Samsara. You are probably wondering what a hungry ghost is. They are spirit entities that are starving and thirsty. They have families, like we do. They can have husbands and wives and children, but all of them are starving and unable to quench their thirst. It is extremely difficult for them to find any food or water at all. They have long lives filled with suffering. Their stomachs are bloated from hunger and they have very long, thin necks which make it very troublesome to swallow even the tiniest amount of food or water if they are lucky enough to fin...

We learned in the last podcast that the animal realm is the first basement level within the prison of Samsara. This is the realm where all the animals and insects dwell. Whether they are flying in the air, surviving on the surface, even underground or living in the water, all the animals and insects are found in the animal realm. The animal realm is considered one of the lower rebirths. You may be wondering why it is considered a lower realm and pictured below ground especially since there are animals all around us in this life. Surely if we are on the ground level or main floor of the prison and they are here with us, then they cannot be below us. Well, the prison with the six floors is only an image to help you picture the realms to better understand them. The animal realm is considered a lower rebirth because animals do not have the mental capacity that we enjoy as humans. They lack the ability to understand spiritual concepts and to make spiritual progress. An animal cannot ded...

You need to have an understanding of past lives for this podcast to make sense, so you may wish to go listen to my podcast on that topic if you are struggling with that concept. We were not humans in every past life we have ever had. We have been a variety of beings, every life form that exists multiple times over. We did not even live on this planet in every past life. We lived in different realms, in different worlds. So what is Samsara? Samsara is the cycle of uncontrolled rebirth. It can be seen as a prison for our minds. We are trapped here in Samsara as long as we remain ignorant of the truth and do nothing to work towards escaping this prison. Now the thing is we have always been stuck in this cycle, but we will all get out. Some of us will get out sooner than others. Many have already escaped. The ones that have escaped are called Buddhas. There are countless Buddhas. This gives us hope that one day we will escape, too and become a fully enlightened Buddha. Until that time ...

In these degenerate times and backwards ways of living, people obviously measure success by completely backwards standards. I feel sorry for everyone that has fallen into this trap. I fell for it when I was young because I did not know any better, but eventually found my way out. The more people that get sucked into trying to impress others with their wealth and status or even with the crimes they have committed, the worse their future will be. Sadly, when people value what is actually completely worthless and look up to those individuals that are totally immersed in ignorance, society degrades at an amazing rate. The future is looking dim for those people. We can measure the success of a community based on the worst conditions that can be found within it. Are there homeless people? Are there poor sections filled with crime, addictions and low standards of living? Then that shows the real success of that community. It's not the rich sections, the biggest or tallest buildings, th...

If you have been listening to my podcasts, you will have heard me talk about karma and that I plan to do a series of podcasts on the topic. Well, this is the beginning of that series. The topic of karma is a large one. Many people know of a simplified version of it, but it is much vaster and deeper than you may know. In this podcast, we'll look at the basics. The definition of karma is action. Karma means action. Any action you perform is karma. Any and every action you perform is karma. When you perform a positive action that is positive karma and when doing negative things that is negative karma. We have all done both positive and negative actions. All of us. In my last podcast, I talked about past lives which are vital to this topic of karma. We all have what I like to refer to as a storage locker of karma that we have always had. Every action you have ever performed in all the lifetimes you have ever lived has been put into that storage unit. Since most of us do not r...

In order to make real spiritual progress in your life, you need to understand that past lives exist. Many people scoff at this idea, due to their own ignorance and laziness to discover the truth for themselves. Personally, I have always believed in past lives, it is just part of who I am. I suppose that comes from imprinting. I don't recall anyone teaching me about past lives as I was growing up. I researched this topic when I was a teenager and young adult. When I discovered Buddhism, past lives were part of the teachings, so I knew I was on the right path. The idea that you did not exist and were nothing, then you were born and developed consciousness and then you die and go back to nothing seems ludicrous to me. That would be impossible. You cannot get something from nothing. You cannot have not existed, suddenly exist and then go back to not existing anymore. That is impossible. If you have nothing, nothing at all, you cannot make anything from it. You need to have something...