Waking Up
"How can we collectively wake up?" asks British-born Tibetan Buddhist nun Ven. Tenzin Palmo from the foothills of the Himalayas in northern India. With heartfelt passion for human potential, Tenzin Palmo describes how we all desperately want happiness, but we undermine that possibility through ongoing participation in a society that rewards greed, aggression and egotism.
I think there are several ways to wake up.
-gaining knowledge about the buddha, acting like the buddha, follow him would be a good way for some to find release that helps being perfect/like a role model.
-Others might prefer to follow Jezus, live like he did, be inspired by his words. I think we're allowed to see ourselves as a Jezus, growing up to an adult stage where we are saved / find relief / release / liberation in our selves. If everyone would act like him, acted through the holy spirit, he would come back.. And this will happen if you believe the word.
-Others prefer to use there common sense...
But why not everything together? We have to learn from each other, in order to be able to understand each other, cooperate, and co-create a better world.
Humans who are in celestial slumber are very much destroying the world. To collectively wake up I think Mother Nature may need to do this. Enjoyed Tenzins video very much.
Yes, the question is whether we're talking about individual or collective awakening. Strictly speaking, I don't even see how there is a "method" to awakening - even if there is an approach can we consider that a matter of cause and effect? But as for collective awakening, in a way it makes sense that even leaders don't really know what's going on, after all that would be a hierarchical model wouldn't it? They may be leaders for individuals, even spiritual leaders, but it is oneness that we're talking about, right? So when we say whether there is enough awakening, we need to qualify that statement. Enough for what, or who? For the world? Or for people? The same can be asked about pessimism, from what perspective? What is pessimistic or negative for human beings may in fact be a positive thing for the rest of the world. Maybe, just maybe individual awakening (or "enough people") is not all that relevant when it comes to collective awakening, or at least the number of human beings is not the only deciding factor. Maybe we're not as important as we think we are.
I don't feel she's being pessimistic or dissing the Buddha. She is afterall an ordained Buddhist nun.
What she's speaking about is collective awakening. Yes, the Buddha provided a method but still today those using it, let alone actually awakening is relatively small. And it's not happening in positions of leadership, so systems don't change. When we look at the world in general, there doesn't seem to be enough awakening.
It's slow, but it will happen. Unfortunately much of it is a forced awakening prompted by climate change and the collapse of the world's financial and economic systems. Humanity learns the hard way, is what she's saying...
I disagree that the Buddha did not provide a method for which people could awaken. He did in fact provide an excellent method!
However I would add that we need a level of development that is worldcentric and values ecology in order to awaken to our global problems and their potential solutions.
Tenzin clearly identifies the problem, but pessimism will not help us find solutions.
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