Some people may have the idea that these teachings on compassion and exchanging self and others are part of the ‘gradual path’ teachings of the sutras, and are not nearly as effective as the more advanced ‘direct path’ teachings of the Great Perfection or the Great Seal. That is a complete misunderstanding. Only if you have developed the love and compassion of relative bodhichitta can absolute bodhichitta – the very essence of the Great Perfection and the Great Seal – ever take birth in your being.

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

from the book The Heart of Compassion: The Thirty-seven Verses on the Practice of a Bodhisattva

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Further quotes from the book The Heart of Compassion:

• Powerful sources of help
• Accepting short-term sufferings
• Phenomena adorn emptiness
• Practice day and night
• Two types of friends
• Seeing clearly how deceiving the ways of the world are
• Cutting through subtler misconceptions
• Just projections of the mind
• Protecting ourselves from future suffering
• Impermanence dawning in your mind
• A practice based on your mind
• The three aspects of diligence
• The children of the buddhas
• Opportunity
• The magnifying glass of your faith and devotion
• I like suffering
• The best opportunity to put the teachings into practice
• Meaningless activities without end
• Nothing to be grasped