The teachings of the Dharma have great power, but unless you practice them properly that power will remain merely as a potential which is never expressed. If one has a tool and does not use it, not much will be accomplished. An unused tool is not particularly beneficial in itself. But if you truly put the teachings into practice, as the Dharma takes birth in and grows in your mindstream, all your faults will naturally diminish and all your positive qualities will spontaneously blossom, just as the sun, as it rises higher in the morning, gradually spreads increasing light throughout the world.

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

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

translated by Padmakara Translation Group


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Further quotes from the book The Heart of Compassion:

• 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
• No greater obstacle to Dharma practice
• Start observing your mind
• Before it is too late
• Never stop thinking about how to gain liberation
• Sealing your merit with authentic dedication
• No more than an empty echo
• Phenomena adorn emptiness, but never corrupt it
• Giving and taking
• Conduct
• The only thing that is really worth doing
• The reason you are wandering in samsara
• Neither discouragement nor pride