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


Read a random quote or see all quotes by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.

Further quotes from the book The Heart of Compassion:

• The three aspects of diligence
• The magnifying glass of your faith and devotion
• Protecting ourselves from future suffering
• Accepting short-term sufferings
• Cutting through subtler misconceptions
• I like suffering
• Meaningless activities without end
• Practice day and night
• No greater obstacle to Dharma practice
• Start observing your mind
• No more than an empty echo
• Before it is too late
• Never stop thinking about how to gain liberation
• The importance of relative bodhicitta
• The children of the buddhas
• Giving and taking
• Seeing clearly how deceiving the ways of the world are
• The best opportunity to put the teachings into practice
• Neither discouragement nor pride
• Powerful sources of help