When you run after your thoughts, you are like a dog chasing a stick; every time a stick is thrown, you run after it. But if, instead, you look at where your thoughts are coming from, you will see that each thought arises and dissolves within the space of that awareness, without engendering other thoughts. Be like a lion, who rather than chasing after the stick, turns to face the thrower. One only throws a stick at a lion once.
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
from the book The Hundred Verses of Advice: Tibetan Buddhist Teachings on What Matters Most
translated by Padmakara Translation Group
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Further quotes from the book The Hundred Verses of Advice:
- The choice is clear
- When you reach the threshold of death
- Have you prepared yourselves a boat
- Putting down the heavy burden once and for all
- The freedom to practice the Dharma
- Abandon negative friendships
- Free of being caught by anything at all
- Being near a spiritual teacher
- Three essential points
- Flying off into the bardo
- Happiness and suffering
- Rather than being trapped by your perceptions
- Contemplating the defects of samsara
- Dwell in the simplicity of the present moment
- Nothing to be gained or lost
- Love and compassion for all
- How illness can teach us compassion
- Devotion is the fare on our journey toward enlightenment
- You won’t live forever
- Use riches in a constructive way