We need a balance between our outer material and our inner spiritual worlds. We can look at material things and ask ourselves: “Do I need this or not?” We don’t have to go to extremes, making huge changes and thinking that we have to give up everything like Milarepa. We need a good situation, but […]
Many methods can free us from difficulties; however, precious bodhichitta, encompassing loving-kindness and compassion, is supreme. If we meditate on it well, there is nothing we cannot remedy. When we experience many different sufferings, they can be an actual support, a situation conducive to Dharma practice. If we were problem-free, we would have a hard […]
When, because of external or internal circumstances there comes some sort of a change, we need to be able to go along with that change. So whatever happens, we go with the flow of events. If we are able to do this, then in our own mind we can be more relaxed. We can be […]
Love can have this vast, all-encompassing quality. It can be allowed to spread until it permeates the very core of our relationships. Yet often, instead of giving love room to expand, we box it in with our expectations. Expectations make our love conditional on whether or not the relationship fulfills our wishes. How can you […]
We cannot simply learn and reflect and then leave out the meditation, because what it boils down to is that one needs to mix the dharma with one’s own mind through meditation. If that does not happen, then one has missed the point. 17th Karmapa
Naturally, when you see the qualities of the lama’s presence, or see the way the lama’s activity manifests, your perception could be transformed. That is what devotion does: it carries your mind along. Devotion is the shortest way to quickly realize the ultimate nature. If it could be found in a few words or verbal […]
When we gaze out through our own window of grasping at “me” and “mine”, we experience everything as if it were being projected onto our personal frame of perception, like a movie projected onto a screen. Just as when we are watching a movie, if we observe a happy moment, our heart soars, and if […]
One of our most important challenges in life is to remain mindful of who we are and what we are doing. To keep this awareness present all the time is a great support for spiritual growth. One aspect of a spiritual life is to live consciously. For that, we need to be as fully aware […]
We all know that when we practice a lot and become a bit tired or upset, we can become unbalanced, and then all sorts of seemingly positive or negative things can appear in our mind. These are not necessarily the real signs of practice. The real sign of our practice should be how we work […]
The priority we give to material goods in our life is up to each of us to determine. This is also part of deciding how we want to define ourselves. If we are looking to our jobs and to material things to tell us how we are, what we are worth, and where we fit […]
All of us have our own life’s path, and while moving along it, we will meet with various kinds of problems and suffering. No matter how many difficulties may arise, we should look back at what we have accomplished and keep in mind the path we wish to travel along. This will help us to […]
We sometimes wake up fresh in the morning yet still go through the day half asleep. Our busy 21st century lives overwhelm us with a relentless stream of immediate tasks. We lose sight of how precious it is just to have a human life. This is an awareness that we need to feel in our […]
Compassion is not just about kind acts; actually it is about being aware of the suffering of other sentient beings from the view of the actual nature of things. 17th Karmapa
The Buddha’s teachings were based entirely upon the fine distinctions among individuals that a compassionate eye can observe. That is to say that the Buddha taught always in ways that conform to the dispositions, interests, and specific situations of those beings for whom he was teaching at that time. 17th Karmapa
When we are taking up the way of dharma, so as to bring it into our own experience, we must go by way of hearing, contemplating, and meditating. […] These three are indispensable to one’s practice of the dharma. Among the three, most especially, the practice of meditation is indispensable. Why is it that meditation […]
The world we live in is getting smaller and people’s actions have tremendous impact. In the era in which we live people cannot get away with clinging to their beliefs. I don’t have any personal attachment or clinging to being a Buddhist. We need to step outside the boundaries of Buddhism and really go out […]
Not attached to happiness nor depressed about suffering, we should seek a stable and constant path. If we are always looking to feel good, and if on top of that our minds are lost in distraction thinking about feeling good, then what will become of our life? We will be diverted from our true purpose […]
The differences between religious beliefs are relatively superficial. Although the lineages and texts differ, in essence Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, and the other religions share many similarities. This is easy to see when we consider their ethical values and their emphasis on the awakening of human beings’ highest potential. Whether or not we think […]
I want to underscore this point: we find greed difficult to control not because it is natural, but because it has been generated by long, unchecked habituation. This is important to recognize, because even though old habits may be tough to break, all habits can be broken. 17th Karmapa
Parents do seek to create a wonderful world for their children, but even more splendid is to give them explanations that increase their intelligence and ability to discriminate right from wrong. In Buddhism, we speak of what is to be given up and what is to be taken up. According to the Dharma, what is […]
