Quote Archives: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

The ground of practice is your direct experience ~ Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

Don’t think you have to leave most of your mind behind when you become a practitioner. That would be a wrong view of the spiritual path. The ground of practice is your direct experience – regardless of its content. You don’t have to act out or indulge in these emotions. Just give them space and […]

Distractions ~ Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

What is keeping me away from what I want to do as a practitioner? We must ask ourselves this question. Great practitioners of the past would not have the distractions that we have, however noble these aims of ours seem, because those practitioners took impermanence so deeply to heart. So we must address honestly all […]

Using mind’s vitality to deepen our practice ~ Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

Sometimes practitioners resent disturbing thoughts and emotions or feel they should be exempt from them. This reflects a mistaken view of the purpose of practice. Instead of resenting mind’s vitality, we can use it to deepen and enrich our practice. The point of practice is to work with both peaceful and unpeaceful states of mind. […]

Human suffering ~ Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

When we accept ourselves as human beings – having similar needs, similar conditions, and similar basic experiences as all others – then we can think of our suffering as human suffering, rather than MY particular suffering or pain. Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

Becoming a practitioner of Dharma ~ Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

If someone is to become a true student of Dharma, that person has to know that practice is an essential part of one’s life, intimately woven with one’s own experience. Of course we need to keep our jobs and our responsibilities, but none of these become essential. Rather, they become important in support of what […]

Naturally cultivating renunciation ~ Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

As we get older, we naturally cultivate renunciation. We can nurture this quality by reflecting on the variety of experiences we’ve already had. This automatically diminishes our craving to repeat similar experiences. We find ourselves no longer so driven to crank up our life in an attempt to have more and to accomplish more, since […]