Getting butter from milk is only possible because milk already contains cream. No one ever made butter by churning water. The prospector looks for gold in rocks and not in wood chips. Likewise, the quest for perfect enlightenment only makes sense because buddha-nature is already present in every being. Without that nature, all efforts would […]
If, as you meditate on mind training, your personality becomes stiff with pride and arrogance, its as though you have reduced a god to a demon; dharma has become non-dharma. The more you meditate on mind training and dharma, the more supple your personality should become. Act as the lowest servant to everyone. Jamgon Kongtrul […]
Since all virtuous thoughts and actions motivated by clinging to a concrete reality or to a self-cherishing attitude are like poisonous food, give them up. Learn not to cling, but to know the phantomlike nature of experience. Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye
The noble ones share a single ultimate view, But arrogant ones bend that to their own interests. Those who show all the teachings of the Buddha as without contradiction can be considered learned people, But who would be foolish enough to think that those who cause discord are holders of the dharma? Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro […]
Just as a king overpowered by self-interest Is not worthy of being the protector of the kingdom, A sectarian person is not worthy of being a holder of the dharma. Not only that, he is unworthy of upholding even his own tradition. Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye
Do not discuss the faults of others. Realize that their “faults” are actually your own impure projections. Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye
Continue practice into everyday life with a single meditation, always keeping in mind the intention to help others in all activities, eating, dressing, sleeping, walking, or sitting. Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye
The root of the entire dharma is mental rejection of the concerns of this life. Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye
You must find freedom from disturbing emotions and ego-clinging by constantly examining and investigating your course of experience. Therefore, turn your attention to an object that gives rise to disturbing emotions. Examine carefully whether they arise or not. If they do arise, apply remedies vigorously. Again, look at ego-clinging to see what it is like. […]
Rely on timeless awareness, which is free of elaboration, without identity, and the very essence of being; do not rely on ordinary consciousness, which is a mind fixated on characteristics and concepts. Timeless awareness entails (a) understanding that the way in which phenomena actually abide is, from the ultimate perspective, free of all limitations imposed […]
Our present state of mistaken apprehension does not accord with the mind’s true nature, which is ever and already perfect and pure. Mistaken experiences depend upon mind’s fundamental pattern that identifies the apprehending subject as “the self.” The self is not inherently existent, although we erroneously cling to the belief that it is. Since we […]
All phenomena of cyclic existence or transcendence, Included within both appearance and mind, Have no reality whatsoever and (therefore) Arise in any way whatsoever. Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye
It is space, ungraspable as a thing. It is a spotless precious clear crystal. It is the glow of the lamp of self-luminous mind. It is inexpressible, the experience of a mute. It is unobscured, transparent wisdom, The luminous dharmakaya, sugatagarbha, Primordially pure and spontaneous. It cannot be shown through analogy by anyone, And it […]
The three poisons continually arise in connection with three objects. Compulsive attachment arises for objects that are pleasant or useful; aversion arises for objects that are unpleasant or harmful; and stupidity or indifference for other objects. Recognize these poisons as soon as they arise. Then, for example, when attachment arises, think: “May every bit of […]
You might “kill time” walking, moving, sleeping, or sitting: ineffectual acts which are neither wholesome nor harmful, and which mature into neither good nor bad experiences. But since such actions simply waste this human life, instead of throwing your ability away in idle amusements, make a conscious effort to devote your time exclusively to wholesome action. […]
Liberation as Ever-Perfect does not refer to the liberation of a buddha that has occurred in the past, such as that of Buddha Sakyamuni, but to the way in which countless beings are liberated right now and will continue to be liberated in the future simply by realizing their primordial purity. The basis, the path, […]