In a world bereft of compassion, the only way we can work together is through the enforcement of outside agencies: police, armies, and the laws and weapons to back them up. But if we could learn to develop loving-kindness and compassion towards one another — a spontaneous understanding that whatever we do to benefit ourselves […]
We’re all buddhas. We just don’t recognize it. We are confined in many ways to a limited view of ourselves and the world around us through cultural conditioning, family upbringing, personal experience, and the basic biological predisposition toward making distinctions and measuring present experience and future hopes and fears against a neuronal warehouse of memories. […]
The sounds, sights, and smells of rush-hour traffic can become an overwhelming source of preoccupation, the practice of simply observing the sensations of traffic rather than focusing on the goal of getting through congestion offers a tremendous opportunity for meditation practice. Mingyur Rinpoche
The four considerations for choosing a teacher are: an examination of the lineage, the teacher’s practice history, the teacher’s compassion and willingness to take care of the student, and the teacher’s discipline with regard to maintaining whatever vows he or she has taken. This is not information that you can look up on the Internet. […]
If I were to become aware of my habitual thoughts, perceptions, and sensations, rather than being carried away by them, their power over me would begin to fade. I would experience their coming and going as nothing more than the natural function of the mind, in the same way that waves naturally ripple across the […]
During my first three-year retreat, I had the good fortune to study with a great master, Saljay Rinpoche. In the middle of the third year, I and a few of my fellow retreatants approached RInpoche to ask his advice. We had derived tremendous benefit from the retreat and asked him how we could help uphold […]
Don’t conclude that your mind is significantly different from anyone else’s. We all have this monkey mind. Once we put the monkey under the magnifying glass, the mind commonly appears crazier than ever. It’s not. You are just allowing yourself to become acquainted with how crazy it has always been. This is great news. Mingyur […]
Generally we do not recognize that our social identities are molded and confined by context, and that these outer layers of ourselves exist within a boundless reality. Habitual patterns cover over this boundless reality; they obscure it, but it is always there ready to be uncovered. Mingyur Rinpoche
A common metaphor for the entire Buddhist path is swimming against the stream. This refers to the reverse aspect of all forms of mind training. To investigate consensus-reality reverses social norms. In a noisy and materialistic society, to sit down and remain still and quiet is a reverse activity. To devote even one hour a […]
Wherever we are, whatever we do, all we need to do is recognize our thoughts, feelings and perceptions as something natural. Neither rejecting nor accepting, we simply acknowledge the experience and let it pass. If we keep this up, we’ll eventually find ourselves becoming able to manage situations we once found painful, scary, or sad. […]
Glimpses of pristine awareness can be transformative, but it takes work to stabilize the view. This is why we say, “Short moments, many times”. Mingyur Rinpoche
Tibetans say, “When you meet a teacher, don’t devour that person like a dog that gulps down meat without tasting it first.” Investigate. Examine. This is the student’s responsibility. Remember, we can complete Vajrayana teachings without having one special teacher. Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche had twenty-five gurus. Mingyur Rinpoche
Normally, we do not bother to look for goodness in negative actions in ourselves or in others. That’s a mistake, because there’s always one excellent quality: every negative act has within it the seed of purification. There is no such thing as absolute negativity. There is no absolute bad karma. Impossible. Mingyur Rinpoche
Lessons on impermanence are not absorbed overnight. Our habits are too entrenched. We learn, have insights, but we do not apply them, or are too threatened by them. The Buddha identified mistaking impermanence for permanence as one of the primary causes of suffering. Known as the Supreme Physician, he offered a cure for the sickness […]
In reality we are dying all the time, but our mind is not letting us know this. If we do not let ourselves die, we cannot be reborn. I learn that dying is rebirth. Death is life. Mingyur Rinpoche
The less we know about the chattering, muttering voice in our heads that tell us what to do, what to believe, what to buy, which people we should love, and so forth, the more power we grant it to boss us around and convince us that whatever it says is true. Mingyur Rinpoche
Our mind is very important and all our experiences of happiness and unhappiness arise in the mind. So if we can train our minds then happiness will arise naturally. This happiness is real lasting peace which you will have in the external environment as well as in your inner mind. Mingyur Rinpoche
Feeling divided from ourselves and the world around us is the deceptive narrative of the grasping mind. But we can learn to let go of false hopes that leave us yearning for ease in our bodies and in this world. We can move beyond our discontent. We can replace longing with love. As I was […]
Taking refuge doesn’t protect us from problems in the world. It doesn’t shield us from war, famine, illness, accidents, and other difficulties. Rather, it provides tools to transform obstacles into opportunities. We learn how to relate to difficulties in a new way, and this protects us from confusion and despair. Traffic jams do not disappear, […]
When we are not constricted by habitual patterns that define how we see ourselves and how we behave in the world, we create access to those qualities of mind that are vast, that are not contingent on circumstances or concepts, and that are always present. Mingyur Rinpoche
