The mind is always active, always generating thoughts, just as the ocean constantly generates waves. We can’t stop our thoughts any more than we can stop waves in the ocean. Resting the mind in its natural state is very different from trying to stop thoughts altogether. Mingyur Rinpoche
Meditation is actually a very simple exercise in resting in the natural state of your present mind, and allowing yourself to be simply and clearly present to whatever thoughts, sensations, or emotions occur. Mingyur Rinpoche
Clarity is a sense of being able to see into the nature of things as though all reality were a landscape lit up on a brilliantly sunny day without clouds. Everything appears distinct and everything makes sense. Even disturbing thougths and emotions have their place in this brilliant landscape. Mingyur Rinpoche
Whatever or whoever made us happy today, this month, or this year is bound to change. Change is the only constant of relative reality. Mingyur Rinpoche
No matter how trapped we may feel by anxiety, depression, or guilt, there is always another option available to us, and one that doesn’t ask us to stop feeling what we already feel, or to stop being who and what we are. When we know where to look, and how to look, we can find […]
The Buddha often compared natural mind to water, which in its essence is always clear and clean. Mud, sediment, and other impurities may temporarily darken or pollute the water, but we can filter away such impurities and restore its natural clarity. Mingyur Rinpoche
Avoid becoming attached to positive experience if it was peaceful. As with every mental experience, bliss, clarity, and nonconceptuality spontaneously come and go. You didn’t create them, you didn’t cause them, and you can’t control them. They are simply natural qualities of your mind. Mingyur Rinpoche
All the qualities of your natural mind – peace, openness, relaxation, and clarity – are present in your mind just as it is. You don’t have to do anything different. You don’t have to shift or change your awareness. All you have to do while observing your mind is to recognize the qualities it already […]
The relationship between emptiness and experience isn’t so simple or rather it’s so simple that it’s easy to miss. Mingyur Rinpoche
At any given moment, you can choose to follow the chain of thoughts, emotions, and sensations that reinforce a perception of yourself as vulnerable and limited, or to remember that your true nature is pure, unconditioned, and incapable of being harmed. You can remain in the sleep of ignorance, or remember that you are and […]
Applying attention practice, we use our emotions as a focus for developing awareness, an opportunity to look at the ‘looker’. Just as we need sound to look at sound, form to look at form, we need emotions to look at emotions. In fact, intense emotions can be our best friends in terms of stabilizing the […]
The Buddhist understanding of compassion is, in some ways, a bit different from the ordinary sense of the word. For Buddhists, compassion doesn’t simply mean feeling sorry for other people. The Tibetan term – nying-jay – implies an utterly direct expansion of the heart. Mingyur Rinpoche
Every mental affliction is actually the basis of wisdom. If we get caught up in our afflictions or try to repress them, we just end up creating more problems for ourselves. If, instead, we look at them directly, the things we fear will kill us gradually transform into the strongest supports for meditation we could […]
The ultimate goal of meditation practice is to bring awareness to every moment of one’s life, not just the time one spends in a formal meditation session. That said, setting aside time each day to cultivate awareness is an indispensable part of the process. Most people find that the more time they devote to meditation […]
Whether your practice is good or not doesn’t really matter. The important point is the intention to meditate. That alone is enough. Mingyur Rinpoche
Because emotions tend to be vivid and enduring, they can be even more useful than thoughts as supports for meditation. Mingyur Rinpoche
All it takes to accomplish these marvels is a little patience, a little diligence, a little willingness to let go of conditioned ideas about yourself and the world around you. All it takes is a bit of practice in waking up in the middle of the dreamscape of your life and recognizing that there is […]
When you don’t understand the nature and origin of your thoughts, your thoughts use you. When the Buddha recognized the nature of his mind, he reversed the process. He showed us how we use our thoughts instead of being used by them. Mingyur Rinpoche
Once you commit yourself to developing an awareness of your Buddha nature, you’ll inevitably start to see changes in your day-to-day experience. Things that used to trouble you gradually lose their power to upset you. You’ll become intuitively wiser, more relaxed, and more openhearted. You’ll begin to recognize obstacles as opportunities for further growth. Mingyur […]
Motivation is the single most important factor in determining whether your experience is conditioned by suffering of by peace. Mingyur Rinpoche
