Many people are attracted to Buddhism because they’ve read or heard somewhere that it offers a novel method of overcoming pain and attaining a measure of peace and well-being. It often comes as a shock that the teachings and practices laid out by the Buddha twenty-five hundred years ago do not in any way involve […]
A compassionate mind is a diligent mind. Mingyur Rinpoche
I feel that happiness is really found in appreciation and rejoicing. Everything is a display of clarity, love, and wisdom. This is related to the main view of Vajrayana Buddhism: that we all are buddha. This enlightened nature is not just within you. It’s everywhere. You can see it and appreciate it. That’s the main […]
When you enter the path of Buddhist practice you’re ending an abusive relationship with yourself. Mingyur Rinpoche
If we allow ourselves to relax and take a mental step back, we can begin to recognize that all these different thoughts are simply coming and going within the context of an unlimited mind, which, like space, remains fundamentally unperturbed by whatever occurs within it. Mingyur Rinpoche
Meditation is so much easier than most people think: Whatever you experience, as long as you are aware of what’s going on, is meditation! Mingyur Rinpoche
When compassion awakens in your heart, you’re able to be more honest with yourself. Mingyur Rinpoche
Dedicating merit at the end of any practice is an aspiration that whatever psychological or emotional strength you’ve gained through practice be passed on to others – which is not only a wonderful short compassion practice but also an extremely subtle way of dissolving the distinction between “self” and “others.” Mingyur Rinpoche
Every strong attachment generates an equally powerful fear that we’ll either fail to get what we want or lose whatever we’ve already gained. This fear, in the language of Buddhism, is known as aversion: a resistance to the inevitable changes that occur as a consequence of the impermanent nature of relative reality. Mingyur Rinpoche
Once we recognize that other sentients being – people, animals, and even insects – are just like us, that their basic motivation is to experience peace and to avoid suffering, then, when someone acts in some way or says something that is against our wishes, we’re able to have some basis for understanding: oh well, […]
When you transform your mind, everything you experience is transformed. Mingyur Rinpoche
When Buddhist talk about emptiness, we don’t mean nothingness, but rather an unlimited potential for anything to appear, change, or disappear. Mingyur Rinpoche
Whatever passes through your mind, don’t focus on it and don’t try to suppress it. Just observe it as it comes and goes. Mingyur Rinpoche
The real point of meditation is to rest in bare awareness whether anything occurs or not. Whatever comes up for you, just be open and present to it, and let it go. And if nothing occurs, or if thoughts and so on vanish before you can notice them, just rest in that natural clarity. Mingyur […]
There are, in fact, no good thoughts or bad thoughts. There are only thoughts. Mingyur Rinpoche
The clarity, or natural awareness, is so much a part of everyday experience that it’s hard to recognize. It’s like trying to see your eyelashes without using mirror. So how do you go about recognizing it? According to the Buddha, you meditate – through not necessarily in the way most people understand it. The kind […]
The expectations that you bring to your meditation are often the greatest obstacles you will encounter. Mingyur Rinpoche
When we recognize that others experience pain and unhappiness because they don’t recognize their real nature, we’re spontaneously moved by a profound wish for them to experience the same sense of peace and clarity that we’ve begun to know. Mingyur Rinpoche
Buddhist practice guides us very gradually to let go of habitual assumptions and experiment with different questions and different points of view. Such a shift in perspective isn’t as difficult as it might seem. Mingyur Rinpoche
Many modern students follow teachers around and accumulate empowerments and transmissions and take many teachings. But this is not a substitute for practice. Pure students don’t hang around the teachers that much. They come for instruction, or guidance, or clarification, and then they go off and practice. Mingyur Rinpoche
