The time you practise on your cushion is just an exercise. The real practice is when you are not on your cushion. Sometimes that is called ‘post-meditation’, but it is the real life. The practice that you do on your cushion needs, therefore, to affect how you react, how you do things and how you […]
From the Buddhist point of view our suffering originates from the limitations of our ordinary, unenlightened mind. Firstly, we are unaware of the basic truths of existence. Through ignorance, we have misunderstood our true nature and the nature of reality. Secondly, confused and easily agitated, we are unable to control our mind. We do not […]
We have created the illusion of a unique and unchanging self, an individual “I” that we believe remains fixed somewhere within us all the time as feelings and thoughts come and go. In Buddhism the term we use to describe this is “ego.” Our assumed identity leads to discrimination and splits the natural oneness of […]
Without the mind, nothing can have any meaning for us. Our mind does not create and direct everything in existence, but we can only make sense of the world through the mind and the mind is all we have to work with. There is nothing else. We need to train our mind because it is […]
Our pure, enlightened mind is limitless. It has the potential to be anything, anywhere, anytime. Nothing can hold it back. The Tibetan word for Buddha is Sangye and this word is very evocative. It means “awakened and blossoming.” What awakens and grows within us is not a new or different intelligence. It is not something […]
It is sometimes said that the longest journey we take is the journey from the head to the heart. Ringu Tulku
A great meditator can experience everything and view all the impressions of the senses without getting involved and entangled, without making anything up. The point is how we deal with and react to appearances. … And Tilopa said to Naropa, ‘My son, appearance does not bind you, it’s your grasping that binds you.’ Ringu Tulku
It is often seen that human beings can endure problems quite well, but cannot endure success. When we are successful and have everything we desire, it can easily go to our heads. There is a great danger of losing our common sense and becoming careless and arrogant. As it is said, “Nothing corrupts a person […]
When our usual habit of magnifying our feelings and our fascination resulting from that are gone, there will be no negativity and no fuel. We can relax within them. What we are trying to do, therefore, is to skillfully and subtly deal with our emotions. This is largely equivalent to the ability of exerting discipline. […]
The Buddhist notion of diligence is to delight in positive deeds. Ringu Tulku
As we wake in the morning and before we go to sleep at night, we remind ourselves that our goal is to develop and realize compassion. This is all we need. Other meditations and mantras are useful but it is only compassion that embodies the very deepest wisdom. To carry out our decision to liberate […]