If one practices śamatha meditation without vipaśyanā, one will not be able to understand the true nature of phenomena; one will just be able to rest the mind on something. It is like being on a vacation; one experiences peace on a vacation, but one does not get any lasting results from it. If you […]
The method for taking all situations as the path is to rest within the essence of the mind. Within our minds, there are three aspects: the way things appear, how they are confused, and the way they actually are. We do not take our difficulties as the path in relation to how things appear or […]
The Buddha taught that the mind is responsible for us attaining Buddhahood and mind is also responsible for us wandering in samsara. The Buddha has said that the mind is like an artist who paints whatever they want. The mind uses the five mental aggregates of form, feeling, identification, formation, and consciousness to create whatever […]
Just because mind, in its nature, is non-arising and empty, we cannot pretend that nothing exists, that there is no good and evil, no pleasure or pain, etc… In fact, the more the experience of our true nature deepens, the more we realize that we should be ever more careful in our behavior, attitudes, and […]
When we watch a television program, we have no trouble identifying places, persons, animals, mountains, and so on. Through becoming involved with the program, we identify with what we are seeing and begin to feel an emotional response. Actually what we are looking at are not places, persons, animals, or mountains, but points of light […]
When practicing and studying, it’s important to have a motivation that is free from affliction. Among the various pure motivations, the most important is the wish to help ourselves and others, the vast motivation of the Mahayana, which means acting for the sake of all our former mothers, all sentient beings, who are as limitless […]
The problems we face with appearances and all of the suffering we experience as a result of appearances is not because of the appearances themselves but because of our fixation on them. It is our fixation upon appearances which turns appearances into enemies. Because these appearances are just appearances, they are just what appears to […]
Meditation is not supposed to be the fabrication or the reinforcement of some particular state, but simply the cultivation of the awareness of whatever is arising in the mind. Thrangu Rinpoche
Human life is a very precious and rare opportunity not always available, and the opportunity to attain realization and freedom from suffering does not occur with every lifetime, or even in each lifetime in which we have a human body. Furthermore, mere possession of a human body is not a sufficient base from which to […]
The only way to actually abandon or eradicate the kleshas is to see their nature. Therefore, in order to abandon the kleshas, we must cultivate the prajna or discernment which is able to see the nature of those kleshas. If their nature is seen, they will disappear by themselves without having to be chased away […]
What’s recommended is that if you have a good experience, don’t get too excited. And if you have a bad experience, don’t mistake it for a serious deviation or a sidetrack that you have to find your way back from. If you have a bad experience, just continue practicing as you were. In other words, […]
When you dream of an elephant, does an elephant appear to your mind? Indeed it appears very clearly. Is there an elephant there? No. This appearance of an elephant in your dream is a union of appearance and emptiness. It appears, yet it does not exist – yet it appears. It is the same with […]
There are two different ways in which we can understand the term “ordinary mind.” One way is to not take control over anything and end up following our afflictions. When a thought of anger arises, we follow it; when greed arises, we lose control of ourselves to it. Similarly, we lose control of ourselves to […]
The word ösalwa, often translated as luminous, is related to the word light in that it expresses some kind of brightness or clarity. However, the real meaning of this is not a light that is visible to the eye. Luminosity refers more to the capacity to know.… Hearing that mind is emptiness may lead us […]
When a view is unmistaken, the training in that will be unmistaken as well. And our conduct, our acting upon that view, will be equally unmistaken. When we train in the correct view of Mahamudra, the disturbing emotions and other flaws present within our stream of being will automatically subside. In addition, the good qualities […]
When you get sick, you should not indulge in the illness. Do not focus on the pain, thinking, “I’m sick. I have a headache. My tooth hurts.” That is indulging in the sickness. Pain and sickness just happen, and when they do, we cannot just stop the sensation. Instead, we can rest, relaxing our mind […]
