Many of us lead family lives. At most, the members of a family stay together for the duration of a single lifetime, often much less. While that fleeting moment of being together still lasts, we should try to remain in perfect harmony with each other, while observing the Dharma as much as possible. Night and day, let us turn our minds toward goodness, love, and compassion. Doing a single prostration, saying a simple prayer, contemplating the nature of the mind for an instant are seeds that lead to enlightenment. To be united in this life as man and wife, parent and children, is the result of our past actions, of a shared karma. That is why we should at all costs avoid quarelling and live in harmony.
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
from the book The Hundred Verses of Advice: Tibetan Buddhist Teachings on What Matters Most
translated by Padmakara Translation Group
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Further quotes from the book The Hundred Verses of Advice:
- The choice is clear
- When you reach the threshold of death
- Have you prepared yourselves a boat
- Putting down the heavy burden once and for all
- The freedom to practice the Dharma
- Free of being caught by anything at all
- Abandon negative friendships
- Being near a spiritual teacher
- Three essential points
- Flying off into the bardo
- Happiness and suffering
- Rather than being trapped by your perceptions
- Contemplating the defects of samsara
- Dwell in the simplicity of the present moment
- Love and compassion for all
- Nothing to be gained or lost
- How illness can teach us compassion
- Devotion is the fare on our journey toward enlightenment
- Use riches in a constructive way
- You won’t live forever