The aim of far too many teachings these days is to make people “feel good,” and even some Buddhist masters are beginning to sound like New Age apostles. Their talks are entirely devoted to validating the manifestation of ego and endorsing the “rightness” of our feelings, neither of which have anything to do with the teachings we find in the pith instructions. So, if you are only concerned about feeling good, you are far better off having a full body massage or listening to some uplifting or life-affirming music than receiving dharma teachings, which were definitely not designed to cheer you up. On the contrary, the dharma was devised specifically to expose your failings and make you feel awful.
Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
from the book Not for Happiness: A Guide to the So-Called Preliminary Practices
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Further quotes from the book Not for Happiness:
- For the sake of all other beings
- What Is Bodhichitta
- Where does low self-esteem come from
- What is merit
- Our fundamental problem
- We must also practice it
- Altruism bolsters self-confidence
- Our most important companion
- Nothing genuinely works in samsara
- Self Trapped
- Relative and absolute truth
- Being able to start practicing right away
- Obstacles Create Fertile Ground for Practice
- It cannot be fixed
- Life is a stream of sensory illusions
- Rip that ego apart
- Sign of a mature practitioner
- Three higher trainings
- Dawn of wisdom