Looking at Who We Are ~ Chögyam Trungpa

People have difficulty beginning a spiritual practice because they put a lot of energy into looking for the best and easiest way to get into it. We might have to change our attitude and give up looking for the best or easiest way. Actually, there is no choice. Whatever approach we take, we will have to deal with what we are already. We have to look at who we are.

Chögyam Trungpa

The most important aspect of practice ~ Tai Situ Rinpoche

Out of all the aspects of practice then, the most important is meditation, because without meditating one cannot attain buddhahood. It is impossible without meditating. This is because what has to be enlightened is our mind, and our mind has the perfect essence in it, as the embodiment of it, and we have to let it manifest. And how can it manifest if we don’t let it manifest? So meditation is letting it manifest, and in this way, meditation is the most important aspect of practice.

Tai Situ Rinpoche

Understanding that we must die ~ Buddha Shakyamuni

Some do not understand
that we must die,
But those who do realize this
settle their quarrels.

Buddha Shakyamuni

Confidence, integrity, and dignity ~ 14th Dalai Lama

Gaining mastery over our destructive propensities, through the exercise of awareness and self-discipline with regard to our body, speech, and mind, frees us from the inner turmoil that naturally arises when our behaviour is at odds with our ideals. In place of this turmoil come confidence, integrity, and dignity – heroic qualities all human beings naturally aspire to.

14th Dalai Lama

Cut all entanglements ~ Dudjom Rinpoche

When entering the Buddhist path, it is not sufficient to be a person who only adopts the outer appearance of a person on the path. Cut all entanglements to desirable things and to this life’s affairs. When you enter the gate to Buddhist practice without having cut these ties, you will lack determination but not attachment to homeland, wealth, possessions, lovers, spouses, friends, relatives, and so forth. Your attitude of attachment becomes an underlying cause; the objects of your attachment, catalysts. When these meet, negative forces will create obstacles. You will once again become an ordinary worldly person and will turn away from creating positive karma.

Dudjom Rinpoche

Compassion along the path ~ Pema Chödron

We work on ourselves in order to help others, but also we help others in order to work on ourselves.

Pema Chödron

The place of surrender ~ Ajahn Chah

Regardless of time and place, the whole practice of Dhamma comes to completion at the place where there is nothing. It’s the place of surrender, of emptiness, of laying down the burden. This is the finish.

Ajahn Chah

Taking advantage of our human existence ~ Chatral Rinpoche

The chances of finding a human existence are one in a hundred.
Now that you have found one, if you fail to practise the sublime Dharma,
How could you possibly expect to find such an opportunity again?
This is why it’s crucial that you take advantage of your situation.

Chatral Rinpoche

The right way to enter the spiritual path ~ Lama Yeshe

Religion is not just some dry intellectual idea but rather your basic philosophy of life: you hear a teaching that makes sense to you, find through experience that it relates positively with your psychological makeup, get a real taste of it through practice, and adopt it as your spiritual path. That’s the right way to enter the spiritual path.

Lama Yeshe

Softening our heart ~ Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

This heart of ours is very difficult to soften. But we’d all most probably like our heart to be more soft and compassionate. The way it can ever soften is to be able to put ourselves in others shoes, in the shoes of the person we see suffering, for example.
Then go through what they go through, feel what they feel and experience. Naturally our heart softens and more compassion flows. So don’t resist the suffering you encounter, but take it as a way to train your heart in compassion.

Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

Reflections in the clear water of your heart ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Everything inside and around us wants to reflect itself in us. We don’t have to go anywhere to obtain the truth. We only need to be still and things will reveal themselves in the clear water of your heart.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Just leave it like it is ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

We can never understand the nature of the mind through intense effort but only by relaxing, just as breaking a wild horse requires that one approach it gently and treat it kindly rather than running after it and trying to use force. So do not try to catch hold the nature of the nature of the mind, just leave it like it is.

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Samsara is not a Pleasure Park ~ Lama Zopa Rinpoche

As long as we are in samsara, whatever our lifestyle in the world, it is only suffering. Before we enter that lifestyle, we see samsara as a beautiful park, a pleasant park, but once we are involved in that lifestyle, we experience so many problems.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche

The mind is like an artist ~ Thrangu Rinpoche

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 is perceived in the world.

Thrangu Rinpoche

Subduing the mind ~ Gyelse Tokme Zangpo

The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to subdue the mind,
With the forces of loving kindness and compassion.
For unless the real adversary — my own anger — is defeated,
Outer enemies, though I may conquer them, will continue to appear.

Gyelse Tokme Zangpo

Sentient beings, bodhisattvas and buddhas ~ Maitreya

According to the phases of impure,
Partially pure and completely pure,
We speak of sentient beings, bodhisattvas
And the thus-gone buddhas.

Maitreya

Reality is your teacher ~ 17th Karmapa

No one owns a copyright on the Buddha’s teachings. They belong to the world, and in that sense they are not something I can offer to you. The teachings and teachers are ubiquitous. Reality is your teacher. Everything that appears can become your teacher. The four seasons can teach you. Anything can be a teacher of Buddhist teachings. Anything.

17th Karmapa

In the voidness of reality ~ Milarepa

This fundamental consciousness
In itself is nothing at all.
In the voidness of reality
Lack of realizer and realized is realized,
Lack of seer and seen is seen,
Lack of knower and known is known,
Lack of perceiver and perceived is perceived.

Milarepa

Who are you ~ 17th Karmapa

Do you want to let yourself be defined by your possessions or by your job? I mean this as a serious question, because you could identify yourself with your job or your money or your possessions. Or you could identify yourself with your inner qualities and with happiness. It really is up to you.